Douthat

We went camping!!!!  And it was MY kind of camping!  We went with awesome friends (thanks Brooke!) and stayed in an awesome lodge...complete with a bedroom per family, beds, bathrooms, flat screen TV, kitchen...it was awesome!!!  The weather was perfect and we loved hanging out with such fun people!  We can't wait to do it next year!  Carson has asked almost daily when we can go again.  I told him that Daddy wants to take him camping in the backyard and he said "no, I want to stay at the lodge!"  It was a great weekend! 

 Here's Carson fishing.  Unfortunately he didn't catch anything, even though the pond was stocked twice a week....bummer!   He still had fun though.  Don't be fooled by his heavy jacket...the weather was perfect, but it was chilly early in the morning when they went fishing.

What a beautiful view!

There was a little Apple Festival at the State Park we were camping at.  It was a lot of fun to see the different animal furs.  Watch out for that bear Bryn!!!

Brynlee just couldn't resist getting in the water!

We went paddle boating.  It was a beautiful view, but the kids were done after about 10 minutes.  Dan and I got our workout though!

Of course we needed to get a picture of Carson in front of "Camp Carson"

Funny kids!

                 One view of the lodge

I've waited for this day for 3 years

Ever since I found out I was having a baby girl, I dreamed of hairbows, pretty dresses, and....dance classes!!!  I took dance for 10 years growing up and loved it!  I couldn't wait for my baby girl to be old enough to take a little dance class.  Well, that day came last week when Brynlee went to her first ever ballet class.  I got her all dressed in her pink leotard, white tights, and pink ballet shoes and off we went to Spotlight Dance Studio.  She has been pretending to be a ballerina a lot lately, so I was hopeful that she would love dance class.  The second she put on her leotard, she started spinning and twirling around.  When we got to the studio, she was so excited to start class.  It was a rather large class of little 2-4 year old girls, all looking absolutely adorable in there little ballet outfits.  Brynlee has two friends from church in her class too...Grace and Natalie.  Miss Lisa, her teacher, is super nice, but also structured.  She also has a teenage helper.  Brynlee loved the class!!!  She followed directions fairly well and only had a slight problem of talking too much (which Miss Lisa kindly tried to correct).  Brynlee even yelled over to me in the middle of class "mom...I'm having fun!".  I was beaming the whole time watching her!  It was seriously the cutest thing I have EVER seen!  I hope she continues to love it as much as she did the first day!  We may have a future ballerina!

  

  Ballet must have really worn her out because this is what happened to her a few hours later!  We have really got to fix her sleeping schedule!

Brynlee Starts Preschool

We are doing a little preschool coop with three other friends.  Brynlee has been excited to start "school", but I wasn't sure if she quite understood that school was going to be at our house and her friend's houses.  The first day was at our house and we had a great time!  There are two boys (Tanner and Truman) and two girls (Brynlee and Taja-Mya) in her class.  They were all pretty excited to do school and equally excited for playtime and snack time.  Brynlee was definitely the loudest and most bossy of the bunch, but hopefully we can tame her a bit over the course of the year.  I think she is going to love having this little school group once a week.  I can't believe she is old enough for preschool already.  Keep up the good work Brynlee!

Hershey Park 2010

We went to Hershey Park again this year and had the best time ever!  It was seriously our best year yet!  The kids were SOOO well behaved and we all had a great time!  Brynlee rode her first roller coaster and thought it was "scary".  When I asked if she wanted to wait with me while everyone went on it again she decided she wanted to go again, even though she was scared...funny girl!  She loved all the rides and was so good all day!  Carson also had the time of his life there!  He rode a bigger wooden roller coaster for the first time this year.  He was a little nervous at first, but loved it and rode it two times in a row!  He loved being with his good friends and riding all the rides with them.  Going to Hershey is one of our highlights of the year...we love you Hershey Park!!!

Coleman and Brynlee

                                                                     Carson and Reeses Peanut Butter Cup

                                                         Bryn with Coleman and Truman

                                                      On the Carousel

                                                                            WWWEEEEEEeeeeeee!!!!!!!

                                             Put your hands up!!!  Lindsey and Carson

                                             Big Dan with the kids on the Frog Hopper

                                             Brynlee slept for a couple hours half way through the day...she was worn out!

                                                     We also walked around ZooAmerica for a bit...look at the cute Prairie Dog!

                                             On the little bullet train.

                                                              Busy Bees!

                                                         The Pirate Ship!  Look at Carson grabbing on to Lindsey!

                                                              The Swings...one of Brynlee's favorites!

                                                   Gotta love some blue cotton candy

                                           Some of the kiddos....Lindsey, Carson, Brynlee, and Truman

Dan and Carson on The Comet

Our house is haunted...or at least decorated for Halloween

We love Halloween in our house!  The kids talk about it ALL year round and love anything scary or creepy!  So, of course we had to decorate for halloweeen.  We didn't go too crazy and haven't even put up any cobwebs yet.  The kids loved the hanging bats we did last year, so we did them again this year.  Brynlee even cut out a few of her own "bats" to hang, so when you see random cuts of paper hanging from the ceiling, you'll know why.  Carson drew some pictures for "decorations" and we even cut out some green "slime" to ooze from the mirror...scary!!  My favorite decoration is the mantel with the Trick-or-Treat banner. 

And of course with Halloween and fall come all the yummy fall foods.  Brynlee and I had to buy some caramel apples when we saw them at the store.  I think she likes them as much as I do!

 

(Brynlee really wanted this close up picture...please ignore the caramel apple teeth!)