Family Camp

We just returned from a magical week at a magical camp.. complete with a magical family helper.  This place is for real, yo... check it out!  We spent the week eating delicious food (that I didn't have to plan, prepare, serve, or clean up), doing super fun activities (that I didn't have to come up with), hearing great teaching, and participating in fun and meaningful worship.  ON TOP OF THAT, we were assigned a family helper who hung out with us the whole week and helped us out in anyway we needed or wanted.  She helped us unload the car, played with the kids, helped the kids get their food at meal times, cleaned our dishes and table, sat with the monitor while Charlie slept, changed diapers, and MORE.  This camp is officially on our agenda every summer from now on.  The directors are so gifted at loving and serving and they teach their staff to serve well too.

The other awesome part is that we were there with lots of family.. both my sister's and brother's families were there as well as one of my cousin's family!

Family selfie on the way to camp!

Our helper was awesome and the kids loved her!  We wanted to take her home with us.

Archery

The girls took a horse class each day called Little Dudes.  They learned how to approach a horse, mount and dismount, brush it, make the horse start and stop, turn it, and even trot!

The bungee trampoline was a huge hit!  They girls did this at least once a day!

Emma decided to tackle the cargo net.  She rocked it!

The adults took a kayak trip down the Mississippi River... so fun!

Relaxing and reading in the hammocks in the middle of the day while someone played with our kids... seriously, it really happened!

Date night!  It's a scheduled event for the week... the parents head out and the helpers have special activities planned for the kids and then feed them dinner and put them to bed.  They think of everything!

Tubing was another fun activity!

Proof that Charlie came with us!  :)

Emma rocked ice blocking!  Think sliding down a hill on a giant block of ice.

Check out this hilarious slow-mo video of Emma.

Charlie's first experience with sand!

Not pictured:  lots more fun at the lake - canoeing, swimming, jumping off the rope into the water, blobbing, water sliding, digging in the sand.  Another highlight that I don't have photo evidence of is the night zip line.  The adults went on this adventure together...  it was terrifying and exhilarating!  Zip lining 50 feet above a valley in the pitch black night.  You had to hike up a hill and then climb a tree to get to this eensy weensy platform.  Just getting to the start was an adventure! Then you had to get up the courage to jump off said platform.  It.was.freaky.  I screamed the entire way.   Super fun, though!

I'm not even kidding when I say this was the best family vacation we have taken since having kids.  You all really need to join us next summer.  Thanks for an awesome week, Village Creek!  Can't wait until next year.

Fourth Fun!

As if five extra people isn't enough for my parents, my brother's family of five came to spend the weekend of the 4th in Iowa too!  With my sister down the street, we were able to spend lots of fun time together with the entire crew.  I'll admit - much of the time is pure chaos (seven big kids, two babies, and eight adults!) but we all had fun!

We had fun making festive treats! 

Hot tubbing!

Who can resist a GIANT cotton candy?  Anni was sweet & shared with all her cousins!

Fun at the fireworks!  Grammy came prepared with glowsticks for everyone.

These kiddos stayed up until 11!  That would be an official record for the Shoe girls.

Emma and Evy are a hilarious combination.

Emma fell asleep playing the iPad on the wood floor.  She was exhausted after a super fun weekend!

Thankful that Grammy and Babu hosting TEN extra people and included us in all the fun going on for the 4th.  It was a great weekend!

Hello Iowa!

We are officially moved into my parents' house (no big deal.. just five extra people in your house for a couple of months..)  ;)

We've caught up with cousins, friends, grandparents.  We've taken a trip to Chicago.  We looked at 20 houses. We found a house, made an offer, and now we have a contract.  We close July 28th.  Whirl.wind.  Now that the major hurdle of finding a house is done, we are hoping to enjoy our time in Iowa, see lots of old friends, soak up time with family, and just relax before life gets crazy again.

Charlie got to meet his big boy cousins!

Sister + Char Char sandwich

Claire Bear and Leemo had no trouble catching up

Emma and Nora 

Char Char meeting Molly

Sooo fun getting time with our besties

Fun at the farmers market

Making gummy bear popsicles with Grammy

The girls are doing a princess dance camp this week

 Looking forward to catching up with more friends and family in the coming weeks.  Feels good to be home.

Happy New Year!

2014, we're ready for ya! :)  Excited to see what this new year holds.  

Thanksgiving 2013

What a week!  We have so much to be thankful for... including hosting family for the past several days!  My sister and her family made the epic 14 hour drive from Iowa to come spend Thanksgiving with us.  They endured snow/sleet/rain the entire trip down!  We are so thankful that they came to visit, see our new house and new area, and spent Thanksgiving with us.  We know what a big trip it is and we are so grateful our family loves us enough to do it!

The cousins loved being together and having so many days in a row to play.  We had four full days together and somehow didn't even end up doing all of the things we wanted to.

Atlanta was kind enough to welcome them with the coldest Thanksgiving day in 100 years.  Awesome.  There was even snow in the forecast but praise the Lord, it never did snow.  We had a gorgeous 60 degree day on Friday, though, so playing outside at the parks hopefully made up for the other cold days.

We took them to some of our favorite local places, including the most amazing donut shop followed by Catch Air where the kids had so much fun running around and playing!



The boys also loved the Lego store at our mall!  I'm glad we found some indoor activities to keep us busy on the cold and rainy days!

Thanksgiving morning the girls and I started on my mom's famous homemade crescent rolls bright and early!  We decided to do a mix of making some favorite homemade recipes and utilizing Costco and Honey Baked Ham to provide the rest.  Best.decision.ever.  We still spent plenty of time in the kitchen but also got to relax a little and enjoy hanging out.





Yummy breakfast... cinnamon rolls and coffee!



The kids loved the cinnamon rolls!  We also had the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on for much of the morning.  I just love that tradition!



It warmed up enough on Thanksgiving for the kids to get some time playing outside.



Our boy cousins showed us the ropes of tree climbing!  ;)



We did appetizers for lunch and then ate our meal around 3:00.  Jorie and I were pretty proud of ourselves for pulling off an entire Thanksgiving meal all by ourselves! (with Justin's help too!)  I'm sure my mom is ready to pass on the duty of meal prep to us now.  ;)



After eating, we took a walk around our neighborhood and then hiked on the trail by our house.



I may look happy in that picture, but I seriously thought I was going to go into labor.  We hiked for about an hour and I think I had one massive braxton hicks contraction the entire hour.  It was miserable!  Between cooking, cleaning, and hiking, I was exhausted by the end of the day!

We also swapped date nights while they were here, which was super fun!  One of the nights Jorie and Mark checked out a movie at our most favorite movie venue, where you get a private table and can order dinner while you watch the movie.  On a different night, Justin and I went out for dinner and then coffee to celebrate his birthday a few days early.



Overall, a great visit from dear family!  The house certainly seems a lot quieter tonight.  Thanks for spending Thanksgiving with us this year, Dillmans!