Pictures from Carowinds

The kids with Spongebob and Dora. - Anthony running away. These are the only pics I have of him with a character.

Ashleigh on the Swings.

It was so hot even Landon couldn't resist a cool drink.

Carowinds

We are just getting back into town from our vacation to Carowinds. It is an amusement park and water park on the South Carolina and North Carolina border. We left Tuesday night and came back last night. It was a lot further away than I thought it would be. I think it took us right at 11.5-12 hours each wayafter all of the stops and traffic. Once we got there, we checked into the hotel and then brought the kids to Carowinds. We only had about half of a day left, so we didn't pull out the swimsuits for this day. We let them get some rides in before the park closed. Hailey was all about trying all of the different roller coasters while the smaller kids only wanted to play in the Nickelodeon section. We just kind of rode a few rides and then walked around the park to see what all they had to do. The second day however, we wore bathing suits and started our day in the water park. We rode water slides and the kids had a ball playing in the pools and fountains. Towards the end of the day, we packed up the water stuff and headed over to ride some rides. By the time the park closed, the kids were exhausted and ready to go. The next day we decided just to do rides. It was so hot, it was almost miserable. The kids rode all day and loved it. This day we let Hailey take turns taking all of us to do whichever roller coasters she wanted to do while we stayed with the others to ride whatever they wanted. Our last day we split half between water and half of amusement. Overall, the kids had a ball on this trip. This park was great because there were hardly any lines for anything or any crowds. The kids could run around and play. We will definitely try this place again some day. Maybe when it is a little cooler.

(I will post pics on the next entry because I have a ton of them)

First Boat Ride

On Saturday we decided to catch a ride to Middendorf's with Uncle EJ, Aunt Cathy, moma & daddy on the boat. Everyone was going. Aunt Brenda, Uncle Paul, Katie, Justin & Brittany were in another boat and Uncle Scott and Erick were in a third boat. This was my kids first boat ride outside of huge boats that barely move. Elena was a little worried when we were leaving the house. She was nervous about the life jacket. I don't know why, but she has always had a fear of boats. Once we got to the dock, all of the worries left her. She was super excited about going. So we suited her up in her little pink life jacket and the suited Landon up in a red one. He could barely see out of it when he was sitting. Once the boat started they were both perfectly fine. Once the boat picked up speed, Grandma freaked out and so did Landon. He completely froze. His eyes were squeezed shut and his arms were frozen out. He didn't move once until the boat slowed down in the no-wake zones. Everytime we would slow down, he would pop his little head out of his life jacket like a turtle. He liked it while we were barely moving. Elena on the other hand, LOVED it the entire time. She is going to be my little daredevil and Landon is going to be my reserved one. She wanted to see everything and do everything. She even got to take a turn driving the boat. Everytime we would hit a wave she would say "That was a good one. Hit another bump." She acts WAAAYY too much like Barrett. They both make me a nervous wreck. Of course though, first boat ride and mommy forgot to charge the camera batteries so no pictures. I will get some next time.

Fourth of July

Happy Belated 4th everyone! We spent the day at Aunt Brenda's house barbecueing and letting the kids swim. Everyone had such a good time. My daughter is a little fish. For people that are not aware of how well she swims, she totally freaks them out. No one expects someone this small to swim nearly as fast or as good as she does. She can literally swim from one end of the pool to the other. She is not afraid to try anything. She does flips and dives, anything. I got some really great pictures of her flipping into the pool.

Katie decided she would make all of the girls grow up a little today. She put tattoos on Elena, Hailey and Ashleigh's back. They all looked so cute walking around with their bikini's and tattoos on.

Orphan!

OK. I don't take a stand on too many things. Especially things I see on television. But I saw a commercial this morning that really bothered me. There is a new movie being released at the end of this month called Orphan. This is a horror movie about an adopted child that basically wreaks havoc, kills, etc on the family that adopted her. I have serious issues with this. Although Barrett and I adopted a baby from a foreign country, in my opinion this movie really sheds a bad light on adoption of older children domestically. I started checking into this movie once I saw the commercial. Adoption agencies and adoption advocates all over have been disputing this movie trying to stop its release. Older children are already statistically less likely to get adopted than young children. Parents looking to adopt have all kinds of fears regarding adopting older children. This movie is just going to make that worse. I have joined the many others having issues with this movie and I have sent a letter to Warner Brothers giving my opinion. Obviously, Warner Brothers doesn't care about my opinion but I still wanted to give my opinion to all of you. I know there are a lot of horror film fans out there but I ask that you at least think twice before contributing to this movie.