A Weekend at Claytor Lake

We had a fun weekend at Claytor Lake with family.  All of my children love going to the lake but it is truly David's favorite place. 

Because of all the rain we have had here in Virginia, the lake was filthy with debris and mud.  You could not really even swim in it it was so dirty:(  My parents set up their waterslide for the kids since they could not swim.  Hope was having fun!

David loves driving the boat with Pops more than anything.  There was so much debris that it was hard to even take the boat out without hitting big logs.  Here is David helping Pops co-pilot by searching the horizon for logs. 

Dennis and Amy were camping nearby and they came down to visit.  Kyle hopped in their boat with them and they found a clean spot to tube.  Here are Kyle and Spencer.

This little daredevil LOVED tubing!  We kept taking his hands off of the handles to give us the sign to go faster!  It was hilarious! 

While we were taking David out tubing we saw the Carter boys and Kyle tubing. 

Look at the mop of beautiful red hair!  I also love his mischevious grin:)

After our Mexican feast for dinner, we had cookie cake to celebrate David's birthday!  I will never tire of celebrating this handsome guy's birthday and we pray that one day his cake will have lots and lots of candles on it. 

This morning the boys decided to tube together.  David was so excited that he had to show some brother love.  David was a daredevil on that tube and pops and I laughed so hard watching him!

He kept yelling "oh yeah baby!" 

Kyle started showing off so David had to as well!  I love this picture-it is so awesome! 

This is the picture of the day that makes me belly laugh.  We went pretty slow for David but he got annoyed that we were ignoring his signal to speed up.  Finally we did and this was his face!!  I promise that he was yelling with joy and that he was not scared! 

After David got off fearless Kyle had to hit a few waves!

The weekend was mostly relaxing and nice.  The kids love being with their grandparents at the lake.  Families are not perfect but I am so thankful for the memories my children are creating each time we visit Claytor Lake.

Dave's Day!

Yesterday was David's ninth birthday.  Mike had to work but after work we loaded up to head to one of David's favorite places-Chuck E Cheese!!!

Before we loaded up we had to capture a few pictures!  These two are Mike and Ike-wow they look so much alike in this picture!!

It is really hard to get a good picture of David these days without him making a silly face-of course he wanted to wear his Lebron getup for his special day. 

This picture is hilarious because of tht MOP of hair!! It is hard to cut it when this time last year he was bald.  We are also very happy because he is an official red head again! This morning he actually let me trim on it some and it feels like silk.  I hate that he had to endure all that chemo, but now he has gorgeous hair as a result:)

My sweet three!

Oh the joy on these faces when we pulled into Chuck E Cheese!  They were so excited and all three had a ball. 

Let me clarify.... all four had a ball!  We take our sports seriously in this house!  Check out all three of my boys working hard to win some tickets!!

Thumbs up for the birthday boy!!!

Super competitive at anything we try! I really think Mike had as much fun as the kids-he definitely needs a stress relief these days trying to open a brand new school:)

This sweet girl was so excited!  This was her first trip that she could remember and she loved it.  She may be our most competitive child yet:)

Hope was petrified wen Chuck E came out but David ran right up to him and cheesed for a picture! 

After we played hard and earned two packs of nerds, a Twizzler and a bracelet for Hope we headed to David's request of Pizza inn for pizza.  We ate like a pig (four pieces of Chocolate chip pizza)!  It was really a fun family day celebrating our Rockstar turning NINE!  On the way home we jammed out to music on the Ipad.  I was overcome with joy listening to my kids belt out The Well by Casting Crowns.  Sweet, sweet memories for all of us!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!  Typically we spend this holiday at Claytor Lake with family, but due to a baseball game and the RAIN we have postpone our family day at the lake until this weekend.  I found some cute pictures on my phone from this past week. 

Here is princess Hope at the library making "dirt cakes" with pudding, oreos and gummy worms to go along with the theme of summer reading.  The library has been a popular place with us this summer for the great storytimes, friends, and checking out cool books and movies.  Kyle has been participating in the Teen Storytime where he can earn bucks for participating in certain things.  One of the things that he can do to earn bucks is to help out at a storytime.  I love in the background of this picture you can see him helping kids make their dirt cakes. 

David found  a new buddy at the library-baby Katie!  He was so proud of himself that he could hold her and keep her happy.  She is such a cutie!!

We have tried to enjoy the pool as much as possible between rain showers.  This has been the rainiest summer ever but we are enjoying the pool as often as we can.  My kids love going there and playing with their friends. 

Hope is really enjoying swimming and each time we go she is getting better and braver with her swimming!  Go Hope!

Can you find David in this picture?!  Last Friday it rained and we went to see Monsters University.  The kids loved it and DAvid insisted to get his picture made with this display:) 

This summer we have added another helper with David to get to his therapy appointments and to help David reach some of his goals.  We are still blessed with our Ashley who has faithfully been with us for almost five years!  Ashley's full-time work fulltime and  school coupled with  planning her wedding has forced her to cut some of her hours back here with David.  Amber is helping us during the day and we have enjoyed getting to know her.  I can't believe we have not scared her off yet!  Ha! It is very tricky to bring people into your home but God blessed us abundantly with Ashley who is now part of the family and God recently sent us Amber.  We are blessed.  My kids are in Ashley's wedding which is coming up in September and I can barely contain my excitement!

This little girl is feeling puny tonight with a fever and a sore throat.  We will be calling the doctor first thing in the morning:( 

This morning we finally got Kyle's last game in for the all star tournament.  Mike dressed the little ones (love David's patriotic outfit!) and off we rushed to the ball field.  This all star season has been disappointing for lots of reasons, but Kyle loves baseball. 

And he also loves the social aspect of being on a team.  Kyle is so reserved and quiet but he has several good friends on his team.  Here he is with Trey...

and Caleb.  We won our last game today but we will not be advancing beyond this level. 

We are looking forward to more fun on the horizon.  Tomorrow is David's ninth birthday.  I am very emotional tonight thinking that after you have battled cancer each birthday becomes a bigger and sweeter victory.  We pray that our sweet David will have many more birthdays!  We are going to celebrate by taking David to one of his very favorite places-Chuck E Cheese!  Happy Holiday Weekend!