Riding for the Troops

My parents are bikers! Believe it! They're nuts. Here are some choice shots from their weekend getaway to D.C. on Memorial Day weekend for the "Rolling Thunder" national motorcycle rally. There were an estimated 900,000 participants this year.

Mom on the Vulcan, Dad's 23rd (?) bike, I think.

Mom may or may not have gotten this shot while STANDING UP on the back of the bike during their ride in the parade. Ohhhhh, Mom!!!

Mother's Day

The girls: Liz, me, Momma, Becka

So fun to have Joseph and Liz in town

Granmy and Liam
(Camden was too busy to be in the pic. Little rascal!)

Southern Virginia University

Cam, Liam, and I had our first jaunt to SVU this past weekend to see my little sis, Becka, sing in an opera workshop. She was stellar, and the campus was beautiful. It was fun to see Becka's place, too. Her bedroom is in the third-story tower of an old Victorian. No joke!

Of course we had to pose for the traditional pics in front of Main Hall and the SVU knight, clad in the "armor of God." Awesome. Fun trip. Super short visit. Long drive. But good company. So totally worth it. :)

"Resort" Under Construction

Granmy and Poppa recently decided to add a "resort" to their woods for the grandchildren. (Seriously ... it's a "Mountainview Resort." That's what it says on the box.) Camden is ecstatic, to say the least.

 

Lucky Uncle Joseph was in town to help start the project!

Pretty cute supervisor. :)

Poppa says when you have this many pieces and the instructions include phrases like "drill pilot hole," you know you're in for it.

typical Joseph ... yep, we're related

"Let's get down to business!"

Liam is ONE!

Happy Birthday to the cutest 1-year-old on the planet! Much to Granmy & Poppa's delight we ended up celebrating in Virginia. (Out of 4 grandchildren, it is the first birthday party they have been able to attend.) We celebrated day-of with some cupcakes and saved the big stuff for the weekend when more extended family could attend so ... stay tuned, more pics to come.

Love the bib: "Will smile for food"

Kind of a pitiful attempt, but oh well. The best is yet to come on Saturday, people!

I had to do some coaxing. 

After a while he was okay with it!

Messy boy!

Happy Birthday, Kitten!

Did you know that Kitten Canyon shares a birthday with my little sister??? (Kitten Canyon is a small snow leopard that Santa stuffed in Camden's stocking this year and that now goes e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e with him.) Well, it's true. Camden informed me of this the day before and told me that we needed to have a party for him, so that's what we did.

Kitten requested rainbow sherbet in place of a cupcake. Camden helped blow out the candle. Such a nice boy.

The only clean "room" in the house was -- um -- the stairway, so that's where the party was. Coincidentally, it is also an area that can be baby-gated on both ends. I blew up the balloons, and Camden taped them up along with his decorations. Streamers too!

See the gift bag? We also made Kitten some gifts out of yarn. Lucky kitty. Cute boy. Refreshments? Straight from the candy jar. Where else? All in all? A successful party.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Auntie Becka. You are 21?!!?!?!?!?!? We loooove youuuuuuu!

Granmy & Poppa Visit

It was wonderful to have my parents come stay with us the week after Christmas. They sure do love their grandkiddos!

Fourth of July in VA

Spent the Fourth with the fam. Liam met lots of new family members, including ... 

... Mima, his great-grandma ...

... Uncle Jared, Aunt Katie, and cousin Libbie (who we met for the first time, too) ...

... Aunt Liz ...

... and Uncle Joseph.

Camden played outside with Auntie Becka.

We hung out with Granmy.

And Poppa waited on us in the kitchen (no surprise there).

Camden did magic tricks.

The boys played with fire and smoke.

The mommies took care of the babies.

Joseph blew up a barbie. (Yep.)

We pretended to be normal.

But really we're all a little crazy.

Granmy loved up her grandkids. We missed Sammy, though.

We worked on a big puzzle while it poured rain on the evening of the Fourth.

Only Becka went out to run around in the rain. She does that sometimes.

Daddy and Camden made a cool sky lantern. 

Then Dad and Trent went on 19 roller-coaster rides at Kings Dominion. But we don't have any pictures of that. As my dad would say, "Good times."