Kentucky Recap

We just finished a wonderful family vacation, and I'm so amazed at how much God has blessed us. The timing of this trip, which was planned long before we knew about Chuck's job change, was perfect. Getting a week to bond as a family and somewhat refocus on what was important helped tremendously. And we had 6 kids (7 if you count our one on the way) under one roof and it went sooo well. Charlie had his 2 older cousins to play with, Luke (5 yrs) and Ethan (4 yrs). Chance really enjoyed parallel playing with Ruby (2 yrs). Then I got to hold sweet Beau, our three month old nephew... So everyone was happy! :) In all we had newborn - 5 yrs all in a row.

Anyhow, enough blabbing, I know you really just wanna see the pictures, right?! ;)

First of all, the boys' first plane ride...


[5 minutes after take off, Charlie decided it was all just too exciting for him to take.]


[Chance, however, spent the first 3 hours doing laps up and down the aisle. Overall, with 4 hours on the plane there and 5 hours back, the boys did really well, and it definitely beat being in the car for 2 days to get there!]


Then the cast of characters...

[This is Luke, the big kindergartner, who was our inspiration to have kids of our own. Notice how his pumpkin says "Louisville Kentucky" - that cracks me up. The kids were really into their states. Charlie's pumpkin said "Texas" too.]


[This is Ethan, who's 4, half a year older than Charlie. Ethan looks like what I thought our boys would look like. There's no denying that he has some Thier in him.]


[This is Ruby, the "reigning (only) granddaughter" in a family with 7 grandsons! She's our only niece and I could just eat her up, she's so sweet!! It was fun to watch the contrast with the boys and her...It did make me wish we'd had a girl. But then I just try to think about a girl in adolescence, dating boys, and someday Chuck having to give her away at her wedding...and I get over it real quick! ;)]


[And then there's Beau...isn't he a doll?!! He's SO laid back, he's a perfect 4th child for sure! This kid hardly ever cries. I can't wait for baby3 to be born and get old enough to play with him.]


[Oh, hey! Look who came to visit, all the way up in Kentucky! This is Elijah, the one you saw in our last post. His parents came up to visit while we were there. He's just so cute...]


[Here's Chuck sister, Mitsi, or as I prefer to call her, "Super Woman/Mom." She's amazing and it was so fun to hang out with her for a week. We miss her and her family so much.]


[This is Tammy, Chuck's youngest sister and my Dr Pepper Buddy. She lives about 3 hours from Mitsi in Nashville (aka "Austin perfected," but that's another story...). We were so excited to get to visit with her some while we were there.]

On to the action shots, because you know with 5 kids running around, there was lots of excitement...



There was a lot of Jeep driving going on while we were there. Chance had a mask on, but he preferred to use it as a helmet.


See what I mean?!


There was also a lot of playing in the sandbox...


and slide racing...


and dancing...


and pumpkin painting...


and sidewalk chalking...


and eating food, while discussing which foods were healthy...LOL!


which usually led to bed time.


One funny story: Mitsi was having an Arbonne party, so the dads took the kids to the mall to play on an indoor playground. As they left, it was a beautiful, cloudless fall day. In the 20 minutes it took them to get there, it became rainy, and they heard a siren (being from Texas, Chuck was thinking, "air raid?!"). They got into the mall and were then ushered into a hallway and told to sit against the wall because there may be a tornado nearby!! It's not easy to get 5 kids to sit still, but thankfully they had M&Ms on hand to calm their nerves. So we (the moms) felt so guilty for sending our families out in the bad weather. And just so you know, the storm blew over that area and no tornado touched down...

And one pic that I just think is so fun (although not very portrait-like)...


I actually took this one because Ethan looked so cute with the shorts and Tammy's cowboy boots on, but Charlie really wanted in the picture, too.