Zip Lines, Jet Skis and Helicopters-Part 1!

And there’s so much more! They say a picture says a thousand words so I have ton of pics to share and I’ll let them tell the story, well, most of it anyway but it may have to be in two parts. We went to my parent’s house in VA last week and had a great time! We got to see my sister Alexa, her husband Seth and their two boys Micah and Ty!

We started the week off with a tea party for the gals (Ainsley loves having tea parties, don’t all four year old girls?) My mom invited her good friend Susie and we enjoyed cupcakes, “tea”, cookies, muffins and fruit and yes we all had to wear a hat! Bennett needed to eat so he attended his first tea party, the first of many to come with two older sisters, I’m sure.

There was plenty of pool time during the week…

Micah trying to catch a Frisbee…My dad being the handy man that he is built a tree house for the kids and decided it must have a zip line so we all got to try that out. Now, I don’t know what it is but the older I get the more afraid I become… of everything! I used to love roller coasters and now they terrify me, so for some reason I was a little afraid to go down the zip line! You would think it was 20 feet off the ground- it was only 8 feet high! Just look at my face in the pictures- what is wrong with me??
Here I am thinking it seems a lot higher now that I'm up here!
I can't believe I'm sharing these super, unflattering photos of me!
Even my 4 year old daughter wasn’t scared!

Mike had fun too…

And Miss Harper gave it a try- although not from the very top of course… Here's my dad enjoying the fact that his zip line was a success...

Next it was off to the Westmoreland Berry Farm for blueberry and black raspberry picking! The kids loved this and Alexa and Ainsley made a delicious cobbler out of the berries we picked.
The girls got to feed goats while we were there…
And then it was time for ice cream! I love this next picture of my sister and I with the “Virginia Grown” sign in the background. We were not born in VA but we were raised there, so it fits.

Me with all the kids- Bennett stayed back at the house with his Daddy.
The girls loved going on the jet ski, this was Harper’s first time and she did great! She’s our little dare devil anyway so not much scares her.
There was tons of fishing…
Ty, proud of his catch…Even I caught a big cat fish-don’t have a picture of that though.

So we just got back from being in the car for almost 7 hours (way longer than it should have taken) with a crying baby, fussy girls, barking dogs and tons of traffic! Needless to say, I’m tired. Stay tuned, I have pics from the surprise helicopter arrival and some “formal” family photos that actually turned out decent (meaning the kids cooperated in some of the pics) as well as some 4th of July pics! Hope everyone had a great 4th!

Oh, and remember how Bennett weighed 8 lbs 9 ounces last Friday?? I weighed him tonight because I did not have my scale with me on vacation (I'm not that anal...well, yes I am but I did not bring the scale regardless) and he weighed 9 lbs 10 ounces!!! We've been fortifying the milk so I guess that's working. He may get to 10 pounds a lot sooner than I thought...