Our Summer Vacation

Yes, I know...I have again fallen off of the blog wagon, and have lots of catching up to do...hopefully soon.

However...

We just returned from a fun summer vacation to California last week, and I am proud to say that I have already ordered a photo book with our pictures from Snapfish!

Yea for me...that NEVER happens!

Here is the link if you would like to check it out.

Winding Things Up!

Today we finished Christian's first year of homeschooling! It has been a GREAT year, and we have LOVED it!

Caylie still has a little bit to go (she started a week or so later than Christian did), but it has been a successful year for her as well.

Both kids have participated in homeschool sports, in various co-ops, and have made lots of new friends! It has been such a positive experience for our whole family.

I truly can't even put into words how very thankful I am. We started this venture a lot later in the game than most do, and although I had spent many, many hours in preparation, I was still intimidated. This past year has just been a time of such confirmation to our family that God has been working out His plan in our lives...in many very unexpected ways.

I have learned sooo much this year (and the kids have too!), and while we are all looking forward to our summer break, it brings me such happiness to know that we will also be looking forward to another year of homeschooling in the fall!

I leave in the morning to go to the state homeschool convention. I am excited about selecting new curriculum and also plan to attend some classes.

One of my many goals for the summer is to catch up on my blogging. I had hoped that I would be able to continue blogging regularly during this past year, but I just really didn't seem to have the time. Oh well...that's what summer is for! :)

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Last Days of Summer

We recently had the pool liner in our pool replaced.

While our pool had been out of commission, the kids had been swimming at another pool, but they sure were excited to have their own pool back up and running.

They are squeezing all of the swimming they can into the last days of summer!

Carson loves playing in the pool with Caylie and Christian.

Caylie and Christian playing ball in the pool...

Carson showing off his jumping skills!

Caylie and Christian about to jump in together...

All three kids jumping in together...my slow camera did not cooperate too well for this!

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Labor Day at Lake DeGray

For Labor Day this year, we decided to spend the day on DeGray Lake with Corey's parents. We do not own a boat, but we love to rent one a time or two each year, and head out to enjoy the water!

Here, Caylie and Carson are relaxing on the tube.

Corey's mom took this picture of our family swimming in the lake.

The water was absolutely perfect!

Corey's dad, Papaw, is never one to miss out on the fun, so here he is diving off of the top of the party barge! He would dive under, and stay under as long as he could...scaring us all to death...just for fun! Corey and Christian aren't the first in the family to love pulling pranks!

Caylie jumping off of the top of the party barge...

Christian showing off his dive...

Carson jumped off the the barge for the first time. He only jumped from the ground floor, not the top, but he loved it! He did it over, and over, and over again!

Here is Nana relaxing in the sun.

Christian loves knee boarding!

Showing off with only one hand! :)

Caylie knee boarding...she enjoyed the tube more, but did get up on the knee board a couple of times.

Christian loves to have someone throw a ball for him to catch as he jumps off of the top of the boat. He's pretty good at it!

My two guys, enjoying the good life! :)

Christian and Carson tubing together!

It was such a fun day out on the water! We just love hanging out on the lake!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Magic Springs

We recently took a day trip to Magic Springs in Hot Springs. We had not been in a while, and were pleasantly surprised with how much fun we all had! We even talked about getting season tickets next year!

There were so many fun rides for the kids to enjoy. We made a stop at the train for Carson. Christian jumped in with him too! See Christian's arm waving from the side of the picture? :)

Caylie and Christian rode the swings. Carson and I rode later in the day, but didn't get any pics. I know I must be getting old, because the swings made me feel a little sick!

We did get a picture of us riding in the plane! I was a little bit surprised that they let adults ride this ride because there was NO leg room at all! My legs were so folded up under me that I thought I would break!

I can't remember what this ride was called, but Caylie and Christian loved it! They are both very brave when it comes to rides. They never come across a ride that they don't want to jump on! Often more than once!

While Corey and the big kids were doing some wilder rides, I took Carson on the Merry-Go-Round...about 5 times in a row! He never got tired of it!

