Kings Dominion

Jon, Charlie and I headed up to Kings Dominion last Tuesday. We had a great time and I enjoyed just taking a random day off! I am pretty excited to have more time to take this fall. Thank goodness!

Charlie with Dora the Explorer. She was greeting folks as they entered the park and he was very excited.


Jon and Charlie in the mystery machine - Charlie also met Scooby Doo which he thoroughly enjoyed.
Bumper Cars - "this is so cool"

Me carrying Charlie back up the hill after a long morning of walking...


Charlie before eating his footlong hotdog! All those rides make you super hungry!

Baptism Sunday

We really had a great day yesterday. It started a bit hectic... Jon and I decided we didn't need to set the alarm. We have 3 alarm clocks that go off on their own. However, they decided to sleep in yesterday and we weren't up until about 7:45, we had to get out the door at 9:15! It would have been great entertainment to any fly on the wall to see us trying to get ready. Luckily, Matt and Will didn't get poked with the straight pins we left in their baptism outfits!

I think I was a little anxious and felt pretty funny having to sit on the front row but we really enjoyed the service and having Charlie stand up with us. The babies were baptized in order of age. After church, we had a great lunch at Grandma and Papa Wood's with all the grandparents and aunts & uncles.

Minister Ed Kross, Sally & Will, Tommy. Front: Jon & Matt, Charlie, Laura & Stacy Ann.

Tommy, Stacy Ann and Laura Jane
Matthew Bradshaw
William Patrick

Jon, Matt, Charlie, Sally and Will

Road trippin'

These guys are easy riders... put in a movie, read a book or listen to some music...
They are even happier campers when fed. a la sweet potato below.

Will
Charlie
Matt and the thick as cement if you don't wipe off before it dries, biter biscuit

hanging...

Grandma, Matt & Will. Prebreakfast and hungry.Marley, Matt, Charlie and Will

Papa and Charlie playing putt, putt...

More of the crew

Elizabeth, Charlie and Joe

Stacy Ann and Laura

Stacy Ann and Sally

Jon, Charlie, Joe and Dad

The whole crew, Bottom: Tommy, Charlie, Jon, Sally, Will, Dad, Matt.
Top: Stacy Ann, Laura, Joe, Elizabeth, Mom

Charlie, the water bug

We are back from our Wood beach vacation... We had great weather, food and fun. It just went too fast.

Yes! This is Charlie, way out in the ocean with Jon! The ocean was the calmest I've ever seen it for most of the week. Charlie loved boogie boarding, and the "waves" were perfect for his lessons.

Charlie and Dad

Digging yet another hole!

It's Official

We have entered the Why Stage. Why, why, why! Charlie wants to know why???

Alas, we will try to answer these questions. Thankfully we haven't had any that were too terribly beyond answer.

Our other conundrum is Carseats. We are moving the babies over to the convertible seats. At 20 lbs and 28 1/2 inches, they are just too big for the infant carriers. They are practically hanging off both ends. This is a major turning point. It means 1 baby will have to be inside while taking the other baby to the car. That baby will then be by themselves! Or stroller, stroller, stroller every where you go. Although not easy, you could conceivably carry 2 carriers, but not quite as easily 2 babies.
So, the obstacles. Can you get 3 convertible seats across our middle row of the mini-van? Likely not, they are much bigger than the infant carriers. If you do, you now won't be able to flip over a seat for Greta to get in and out of the back. Should Charlie sit in the 3rd row by himself or Matt or Will? Will we be climbing in and out of the backseat to put a baby in?
Now the Pathfinder is officially out of commission for kid carrying. 3 seats definitely do not fit. Babies have to face backwards, Charlie frontwards. That means you can't even have 2 seats to be seat up for either.

Ahh, 3 kids in a car seat + a queenly dog that does not think she should have her space invaded.
Not a lot of vehicles made for that set up.

Hopefully we will survive this dilemma on our trip to the beach! Project Management continues...

9 Month Appt

Matt & Will had their 9 month appointment yesterday. Both are doing great.

Will weighs 20 lb 11 oz, 28 1/2 inches long
Matt weighs 20 lb 3 oz, 28 1/2 inches long

So they've put on about 2 1/2 lbs and 1 1/2 inches in 3 months. Crazy, isn't it?
Our pediatrician told us to enjoy the time before Will starts crawling :o)

The Coolest Place: Pocahontas State Park

We have been talking about going to Pocahontas State Park for a while to check it out. It is relatively close (15 - 20 min) and Jon kept hearing about their water park. They are a very well kept secret and don't even have a picture of their water park on their website. Well it was awesome!
We went on Sunday morning, hoping to get in a few water hours before the "big storm" was supposed to hit. That made it even more perfect as it wasn't crowded.

This "playground" area was great. Lots of valves, buckets, tunnels, rope pulls and slides.
Charlie loved the slides! They also had 2 big slides. He went down once and wanted to go back, but we just ran out of time. They also had a 1 ft wading pool, a 3 ft pool and a 5 ft pool. All staffed by lots of life guards.


Both Charlie & Jon had fun going to the slide. I got one ride in and busted my butt!






Sorry this is sideways... I can never figure out how to rotate videos. UGH don't take videos sideways!