Lance is on his vacation for the year—woo hoo!!! We took the opportunity to (finally) visit my little brother Mike up in North Carolina. He has two kiddos 2 1/2, and 4 months, who are our kids’ only cousins. Up until this point, they’d seen each other one or twice, but had really never been able to hang out and play. The other big feature of the trip was that it snowed about 4 inches the day before we got there. Most of it had melted by the time we arrived, but there was still enough to provide some excitement for the kids (and let’s be honest, mommy, too). The kids did amazingly well on the car ride up and back. It was a great trip and we can’t wait to make it again! Here are a handful of pictures I managed to snap. Rach was able to take a few of our family on her camera, too—as soon as she gets a chance to send them my way (in all her free time…lol), I’m sure you’ll see them pop up on FB.
This little 6 inch snowman was waiting for us in the driveway, courtesy of Mike.
Boy did these girls enjoy each other!
Taking a break to watch some Veggie Tales.
Aaron playing with the mirror in K’s room.
K recently got her ears pierced. She was showing me that some of her hair had gotten twisted around her earring and needed some help getting it out.
A patch of snow in the drive way! Time to investigate!
“It’s cold!”
Running around making the snow/ice crunch underfoot. Possibly the highlight of M and T’s day. Aaron was napping—another time!
They were so cute to see.
Synchronized stomping.
Cheese!
Baby M!
Lunch! Aaron was in K’s high chair…not sure if she was happy about that…lol.
The girls again!
Me and my baby bro.
Maddy loved holding the baby.
So sweet!
We stopped in to peek at an indoor hockey game in this mall type place where we took the kids to a bounce house play area. Maddy found hockey quite entertaining.
This might just be the only picture I have of all 5 kiddos. You can barely see K and Lance is holding Tommy.
I could totally see Aaron as a hockey guy. Good thing we live in FL.
Tommy pointing at the game talking to daddy about it.
The hammock was a big hit with our kiddos.
My sweet Tommy.
Maddy looked so much older next to K.
The “big” kids. For once, Aaron gets to be in that group!
Not the greatest picture of Tommy, but look at K’s eyes!!! Gorgeous!
My sweet baby running around.
The kids were excited to exit the fenced portion of the yard to see the stream behind the house.
Mama bear behind the scenes.
Checking out the remains of the garden.
Daddies and kiddos
Mike located a carrot and Maddy helped pull it up!
Helping wash the carrot so we could add it to our salad for dinner. She looks so grown up here. I can’t believe she’ll be 5 and starting school in August. Crazy.
We let the kids make smores after dinner one night. They loved it!
Didn’t quite snag one of Tommy…oops!
Someone loved her marshmallows!
Lance wrangling all the kids one morning.
Blurry, but it’s the only picture of the two little guys!
Maddy swinging Uncle Mike and Kayla.
Joining in the fun. I think Kayla was tired.
Mike and Rach…so cute! We were able to get a sitter for ALL FIVE kids. And she was awesome. It was fun to get out and spend some time with them without the kiddos running about. We went to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert. YUM.
The exceedingly rare photo of Lance and I. I’m thankful we were able to spend some grown up time out while up there!
