Maple Grove

We had so much fun getting together with all the cousins over the summer.  We did our family tradition of Maple Grove.  It was a quick trip but fun none the less.  The cousins loved hiking together and roasting mallows over the fire.  I went to G-town earlier in the week so Logan hadn't joined us yet.

I feel like in 90% of his pictures he has this expression.

Grandma getting Jack and Sienna a snack.

Jack insisted he take Char for a walk.

I look like garbage here, but Char sure looks cute.

I love it when Char is sleepy.  She gets really chatty.  On the drive home she was just chatting up a storm trying to fall asleep.

Pick me a bushel

One of our favorite activities in Cville is apple/fruit picking.  Jack is basically a rabbit and lives off fruit and vegetables so he loves it.  We picked some apples and I am pretty sure  Jack had already eaten five by the time we left.  

And of course we had to top off the hot day with some fresh peach frozen yogurt.

And some apple cider donuts.

Beckam

Let's call these posts Flashback Fun.  I am so far behind that we will pretend I meant to do this.  Over the summer we got to do some fun things with Logan's law firm.  One event they did was taking us to a REAL soccer game.  We first enjoyed a yummy feast.  Then we watched the soccer game against LA Galaxy which means nothing to me but that David Beckham is on their team.  I loved my Spice Girls back in the day and Posh Spice will always have a place in my heart so it was fun to her husband play.  Char got a bit cranky at the end, but over all it was a fun time.

Jenna's Birthday tradition

This is how Jenna's birthday tradition works: the Tippets let us mooch and stay at their cabin in Bear Lake, and in return, I take the burden off Brad and throw Jenna a birthday party.  It's a wonderful system and I think both couples are very happy with it.  This year for Jenna's b-day I was fillin' Lisa Frank.  Who doesn't love Lisa Frank.  I wasn't able to track down a Lisa Frank trapper keeper for Jenna, but we didn't have a good time.  Till next year Tippets!

I made Jenna a ice cream sandwich cake.  It was quit tasty.

Some of the Lisa Frank decor.

Birthday girl!

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A small gift.  I believe it was candy and a pregnancy test.  My new go to gift is a pregnancy test because it makes me laugh.

We played pin the Jenna face on the creepy Lisa Frank purple panda bear.

We always eat at Bear Lake pizza when we are there.  Jack loves playing on all the rides.  Thankfully he hasn't figured out they move if you put money in them.

Char chillin at the beach.

When quiet time is too quiet

 Jack stopped napping at 18 months.  For my sanity's sake, he still has quiet time every day where he "quietly" plays in his room for a while.  It's a time of day he seems to really enjoy and sometimes I like to listen at his door to his creative, imaginative play.  It can be quite entertaining.  And every now and then, if his chatter becomes unusually quiet, I know I better peak at what mischief he is up to.  Here the most recent discovery I came upon:

Fancy Schmancy

Yes I am still blogging about the summer and I will be for a long time.  It was an eventful summer.  The firm that Logan worked at over the summer treated us all to a retreat at the St Regis Resort in Park City.  It was lots of fun.  We were going to count it as our 6 year anniversary date, but Charlotte decided to crash the party and hang out with us.  She still refuses pacifiers and bottles.  At least she is a super good baby and basically just sat on my lap and fell asleep.  We didn't miss much of the party.  There was a late night power outage that lasted a few hours so we hung out by the pool and roasted smores. It was a fun little get away.  We were definitely out of our usual Motel 8 atmosphere.  We pulled up to the hotel and were taken off guard by the valet service.  I panicked and didn't know what to do and we accidentally ended up leaving half our stuff in the car.  We looked like idiots.

We enjoyed a picnic and a concert.

Yummy food.  The orange cream soda was delicious.

It rained a bit and thankfully they gave us umbrellas.

Our view from our room.  

Logan left this on the note pad in our room.  Not everyone may find him funny, but I think he is hilarious.

Hot tubbin'

A TV in our bathroom mirror.

There was a finicular that we would ride from the main hotel area to our rooms.   It was kind of  like an enclosed giant ski lift.

Stingy Bees

Jack is into bugs lately.  He really likes "stingy bees" as he calls them.  Here is a conversation between Logan and Jack that recently took place:

Jack:  Bees are mean.  They can sting.
Logan:  Well you see Jack, in some ways bees are bad because they can sting, but in other ways they are good because they make us honey.
Jack: Ya dad, this way (Jack points one direction) stingy bees are mean and sting us, but this way (he points the other direction) bees are nice and bring us honey.

Now whenever Jack talks about stingy bees, he either points to the front of the house and talks about the nice bees or the back of the house and is referring to the mean bees.

He has also classified bugs into two categories, bugs that pinch and bugs that tickle.  Whenever he encounters a new bug he immediately asks, does it tickle or pinch?  One day we overturned a rock and found hundreds of tiny black ants.  He said with a big smile, "Look mom, black ants tickle!" and then he shoved his hand into the ant pile and let them crawl up his arm.  He is definitely his father's son.

And one last story.  I walked into the living room to see Logan lifting up a book shelf as though he lost something.  I came over to help him.  Suddenly I spot a small snake under the shelf.  To both our surprise, my first reaction was: "Whew! It's just a snake, I thought it was a worm!" It surprised me but is true, I would much rather have a little snake in my house than a gross infestation of worms.

Jack with a bug friend

Notice the bug bites on his face.  The first week we got here had 32 bites.  Welcome to Virginia.