Treasure Lake!

We spent the past few days at Treasure Lake in PA where my parents' house is!  They were in town for a couple of weeks and we took a few days to visit :)  We headed up on Wednesday after Gary got home and stayed through Sunday afternoon.  We squeezed in lots of fun activities while we were there! 

 Alex had fun visiting with Great Grandpa (and his Aunt Linda who I didn't get a good picture of) one afternoon!

 The boys loved the campfires we'd have each night!  One night we ate dinner by the fire... I think it was the best they ate the whole weekend!

 Love this sweet boy :)

 Alex pushed this truck around outside A LOT!  He wore himself out running!

 Alex's imagination is so cute... he talked and talked about feeding the horses, giving them water, keeping them tied up, riding them, etc.  Here he is on his "horse"! 

 Nathan loves rocks!  Here he is with a collection of them one evening :)  Such a little boy!

 Enjoying one of our nightly campfires!  So fun to spend time with my parents and sisters!

 Cutest face ever :)

 Gary and I also got to spend some extra time together going on a couple of dates!  One afternoon we went ring shopping!  Gary's ring has bothered him for the past 5 years and we decided it was finally time to get a new one... we kept the old one but got him one that he can actually wear while typing on the computer and such ;)  We also got to go out to lunch and a movie! 

 One morning we went to the beach!  Nathan was a little unsure about walking in the sand/water but gave it a try after a little bit ;)

 We went out on the boat a few times, too!  Crazy how much more the boys enjoyed it this trip than last time!  They had a GREAT time!

 Nathan loved the sand at the beach!

 Nathan fishing!

 This was Alex showing Nathan how to work the fishing pole (the pics got a little out of order)  Such a sweet moment!

 Alex caught a fish!!!  He was pretty excited :)

We had such a fun few days visiting and playing at the lake!!

Summer Weekends!

We've been busy enjoying our time together as a family on the weekends when we don't have visitors!!  Here are our past couple of weekends in pictures!

 We've spent a lot of time at the pool!  Both kids love it!!

 Alex is using swimmies now!  We've been trying to convince him for a while, and he finally did it and was THRILLED to be able to swim "all by himself"!  He's gotten pretty brave (for him) and is even using a kickboard now!

 One of our Friday night family traditions (or sometimes Thursdays if Gary is off on Friday) is movie night!  Alex absolutely LOVES movie night... he gets pretty excited!  We almost always have pizza, eat on the couch, and make popcorn after dinner!  The past few times we've been making our own pizzas, which has been really fun!  I haven't gotten to the point of making our own dough yet, but we have fun personalizing our own with toppings just the way we like it :)

 Excited!!!

 Last weekend we went mini-golfing!  We've taken the boys once before when we were in Gatlinburg but found a place here where kids 4 and under are free!  The boys both had a BLAST!  And so did mommy and daddy ;) 

 Nathan held tight to his ball most of the night, but did try swinging at it a few times!

 Having fun!!

 Then this past weekend we went to the Prince William County Fair!  Alex was really excited and kept talking about going on the Ferris Wheel when we told him we were going there.  We weren't sure how he'd do with rides... he's always been pretty timid!  But he LOVED the rides!  He went on everything he was tall enough to do by himeslf and we let him do the Ferris Wheel with daddy!  He kept eyeing the roller coaster (pretty sure he would have HATED that... but he really wanted to do it... we said maybe next year haha)

 Poor Nathan just watched most of the day... he actually didn't mind too much, except for the train... he tried really hard to sneak in and take his own ride on the train!  He didn't cry or anything, just "asked" in his own way many times if he could go too... but it really wasn't worth the money, you could spend a fortune at the fair!

 Nathan loved the animals though!!  He started out saying "ruff ruff" to EVERY animal, but started to make some of the other sounds by the end :) 

 Petting a goat!! These goats loved Alex :)

 And Nathan had no fear!  You had to watch him pretty closely ;)

 Loving all the tractors!

 Petting area :)

 Loving it!

 Brave boy! 

 Nathan thought he was going on a ride here... he LOVED sitting in this!  haha

 Alex's favorite ride!  He rode this 3 times in a row! 

And he loved the ferris wheel with daddy! 

Kathryn's Visit!

My best friend from college came to visit the first weekend of August!  (I know, I've been very behind!)  We had SUCH a great few days!  After picking her up Sunday afternoon, the two of us spent the evening together going out to dinner and a movie!!  It really made me realize how much I miss having girlfriends around to hang out with like that!  Hanging out with friends these days pretty much always includes kids (theirs and mine) and it was fun to have a kid-free evening where we could talk without interruption! :) 

Monday we headed to the aquarium downtown... it was great!  The kids both absolutely loved it!

 Checking out the alligators!

 It didn't take long for the boys to warm up to Kathryn!!  They love her! :)

 After the aquarium and lunch at The Corner Bakery, we went for a walk around the National Mall.  It was extremely hot, so we only made it to the Washington Monument (Alex's legs were "just too tired" and he couldn't walk anymore! he was also "toooo hot!") 

 When we got there though there was a nice, cool breeze in the shade of the monument and we hung out for quite a while before heading back to the car! 

 The kids ran around like crazy "racing each other"!

 Nathan wanted to be just like his brother!  It was too cute... he kept saying "go!" and "wow!" 

 Alex was thrilled to spend time playing with Kathryn at home too... and loved that she read him his bedtime stories and tucked him in!  So cute :)

 Tuesday we went to the pool for a picnic and swimming!

 Alex loved his swim buddy :)

 It was such a fun few days, I was so sad to see her go! 

Our only attempt at a picture together, oops!