Sunday - from Beth's Camera

Her pictures are so good you can practically taste the ice cream, right?  :)

 These girls are so cute together.  Best of friends. They are a year apart, but we had a couple of people ask it they were twins again this weekend!

 Yep, I kiss him all day long...

 These boys are pure trouble together :)

I wish I could remember why we were laughing so hard...probably our nutty husbands were doing something ridiculous.  I love her though!!!

One last big fun day!

Monday was our last day with the whole crew here, so we decided to go out with a bang!!  We thought we would go and enjoy several hours at the zoo and then come home for a big lunch before sending the Williams' on their way back home.  We would have kept them forever, but there's that little thing called "work" and "school" that was beckoning... :)

 Not sure how all these kids of ours have gotten so big.  Beth and I met in the nursery halls of ASBC when Harrison was 15 months old and Josiah was 10 months old.  Now look at them!  Crazy.

 Don't let that boot on Jackson's foot fool you.  The week before, he broke part of the bone in his foot during a soccer game.  They gave him a boot to help stabilize it and he moves around just great with it!  Nothing slows him down!  :)

 David had stayed home initially waiting for the AC guy to come (the downstairs started getting really hot on Sunday night...ugh....) and then he met us later at the zoo.  Once he got to the zoo, he took Callie to go on the ropes course that the big boys had already done...she was so excited!  :)  (So we hadn't lost her - that's just why she's not in this picture with the rest of the kids!)

 A little lorikeet feeding time...

 We got home and everyone was exhausted!  We enjoyed some lunch (well, those of us that were awake did....Caleb and Addison didn't make it :)  ) and then Anthony and Princess cozied up with Addison for a bit...they had to be rested enough to drive home!  :)

 You know she was exhausted for her to fall asleep!  After lunch, the grownups were still sitting around the table talking, and Callie crawled up in David's lap and fell right asleep!!  I would say we wore her out!!!

We had an absolute ball and LOVED having the whole family come!  Beth and I sometimes do little trips with just the kids, but it was so fun having the WHOLE families together!!  We stayed up WAY too late into the night talking about life - about church, about jobs, about families, about children.  It is such a gift to have friends that have done life with us the way Beth and Anthony have.  I am thankful that even though it's been 5 years since we both lived in Virginia together, it still feels like we live down the street because of how we have been able to stay in touch!  It is a blessing for sure!

The Pool - from Beth's Camera

Beth brought her awesome new camera (well, I guess it's technically not new anymore...she got it for Christmas...but it was the first time I got to see it in real life.  She took AMAZING pictures and so I stole them all so I could have them on my blog!  :)

 Their neighborhood pool hadn't opened yet, so the boys were SO excited to swim!  We are spoiled here in SC with our pools opening up in April!

 Don't you love this look that Jacob is giving Caleb?  Like "if you squirt me little brother, you'd better be ready to run!"

 I bought this bag of Doritos about 3 weeks ago when it was on sale.  They are Jacob's very favorite chips, and every day he would come home from school and say "Please mom?  Today can we open them?" I kept telling him no - that we were saving them for a "vacation" day.  He was SO thrilled when I unpacked our picnic lunch at the pool and he saw that I brought the Doritos!  Apparently Caleb likes them too!

Mellow Mushroom!

We got to take the Williams' to church with us on Sunday morning, which we LOVED.  David ALMOST made Beth sing with us in the contemporary service - but decided not to :).  We sure do miss singing with her!!  She is the BEST!  David keeps telling her if they move here, he won't even make her audition -she's automatically in!  :)

We had lunch waiting for us when we got home and then enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.  Younger ones napped, the daddies took the big boys to the pool, the mommies enjoyed some relaxing time on the couch looking at blog books and just catching up on life.  Love those couch talks!!  

After going on and on on Facebook about how my new favorite restaurant was Mellow Mushroom, Beth told me that they had never been - even though they have a few locations in Raleigh!  We decided that would be a great place for dinner on Sunday night and so we headed out!

 Here's the boys car...

 And the girls car :)

 Dinner was delicious of course, the kids had a ball, and this crazy painted wall that we sat next to kept the kids pretty entertained playing "I Spy" while we were waiting for our food to come.

Came home and had Nestle Drumstick cones out in the yard for dessert - pretty good day!  :)

The Williams' Came to Visit!!!!

Hooray - the Williams family came to see us!!!  Between all of our crazy schedules, it had been WAY too long since we'd had a visit with the Williams family!  We saw Beth and Anthony in November when we ran the half marathon in Savannah, but I hadn't seen their kids since last summer.  WAY too long.  We planned to spend Memorial Day together and it was finally here!  They arrived late on Friday night....and my kids were so excited to wake up and see their friends on Saturday morning! :)

 A little Mario Kart to start the morning off :)

 Is she a good friend or what?  Drinking her coffee out of a Northside mug while wearing her Northside shirt!  I love her!!

 We packed up our lunches and headed to the pool to spend most of the day there!  :)  (Beth took some awesome pictures...I'll have to post those separately...)

 While the younger ones were napping, the boys decided to try for a 30 minute straight Just Dance marathon...I don't think they quite made it...but it was very entertaining!!

 They brought their new dog, Princess, with them.  This is where Callie would stay if Princess was up.  Sigh. She would totally freak out....it was a bit annoying.

 Anthony and Princess taking a little nap - she doesn't look very scary does she?  :)

 Addison and Beth having some rest time in the afternoon too...

 some afternoon fun out on the tire swing...

 Callie LOVED Princess if she was on a leash - couldn't get enough of her.  She must have felt more in control that way.  Poor Princess.

 We went for a walk after dinner that night...it wasn't totally the peaceful relaxing walk that Beth and I had envisioned :). More of a "time to hurry home and get these tired kids in bed" walk :)