Father's Day 2012

Because we were going to be packing up and driving to Yosemite on actual Father's Day, we decided to postpone our celebration until we got back to our house on Wednesday.  We deemed it the "day of the great smokeout" since Luke just got his new smoker.  Luke was in charge of brisket, Papaw the chicken and Uncle Chris smoked up his famous ribs!  Us girls took care of the spicy barbecue beans (one of my all time favorite Canton finds), Nana's twice baked potatoes, and my new favorite summer recipe.....corn salad with Chili Cheese Fritos.  Nana and Papaw made their famous homemade Grape Nut ice cream for dessert!  It was a fantastic evening celebration!

 
I was so thankful to get to celebrate the day with all of my favorite "dads"!  I was thankful to get to celebrate with my own dad for the first time in many years.  I don't think anything in this world has made him as happy as he is being a Papaw!  These three grandbabies make his world go 'round!  I am so so blessed by how much time, energy and love he puts into them!  I also got to celebrate with my brother who just became a dad himself in February to sweet baby Caroline!  It melts my heart to see him with his beautiful baby girl!  And of course, my handsome husband who is the best Daddy Leah and Lane could ever ask for!  He works incredibly hard to provide for these sweet babies and still puts in 110% for them at home!  We are blessed beyond our wildest dreams with Luke as their Daddy!

Leah brought home a precious gift all wrapped up for her Daddy on the last day of school!  I hid it in the closet until Father's Day!



Luke's Early Birthday Party

Luke will be 35 on August 21, but since my family won't be here to celebrate with him then, we had a little "surprise" party for him this week!  Chris and Kylie bought pizza for dinner and my parents gave him his birthday present!  Thanks Mom and Dad for loving Luke just like he's one of your own!

Yosemite: Day 3

On Tuesday we packed up and began the trek home from our amazing Yosemite house.  This meant we had to say goodbye to Leah and Kylie's fun artwork out on the deck!

Cousins in Yosemite!



We made one fun pit stop before we left the park for good to see the giant sequoias!  This was definitely a "must see"!



Instead of hiking the 1+ miles through the forest to see all of the trees (for obvious reasons as in two babies and a three-year-old in tow), we chose to take a tram ride tour!



After this we packed up and headed home!  Leah got carsick on the drive home.  It was bad.  Really really bad.  Kudos to Uncle Chris for cleaning it up!

Yosemite: Day 2

Monday morning we were up bright and early ready to hike and explore!  We took in the views and enjoyed several museums!

One of the things I really wanted to do was visit The Ahwahnee Hotel so that we did!  The fireplaces in this hotel are HUGE!

Our next stop.....Glacier Point to take in the views.  Funny story.....It's a 16 mile drive from the main road up to Glacier Point.  Lane (who still doesn't like the car) was asleep but woke up the moment we turned onto the road to start this 16 mile drive.  Eventually he and I had had it so we pulled over and had a picnic lunch right out of the back of the car.  People were looking at us kind of funny as they drove by and we really didn't know why.  Well, once we loaded up the car and continued the drive to the scenic stop we saw why.  We were litteraly one turn away (say less that 1/20th of a mile) from where we were headed and could have had a picnic with an amazing view instead of on a dangerous curve in the road.  Leah and Lane were both fast asleep when we arrived so we had to check out the view in shifts!

On our drive back down from Glacier Point we saw lots of people standing off a random spot on the side of the road.  We soon saw why.....a bear!

For dinner that night we grilled out hot dogs and chicken sausages!  Leah lead everyone in playing a game of "guess this animal sound" as we ate!  One thing I don't think I've ever mentioned before is that EVERY SINGLE NIGHT (every meal actually) Leah tells everyone exactly where they're sitting at the table and you're never allowed to deviate from her seating arrangement or you will find yourself changing spots during dinner.  This happens whether it's just the three of us or a huge family gathering!

Yosemite: Day 1

Our summer has consisted of one fun getaway after another!  This week was no exception!  We packed up Sunday morning and headed to Yosemite with Nana, Papaw, Uncle Chris, Aunt Kylie and Caroline!  This has been on my brother's "Must Do" lists for forever, so we've had this little getaway planned since March!  We live so close to so many wonderful adventurous vacation spots so we took advantage of the family being here and checked one more off of the list!

Luke is the MASTER at finding vacation rentals, and he pulled through for us once again in Yosemite!  We had an AMAZING three bedroom, three bathroom house right inside the park that gave us easy access to everything we wanted to do, plus made for a great place to relax each evening, grill out and enjoy the views and the company!

Oso Lodge where we were greeted with a plate full of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!

It was around 5:00 pm by the time we arrived to our house and got all situated, so Nana and I hung back with the babies and got them bathed and fed while the rest of the clan went exploring at Bridalveil Fall.

Their next stop.....the infamous El Capitan.

We ended our first night there by grilling out steaks and chicken for dinner!

Happy Birthday Aunt Kelley

Saturday (June 16th) was Kelley's 19th birthday, so the moment we walked into the house from Leah's dance recital it was time to party!  Kelley had gone with me early to the recital to drop Leah off for pictures.  Everyone else came to the recital later and got the house decorated for the "surprise" party while we were away!  I say "surprise" because a certain little three-year-old blew it when she came into the living room earlier that day and pointed to everyone but Kelley and said "I need you, you, you and you to come to Mommy and Daddy's room to get ready for the surprise birthday party, but Kelley you can't come."  Busted!!!!!  Oh well, it was fun anyway!  Leah picked out all of the party decorations, Kelley's party "outfit", insisted on goodie bags and picked out the things to fill them and requested a can of silly string!  This girl knows how to party!