Family Skate Night!

I know I took more pictures than this, but this is only one I can find!  Bummer!  We made Alli and her family come with us to family skate night - another thing on our summer list!  The kids went to a birthday party here a few months ago and decided they loved skating and wanted to come back!  It looked just like I remember all skating rinks looking like when I was a kid!  :) We had a great time - right up until we got in the parking lot to leave and discovered our flat tire.  Good thing Duane was there to save the day with his cool gadgets!  I was thankful that it happened while I was at home and not two days later when I would be driving to Raleigh by myself with the kids!!

Showered with Blessings

Some sweet friends of mine at church wanted to bless me with a shower for the baby!  They planned an open house shower after church where people could drop by - it was so nice!!  They had it set up with both blue and pink things, blue and pink decorated cupcakes, blue and pink plates - people could choose blue or pink depending on if they thought the baby was going to be a boy or a girl.  It was very fun!!!  There were many more gifts put on the "pink" table - most people were siding with Callie in thinking this baby is going to be a girl!  People watched David like a hawk - did he choose a blue plate? a pink cupcake? He outsmarted them all - he got a plain white paper plate from the kitchen and ate BOTH cupcakes! :)

 Callie loved helping me with the gifts...

My friend Alli put this inside of the diaper bag she gave me - isn't that the cutest idea? I loved it!

Guess whose new backpack came today???

As soon as she opened the box, she said "Oh good!  I don't have to change my name!"  Come to find out, she'd been looking at the catalog while she waited for it to come, and in the catalog it was monogrammed with "Megan" on it.  She was worried that since she picked that backpack, it would come with "Megan" on it and she would have to change her name!  :)

Another thing crossed off...

We took the kids on Friday to choose the "coming home" outfit for the baby.  We decided the girls should choose the "if its a girl" outfit, and the boys should choose the "if its a boy" outfit :)

 Here's what Callie and I picked...

 ...and here's what the boys picked!!  Now the baby won't come home naked!

 Playing a little pictionary while we wait...

...for the Olympics to start!  FINALLY!!!  Jacob was worn out (obviously) but still watched MOST of the opening ceremony.  The boys just loved it.  I felt like it was such a great history lesson as we talked about all the countries as they marched in.  Let the Olympics fun begin (and the very sleepy mornings too after staying up late for the next two weeks...)

The tour!

Once we got home from vacation, I started to really feel like I needed to get a few of my ducks in a row to have this baby.  Vacation was on the calendar all summer and I kept thinking "I"ll take care of it after vacation...".  Well, now it's "after vacation" and that means it's almost time to have a baby!

I called the hospital this morning to find out about the kids doing a tour of the hospital nursery and a sibling class.  The nurse on the phone acted like I should have called months ago (oops!) but said they had a class that night if we could make it.  I said yes and called David to tell him to be home right on time!

It was a really cute class for siblings.  Went over alot of the baby basics - wash your hands, don't pick up the baby without permission, what to expect from your baby brother/sister, etc.  The boys were horrified and embarrassed when the video MENTIONED breastfeeding :).  Pretty funny.  Their favorite part though was getting to put on their "scrubs" for the hospital tour!  

 Pretty cute aren't they? : )

 Then the nurse gave them all a baby and taught them how to swaddle them :)  It was a good refresher for David and me too!

I guess we're ready now!  :)

A fun Sunday!

 David got to do his very first baptism on Sunday morning!  A guy he led to the Lord in his office just a few weeks back :)  So exciting to see people excited about following the Lord!

 No food in the house after vacation?  I decided we would kill two birds with one stone and go out to Hibachi for lunch after church (after all, on Sunday afternoons they have an early bird discount!) :).  It was still on our summer list and I was bound and determined to get everything crossed off!  :)

 My kids eat with chopsticks better than I do - I don't even bother trying anymore...

 This one LOVES it - eats the veggies, loves the shrimp...he's so fun.

The last goodbyes...

It was after midnight...I had already gone to bed and was folding the last of our clean laundry to pack away, when Jacob came bounding into my room holding...

 ...his tooth!!!  It had been loose for a few weeks but hadn't wanted anyone to mess with it.  He had wiggled it earlier in the week and someone made the comment that he should try and pull it while on vacation - the tooth fairy may bring extra money (or should I say "tooth fairIES" ).  He was SO excited when he pulled it that night!!  :)

 I quickly sent a text message to the other "tooth fairies" to let them know since they had opened their big mouths and told him about the extra bonus vacation money :)

 This is how I found Jacob in the morning - he didn't quite make it all night :)

...and here's John

Luke and Josiah were WIDE-EYED and bushy tailed!!!  Josiah was SO excited that he made it all night and he said he wasn't tired ONE bit!!!

