The Joy of Sully

We'll never know where he spent his first two years of life, what happened to his ear or to a couple of his teeth.

We're just thankful that we found him, and I'm pretty sure he is happy about it too.

Best. Dog. Ever.

Toy Story 3

How good was Toy Story 3?

This good.

Triple full attention for the entire movie and the extra scenes during the credits.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Three, Three, what a great age to be!

Jack and Sully are enjoying Jack's new Gator so much they already ran out the battery. Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Backyard Reading

I can't think of a better way to start a summer day than by going outside to read a book under the trees. Before the day gets too hot, too busy, too fussy, too "hey-they-have-a-trampoline-and-tetherball-in-their-yard-and-we-don't-NO-FAIR!" These quiet summer morning moments are my favorite.

School's Out For Summer!

School is out and summer is here! This picture was taken at Elizabeth's last day of school class party, where Amanda and Jack were instructed to lie low. As you can see, Amanda does not lie low.Obviously.

Magi Fishbook & The Gang

We spent Memorial Day weekend at Carowinds and Great Wolf Lodge and it was b-a-n-a-n-a-s, bananas. Fun bananas, but bananas!

First we went to Carowinds and spent the night at a normal hotel.

Elizabeth was very angry at this roller coaster for tipping to the side. She yelled "STUPID!!!!!!" at every roller coaster we passed after this picture. We parked near The Intimidator and had to walk and walk and walk back to the car. Every time it whirled by with screaming people (at least 20 times), Elizabeth yelled "STUUUUUUPIIIIIIIID!" at the top of her lungs. Because roller coasters are stupid. Forever.

The boats were a big hit with the girls. Jack wasn't tall enough to ride!

Elizabeth on the helicopter ride. She loved it! Heights are not the issue for Elizabeth, it seems she just dislikes tipping without warning.

At Great Wolf Lodge, all three kids were in heaven.

Amanda would have tried everything the Lodge had to offer, but she wasn't tall enough for the yellow band. She went down every slide they would let her and said "that was awesome!" each time.

The kids spent most of their time in Whooping Hollow and were on first name basis with every kid in the joint by the time we left.

The kids also loved the bunk beds in our room. They had their own little "tent" section with bunk beds, a camp desk and a flat screen television. Jack went loco. We were all exhausted, but Jack skipped exhausted and went straight to odd. First he looked like this:

Then he looked like this:

Until finally, he looked like this:

Before this picture, he was so mesmerized by Wiley and Violet that he was standing with his back to the camera just staring at them. The handler had to turn him around and the photographer took a quick shot before they led us away. I think Violet may have a restraining order against Jack now. During story time there was a sea of kids sitting on the lobby floor, parents along the edges. Before we knew Jack might need restraining, it was too late. He stood up and zoned in on Violet, who saw him stand and tried to play peek-a-boo with him to freeze him in his tracks. Then it was like slow motion. The peek-a-boo only confused Jack more, and everything around him disappeared. He started walking towards Violet, grabbing other kids' heads like a stair rail. Before we could get to him he just stood there and started yelling "are you talking to ME? are you talking to ME? are you talking to ME?" while looking up, down and around Violet trying to figure out why she wasn't talking back.

In the meantime, the girls saw kids with magic wands. Magiquest. We had never heard of it, but we slowly realized the Lodge was actually filled with enchanted forests and magical creatures, so we signed the kids up to play at 9:00 p.m.

Jack was delirious by this point, and when the Wizard dude asked Jack what his Magi name was, Jack didn't skip a beat and said "Fishbook." This pleased the Wizard dude greatly and he entered Jack into the system as Magi Fishbook before we could ask "Huh?" Fishbook even played for free since he is under 3!

It was a brief but fabulous getaway, and the perfect way to say hello to summer.