Carson went on his first log ride. We were not sure how he would react, but as soon as he got to the bottom of the big hill, and got soaked with water, he started laughing! He loved it!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

That's A Wrap...We're Heading Home!

Finally, it was time to say good-bye to Chicago.

We walked across the street for breakfast, and then packed up, waved down a taxi, and headed back to Union Station around lunch time.

After getting our bags checked in, we walked down the street to get some lunch. We ate sandwiches at a table outside, and enjoyed our last sights of the great city.

Shortly before getting back on the train, we realized that we could let Carson watch some kid shows on the laptop to help him pass the time while we traveled. (Don't know why we didn't think of that on they way TO Chicago!) The only problem we had, was that we had no kid shows! We had a little bit of time to spare, so Corey and Christian raced down the street to a Walgreen's and found a couple of shows for Carson to watch...and made it back in time!

After boarding, we let Carson break in one of his shows while we all relaxed for a while.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing games, hanging out in the observation room, and having dinner.

When bedtime arrived, Carson was not feeling much like sleeping, so Christian got him fixed up with a movie, to help him wind down a little bit.

While I was very thankful for a bed to sleep in, we didn't get much sleep that night. Carson was restless, and our train was scheduled to arrive back at home at around 4am. The train was running very late, so we just kept worrying that we were going to sleep through our stop.

It was around 6am when we arrived back at our train station.

We looked like a band of sleepy circus clowns trying to get all of our stuff into a normal sized taxi back to our house! (We realized the next morning that we had forgotten one of our biggest suitcases as we were getting loaded! There was NO WAY that we could have gotten it into the taxi anyway! We got it back later!)

We were thrilled to arrive back at the house, and were even more thrilled that Carson went back to bed, and let US go back to bed for a little while to recover from the trip!

Our trip to Chicago was great! We all had so much fun, and enjoyed getting to experience so many new things, and see so many new sights! Maybe someday we will have the opportunity to go again...

But as they say...there's no place like home! :)

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Navy Pier (round 2), Alladin, and Tea!

The guys woke up bright and early to hit the golf course. They had a good time, and returned in time for us to all get to the Navy Pier to see the play "Aladdin".

Since it was a play geared toward children, and the theater was full of kids, we were really hoping that it would be entertaining enough to keep Carson's attention...and it was!

Here he is right before the show started...

It was a GREAT show, and we all loved every minute of it! The singing, acting, dancing, sets...everything...was fantastic!

After the play, we all got some ice cream together, and then Corey kept the boys at the Navy Pier for more fun and games...

while Caylie and I headed out for a special treat...afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel!

Our first stop however, was at a little nail salon where we got our finger nails and toe nails polished.

We were loving life until we walked out, Caylie still wearing her ultra-flimsy pedicure sandals, and realized that it was raining, and we had to walk a couple of blocks to catch a taxi...with no umbrella! We got a little bit wet, and Caylie's poor feet were hurting, but we finally found a taxi that took us to the Peninsula!

We had such a good time! The hotel was so nice, and the food was beautiful and delicious. We both got to try some yummy new treats!

We loved having time to just soak in the nice atmosphere, visit and laugh together!

While Caylie and I are not tea drinkers, I really did enjoy my hot tea. Caylie, while not loving her tea, sure did strike a cute pose and fake it for the camera! (Gotta have pictures for the blog ya know!)

Caylie looked beautiful...and sooo grown up!!!

My sweet little Cuddle Bug is turning into such a lovely young lady!

After the tea, Caylie put on her more comfortable shoes, and we squeezed in a few more Michigan Avenue shops before heading back to the apartment! It was SUCH a fun day!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Chicago...Squeezing A Lot Of Fun Into One Day!

Our next full day in Chicago began with a short walk down our street to the Lake Michigan shoreline. I guess we wore Carson out the previous day...see how he is walking and holding his back like an old man?!?

Here is Caylie posing by the water...

