Jellystone!!!

Last week was our annual trip to Jellystone!  This was our 7th year going and it was a blast!

 "The girls", as Giada calls them, had a blast playing together!

 Jacqie talked me into going down the water slide!  "You won't even get your hair wet!" she told me, and 2 seconds in a kid dumped a huge bucket on me!  Then they couldn't even get a good action shot of my coming down the slide lol! 

 Then of course Jacqie comes down with her hair all dry, sunglasses still in tact, and looking like a boss!

 Mark bought us new and improved 1970s folding chairs for around the fire!  Jacqie was nice enough to give me my own cupholder.

 The ladies!

 Camden and Liam came up for a visit and Harper loved reading to Liam.

 It was ridiculously adorable!

 We had some fun practicing some cheerleading moves.

 We tried to get everyone on Nick's back but we couldn't make it.

 Although these two goofballs had some moves.

 Nerds.

 Cheer off.

 Seriously...nerds.

 Nana and Papa came up for a nice visit.

 Kitty and Dawn came with them and brought some friends for the kids to play with.  They all had a blast and Oliver is already asking for another play date!

 Baby Sammie came for a visit too!!!  The kids loved playing with Sammie and loving her up!

 The boys!

 Me and my girls with Yogi!

 My babies with Yogi.  I can't believe how old these kids are getting!!!

This is from our very first trip to Jellystone in 2011!!!

And this was from 2014!!!

 Of course we all enjoyed the "Hey! Hey! Hey! Ride"!

 Our goofy group!

Love this crew!

 The kids still loved singing all the songs!

 Goofballs.

 Love these faces.

 This year the weather was gorgeous!!  We usually have really iffy weather so we were all thrilled when it was hot and gorgeous all week.  They busted out this huge water slide and the kids were pumped to get on it!

 That is until they realized that the water was ICE COLD!

 Oliver still loved it though!

 My Jellystone peeps.

 Uncle Nick taught Claire how to chop some wood.

The other Uncle Nick set up a big projector screen for the kids to watch movies at night!  The Wizard Of Oz was a HUGE hit!

 Fishing was a hit as usual.  Claire helped Uncle Nick get his worm on his hook.

 Oliver caught a ton of fish!

 Harper was so proud of him and cheered him on!  She would run over and yell "OL-A-VER!!"  He let her touch each fish that he caught!

 Jacqie baited all of Harper's hooks.

 Uncle Nick finally caught one with Jacqie's touch!

 Love it!

 My little fisherman!

 My littler fisherwoman!

 Read to fish!

 THE GIRLS!

 THE GUYS!

This year Mark and I got sleeping brand new sleeping bags to take on the trip instead of lugging all the bedding back and forth.  We laughed so hard when we rolled out our "Mummy" sleeping bags but I will say, they were SUPER comfortable!

 

Daddy and Claire had to leave very early because Claire had a lacrosse tournament so that left me and Oliver to pack up.  Oliver was such a great helper and we packed up all of our stuff, had a nice stop at the gift, and grabbed a quick selfie with Yogi before we headed home.

It was another amazing year at Jellystone.  I can't believe this was our 7th year!!!  We always have such a great time.  I am already excited for next year!

Beach Day

I am completely LOVING summer!!!  Yesterday we had a great beach day!!! The kids had a blast and I loved chatting with my girls! I didn’t get too many pictures but I had to post at least one(even though Harper is missing)!

This morning I made these two turkeys come with me to do Hill repeats at Chestnut Ridge.

They didn’t cheer me on like they usually do because they were too busy playing lacrosse but they did try to do some runs on their own! We all agreed that next time we won’t go at 11:30am when it is 88 degrees out 😂.

Lunch Date With My Guys

One of my favorite things about summer is the random fun things we do together that make great memories. Today Claire had plans with her friends (I am not sure I can call them play dates anymore 😔) so Oliver and I did some shopping and then Daddy showed up and we had a wonderful little lunch date!!!

I love these guys!!!

Green Lake

Green Lake has always been a family favorite.  We have had many picnics, walks, playdates, and a few birthday parties there!  A few years ago they had an issue with the lake and they drained the water and refilled it.  It was open last year but we got out of the habit of going there. 

Yesterday we had a little time in between activities so we packed up some lunches, called up some friends, and headed to Green Lake!!  The kids had a blast!!!  Oliver told me on the way home, "Well, that was really fun! Thanks Mom!"  Made my whole day!

Fourth Of July

We spent the fourth in our usual way, the Cappellis came over to help us eat our leftovers and we went to the parade and fireworks. 

 We also celebrated Claire's birthday again!

 Our turkeys!!!

 Parade fun!

 Time for Kettlecorn and fireworks!

Fourth of July selfie!!!!

Beach Birthday

They say you can’t stop time and truer words have never been spoken. Yesterday my best girl turned 11!!!!

I woke up to these two turkeys giggling and hanging out in Claire’s room. Then we all laid in bed I told Claire the story of the day she was born (like I do every year) and we looked at her baby book.  I swear I blinked and 11 years flew by!

This year we celebrated Claire's birthday at one of her favorite places, THE BEACH!

A HUGE thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for making Claire's day so special!

Claire loved sun bathing on the beach (because she is 11).

And playing with her cousins!

Liam loved relaxing on his raft.

Cousin Love!!!!

Even though it was ridiculously hot everyone enjoyed the summer weather!

Camden and Claire and BFFS

These turkeys couldn't just smile at me!  But they were having a blast!

There we go!

Claire's birthday cake this year!  Thanks Aunt Tiffany for the cheesecake!

My beautiful 11 year old!!!

Love her.

Papa making a wish and pulling the knife out of the cake.

Claire opening her presents!

Her audience.

My favorites.

After all of the food we headed back down to the beach for the bon fires and fireworks.

Claire and Oliver did some night swimming!!

Then it was time for the fireworks up and down the beach!

Everyone cleans up the beach from the winter and builds gigantic bon fires up and down the beach!

The kids loved the amazing firework show!  These were seriously the BEST fireworks that I have ever seen!  Our friend Russ went above and beyond and single handedly beat ANY firework display that I have EVER seen!  It was amazing to have our feet in the water and watch the show!  There was also a bag piper on the beach playing patriotic songs and that just sealed the magic.  It was a great way to celebrate our country and our independence!

When Claire was born I nursed her late at night on July 3rd and we were all alone in the quiet hospital room.  I could see the fireworks out my window and I whispered to her, "Every year for your birthday I promise that there will be fireworks for you across the land."  It was such a special night and seeing these fireworks with my whole family around us at one of my favorite places in the world was just perfection.