 Let the packing of the vans begin!

Came back inside to discover Josiah totally passed out!!!

 There's Luke and Jacob too....some tired boys after all :)

Trying to line up all the grandkids for one more picture...

A little difficult to find a spot for all 9 of them...and one of them (Josiah) was a total zombie!!!!

 See Josiah?  Eyes open and body upright, but still totally asleep I'm telling you!!!  :)  Hilarious.

 The brothers-in law

They really are troopers to put up with us girls!!!  But we are the funnest family :)

 My sisters and I (standing in birth order!!)

Kim, Kelli, Katy, Kristen

And our Mom!  :)

What an awesome week - can't wait until next year!!!  :)

(PS - we made it through vacation without either one of us going into labor!! Success!!)

Surfing, Slings, and Seafood!

 The little 4-pack must have been having a morning meeting..

 Let the surfing begin!!

 Josiah, Callie, me, Caleb, and Kristen

 We sat this way for quite a while.  Sometimes quiet.  Sometimes talking. I just love the beach.

 Kelli was positioned out in the water to get good surfing pictures :)  She got GREAT ones too, so we'll have to wait to see hers....

 The beach babes!!

Katy, Kim, Mom, Kristen, and Kelli

 Uncle Chris

 David!!

 YES!  "I was up - did you see it? - and get the picture?"

 There's Callie...playing at the foot of the lifeguard chair....

 Uncle David

 John

 Kelli took Joseph and Caleb out for some water action...I was still trying to capture some surfing pictures...

 There's David - up again!!  Way to go!

 And again!! Finally got the hang of it!  :)

 I should have bought the boys rash guards before our trip ut didn't.  We discovered that their race shirts worked pretty well though :)  They LOVED surfing and were SO good at it!

 "Hey dad!  I saw you surfing!"

 "Hey dad! I saw YOU surfing too!"

The surfing boys! 

 The little beach boys :)

 There are so many feet in the Schrodt family that they almost don't all fit in one picture!  :)  All 12 feet are in there though!  :)

 The Roads family at the beach!

 I knew when we got to the beach that morning that I needed to get a family picture of all of us.  I even thought "I should have someone take it now...before every one is melting down..." but I didn't.  Every one scurried off to play.  And so these are the pictures I am left with.  Sigh.  

 We had a few write-ins that we noticed...John added "grilled trout" to the menu for dinner that night (since he caught some that morning!!!) and Josiah added "all-nighter" to the "activities" section since he and the cousins were planning to stay up all night!  :)

 I made homemade Milky Way ice cream for dessert and I had several very willing helpers that were happy to unwrap (and sample!) a few Milky Way candy bars :)

 Luke and Caleb were in charge of smashing them up!

 Kristen came inside at this point and said David was stressing her out climbing all over the boat dock...

...I can't imagine why that was making her nervous....  :)

 Let the "pushing in" begin :)

 I can do better than that - i'll THROW you in!

 Kelli and Scott were in charge of dinner tonight - and they did a seafood feast!! Fresh shrimp, crab dip, grilled clams - it was amazing!

 Matthew got back from his exciting afternoon adventure - after we all got home from the beach, he fell out of his bunk bed and broke his collarbone!  Off to the ER for him...he was quite a trooper though!  (And we were at least thankful it was not an arm or leg which would have been so much worse...and glad it didn't happen at the beginning of vacation where he would have been kept from doing so many of the fun things!)

 Aunt Kelli - the seafood expert - teaching a very eager Josiah how to peel and eat shrimp

Callie loved the clams too...

 Even Jacob tried it - I was shocked!

 He didn't ask for anymore, but I was thrilled he tried it!!  Josiah gobbled it all up - he couldn't get enough :)

 Mom and a mentally/emotionally drained Kim talking about the ER trip for Matthew :(

 We had a small "issue" with the grill outside (it caught fire....) so Scott had to change gears and cook his mahi and veggies inside.  It's never good when someone comes running in the house asking for the fire extinguisher!  :)

 The 4 pack checking out Matthew's hurt arm

 John's grilled trout was delicious!!

By the end of the night, Kelli and I were always SO hot.  There was one vent near the kitchen that blew out cold air REALLY well - Kelli and I "found" it and it felt SO good!  (and don't you love how we are dressed like twinkies!)

Last few hours of fishing...

Time for the allnighter fun to begin - Tutu brought the waterproof glowsticks, so let the fun begin!

We had one last BIG game of Killer UNO - crowned a new champ - until next year!!!  We said goodnight to the cousins....they were SO excited about their all-nighter!  :)  Crazy kids!