County Fair

We went camping this past weekend and attended the local County Fair. Eric's family has owned a lake property for generations down there so we figured we'd head down and enjoy the fun. Some friends of ours joined us at the campground and much of Eric's family stayed at the lake cabin. We had fun checking out the rides, games, wagon races, tractor pull, pig catching contest (although I felt sorry for the pig!), and just being out in the great fall weather. Here's some pictures of our day at the fair:

Elise and our friend Sofia check out the tractors.

Emilie

Claire and Noah (on the side)

Claire, Sofia, Rylan, and Noah in the brown car. Emilie (up front) and Elise in the red car. Gotta love carnival rides.

Emilie doing the kiddie tractor pull. She cried when she realized it had gotten too heavy for her to pedal any further.

Claire at the Kiddie tractor pull.

Claire with her trophy. She got 2nd place for her age division in the tractor pull.

Dinosaurs

Elise's preschool is having Dinosaur day tomorrow in honor of the letter "D." They are supposed to bring a toy dino from home. Now being that we live in an incredibly girly house, we didn't have any toy dinosaurs. So last week when we were at the Zoo, we found a blue stuffed Tyrannosaurus Rex that Elise fell in love with. Mostly because he was "so soft." Not nessesarily what you're looking for in a dinosaur, but the price was right, so the blue T-rex it was.

Later that day, she asked me what dinosaurs ate. I told her that some ate plants and some ate other dinosaurs. She pondered on that for a while and then went off to play with her stuffed dinosaur. She returned a while later and informed me that she had a name for her T-rex...

His name is "Butterfly", and she loves him very much, and he doesn't eat other dinosaurs.

I said, "Oh, does Butterfly eat plants then?"
"No, he eats meat."

So now our all girl house is home to "Butterfly" the meat eating, very soft, blue stuffed T-rex. Poor Eric.

Eckerts

We spent Sunday afternoon at Eckerts Orchards picking apples. The girls had a blast riding the wagon out to the fields, picking apples, drinking cider and listening to a banjo-guitar-fiddle combo. Here's a few pics:

Picking apples is hard work. The girls had to take a cider break.

Chloe spent most of the trip in the backpack. She even ate most of an apple while riding around back there.

Posing by the pumpkins and mums.

Chloe didn't understand why she couldn't pick up those pumpkins.

Our last day at Destin pics

I meant to put these up a couple of days ago, but it seems like life has been going 100 mph since we got home! Vacation? What was that?

Chloe loved watching the waves come to us.

Chloe a couple of hours later :-)

As close as we could get to swimming in the ocean :-(

Tired girls watching a movie in the camper while we got ready for dinner.

Emilie showing off her purple seashell necklace

Blast from the Past

Eric was cleaning up all of the computer stuff in our basement the other night. He came across our old PC from when we first got married. He found this wave file on it.

Claire's voice

It is of Claire when she was 3. She sounds so little, it almost makes me cry :-)

More Destin, FL

Just a few more pictures of our Saturday:

Out to eat at Harry T's with my parents (who've been staying down here in a condo since last weekend). I also have to say thank you to my parents. They've been a great help with the kids the last couple of days. Its hard to keep track of 4 kids on the beach and in the pool! We will miss them tomorrow (they're leaving) when we have all 4 kids on our own for our last day.

Eric and I

My mom and dad

Crashed out kids on the ride back to our RV :-)

Destin, FL

We've been at the beach now since Thursday night. The waves and rip tides from the edges of Hurricane Ike have made the ocean too rough for swimming. They've got out double red flags which means if they catch you at deeper than your ankles, you can be fined. We've been playing in the sand and standing at the very edge of the surf while we're at the beach. Its been bright and sunny so we're glad for that! If you've ever been to Destin, you know that normally the water is very calm and a brilliant emerald green. Here's a picture of what the waves look like right now:


So for our swimming fix, we've got 2 great pools at the RV campground. Its been a lot of fun just having time to play with the girls in the water. We've also had 2 nights of great seafood dinners. Today the waves and wind started calming down a lot so we spent a little more time at the beach. Here's some pictures from Friday at the pools:

Holiday Road

We decided that with 4 kids a more pleasant and economical way to travel is by RV. So with an upcoming trip to Destin, FL, we wound up purchasing this:



I'm currently typing this post sitting next to the above-mentioned RV while my children are sleeping inside, and I'm listening to the sounds of the waves crashing. Eric's in the camp chair next to me sound asleep :-) After the drive down on Thursday, we definitely agree that this is an awesome way to travel with kids. They could color and do make-up homework at the table, take naps, use the bathroom, and eat; all while we are driving down the highway. And yes, there are seatbelts on the couch and the dinette. Now we're enjoying ourselves for 3 days at the beach before heading back to the end of summer. Here's some more pics of the girls in the RV this morning: