Vacations....

The lobby as you come off the bus...

A patio near the pool

The problem with vacations is....(drum roll please.) You always end up needing another one. I know sounds like old news, right? It is so true though, just a few days to recoup on the couch at home. I think this last trip to paradise has put Travis and I both over the travel threshold. Too far, too foriegn, too many bathing suits (which at this very moment are still downstairs steaming in my suitcase. I just can't seem to muster the energy to unzip it), too... just not home. We had an amazing trip, for the record, but I am pretty sure he agrees when I say "it's sooo good to be HOME."

Very small portions of The Pool...

This trip is totally and completely unrelated to the milestones my children might achieve in their little big lives, unless you are counting the emotional trauma of putting them to bed one night just like any other only to let them awake a day later with no parental figures in this hemisphere. Wait, maybe that's more like a dream come true! A week with Grandma catering to their every whim..... Perhaps the emotional trauma starts when we return, just as they are thinking it's free sailing from here....hmmm. Squish did look at Travis and I like she was pretty sure we had kidnapped her for the first 24 hours we were home....

Anyhow here are a few pictures to remember the one and probably only trip we will have to the beautiful pink shores of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The resort was beyond beautiful and tropical. The weather was more than prefect and the company wasn't that bad either!

The view from the (very european) bathroom looking out to the patio.

Looking back into the room (notice the heart & flowers)! HA!
And then there is always this picture, can we please go home now??

The pospect of going home is almost to much to bear ; )

A Family Affair

I just love these pictures of the kids. We were up insanely early, the kind of early, for me anyway, when you're on autopilot and just going through the motions because intelligent thought has not bothered to drag itself out of bed yet. You know that kind of early, right? Anyhow, I just grabbed some clothes for the kids and because you are on autopilot and those always seem to be the days when the entire family is in coordinating colors. I am incapable of multitasking before 6am. So, back to these adorable kids. We were off to my

sister's for an early morning adventure. Channel 12 news was going to be filming a piece on SAHM's and small businesses they have on the side I guess... We will see for sure when the clip airs I suppose. Because it was a piece about being a stay at home mom they requested that the kids be a part of the taping and because I am friends with the girl doing the piece and Megan is my sister in all...Seeing the connection yet? Me either really, but she wanted us to go, so we did. I arrived at Megan's and proceeded to change my kiddos out of their sleepy jammies and into their color coordinated outfits. Intelligent thought just now starting to come around. I notice that Megan's kiddos are all also not just in coordinating outfits themselves, but with my kids too. A coincidence she can't even take credit for because Mike dressed the kids this particular morning. We don't even need to mention that Megan and I also were in coordinating outfits. (Later we learned that was not as coincidental as we had thought. Apparently jeans and a black top is the standard issue mom on TV outfit according to Nicole's camera man.) It seemed a great opportunity to get a couple pictures of the cousins in the matching outfits with the new shiny camera of course. So there they are in all their glory. Emily James, Zoe Kate, Abigail Browning, Law Michael, Max William and William Walker.

She's Grown Knee Caps!!

Abigail is finally walking! Wouldn't you know it, Travis and I leave town for nearly less than 24 hours and we come home only to find that Papa has taught Abi (the most resistant of walkers) to get up and go. Looking back I do believe he is responsible for more than one of his darling little grandchildren's first steps....hmmm Well, I guess it is finally here. Not quite sure how I feel about it though. The idea that all of my kids, all of the kids in general, both sides of the family, have no more babies. No one is nursing, colicy, wrinkley, bald, crawling...Oh, the thought that Squish might not even be squishy for much longer. Walking is almost the last of the baby milestones....SIGH. That's it someone has to have another! Who will be the taker?

Here are a couple very "rough" shots of my powerwalker.

Abigail (Squishy) Browning Deatsch

1 year - 2 months - 2 weeks - 1 day

**WALKING**

Crawling

Can go up & down the stairs

Eats everything but tomatoes and oranges

Loves dogs

Naps twice a day

Has 16 teeth (with a couple more not far off)

Chatters, but doesn't talk

Finally Offically 5

Finally FIVE!! It seems as though Emily's 5th Birthday got washed under the bridge because we (and everyone else) have been traveling here or there and back again all summer, with no end in sight. Can't say I am complaining, I love the hustle and bustle, it just makes time go by so fast. In all the rush though poor Emi's party just kept getting postponed, ahhh...But all's well that ends well! Grandma Bette came to the rescue with a family party that would rival any bash I have thrown for her to date. She had a blast with her cousins and had cake and ponies coming out of her ears! So, at long last she is 5.....I can hardly believe it.

FEET

I just love this picture...You try so hard to get a good baby foot shot and it never happens, then all of a sudden they're wearing like a size 13 shoe and the moment has passed......

Abigail Browning Deatsch

14 month old feet that still have not been walked on!

Slide

Over the weekend we went to the Boyse's for dinner and I think it was actually the first time Squish has played on a slide...Strange, I know! I guess because I am a paranoid freak about letting her crawl around in our backyard (who knows what's lurking out there) and it's just too hot to go to the park. She was pretty impressed with herself......

Getting up....Getting down, WHEEE!

New Camera!

Hip Hip Hooray! I finally have a new camera and it was worth every non-exisitant penny we spent on it. Not to mention the years of debate over whether or not it was worth the expense. It totally is, by the way! So, bring on the pictures right? Well, it seems, even a fabulous camera does not make one a better photographer. Much to my dismay I might add. However, it is a work in progress and it has pushed me to actually have a camera nearby when photo worthy events come to pass. Like some of these:

Abi - Completely unappreciative of the new camera.

Billy - Completely unappriciative of the new camera. Are you detecting a theme yet??

Emily - Not quite completely unappreciative.....

And that would be the new camera in a nutshell. Hopefully my skills and my subjects improve in the weeks to come!