Football and the Beach (Random title, I know)...

Life is so crazy right now...between school days including lots of homework, gymnastic practice for Calee, football practice and games for Gavin, and just the normal everyday life. But this Saturday we were able to break our mold a little.

Gavin's First Football game:
Gavin is #15 on the Kanawha Redskins Flag Football team. I know I'm not suppose to use the word "cute", but seriously 6 year olds playing flag football=cute!!







Beach Time:
While we were at Gavin's morning game we realized how fabulous the day was and decided to throw on our swimming suits and go to the beach. It was a great break from our busy week! The beach we like going to is right next to a military base, it is so much fun to watch military airplanes and helicopters take off, land, and fly so close to the ocean.

First Day of school...

It's that time of year again...it's amazing how fast it sneaks up on us. Calee and Gavin were so excited to have school start! They both got WONDERFUL teachers. Calee has Mrs. Kramer for 3rd grade, we are told that this was the teacher everyone wanted to get...she has had the best week with her. Gavin got Mrs. Reams for 1st grade, we have heard so many great things about her...he is really loving his time with her as his teacher. Brock and I are now the only ones left at home...thank heavens I have that little guy! He is such a delight to have around. The first day of school was a little different for Brock, he is used to having two big kids following him around and making him happy all day. All Brock wanted to do that day was read books with me (good thing that was all I wanted to do too). We were so excited to get the kids off the bus after school, and hear about all the fun activities they got to do, they had a great first week!

Being silly!

Brock is a little confused, it's a little early to be in the stroller. I am now in the process of trying to get a schedule together for Brock and I during the day...might be a good time to take up the gym again (we'll see), we did make it out for play group this week and Brock had a BLAST!

Finishing off Summer...

We were able to get a few more days in our swimming suits during the last few weeks of Summer. We can't believe Summer is over, we miss it already!!

Va Beach:
We took the day and heading East to the Beach. We always have such a great time there. We body surfed, boogie boarded, played in the sand, played football, and just enjoyed our time in the sun with the ocean breeze. We sure love the Va Beach area...It still feels a little like home, we spend sooo many days at the beach when we lived there for a Summer. Can't wait to go again...as always.

Pool time:

We got in a few more days at some local pools. Our kids would live in the water if we would let them. All Brock wanted to do was go up and down the slides...over and over again...

What we bought on Ebay...

Most of you know that Matt has had quite the little/BIG obsession with eBay. There was a time in our lives when the most random of things would be shipped to our house...no joke...For example...I came home one day and found an enormous package on our door step, way too heavy for me to pick up. Matt's reaction to the massive box, "oh good the industrial strength power washer I ordered from eBay arrived". In Matt's defense I have thoroughly loved having the industrial strength power washer, but wasn't expecting one to arrive on my door step. And it wasn't just the buying I had to watch our for, Matt was into selling on eBay as well. Back during Matt's eBay obsession, if I wasn't seen using an item in our house at least once every 48 hours it was liable to be up for auction the next day on eBay. But I thought this crazy obsession was over and done with. So when Matt yelled up the stairs to me one night,"Hey Aim, get down here and have an open mind". When I came down stairs and saw that he was searching eBay for a Mini-Van I thought Matt had completely lost it! But as I looked at the car he was right...it was the price range we were looking at, and it had all the features that we wanted. In our defense it was a dealer selling it on eBay so we did all the transactions through the dealer but yes we did have to click on the "buy it now" button.

I can't believe we own a Mini-Van!!! No matter what angle I take this picture it still comes out looking like a Mini-Van.

Call us what you want we deserve it...hypocrites, sell outs, ect... We swore we would never be a Mini-Van family. But here we are eating our own words. I called my Dad when we were thinking about the Mini-Van purchase. Our conversation went like this..."Dad I'm a sell out, I swore I would never buy a Mini-Van". His response, "Aimee come on your just getting older, more mature, more practical". My response to him, "Dad you totally just gave me the definition of a sell out!" I tried to tell my Dad my integrity was on the line. But after I got off the phone I realized I needed to just suck it up and get the Mini-Van, because that is what works best for my family right now. We have only had it a couple of days and it really is SOOO convenient to use, and we can each bring as many liquid beverages as we want (it honest to truth has 17 cup holders). Even Matt, who you would think could never been convinced a Mini-Van is the way to go, is really impressed by all the "bells and whistles". We love our new Mini-Van...but just for the record we both cried a little when we signed the papers (JK).

Summer Days

I can't believe we have had weather in the 80's lately...LOVIN' IT!!! Here are some pics of us enjoying a perfect Summer evening at the park...

Any tips on how to stop a thumb sucker? And how weird is Brock's technique?!

It was so random...some lady had like 3 massive birds and she was letting/encouraging the kids to hold them. Calee of coarse now wants a bird.

Good-Bye 1999 Explorer

Well it finally went! I wish I could say it has been a good car but I would be lying like crazy. We had to put in a new transmission at 69,000 miles (yeah I know huh?!), it has had so many weird things go out on it (2 of the doors don't lock or unlock...yeah I know). I have had to call upon neighbors and friends for the use of their cars when mine wouldn't start for whatever reason. Finally this little Explorer gave out for real (at 93,000 miles...I know huh?)...I was driving down a residential road going maybe 25 miles per hour, and the car just started to shake and went totally dead, I had no power steering and no power period. I coasted the car to the side of the road, it was still shaken', put it in park and yelled, "hurry kids get out!". Side note: A long time ago I saw a friend's car have the engine go up in flames (Oh yes Lindsay...I still remember that day in the Target parking lot!)...Maybe I didn't need to be quite so dramatic, but I wasn't taking any chances. The diagnosis...Crankshaft sheared off front of motor, major engine damage, advise customer (that would be me) needs replacement engine, customer (me again) declined repairs at this time. Dang straight I declined repairs are you kidding me? So good bye Explorer we had a lot of good memories in you, but not enough you were still too young to throw in the towel like that!

Now here comes our new dilemma what car to buy next? A SUV (gas guzzler), a Mini-Van (Yikes, we swore we would never own one), a Cross-Over (possibly too small)? Yeah we are totally drawing a blank with this one, but we have to make a decision soon!


This is the only picture I could find. This is when Matt and my Dad drove from Utah to Virginia in the Explorer.