black and white

Humor me as I post a bunch of our annual family black/white pictures. Remember, I have a blog book coming at Christmas, so I have to make sure I document as much as possible!

 I think this one is going to get enlarged and hung somewhere prominent in my house!

 Missing my brother and his family, but thankful that Linda and Tom were with us this year!

 My dad has done this same picture with my kids since Tripp was 4 months old!

 And just as a brief glimpse into my life. Yes, my daughter will be 4 in September. And, yes, she still wants me to hold her on a pretty regular (regular being pretty much constantly) basis. At some point, it will stop. I just don't know when that point will be. I just continue to tell myself that whenever that day does come, it will make me sad. So, I'm going to continue to hold her for as long as my arms will hold out!

night out (2nd edition)

On Tuesday night, Joey and I had our annual beach trip date night. We went to dinner and walked around Barefoot Landing...but I didn't take my camera, so no pictures. On Wednesday night, it was back to family time and we headed to Broadway on the Beach. We let the kids ride the rides, make their own race cars, eat dinner, and get balloon animals/hats. It was fun....but hot again!

They loved riding the cars! Their facial expressions were priceless!

I don't know if there is anything I love more than a close up picture of my kids' faces. In fact, I love close up pictures of all kids!

He really does love me....just being a dork!

This is at Ride Makerz. The kids love making their own racecars. We intended for only Tripp to get one, but of course that didn't happen. As soon as Makinley saw that they had pink cars, it was all over!

Showing off their new cars!

Dinner was at Johnny Rockets. The kids were STARVING by this point. I hadn't realized how long it had been since they had eaten or I would have planned better. Tripp was beyond ill at this point. I luckily had a few crackers in my purse to tide him over until his dinner was brought out. My firstborn does NOT handle being hungry or tired well at.all.

See this facial expression! I'm telling you, it's whining/crying central when he gets to this point.

While we were waiting on our food, my dad and Makinley had a mini dance party to the music that was playing.

Again, she was born to be on a stage somewhere. She loves to be dipped!

Then it was GiGi's turn!

It was a fun night out as a family!

night out (first edition)

On Monday night at the beach, we went out for seafood and to play putt-putt for the first time. The kids would have been content to play putt-putt every.single.day. And North Myrtle Beach is so full of different courses that the kids were constantly talking about which ones they wanted to go to next. We took a few pictures before leaving the condo:

 We went and ate seafood first. When we used to live in NMB years ago, my parents loved to go to a place called Steven's to eat. When we were there a couple of years ago and tried to eat there, they were closed, but we were excited they were open this year on the night we went. The food was really good (and it's right down the street from one of my childhood best friend's houses, so it was neat to see that again too). After dinner, we headed to the course. Y'all it was H.O.T. I'm talking miserable. By the end of the time there, we all felt like we were drowning in sweat, but the kids had a great time and Joey and I always turn it into a friendly competition that I always lose!

You can see in this picture just how hot everyone was. I learned my lesson this night and didn't leave Makinley's hair down anymore when we got out in the evenings. It was just too hot for her with all that hair. Also, she was so funny. She decided that as long as her club didn't leave her ball, then it would count as a hole in one. So, every time it was her turn, she would gradually guide her ball to the hole, get it in, throw her club in the air and say, "YAY! HOLE IN THE ONE!!!"