4th of July and Matt's Birthday!

Last week we were busy getting ready for our long weekend away in Lost River, WV!  It also happened to be a week full of birthdays.

Tuesday night the girls and I went to Whitney's mom's house to celebrate Whit's 31st birthday with her family (Matt was at home doing the fun chore of mowing the lawn).  The girls were so good and we had a lot of fun!

Mimi came down and watched the girls for Monday and Tuesday as well so that was nice, they got to play outside, go for walks, do some painting.  They had a great time!

We left for WV Thursday morning.  Thursday was a funny day, going from sunny to thunderstorms in no time.  We did get settled in and got the pool blown up and filled.  The kids jumped right in even though the water was pretty cold.



We also tried a little fishing on the properties ponds (We rented a 3 bedroom cabin and it ended up being prefect for the 3 families that all went, I think we all really enjoyed the cabin).



Unfortunately it was pretty hot and I'm starting to think there are zero fish in that pond.



The rest of our time in West Virginia was spent having fun around the cabin or at Trout Pond Recreation Area which is part of the George Washington & Jefferson National Forest and the entrance was only a few miles from our cabin.

The girls practiced their balance beam skills.



They golfed.



They had water gun fights.





We had water balloon fights





We hung out around the campfire.










































We made s'mores



We cooked hot dogs over the fire...by the end of the trip we ran out of charcoal and Matt and Tony actually cooked dinner over the campfire..a few burgers lost and some arm hair singed but dinner was delicious!

We played on the slip n slide



The girls did the Conga line???



They had this set of magnets at the cabin, Geomags, and the girls LOVED them!

The girls played dress up.  Most of the time Delaney was the handsome prince and Maddy was her princess.  It was really cute and funny to watch.

I fought with Camryn to put clothes on, we finally decided on a shirt and undies...definitely better than her previous choice of nothing!  And she danced, in her underpants.

 The dads did pull ups...in a house full of girls you have to do something to feel manly right?

 We tried to get the kids to take naps...some were reluctant. (Camryn napped one day but that was it).

Needless to say by bedtime we were pooped.

On the 4th we went to Trout pond in the morning and back to our place for fireworks around the campfire.  We had Trout pond to ourselves it was great!

Trout Pond was gorgeous.  Per the recreation.gov site it is "home to native Brook trout, is the only natural lake in West Virginia. A designated swimming area, easy lakeside trails, and a children's playground make this a perfect family destination.  Trout Pond, the naturally formed lake, was created by a sinkhole that filled with mountain stream water and run-off from Long Mountain."  

The water was surprisingly warm and it was so beautiful.  The mountain breeze did make it a little chilly considering it was a pretty cool July 4th weekend anyways.  

Tony and Matt tried their hand at fishing and came up empty handed.

Horse shoes in the sand.



On to Matt's birthday...  First I have to gush about my husband.  He is such a wonderful, loving, devoted father and husband.  I hope he had an amazing 34th birthday!  Matt spent the majority of his weekend playing with all the girls and it was so cute to see.  He really is something special and I'm so very thankful to call him my husband and Maddy, Camryn, and I are so blessed that he's their daddy!

Matt started his morning by going for a mountain run with Courtney, the only one crazy enough to run up a mountain with Matt (we have great friends!)



Matt got a lot of love from all the ladies in the house.



We had homemade peanut butter ice cream cake and he opened his present with the help of all 5 little girls (he got 2 water guns ha).

After their run we all met at Trout Pond and Matt and Tony got to spend the morning fishing while the girls played on the beach and swam.  We wrapped up the morning with a picnic at Trout Pond.



Later that day we went to the brewery in town, Lost River Brewery and had some appetizers and a few beers.



At the brewery Delaney was playing with my phone and took this picture of Maddy (her princess, haha).



Sunday morning we headed home.  We were sure the girls would be totally wiped out and just sleep....boy were we wrong.  During our trip Camryn was typically the last kid to fall asleep and the first one awake.  With only 1 nap in there we knew she was beat.  I think she was sooo tired she couldn't even be reasoned with.  We get on the road and about 10 minutes in she falls asleep but then starts to fuss.  I climb in the back thinking maybe the mountain roads are making her car sick.  She gets worse and worse and by the time we're on rt. 66 she's shrieking.  We pull over, thinking if she's car sick a few minutes will help calm her down and we can finish the last hour of the trip (it was a super easy drive to the cabin).  Well, it took both Matt and I to hold her down to get her strapped back in her car seat and then she fought it for the next 40 minutes or so.  It was like we had put her in a straight jacket and she was panicking.  It was horrible!  Poor Maddy just plugged her ears and eventually fell asleep like that...so upset that her sister was in such distress.  Really makes us want to expand our vacation options and travel further away...yeah right!

We had such a great time on our trip and really do have some amazing friends.  I think and hope everyone had as good a time as we did.  The kids all seemed to have a blast playing together and the adults as well.  What an awesome time with some wonderful memories made!

Luckily Monday was my day off and I spent it with the girls.  They were so good all morning while I did laundry and grocery shopped and cooked in preparation for our week.  So, in the afternoon I took them to the library where we read a few books and they checked out a bunch of books and a few dvd's and then we went to Zinga.  Maddy of course loves Zinga, I don't think Camryn took a bite of her fro yo...so I had to eat it...darn ;)



The girls started their 1st day of summer camp at their preschool on Tuesday, 7/8/14.  It was also Camryn's very first day away from the home, at school/summer camp, but I'll do a special post just for that.