Grandma and Grandpa's First Visit - Raven Rock

(I know these posts will be picture heavy, so I'm doing it in 2 parts, starting with the second part first as they will be posted about the same time.)

Our final outing with Grandma and Grandpa was a little hike to the river. My dad is always interested in rivers and water and the Cape Fear River had caught his interested here. We just happened to run across a reference to Raven Rock State Park and the river overlook and decided that would be a fun thing for all of us to see. We chose the short, 2 mile trail that looped around to the overlook as well as down closer to the river.
Ty didn't want to walk at first - good thing Granpa loves accomodating that boy.
Love the cowboy hats right? The first day Dad was here they had to search out Tyler's cowboy hat and he spent the whole visit in hat and boots just like Grandpa.

It was a beautiful hike in perfect weather. The overlook was worth the effort.

We stopped for an extra minute to take photos of the kids with the grandparents, as that was something I had been wanting to make sure I captured during their visit.

To get down close to the river you have to walk down all these steps (about twice as many below the ones there in the photo). Mom chose to stay at the top, not wanting to face the climb back up but the rest of us made our way down. There were all kinds of things to explore and climb on down there - the kids had a great time.

We turned the camera over to Kaitlyn for a second to get a photo of Sam and myself. She's a pretty good little photographer.

When we got back up to the top of the stairs, Mom had befriended a boy who had hurt his foot, along with his mother and sister. My Dad and Sam ended up helping the little boy up the trail for a while until he was ready to walk on his own.

The next day, Tyler and I dropped them off at the airport. We really enjoyed having them here and can't wait until the next visit.

(Mom and Kaitlyn wrote notes back and forth to each other on the easel the whole week of the visit. It was cute)

Valentines Day 2011

Happy Valentines Day!
How is it that most holidays turn into a day mostly for the kids? I'm not complaining, it's fun that way and I love to see their excitement. Kaitlyn in particular is really into holidays and making things special. First thing yesterday morning she came running down the stairs, gave me a hug good morning then ran to the fireplace where she had stashed the giant Valentine she had made for Sam and myself. She also made sure to leave instructions for me to give Tyler his Valentine from her as soon as he woke up. So I was glad I had put a little planning into the day for her and Tyler.
Breakfast this year was waffles, but instead of turning them pink and cutting them into heart shapes, I colored some of the batter and used it to draw hearts on them as soon as they were poured into the waffle iron.

They though it was great

I also set out part of their present that morning for them to find at the kitchen table. (Festive shirts and some chocolates)
Kaitlyn had talked us into letting her try out these nacho lunchables. So I attached one of the Valentines (I had been putting these in her lunch for the last week) and a piece of chocolate.

When Kaitlyn got home from school the kids opened the rest of their gifts. Grandma and Grandpa Marchant had sent a movie and cards and Bonnie sent them each a stuffed animal. It just so happened that the new mixer we ordered (ours bit the dust more than 6 months ago and we were excited to find a great deal the other day on a new one) so that was a nice little surprise for us too. Sam did have the forethought to order some camera accessories for me that I mentioned to him a few months ago - I love it when he gets all thoughtful and plans ahead!

For the rest of the Vday gifts for the kids, I set up a treasure hunt. I attached the first clue to these straws (mostly because I had grabbed them at the same time I got the valentines gifts because the kids like them so much).

Kaitlyn did a great job reading all of the clues herself and the kids happily ran from one room to the other on their quest.

It didn't take them long to find their goodie bags

and tear into them, where they eat a new DVD (Hello Kitty for Kate, Hot Wheels for Ty), some fun socks, and more candy (not that they needed it at this point). Then we grabbed some photos before I started on dinner. We had Cajun chicken pasta (with just plain old spaghetti sauce for the kids, which they still didn't eat much of! ugh) with garlic bread and chocolate pie.

Again, Happy Valentines Day! Hope everyone had at least as much fun as we did.

Bubbles!

It only takes a tiny bit of bubble bath in a jetted tub to make some massive bubbles - so fun! I have to admit that I purposely had the kids take turns in our tub the other day, just so I could take some fun bubble photos.