Preschool Graduation, Camping,Pensacola Beach

So here are the details.

We have been going like crazy the past three weeks. I have loved it, and I hope our life will be more like this in the future. When we are settled in the west. I would love to just pack the kids up and drive to hebgen and be with family.

So we started with Mom coming into town. So thank you so much Mom.

We have misplaced those photo's and once I find them I will post them. I have said that before so hopefully it happens. Chris and I had a great vacation with just the two of us. We left early and made it to the beach by ten. We rented some buggy boards and played in the waves all day. Ate lunch at some cafe that I ate my first portebello mushroom burger. I loved it! Chris got this BBQ sandwich that was enormous. Our hotel was so beautiful it had fountain with these blown glass vases sitting in the middle of it. It was just fun to look at. We just kept looking at each other like are we still talking with no interruptions. I loved having five days together so that we didn't feel like we were rushed and was somewhat ready to come back home to reality. I was also proud of myself for not have an identity crisis this trip. I loved Charleston there is just so much history and character to this fun city. Everyone should visit there sometime. We ate at a couple of fun restaurants. The first was this Mexican restaurant that multiple people recommended with so much excitement we were like we have to try it. They warned us that it was kind of a dive. Really we all know those are the best Mexican restaurants right. I mean we pulled in and BMW, Acura and up is all you saw in the parking lot. Then there was this restaurant dirt parking lot and in the business district. The food was so good. I got my favorite and no it wasn't apart of my diet. Chimiechanga! I loved it. The chips and salsa, yep yummy! The other fun restaurant we went to was Basil Tia. We sat right were everything was cooked. Made for some interesting eating. I have to say I can't say I am a huge fan of seeing things cooked now. They brought out some fish and a duck at one point and I was like seriously! The fish looked like it was all covered in flour and nasty. When it came out it looked alot better. I think I like the presentation with out knowing how its cooked. Melissa ya not a restaurant for you, ya know FISH and all. Our food was really good.
We toured Charleston by carriage that was so much fun. It was raining and poor Chris was nice to let me sit in the middle as his whole side was drenched by the time we were done. Not that it compares to that by with my hair being crazy in the humidity I think I looked a little on the Afro style hair do by the end. So we looked great. Nothing like riding in style. You know only the best for us.
The next day we got on a fairy to Ft. Sumter. It was so cold. We were expecting like 70-80 degree weather and it was 50. So we just had these thin jackets. I didn't mind that a bit. Just kidding. Inside the fairy was some shelter which only took us half way there to figure it out. There were these four teen age brothers all hanging out and acting crazy. I was getting excited for my boys to someday be like that on our trips. We had a blast even if it did rain half the time.

We got back and had lunch with Mom and got her on her plane. Thanks again mom. we loved seeing you for those six hours we had together and the kids keep talking about how much fun they had.

We had a day and half to get ready for Camping. Also Ethan had his Preschool graduation. He has been excited for this since last year. We had a fun dinner with his school. A ceremony which Jackson tried hard to be apart of. We won't worry about him having stage fright that is for sure. I don't know who he gets that from. He was climbing on stages, other peoples tables, and eating everything he could. We love our crazy Jack-Jack. Ethan teacher has taught at Pine grove for 25 years and retired this year. No pressure right. Well thanks to some other girls and especially Kim for putting it together we were able to get her a nice picture of Jesus with the children. We will miss her she just was so great at what she did. Christopher had her as well.

Well Camping didn't go as smoothly as we would of liked.We were packed and off by 9. An hour and half later we got to Lake Norman which was so beautiful. To find that all the campsites were filled. We found another sight on the opposite side of the lake. Were assured they had a kid area. Well, let me just tell you we found the most well loved RV park ever. People liked it so much there they bricked in there RVs and lived there all year round. NO JOKE! We met a couple by our site who invited us to use there swing while they were gone, cause get this they were going camping. I wanted to laugh so hard. So we unpacked I was exhausted and wanted a nap Chris took the two boys with him to the kids swim area. While I tried to get the other two to take a nap. Only to be woken up like 15 minutes later. To Chris telling me the kids area is nothing but a bunch of boulders. We packed up and left. I have to say we were pretty frustrated at this point. Sorry, Cianne! We ended up at the lake and swam there for two hours then went home and had Smores with the Wallins who were going to meet us there. That night was so fun even if it was in our back yard. Thanks to the fire pit! Love it. Well the next day we ended up going to Stone Mountain to hike and brought our stuff just in case we found campsites. Lucky us we did. We hiked with the kids down to the falls. They did great. The flowers were beautiful. Jordan had a close call there for a second but luckily he was saved by this fatality sign. Thank goodness for that. I was reassured of my fear of height over two boulders that weren't even that high off the ground. Just reminded me of when Chris asked my to marry him and he took me on a hike with lots of steep hills and I about had a heart attack, but I really wanted him to ask me so I played along. We love to laugh about that one. We also did have a great spiritual experience around the camp fire on Sunday sharing testimonies. Ya know some times you mean well and it just doesn't happen. We did have some great smores again. I don't know if you ever van get sick of smore's when you are camping. It rained us out on Monday so came home and had a great time with friends that night at Kim's house. We are going to miss the Hinckley family.
I had four day to get ready for the Beach. Chris had no more vacation time and Meg offered to let our family come and be with them at the beach for FREE! ya that right. We went. Just me and the kids 12 hours in the car. The kids did great thanks to Mormon "guess who" and redbox movies. We couldn't also of done it with out the nifty little GPS. I missed a exit in Atlanta and what do you know it redirected me and only cost me two minutes. I did really like Atlanta what a cool city. I let the kids play for the first two hours then did show times and had them play in between the showings. It was so funny. I could only do so much with it just being me. It worked and I have to say I am feeling a little free. If Chris comes home and we are gone I told him to just call Michelle. That's where I will be.
The beach was so fun with Mark and Megs' family. We loved celebrating Chases Big Day. What a cool kid. Meg had it all planned out. With a fun treasure hunt in the sand. That kept everyone busy and we got involved and all the prizes were found. It was so much fun. The sand was just so white and water so clear. It just seemed to good to be true. It did rain on Wednesday making that two bedroom condo seem a little tight. Don't worry about that Meg and I felt a lot better after we put the kids down and made ourselves sick. By making a shake out of 6 scoops of ice cream and all the left over ice cream cake. Each of us after finishing it off feeling like they wanted to throw up. We laughed so hard. I loved it. We watch HGTV. And reminisced over where they want to end up next year and how our husband just seem to be incredibly busy all the time. I don't know if me leaving made Chris want to prove that I missed him. When I drove back after 12 hours four stops. Four whinny kids. To him not being home. It being our Anniversary. And me having to put the kids to bed and unpack the car all by myself. I did miss him. Then he continued this all the way until Wednesday night. I think he got his point across we kind of need each other. Man, I love that guys but seriously next time just be at the door when I get home. Got it! We had a fun time and now we are