Finally a vacation

Our summer has been so crazy. I had to go to summer school and I didn't get any time off until the last week of summer. Thank goodness for babysitters. Our niece Jordynn came to stay with us for 2 weeks, Grandma Cogbill had the kids sleep over at her house for a week and then Grandma Slider came to stay for 7 weeks. Now the kids are board with just Dad and me. We are so thankful for all the help everyone gave us. We could not have gotten through the summer without all of you.
As soon as I was done with my final we headed down to Hilton Head Island. We love Hilton Head. We mostly stay at the beach but we also have a tradition of going to the Pirate put put (which I will post later). Nate, Jarod and Grace love going deep in the water while Kate and I are land dwellers. I don't like sharks and Kate doesn't like waves. These pictures are just a few highlights of our beach stay. Grace also had her 6th birthday while we were at the beach. I will post those later too. We had a lot of fun.

Nathan and the kids found lots and lots of sand dollars. They are all over the ocean floor. They would feel for them with their feet the drive down and get them.

Who lost their head? Dad or Jarod?

Sand Castle #1

Sand Castle #2

Sand Castle #3

Boogie Boarding!!!!

Grace

Jarod

Kate

We thought we would go for a nice evening stroll on the beach. We should have known better. Who can resist.

Toothless Grace

Grace lost her first tooth!




Then the next day she lost another!

Aunt Marie

Aunt Marie came to visit us this summer. It was so good to see her. She was just deployed to Iraq and we miss her already. We will keep you in our prayers Marie. Be safe. We love you very much!

Sunday drive to the lake with Grandma and Grandpa Slider and Aunt Marie

Daddy and Grandma were seeing who could skip rocks the furthest. Grandma won with a 6 skipper!!!

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July this year. We celebrated it twice. Fort Gordon does their firework show early, so we went with our good friends the Richards. It was a great show. We all had a good time. Kate is still afraid of the loud noises so she covers her ears and tries to look up sometimes.










Then our other good friends the Loo's invited us over to do fireworks at their house. We did this last year and had so much fun we couldn't turn them down even though it was a 2 1/2 hour drive. Ryan did a good job at showing my kids the wrong way to handle firecrackers. Nate and Ryan also got into a Roman Candle fight. I think Ryan won. The Bryant's were there too. We have so much fun with them and miss them.