Camping Out with Cousins!

We went to the Sandy Bottom Nature Center to see about camping out for the night.

We rented this cute Mongolian Yurt for the night.

We all enjoyed looking out the skylight.

It slept six people with two bunk beds and trundle beds that rolled out.

We loved the gorgeous view of the lake from our cabin.

I am not a camper, so it shocked everyone that...

Aunt Nelda and I would take all four kids camping by ourselves.

The Camp Out Cousins checking out the campsite.

We went for a little hike to find a geocache that was hidden in the park.

The girls loved this little wooden bridge we found on the way to the...

Butterfly Garden.

I am still smiling!

It was all FUN until I had to roll up my pants and get yucky walking into the lake to get a bucket of water to put out the campfire. ;)

The girls by the lake!

Sweet Siblings!

We headed back to the campsite for the night.

Hanging by the campfire!

Aunt Nelda makes a BIG fire!

Time for Smore's!

Mia enjoyed her Smore while playing her DSi.

Madison wanted to tell some spooky stories with our flashlights and glow sticks before bed.

YEAH, we survived our night of camping! Even though at 9 o'clock at night Blayke announced that he wanted to go back to Aunt Brittney's house. ;)

This morning after breakfast we rented a paddle boat to take out on the lake.

Ready to ride!

Having FUN on the lake!

We can't wait to come back and do it again with Daddy and Uncle Guy!

Geocaching!

Aunt Nelda, Mia and Blayke drove up to spend a couple of days with us. What a great way to start our Summer Vacation!

They took us Geocaching for the first time. Our first find was in the Hampton Library parking lot. It was so much fun to find this pill bottle geocache hidden in the fork of this tree.

We put our sticker on the log and dated it to show when we found it. Next we headed to the park across the street to look for another geocache.

Madison was so happy to get this little red ball out of the geocache in the park.

All of the kids got a little prize out of the geocache and left a little prize for the next people that find it.

Once we were done, we put it back into the hole in the tree. What a great place to hide a geocache. I was a little scared to reach in and get it out though. ;)

Next we headed to the Hampton Yacht Club to look for a geocache. Unfortunately we couldn't find it anywhere on the cannon. We might have to go back and try to find this one again sometime.

We went to Downtown Hampton and saw this duck going into his own little pool. How cute! ;)

Our final geocache was hidden in this little garden area in Downtown Hampton. Can you find it?

It took us awhile to find, but Aunt Nelda finally spotted it at the bottom of the light post. It was a magnetic black box located under the plugs.

We had so much FUN geocaching with our cousins. We found 3 out of 4 geocaches! Not bad for our first time. We are looking forward to going geocaching with Daddy when he gets home from his deployment.

Somersaults!

Today while we were outside playing on the slip n slide, Jocelyn figured out how to do somersaults. Click here to see the video of her first few somersaults.

Last Day of School!

Today was the last day of school for the girls!

They have really LOVED being in the same class this year.

Since Jocelyn has a summer birthday and today marks exactly one month until her real birthday, we celebrated her birthday today at school. Jocelyn wanted a "frog" birthday at school, so I was super excited when I found the girls these cute "frog" dresses to wear. ;)

I can't believe that our sweet little Jocelyn is going to be 4 years old in one month.

I surprised the girls by bringing in hot dogs and pizza for Jocelyn's school birthday party. The last week of school has been "optional," so several of the kids were not there today. It ended up being a very tiny party, but we had FUN anyway.

Jocelyn and her double layered cookie cake! YUMMY!

Click here to see us singing "Happy Birthday" to Jocelyn.

After we ate we read the cute "frog" book that I got for the students.

The girls have had a wonderful school year in Ms. Mary's class!

Thanks for Coming! Woof!

The girls were so excited to get the following email from their new Best Furry Friend:

Dear Madison and Jocelyn,

Thanks for coming! I really enjoyed your stay. I liked all of your hugs, kisses and love. You have the tastiest fingers and toes.

Sorry for running over you, the storm really scared me.

Write me when you can. Woof!

Licks and tail wags,

Gracie

The girls wanted to immediately write Gracie back. Here are their sweet notes to Gracie:

Hi Gracie,

I hope you like this note. We loved your puppy kisses. We sure miss you. I was a little scared when you made me trip though.

Love,

Madison

I love you Gracie, but we can't come to your house tomorrow. I really love you Gracie. I really want you to have a good time by yourself but don't forget me.

Love,

Jocelyn

Sunday

Sunday morning we were all dressed and ready to head to Covenant Life Church. We have enjoyed our special time visiting with my dear friend Holly and her family.

After church we got to see Miss Rohr. She is the 5th grade teacher at Covenant Life School.

Miss Rohr and I with one of our students. He is currently in Miss Rohr's 5th grade class. I got the privilege of being his Kindergarten teacher the year that I was pregnant with Madison. It is amazing how time flies. It was wonderful to see so many of my former students.

Thank you so much to the Cleveland Family for letting us stay with you this weekend. We had an amazing time. We can't wait to come back and visit again and get more snuggles. ;)

Our drive home didn't go as expected. We left Maryland around 3 o'clock, but we hit horrible traffic and weather. After driving for 3.5 hours and only going 100 miles, we decided to stop at a hotel for the night and finish the remaining 100 miles in the morning. I called several hotels until I found one with an indoor pool.

The girls and I had some fun playing in the pool while it was storming outside. We had a relaxing night in the hotel and rested up to finish the drive in the morning.