Blade Family Pictures 2011

While we were in Florida, we had family pictures taken on the beach.  I LOVE the way they turned out!  It's going to be tough to choose the ones I want to hang up.

4th of July FUN!

July 4th was especially hot this year.  Yes, I know it's the middle of summer, but I don't remember it being quite this hot in the past.  As you know, we Tweryons love the 4th of July!  I had asked the girls what they wanted to decorate this year and Hadley and Brooke both chose their bikes.  We decided to decorate Kami's little doll wagon. So, Hadley and Brooke would both ride their bikes and Kami would pull her wagon full of candy.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!  I'll get to that part of the day in just a minute.

 Kami, Ellie, Brooke, Hadley and Ryker (in his car seat) ready to walk to Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon's house.

So, we head out on our way to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  For those of you that know the route from our house to Grandma's house, it isn't very long.  For little legs on bikes and walking, IT'S A LONG WALK!  When it's 100 degrees outside, IT'S AN EVEN LONGER WALK!

Kami made it to the first mailbox after ours. All of her suckers spilled out on the road.  Brooke was moving pretty slow on her bike and she quit.  Hadley's chain fell off her bike.  Ellie had decorated her little wagon too and ended up riding with Ryker.  The parents were all sweating by the time we got there because we were carrying children and bikes and wagons.  Next year we are decorating Papa Bill's big trailer and that's it!

Here are the Tweryon KIDS (no more just Tweryon Girls) :)

It's become a tradition for our friends and their families to join us for the parade.  I want to get a picture of the kids every year, until they won't let us :)

Here are Kami, Britton, Brooke, Hadley, Reagan, David, Addie and Ellie

The little ones --Ryker, Ayken, Willow and Layla all stayed inside where it was cool.

Waiting patiently for the parade to start.

Maycee, Jessi and Nolan riding with Mark to start the parade.

After the parade, we had a cookout and let the kids swim in the little pool.  I think some of the adults wished they could have gotten in too!

Blade Family Vacation 2011

Before our vacation began, Uncle Stuart was actually in Illinois for a test with the Springfield Fire Department. The girls were a little confused because we would be getting to Florida before Uncle Stuart. He would be flying back to Florida on Saturday night and we would be getting to Florida on Friday night. This year, we rented a U-Haul trailer to hold everything. My Dad and his friend Curt were going to ride their bicycles home, and their gear took up a lot of space in the trailer, but it was still definitely needed. Three kids and four adults can take up a lot of space!! We left our house around 5:00 p.m. on Thursday night (June 16th) and drove until around midnight when we got a hotel room outside of Nashville. The next morning we left around 8:00 and didn't get to Stuart and Jackie's house until around 10:00 that night. It was a long day, but the girl's all did very well in the car.

We spent Friday night at Stuart and Jackie's and headed to our rental house on Saturday morning. If you haven't already, check out the blog I did on the house. It was a great find and we did a lot of relaxing. Normally, our vacations are jam packed with activities, but not this one. A typical day found us heading to the beach in the morning, coming back to the house for lunch, and spending the afternoon in the pool. We bought groceries and made almost every meal at the house. It really was nice to not have a full agenda and actually feel like you are on vacation. I didn't come home exhausted like I did last year, and we didn't lose an appendix this year either. My Dad did have to get a tooth pulled but that didn't require a hospital stay, so all in all, a good trip :)

The girls enjoyed playing in the sand and water. The beach was only about a block from our house, which can be a long walk when you are lugging all your gear.

One night, Brian and I and Stuart and Jackie went out to dinner, just the four of us. It was nice to have some adult time. Thanks to Mom and Dad and Don and Mary for watching the kids so we could share some time together.

The Unterbrink family (my Mom's sister and her family) came over on Thursday and spent a couple days with us. One night we played a friendly game of kickball and another night we played bocce ball. Our family can get a little competitive, so both games were pretty interesting, and the kickball game left a few members of the family with minor injuries. It is not easy playing kickball in the sand! Oh, and if you are wondering, my team won :)

Kami in her new puddle jumper. She doesn't love wearing it, but she also has no fear when it comes to water. She would jump in the pool -- if you were ready to catch her or not.

We bought this little pool for Brody for his birthday and we decided to set it up for the kids. Wrigley (Brody's dog) loved the water too.

Daddy and his girls

Yes, the pool water is a little green, but we didn't care.

One day, I was trying to clean the pool and a little too much soap was added to the water. The kids (and Uncle Stuart) had fun making lots of bubbles.

Kami is covered in "all the right places" :)

We had a great time during our week in Florida. Thanks, everybody for making it such a great week!