It was funny to see the sand and water, and then to see huge skyscrapers in the background! That is NOT how we are used to experiencing the beach!

Me and my sweet girl...

Next, we decided to walk to Millennium Park. On the way, we passed this huge statue. I don't know what the significance of it was, but it was big and cool, so we stopped for a picture!

Below, Caylie and Christian posed for me on the Millennium Park sign. Millennium Park is a big attraction in Chicago. There are often free evening concerts held here. If we had been in town longer, we would have tried to attend one.

The park is also home to this famous piece of art. The Bean. It is a smooth, shiny sculpture that beautifully reflects the surrounding skyline. We really enjoyed getting to see it.

A typical tourist shot...waving to our own reflections in the bean!

The park also has a great fountain area that children enjoy playing in. We didn't have a swimsuit for Carson, but we stripped him down, and let him have at it!

He ran and played...loving every minute of it!

After playing for a while, we coaxed him out, dried him off, and re-dressed him.

Next stop...

Lego World!

Carson is a BIG Lego fan. He thought that this little Lego boy was pretty cool!

And he was so fascinated with the big, colorful wall of Lego pieces!

Caylie did some graphic work on a few of our Chicago pictures (you can probably pick out which ones), and I love what she did with them!

Here, she played around with a picture of Christian helping Carson fill a cup with Legos! The deal was that you pay a certain amount for the cup, and then fill it as full as you can...these boys got the cup VERY full!

With his special purchase in hand, Carson went to sit in Caylie's lap and visit with a BIG Lego Man!

We decided to have lunch at the Italian Village. It was an interesting little place. We enjoyed our meal, and then set off for the next spot on our agenda...

Chinatown!

Caylie had wanted to visit Chinatown to shop for a good deal on a purse. She found both a purse and a wallet that she really liked, and was happy with the price. Her purse was her favorite purchase of the trip! I think that it is so cute that I have been regretting not buying one for myself! Maybe next time!

Still plugging along, the next attraction in the lineup was the Field Museum.

We had not even gotten through the admission line before Carson checked out! Caylie and I were exhausted too, so we pushed Carson into the cafe, and sat down to relax a for a few minutes. Corey and Christian took that time to check out the museum, and then traded off with Caylie and me. Carson's nap didn't last long, but it did make things at the museum a little bit easier while it lasted!

There was an incredible, temporary exhibit about pirates on display while we were there. We knew that we were on borrowed time with Carson, so we had to keep moving, but if I hadn't had a time restriction, I could probably have spent 2-3 hours in that exhibit alone!

The museum was huge and fascinating! We were not able to do it the way that it should have been done, but you could easily spend hours and hours there!

In one part of the museum, the focus was "the soil". It sounded boring, and I wasn't very interested in checking it out, but it surprised me. The displays made you feel as though you had been reduced to the size of a bug by making everything around you appear so large. From that point, it taught you about your new surroundings.

Here are the kids posing beside a huge penny!

Christian is hanging out with the bugs...see all of the roots growing into the ground around him?

After we left the museum, we were all wiped out! We went back and took a late nap, and then took a short walk down the street for dinner.

Corey and Christian offered to take Carson and let Caylie and me do some after dinner shopping in exchange for a trip to ESPN Zone when we returned! We took 'em up on it!

We first headed to a store that Caylie had been dying to visit...Urban Outfitters.

She bought some sunglasses that she really liked, so here she is showing them off!

Next, we were off to a huge Forever 21! It was 2 sprawling floors of stylish, reasonably priced clothes. Caylie was eating up every second of it!

While we were there, we received a special delivery...Carson! He was great though. We kept him with us as the guys headed out to ESPN Zone.

When we finally left and started our walk home, we were so tired that we wanted to crawl! I don't know when we have been so tired! We should have just taken a taxi, but didn't for some reason!

The guys had beaten us back, and came down to help us carry the stroller (and Carson) up the winding stairs.

We all crashed into our beds, but it was not going to be a peaceful night...more about that in the next post...

Writing the Waves,
Christi