August

Recap of August:

*The month started out with the girls visiting Nanna & Grandpa Rink in West Va. They worked with Nanna @ her quilt shop Acorns & Oaks

*Next, there was Shakespeare camp for the girls at Covenant Life. The middle schoolers learned and performed The Tempest. The high schoolers learned and performed Romeo & Juliet. Both girls had small parts in each of the shows. Great performances at the end of the week.

Emily playing a boy Rachel with friends afterwards.

*And then... Fair Week ~ One of our favorite weeks of the year!! waiting for the parade to start

w/ dear friends, Susan and Char after the parade.

PC: Ron Moore

Em had another first place cake this year that was sold in the cake auction. It was bought by my parents and my dad's 2 brothers, Uncle Johnny & Uncle Billy. :) All the money goes to 4H.

Emily with Great Gommie at the cake auction (the original baker of the famed cake)

Rachel and Char at the Cheese Booth on PetsRUs day. Rachel worked several other days and loved it here.

The girls takin' a lunch break - grilled cheese & nachos!

the pet show - Rachel and Em took the cats

Caiti and Chris

waiting to show their dogs

Sarah with her pet rock and the girls with Josie and Claire

I love the demolition derby on the last night... it's the farm girl in me, I'm sure. ;)

PC: Emily

*Cook-out @ Peggy Ann & Fred's.

Peggy Ann had some things from Mamaw & Pap Pap for the 5 grandsons. So she invited us all to her place for yummy food and memento of the grandparents.

The 5 grandsons

Jeff, Julie, Zack and Tyler

Kevin, Susie, Brett and Billy

Jeff & PA

all the cousins being silly

*Rachel and I had a super time at the youth retreat @ Sandy Cove in MD

roommates: Libbster, Krissy and Rachie

M&M poker

*And we ended the month with the First Day of School - the 26th (no pics, sorry!)

Two days, Two posts... don't faint! :)

Now for July ‘08. This will be a big post as there were lots of pics taken. I’ve had a dickens of a time paring it down to the best few pics per event. First off… Our FUN day with the Nams! We’ve missed them dearly since they moved to Phoenix last year. So good to have them back for the month!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rachel took most of the pictures with the Nam kids. I loved the great faces they all make. Other favorites are all the “singing” pictures. If I had to guess, I bet they’re singing a Celine Dion song. Just a guess, tho’. Rachel did a good job capturing Connor, Em and Tay mid-singing. Too bad there’s no audio with these pix! We love and miss them. It was such a short visit. Looking forward to our next trip out there to see them!

Rachel & Taylor

Here are the kids singing and dancing - a favorite pasttime.

Silly Faces

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OK, these are VERY random July pictures. Enjoy our weirdness.

PC: Rachel

PC: Rachel

The next few shots are when Rachel and Emily played in the rain one warm July day. I had no clue this even happened! :) I love seeing the girls have fun together! It really is something I have prayed for since they were teeny tiny... that they would have a close friendship and be team mates instead of opponents.

Yes, Em - you're weird!

Game night with Uncle Mike.

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These pics are from my annual scrapbooking get-away to Camp Hill, PA. There are 450-500 people (mostly ladies) scrapbooking, laughing, journaling, resting, eating, sleeping and making new memories! It's so much fun. Danielle and Cheryl drove up from VB to meet me, Cindy, Teri and Dawn. What a great time we had!

shot of the scrapbooking room

my seat is right there next to Cindy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Next is our summer trip to VB to visit with the Haudricourts. The kids are growing up so quickly!

Lunchtime with Joy. :)

Trying to be more faithful with posting on the blog. Thanks for the few of you that still check it regularly. I'm touched that you continue to return, even tho' it's the same page, month after month! I'll work on that.

I feel like I need to have a recap of the summer and fall before I can jump into regular posts. So I'll take the next few posts to recap. My last real post as in June when we went to Tennessee with the Kitterman gang. Fun times!

Only 2 other events in June ‘08 to show you. Brian’s company picnic and the H10’s visit. First, the LMI picnic. It was held at Smokey Glen in Germantown. Tons of yummy food, face painting, a mini-carnival, contests, music, games and HEAT! It was a sweltering day!! Each of the girls invited a friend. Rach asked Libby and Em asked Rachel N, two friends the girls don’t get much time with… so it was a treat! And keeping with tradition, Mark and my parents were invited, too.

Rachel and Libbster with their snake tattoos

Brian, Tony and Andy

Mark

Em on the waterslide

Rachel's turn

This little girl was actually falling asleep while getting her face painted. I don't know who she is but I couldn't resist, it was so cute.

