Friday, September 28, 2012

denton girls

Laura and her precious girls took a little adventure this summer and we were lucky enough to be one of their stops.  We had an absolute blast!  Laura and I were high school friends, roomed together in college, and now our babies just started Kindergarten together.  We had lots of catching up to do since we had not been together in so long.  Either she was moving, or we were moving and we couldn't get our paths to cross enough.  Davis enjoyed being the main man with this gang of girls.  
Elly is a sweetie.  So easy to please and loves to laugh.  Audrey is her father.  period.  :)  
Seriously, she is a riot.  A little personality that makes your sides ache from laughing.  Both  are such awesome girls and they were the best company.  
The best part of their stay was visiting the Frontier Ranch water park!  Elly and Davis rode the waterslides over and over and over.  Such fun! 


 I love this so much!  Laura and our loves.  That cute little stinker in the middle was sure she wasn't going to be in our photo.  
 sweet friends
 view from the ferris wheel on the boardwalk!  Beautiful! 



look, ma!

This has been a super exciting and eventful summer for our big boy!
Learning to ride a bike without training wheels was a big one.
(It seems like after they potty train the "firsts" slow down big time)  
Davis loves to be safe...and hasn't seen much blood in his lifetime.  I was worried how this would turn out, but what a life changer for this little fella.  He has done awesome.  
My favorite part if having a riding partner that can keep up!
Training wheels...be gone!
we are so proud of you buddy.  


summertime in Georgia

Our summer trip to Georgia wasn't as long as I had hoped it would be.  We went home for a week and it's just so hard to squeeze in everyone that we wanted to see.  I started a part time job this summer and felt like I needed to get back in time to work my sunday night shift!  :) 
We of course made it a priority to love on Nana, Mimi, Papa, and Grandpa as much as we could!  Lots of good eating and catching up on everyone.  The kids miss their grandparents so much, so it's nice that when we go home they all live fairly close so we can visit.  
We spent as much time as possible swimming with our cousins!  They had diving & jumping contests for hours.
 Spending some time with their great grandmother, Mema.   
 Happy 15th Birthday to our oldest and most awesome cousin, Jake.  Carson truly adores him...well, they all do really.  Jake is an awesome brother, cousin, student, etc....he is truly an awesome role model for all the littles.
 Woohoo!  And, he's learning to drive.  
 Our next stop was to get our hands on this sweet girl who had learned to walk since we saw her last!  Miss Cate is just as sweet as her mama says she is.  What a cutie...and a great sport!  She hung with the big kids all day long!  
 We spent the day playing outside and splashing in their neighborhood pool!  These kiddos always love being together so much.  
 If you're gonna be in the Stahl family, you must be a water baby and thank goodness sweetpea is indeed!
She is working hard to keep up with fishy 1 and fishy 2.  
 Sweet girls got their babydoll and giggle fix by being together! 
 Davis practicing his swimming.  He was super comfortable by the end of the summer and even taught himself how to flip under water and almost dive!  What a difference a few months can make.  

 Erin & her crew just happened to be in town for a few hours right when we got home so we were able to squeeze in an early morning park date.  It was the best...just so nice to watch the kids pick back up where they left off and it gave Erin & I a chance to talk!  I've missed her so much!  
These two just make me smile...




It was definitely a memorable trip home!  

Niagara Falls

This year for the 4th of July we decided to do something a little different!  We took a road trip to Niagara Falls with a few stops through Amish country.   It was an awesome family vacation for sure.  Our first stop was Lancaster, PA.  The Amish lifestyle still very well exists, much to my surprise.  What an awesome learning experience for all of us.  We took a tour in a horse n' buggy so we could see some of the practicing homes.   
Our buggy driver.  He is not allowed to drive anything with a motor.  He may take a bus for traveling distances.  He had over 10 kids and twice that many grandkids.  

 The next morning we continued our drive over to Canada...and saw this amazing sight!  Seriously, one of them most incredible places I've ever visited.  
The kids sitting in our hotel room window!  What a view!!!  Those are the Canadian falls.    
 One night, the kids wore their "fancy clothes" for the magic show.  
 We didn't take many pictures at all I'm sad to say.  Not one family shot, but I can assure you we were all pretty amazed at the beauty.  
 We took the Maid of the Mist tour which took you up close to the falls.  We also took a neat tour behind the falls.  It was all just so cool.  
 Again, the beautiful view from our room.
 The firework experience was so neat.  Being in Canada, the fireworks right outside of our window were ok, but we could also see 10 or so displays on the US side too!  We were cozy in our pjs with our window open.  



rewind to june 2012

I'm kicking myself now for not documenting our summer, as it was the best one we've had as a family of four.  The kids are getting old enough to not need naps so it was go, go, go all summer and man was it awesome.  We completed our bucket list and had more visitors than we could count.  It was truly unforgettable.   This is a recap of june... 
School's OUT!  It was a great year...but, we were ready for some schedule-free days! 
We found a new-to-us boat!  We spent tons of time exploring and finding new places to visit.  
 We watched many many sunsets.  They never ever get old.  
We wrapped up Davis' brewers season!  And look who pulled in just as he was about to play the very last game?  It was sooo  good to see these smiling faces all together.  
 These four had an absolute ball and so did the parents.  Hours and hours of catching up, laughing, and truly relaxing.  It was a fabulous vacation for all of us!  Lots of playing at the beach, boat rides, fun adult only dinners, fireworks, boardwalk fun, and so much more.  

Our next guests were the Striblings!  Another week of fun for all.  We started their visit at Frontier town which was new to us.  What a riot that place it...good ole' fashion fun! 

 Silly string & beach days!
 First pony rides!
 Quality time to talk & play.  Sunset boat rides were a must. 
 Two peas in a pod. 
 I love this father/son picture so much.  Each boy is truly a mini-daddy.  I love this because Shane & Jonathan have been friends since they were this little.  
June was packed full of fun I tell ya.  We only had 24 hours to recover then were drove very north to Niagara Falls! 


tiny little dancer

Sweet baby girl had her first dance experience over the spring and she was lucky enough to have her cousins in town for her recital!  It was a super fun girl's day as the boys were camping out for the airshow that was in town.  She loved having Meredith do her hair and lipgloss and Aunt Jan gave her the sweetest balloon and flowers!  We didn't get too many pictures...as it ended up she had strep throat and a fever of 103.  Bummer!  She cried until the minute she got on stage and then my girl put on her big girl panties and did amazing!!!  I was so proud of her and her fake little smile.  Bless her, she was asleep 2 minutes after getting in the car.  
It was a special ballet season.  So glad she was able to experience this with her little buddies from school.