Someone is 3

I almost can't believe how fast my baby boy is growing up. He has been so grown up lately. He has been shooing me out of bathroom when he needs to go and telling me he can do lots of things all by himself. It's funny because I think he is more ready to grow up than I am ready to let him. He likes to ask what words say and has been busy learning to count. He loves figuring things out even if that only involves taking them apart and challenging Mom to put them back together. I can't believe he just turned 3! Time really goes fast. We love him tons and glad he is such a sweet boy and a part of our family. At the end of his little birthday party he said "thank you for the presents" in the sweetest little voice my heart just melts.

Happy Birthday to a darling little boy- don't grow up too fast.

He loved all his presents and even came down this morning carrying his new books. - Thanks Grandma's and Grandpa's.

After talking for months about wanting a firetruck cake for his birthday, we went to make his cake and he insisted on a race car, so that is what he got. I had a lot of fun making this cake and the best part was his delighted giggle of excitement when it was all done.
Blowing out candles.
The Happy Birthday boy.
Playing with his new building set.

Life's A Beach

We went to VA beach for our annual trip on Saturday. We had a great time as always minus some sunburn. Joshua enjoyed building this big castle with his Dad.
Samuel played hard. He loves sun, sand, and water. Here he is dumping water on his Dad's head.

Kjirsten has been determined to get better at swimming, or at least less afraid. She has been practicing putting her face in the water and wore her Dad out trying to float in the ocean.

Roughing It

Last weekend we decided to form a compromise. Jonathan was more than happy to go camping again, I liked the idea of hiking and being outdoors but after several weeks of really hot weather the idea of sleeping in tent and cooking outside was not really appealing. So we decided to try out the cabins of our favorite state park. It was awesome. We had two bedrooms a bathroom and a kitchen and we got to do all of our favorite activities hiking, roasting marshmallows and, boating in the lake. It was the best of both worlds and we really enjoyed our couple of days.
The first night the kids were excited to be outside roasting marshmallows in their pj's.
The next morning was our first hike to the top of an overlook. We overshot the overlook initially and the kids were real troopers hiking almost 4 miles. But it was really pretty up the mountain side and we had fun.
The view from the overlook. Looking down at Douthat Lake.
My hikers. Next year we will have to take it a little easier as Sam will be hiking for the first time without the aide of Dad.
That afternoon we headed down to the lakeside. It was fun to relax and let the kids play around, but I missed the ocean. I think we will still try to head out the beach at least once before the start of school.
The kids in the Lake.
On Saturday we tried a waterfall hike. It wasn't as steep and at the end we got to enjoy a little cove where Magnolia trees shaded the waterfall. It was a nice destination for the hike.
After lunch we were going to take the kids out on canoes. The canoes only held three and I knew Kjirsten wouldn't be up for using her own oars so we all piled into a paddle boat. Jonathan and I got our workout in paddling everyone. We enjoyed it, but I still think we would like to try canoes in the future.

Joshua is still a little nervous about being on boats but he was a trooper. It was a great trip and we have had a lot of fun together as a family this summer.