OK, this poor girl, she had a layer of cotton candy all over her even on the hairs on her arms! She was so sweet, giving out free cotton candy to lines of people.

Rachel and Libby got caricatures drawn.

Rachel driving the racecars

Uncle Mark takes his turn. Do you think he beat the little girl next to him? :)

Rachel shocked me by wanting to get on this bungy thing. I was truely surprised ~ it was great!

She even did flips!

But she was exhausted when she was done.

Andy, the biggest kids at the picnic, came in second in the hoola contect. So close, Andy!

Rachel totally won the limbo contest by a long shot. That kid is so flexible! :)

This was her prize - this crazy hat.

Emily won the bubble blowing contest. This wasn't her winning bubble (i missed it!) but rather her end of the day "I'm tired" zoning bubble. Love her blue eyes!

The winner with their prize hats!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The second June event captured in photos was a visit from Danielle and the kids. They were here for 6 days and we had an exciting time with them. The weather was great and we made lotsa fun memories together. :)

running down the hill.

along the way we found a turtle...

a few of the kids had a turn holding it

the kitty door was quite popular

swinging in the backyard

shucking corn-on-the-cob together

Happy Birthday, Rachie!!

I Love you, honey!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31296776@N00/

PS Hey Peeps! new posts soon. I promise. :)

Tennessee trip

We left at 5:20am on Thursday. Brian did most of the driving (thanks, honey!) The beginning of our trip was with the Thompsons. On Sunday, we'll meet 20+ more family members for a Kitterman vacation in Pigeon Forge, TN.

Bristol Motor Speedway

It took us about 7 hours to get to Julie's house where we had lunch and a great visit. Matthew was able to come home for lunch so we got to see the whole fam. Issachar was a great host, showing us all around his home. Ruth took her time checking us out and finally let Emily hold her for this picture without crying. Two hours later we arrived at our cute A-frame cabin in the woods. The Thompsons arrived just minutes after us - good timing. Off to dinner... Dinner at Texas Roadhouse in Gatlinburg. Jenna loved the double kiss from her mommy & daddy!

After dinner, we walked around the town of Gatlinburg. I soooo thought of you, Cliff, when I saw this place! I know you could've eaten here for every meal! 21 varieties ~ wow!! Can you find Uncle Jake in this picture?

Friday: We went to the top of our mountain (where our house is) and the view was beautiful.

They had a fun attraction we all rode. We took the lift up and rode Alpine Slide down. This pic shows Brian and Rachel in the lift in from of me and Emily (Brian's wearing the red shirt.) The white track on the ground is the track of the Alpine slide. You sit in this little wheeled car and fly down this cement track. The car has a hand break, that's it. Quite fun for most of us... some went faster than others. :) Can you guess who?

How many people have tried on those hats?! ewww

Lunch in Gatlinburg at No Way Joses - YUM!

I thought the tree behind the girls was pretty neat, too.

As we walked around The Village in Gatlinburg, this guy had parrots we could hold. He was promoting a show at another location. Pretty neat!

How appropriate. Uncle Jake has a store dedicatied to him!

Brian was in heaven with these caramel apples - one of his favorite treats!

Slick Track in Pigeon Forge

Saturday: Great Smokey Mountain National Park

We hiked 1.3 miles up to the falls. Did I mention there are no porta-johns up there? oh my... On our way back down, we saw a black bear and 2 turkeys. (not the 2 turkeys below... 2 wild turkeys!)

new pet at our house

Emily received a beautiful teal beta fish for her 12th birthday on Saturday. One of our kitties, Josie, was the welcoming committee. :) She was very curious about the fish and watched the tank from many different angles for most of the day. It was great.

Great shots, Em. Quick thinking to grab the camera when Josie was being so funny.

GO BACK 3 years to 2005

Here is our other kitty, Claire, enjoying a new beta fish that Rachel received for her 12th birthday.

Not sure what it is with us giving beta fish as a 12-year-old birthday gift.

It's totally unplanned. random.

But I'm glad we got pictures each time. :)

1 fun camera + 2 creative girls = 300+ SPRING pix

On Saturday, we went to my parents/grandmothers for the day. All of their trees are just beautiful!! The girls took my camera out for a photo shoot and took several hundred pics!! These are just a few fun ones that give an idea of the day... I'm glad the girls enjoyed their time together.

playing with the timer...

a tree growing out of a stump!