NC!!! Finally...

I know you haven't heard from us in a while... I really hate using Blogger on my mac. For some reason it just doesn't work very well & I can never get my pics to upload without it completely kicking me off of the internet. It has taken me 5 tries to get the pics on here! If anybody knows what I'm doing wrong... steer me in the right direction please!!

So I've finally gotten up the courage to write about the rest of our trip. The NC part was really great... we had such a good time hanging out with family & friends! The trip back was equally sucky as the ride out. But I'll get to that in a minute... Let's talk about fun stuff first!

We had lots of fun playing with cousins! I took about 30 pictures of these guys sitting on the couch thinking "at least one of those will come out". Not one of those 30 had all the kids looking in the same direction!! This was as close as I got:

Mom & dad's basement is a big source of entertainment for kids!! Johnny trying out the tambourine:

Miss Emily singing her ABCs:

I dare say with those long fingers, Pipey has a future playing the piano!:

Papaw & Bella snuggling with the boys:
I think this is my all-time favorite picture of Piper. This is the oh-so-tired, calm version that we rarely get to see. :)

This was Johhny's first time drinking water! He loved it. He chugged quite a bit then promptly puked up everything he had eaten.

Piper got her first hair cut while we were there! She doesn't look super stoked in this picture, but it turned out really cute.
More play time with cousins! Sharing a snack on the swing & chatting it up:

Bella was taking one for the team & doubling up to give the mamas a rest.

Swinging on Papaw's lap has always been one of Johnny's favorite spots. They usually spend hours doing this every time we visit. At home, Johnny only goes to sleep if the room is pitch black & there is a white noise machine on... But he fell asleep upside down on Papaw's lap while they were sitting there looking at the trees. Too sweet!

While I was home I got to visit with several friends, some that I hadn't seen since high school.

I went & hung out one afternoon with my friend Kim & her little girls, Azlynn & Rhonin. It was so good to catch up!

Azlynn - she's such a little cutie pie! Johnny had SO much fun playing with her toys.

Johnny & Rhonin (Kim's little miracle baby... she was uber premie).

This is my friend Melissa's little girl, Kayla. She looks *just* like Melissa. She was trying on Pipey's necklaces.
Haven't seen Melissa since high school and she lived IN COLORADO for 3 years. That's just crazy. But I'm glad we finally got to catch up.

Aunt Emily loving on Johnny. I *wish* we lived closer...
Mama Harriet reading a book to Piper & Fisher. Fisher was relentless in his quest for some of Harriet's halloween candy... He used the chinese water torture method I created years ago (Can I have candy? What about now? Now? Candy? I... want... candy!)
Then the last weekend we were there, the McGinnis side of the family came over. We had a full house!

Johnny snuggling with Uncle Jerry.

Kristin & Johnny with Teagan & Kristin.

Miss Em came over one last time & we got a group picture with the kiddos. :)

We were sad to say goodbye! Mostly because we miss family & friends & don't get to spend near enough time visiting. But also a little bit because we didn't want to drive back to CO. =)

Because of our fiasco driving out to NC, we decided we would only drive at night. This seemed like a good idea in theory. The first night wasn't so bad. We were both super tired, but we made it ok. We decided to stop in St Louis for the day & get a hotel room (with a pool). Then we could just hang out & nap before heading out again that night. The problem was that the kids had slept all night. So they were WIDE awake & ready to go right as Kristin & I were about to pass out. I think I slept an hour or two that day. The specifics have been blocked from my memory...kind of like child birth or any other painful memory.

The hotel did have a pool & Aunt Kristin took all of the kids in to play. This was Johnny's first time in a pool & he LOVED every minute of it. He kept dunking his face in the water.

I think this picture kind of says it all:

Fun fun!!

That night we set out for the final leg of our journey. The trip back did seem less eventful & had A LOT LESS crying. It was just so overwhelmingly tiring. We were both very happy to get back home & into our own beds. I think I may have actually kissed the floor in my living room when I walked in the door.....

Whew! Thanks for sticking that out with me. I took a ton more pictures. If you aren't on Facebook - you can view them on Photobucket: http://s1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd378/auryngurl/NC Trip Oct 2010/

xo,

Carly

A Series of Unfortunate Events

As most of you know... Kristin & I just made it to North Carolina after spending 3 days in an SUV pulling a pop up, traveling 1500 miles with 3 kids aged 5 & under. It seriously sucked. One day, I hope we might be able to laugh at all of this. Not the "OMG we need to laugh so we don't completely go insane" laugh, but a genuine, "yeah we were stupid back then" laugh. This was officially Kristin's worst idea ever. Unfortunately, when she proposed it, I said "OMG that would be SO. Much. Fun."

Wrong.

At this point, you may be thinking that I am melodramatic. Let me just give you an overview of the suckage that was our trip...

We left on Wednesday & planned 3 days to get out here. The first day we left at 6 am & drove for 12 hours. We only got about 300 miles. It took FOREVER. 10 of those 12 hours, somebody was crying. Whether it be Piper, Johnny, Fisher or all 3. Of course Bob had to join in & howl any time he heard crying.

We decided since Wednesday was so miserable, we would just get a camp site for Wednesday night & all day Thursday, then set out at 6 pm on Thursday evening & drive through the night. The ironic thing about our camping was that the kids were still keyed up & not in very good moods… the only thing that calmed them down? was to play in. the. car. I couldn’t even make this stuff up.

