Kelly & Girls visit!

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We had a lazy upcoming week as did Aunt Kel so she decided to come with the girls for a few day visit! We had so much fun!!! We went to a new all abilities park that is more like an outdoor childrens museum than park, went to a super fun pool, went to an indoor jumping castle place that both Emma and Abby LOVED and spent lots of quality cousin time together!! I so loved having my girls even for just a few days!!!

New York City

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New York City has always been one of my bucket list items and now I can cross it off! Craig had to be in upstate NY for work so I joined him and then we headed to Times Square for five days of child free fun! The boys happily spent the week with my parents while Criag and I got to explore the city and we had an absolute blast! In true Craig & Katie tradition...it poured on us the first three days (and I mean poured!) We rode a double decker bus in the rain...complete with ponchos and umbrellas!! We took a pedicab through Central Park, toured Radio City Music Hall and even ate GIANT sandwiches at Carnegie Deli! I think we had the most fun at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum posing with all of the characters...the boys literally believed these were all real as we kept texting them pics to my mom's phone!!! We literally saw everything there is to see, went everywhere there is to go and purchased way too many fun souviners for the boys! It truly was so much fun and I can't wait to go back!!!

Swimteam 2012



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This was a BIG year for swimteam in our house...Luke was finally BIG enough to join! What a great season my boys had...Brian got his freestyle time under 20 seconds, scored multiple heat winners and NEVER placed above the top 10!!! Matt decided this was the year and owned breaststroke!!! He swam in the 7-8 group as a 7 year old and consistently scored in the top 10! He also earned his first ever heat winner ribbon, swimming with his goggles around his mouth!!! Luke managed to swim the full lap during practice, earning himself a spot in the final meet. He is the youngest swimmer on a team of 300 kids and one of only two 4 year olds to attempt the meet! He changed his mind daily leading up to the big day as to if he would swim or not but when the time came....he did it!!! Mind you...he only swam 1/3 of the way but nonetheless he jumped in and swam freestyle like a champ for the 1/3!!! After two breaths he lost his feet and that was the end for Mr. Luke, but we were so proud of him for even attempting it! Mind you he was swimming against 5&6 year olds, all who had already finished, so the entire crowd was focused on and cheering for Luke which is quite intimidating when you are 4!!!  Uncle DJ, Aunt Christy, Gaga, Papa and all of us were cheering from the sides and Luke is in full belief that he did awesome :) The grand finale of our season came when Brian received the Coaches award for the second time in three years at the banquet! How proud we are of him to be chosen for this special award honoring his character, integrity, work ethic, manners, leadership and responsibility!!!

South Padre Island

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 In keeping with tradition...we celebrated 4'th of July at the beach! This time we changed it up and went a few more hours south to South Padre Island instead of North Padre. We stayed at the Hilton right on the beach and spent five days playing in the ocean, catching minnows and keeping them in our homemade sand pool, going on moonlit crab hunts on the beach and swimming in the beautiful pool! We spent the 4'th directly under the fireworks being shot from a barge in the bay covered in glowsticks, went a a super fun boat ride to catch and hold sea creatures (and we caught SO many!!!!) and gave Luke the thrill of his life when we went to the go-karts and little man was actually tall enough to drive!!!! His smile could've lit up the sky it was so bright :) Such a fun, relaxing beach trip...can't wait for the next one!!!!