Atlanta!!

We headed to Atlanta on June 13th for a little over a week for a great visit.  We had an early morning flight (6:30 a.m.) which meant a super early wake up call but the kids were so excited about the airplane ride and the vacation that everyone did awesome!  Joseph and Ella loved the in flight entertainment (have to love Delta with the personal televisions which included the Disney channel). Julia bounced back and forth between Rich and we even got lucky and she ook a nap!  We spent the first two days in Atlanta catching up with family and even some of Rich's friends from high school and then made our way to Florida on Sunday.

On Friday, June 17th, after a day at the pool, everyone who was in town/lives close by came over to bbq and to celebrate Rich's birthday, a belated Mother's day (on Mother's Day, the celebration was cut short since Moon was out for a run prior to having dinner and was bit by a copperhead snake so Terri had to meet him at the hospital for the night!!) and an early Father's Day.  Joseph and Ella kept asking "What type of birthday party is Daddy going to have?" so we decided to go with the Avenger theme and everyone loved the masks that we picked up!

Rich insisted on the cake reading "Happy Mo-Fa-Bir Day" (which stood for Mother's Day, Father's Day and Birthday).  I'm pretty sure the lady who decorated the cake thought I was crazy!  

Nonna had gifts for the kids upon our arrival and Ella loved the flashlight. Every night (and even now still) she goes to sleep with the flashlight on next to her!  

On Saturday, Rich and I took the kids to a park close by and spent a few hours there before getting ready to have a few of his high school buddies over for a barbecue back at his parents later that day.

Looking mighty grown up in these pictures!  

And, way too big for the baby swing!!

Flying high with Daddy!

We had a great time visiting and catching up with Rich's friends from high school and their families. The kids kept busy entertaining one another with music from Nonna and Pop Pop's piano-always a hit while visiting!  

On Sunday morning we left Atlanta early and headed south for a quick trip to Jacksonville.  The kids did great in the car-we lucked out with a rental car with an entertainment system so after a trip to RedBox they were thoroughly entertained for the 6 hours!  We woke them up Sunday morning around 5:30 hoping that they'd nap in the car but no such luck but at least they were entertained!

Vacations...anything goes, right?!  Things like two lollipops at once!!  (At least they were organic-ha ha!)  

We spent the night with Gram at her home.  She lives in the guest house next to Rich's Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bill which all has a great view of the water.  His aunt and uncle recently bought a historical home in downtown Jacksonville and have done an incredible job of restoring it and making it liveable and beautiful!  

On Sunday afternoon after spending some time with Gram, we all headed over to the yacht club to meet up with his cousins and uncle and aunt.  We enjoyed swimming, catching up with family and celebrating Father's Day with everyone.  

The club had unlimited lollipops for kids so going with the "vacation mentality:, Julia indulged with a few more lollipops that afternoon!  (Not organic but by this point in the day we didn't care :)  Ha ha ha!)  

Rich and his cousins, Bill and Skip, celebrating Father's Day with a few too many fun yacht club drinks!  

On Monday we were lucky enough to meet up with Jenn Hoffman and her girls which was such a treat!!  The last time that we were together as families was when I was pregnant with Ella and Jenn was pregnant with Madi so a lot has changed in the past 4 years!!  The kids all got along great and definitely wore themselves out at Pump it Up for a few hours before our drive back to Georgia.

Joseph and Mia are about a month apart-crazy enough they were only supposed to be a week apart but Mia was born two weeks early and Joseph was born almost two weeks late!  We have pictures of them together as babies so it was fun to get them reunited!  

Ella and Madi-only a week apart!  

Ella was not happy at this point because she didn't want to leave, hence the pout on her face!

We arrived back in Georgia on Monday  night around 8:00 and the kids were SO excited to find Michael and John there and ready to play!! 

The rest of the visit was spent having Gina and the boys (Brian was in Africa) with us at Nonna and Pop Pop's and we just had a blast!!! The kids had SO much fun together and it is just so great seeing them all get along so well.  Michael is a huge help with the girls and Joseph was just in heaven having the boys there to play with!  We kept busy with lots of outings to the park, the pool, a bounce house, Uncle Greg's house in Athens and Gina and I were even lucky enough to sneak away for an afternoon by ourselves for pedicures and Starbucks!  

Crazy faces with Michael!

More crazy faces with Michael!

Good till the last drop!!

We drove to Athens on Thursday with Gina, the boys and Terri to check out Uncle Greg's new home! He has done so much work on his place and it really looks great and has the most amazing yard-almost 2 acres!  Joseph enjoyed testing out his roommate's motorcycle and it was really neat to see the cute town of Athens where UGA is.  

Cousin love!! 

Uncle Mark and his girlfriend, Madi, are on a cross country tour and arrived in Atlanta on Thursday night so we were so thankful that we got to spend some time with them before we left on Friday.  He jumped right in to the craziness and was giving piggy back rides and wrestling with everyone before we knew it!  

On our way back home!!  The kids all did great again on the flight-flying direct really makes it pretty easy!  We were certain that Julia would fall asleep as soon as we took off but of course she didn't sleep for the entire flight but at least she was happy and we just passed her back and forth between Rich and I.  We had such a nice visit and finishing it out with a safe and happy flight home definitely made it even better!