Kansas sort of felt like that Stargate episode where another SG team went to a planet & a black hole opened up as they were trying to come back to SGC & the time dilation caused everything to happen in SUPER slow motion. That was totally what Kansas was like. We were there for.ev.er.

As we left the camp ground, we tried to put a cd in to play. Turns out Miss Piper had shoved something into the cd player & broke it. So the only options we had for entertainment were country & preaching radio stations. Kristin mentioned how bad Kansas sucked & how the only thing worse that could happen would be if the car broke down. 10 miles later, her Service Engine Soon light came on. Seriously. We pulled into Junction City, Kansas (fondly referred to as Junk City, USA by the locals) into a gas station. I was on the phone with my dad trying to troubleshoot & this guy pulls up on a scooter & asks if we need help. My immediate reaction was to assume this guy was a serial killer & we should say anything we could to just get him to leave as fast as possible. So I (in my yoga pants & head lamp carrying a SIGG bottle full of water in which I was about to pour into an engine that I had shut off) tried to send him away. He said he was with the local fire dept & that he always tries to help anyone with car troubles. He told me to make sure the engine was running when I poured the water in or else the engine would crack (oops) and that I shouldn’t take off the radiator cap off fast or else it could explode (radiator, huh? What does the radiator do again?).

When it was glaringly obvious I had no clue what I was doing, he just sort of took over & opened the radiator, found out the antifreeze was empty & helped Kristin & I get her car fixed. Thankfully, he turned out to be a very good, generous person who just so happened to be named George Busch. No lie. But we don’t hold it against him….

After we left the gas station, we drove straight to NC without stopping (well, we obviously stopped for gas & food). It was so painfully awful that we just wanted to rip the bandaid off as quickly as possible & get to NC. Those 28 hours were just as miserable as the first part of the trip.

Lesson learned: 4 hours on a plane with screaming, upset kids would be infinitely easier than 40 hours in an SUV with screaming, upset kids.

We are in NC now & looking forward to spending some time with Papaw & Bella!!! Today we just slept & rested & recuperated from the last few days. Starting tomorrow we have lots of fun stuff planned with family & friends! I’ll have a ton more pics to post over the next few weeks!

xoxo,

Carly

Here are some pictures of our amazingly awesome trip (Kristin took pics of the first day, so I will probably have more to add).

Fisher playing on the slide in the time-sucking state of Kansas:

Falling off the end of the slide:

We decided I win Aunt of the Year award for letting Fisher smash rocks with a hammer. In front of an electrical outlet. That had a water spigot. Kristin paled when she walked up to this site:

Jekyll:

Hyde:

Pipey with severe bed head on Friday morning (after driving through the night):

Johnny getting cleaned up after we got to Papaw & Bella's (daddy took these):

Summertime Pt 1

Whew! I've had a ton of computer issues including Johnny the Destroyer dumping a glass of water on my macbook (don't worry, it survived). I think I finally have everything figured out & a dry, functioning macbook to update you guys!

We have had a BUSY summer!! So busy that it will take a few posts to get you caught up. :) Johnny is continuing to grow like a weed... I pulled 18 mo clothes out of the attic yesterday. All of his 12 mo stuff is too short!! He also got both of his front two teeth (on the same day) last week. That brings the total up to 4 now. His smiles are ridiculously cute. =) He also sits up & crawls & thinks anything Doug does is hilarious.

Case in point:

He has grown up so fast, I'm left wondering where all the time went? He is almost 8 months old!! We have had such a fun summer... Days filled with play dates to the park, the zoo, hanging out with cousins & hiking. So without further ado, here are some pictures from this summer! (All the ones from hiking & Tdad are on Doug's computer, so I'll do a part 2 with those... So don't feel left out Mojicas!)

Who needs weights when you have a chubby baby around?? Overhead Tricep Press approximately 20ish lbs:

Johnny hasn't been real fond of baby food... Seems to be a texture thing. But here he is before one of our many attempts wearing a "Somebody from Shelby, NC Loves Me" t-shirt (I think Aunt Debbie bought this for Fish):

Getting our craft on:

We had a trip planned to the zoo for Kristin's bday. Turns out her kids were sick, but we decided to go anyway (I had been promising Storrie all summer!) with Rachel & Ruby. We had such a good time!

All I could think of when I saw this snake was in Harry Potter where the glass disappears... totally freaked me out:

Running through the sprinklers:
Petting a skunk (with no stinky pouch thing):
Ruby petting a baby albino wallaby:

Eating shaved ice:
Such a pretty girl!:

Riding the carousel:

This was Ruby's first time riding by herself! What a big girl!

Ok, so now skip forward a month or so. :) We went to Cripple Creek to ride the train for Fisher's bday (Day 4 of Fisherpalooza, which I'm sure Kristin will tell you all about that). The train goes from Cripple Creek to a ghost town called Anaconda (4 miles from Victor). There are old mines that line the route... Most of the mines produced $3+ million worth of gold before being completely tapped (what the heck do you call a mine where nothing of value is left??).

Snuggling up tight... It was cold!

Part of Anaconda. Do you see that truck up on top of the ridge in the middle of the pic? Trucks were driving along the very top of that ridge to & from that active mine on the top left.


Miss Pipey for the 2 seconds she wasn't rolling around on the floor of the train:
The birthday boy & Kristin (with James acting very age appropriate):
Echo Canyon:


Trying for a family shot...

And that's it for now!! I'll go back & post the July pics that are on Doug's computer.

xoxo,

Carly