Recently...

We had the perfect evening at the Gaslight Parade.

We got to celebrate with our sweet cousin Claire as she turned one year old!

He melts my heart. This is hanging on my file cabinet at work and I can't help but smile.

Luke received an award at chapel for being able to read his first list of sight words. He loves school and we are blown away with how much he has already learned! 

Chapel is for all elementary students, so big brother came and sat with us too! Love my sweet boys!

Caleb went to his friend Andrew's fishing birthday and slumber party, and as you can imagine, had a great time. The party favor was a little tackle box full of candy...so cute!

The following day, October 16th, we had our last lake day of the season.

Caleb fell asleep on the way home since he didn't get much sleep at Andrew's the night before. 

Luke's class put on a phonics lesson for parents one morning

and then we walked to the fire station for a quick field trip.

At Open House I learned from Luke's picture that his favorite number is 101

and Caleb proudly displayed his first big project of the year.

For awesome report cards, the boys picked Japanese for dinner

and 32 degrees for dessert.

Luke celebrated his buddy Clayton's 6th birthday with friends from school.

At Award's Chapel, Caleb got the Principal's Award for earning all As on his report card.

The little brothers played outside at Colin's house one afternoon

while the big brothers played video games at our house.

Fall Break in NC, Part 3

When the airlines agreed to let us fly home from Charlotte instead of having to drive back to the beach we were thrilled. It helped that I called while the storm and flooding was hitting hard.  ;) For one last hurrah, we decided to spend two days in Charlotte and stay at Great Wolf Lodge there. We even talked Uncle Drew into coming with us! 

We were crammed into Beth's midsize SUV, so thankfully, Charlotte was only a little over an hour drive!

We spent the late morning and early afternoon at the mall in Charlotte and the boys were content to stay in the LEGO store. They are LEGO crazy.

We didn't think about it ahead of time but Great Wolf was decorated for Halloween and had lots of Halloween events. Thankfully I had just bought Luke's costume so he was ready to go!

His happy place :)

Since we were there on a Monday and Tuesday, we had the place almost to ourselves.

The layout was different than the one in Cincinnati, and it had a few different slides. These racing slides were our favorite! 

Uncle Drew was a great sport and had a really good time too. 

Before leaving to head to the airport, we had one last photo op!

We joke that our boys are "road warriors" because a four to six hour road trip is nothing to them. I sent this picture to Creed and said they are just the best little travelers. They were so patient and content just waiting around the airport.

Wheels up, and ready to get home to see Daddy!

The direct flight home was easy and uneventful! We got home around 8pm that evening and the boys had school early the next morning, so it took a few days for us to recover. We were all tired. Because of the hurricane, we didn't get the trip we imagined, but we still had an awesome week- in Wilmington, Winston-Salem, and Charlotte! We almost saw the entire state...only thing we missed were the mountains! 

Fall Break in NC, Part 2

When it was clear that Hurricane Matthew was going to come directly up the coast of NC, we decided to head inland to Winston Salem. Creed's flight was cancelled, and thankfully we left when we did. Portions of I-40 were closed due to flooding the day after we drove through! 

Wrestling with Uncle Drew

While it was raining, we visited SciWorks, a hands on science center. It never disappoints! 

And, there was lots of puddle jumping.

The following day the storm had passed and the skies were the most beautiful blue. We took advantage of the weather and visited The Dixie Classic fair. We saw pig races (where all the pigs had Nascar driver names!), rode rides, but mostly just stood in lines. Ha! Apparently everyone in the area had to same idea to get outside and enjoy the weather!

Fall Break in NC, Part 1

We had plans to spend a week on Bald Head Island, NC, with PeePaw and Grandma Beth for fall break. They boys and I were going to be there for a week, and Creed had plans to come for a long weekend. Well, we knew there was a chance that Hurricane Matthew was going to wreck our plans, but American Airlines wouldn't change our trip without a ridiculous fee, so we packed our rain jackets, umbrellas, and rain boots and off we went.

Our hour layover in Charlotte turned into a three hour delay so we played Legos and had dinner at the airport.

Still waiting...

We made it to Wilmington and kept hoping that Hurricane Matthew would go out into the Atlantic. 

Sadly, we never made it to Bald Head Island. The ferry quit operating and only residents were allowed on the island. We ended up spending the morning on Wrightsville Beach. While it was a cloudy and breezy day, the kids still had a blast running and splashing in the warm ocean water and playing in the sand.

That afternoon we took the boys to see the Battleship North Carolina in downtown Wilmington. It was incredible and I am so glad we all got to experience it.

loading the big guns

Wilmington has a fun downtown area so we had lunch and shopped for a while. 

Look- Whitney & Creed ;)

That night we had dinner outside at a restaurant on the beach and then the boys swam. At this point we were still hoping Matthew would turn...