Liams 1st trip to the beach...

Happy Fourth of July!

Can you believe it took us two weeks to get that baby boy of ours to the beach??!! I cant! We went to our friends house they rented on the beach to celebrate our Independence Day and watch the fireworks. We had a great time BBQing and hanging out. Before it got too dark we walked down to the beach and took a few pictures of Liams 1st trip to the beach. He loved the waves... like his daddy! (Thank goodness... poor kid would learn to love it if not :))

Granby Zoo in Montreal

One of their favorite places turned out to be the zoo in Montreal - it was a great! Taylor had gone with a friend a few years ago, but none of the rest of them had ever been there. They left at the crack of dawn (to drive an hour and a half away) so they could be there when the zoo opened. That turned out to be a genius idea - it was still fairly cool in the morning, so all the animals were out where they could actually see them. There is nothing worse than going to the zoo and watching the animals sleeping.. The only odd thing was that nothing was in english - nothing at all! Not the signs, not the presentations, nothing. Good thing the zoo is more of a self guided tour!

Jacob, Aydin, Sarah, Morgan, Mom, and Taylor at the zoo enterence

Feeling the breeze and trying to stay cool!Feeding the birds...
The bird enclosure was one of their favorites. They were able to feed the birds with little cups of nectar
The shark tank was a close second - everyone took their turn touching the sharks. It was a very sand-papery feeling!
This little elevated train took them around the park. From 20 feet high, they were able to go over the top of the tigers - very cool!
Whew! Time for an ice cream break!Just before they left, they ran into one of the zoo keepers holding an owl. They stood and watched for a while - all the kids were enthralled with the fact that she was speaking French and they couldn't understand a word! Jacob raised his hand to ask a question, but when she called on him (in French) he slowly put his hand down and backed away! Taylor has taken a few years of French in school and could pick out a few words, but she said the woman was speaking so fast she couldn't keep up at all!

On their way home they had to stop at the border to take a picture. Aydin loved the idea of traveling to another country

Grandma Blonski's Visit

Although we didnt get Grandma in a ton of pictures- we did take quite a few of Liam. The kids are loving him home and are so good with him. He is such a blessing and we are so grateful Grandma could come see him.




She was so brave- and took the kids home with her for 2 weeks! They have been looking forward to their Vermont trip for 3 months now... so I am happy the time is here (for them). These next two weeks are going to be LONG and HARD for me without the kidos. I will miss them- but love that they have this opportunity to spend time with grandma, Auntie Heather, Uncle Mike, Uncle Kevin, Auntie Brandy, and cousins. They will have a blast I am sure.

Take me out to the ballgame!!

One of the things they wanted to do while the kids were there was to go to a Vermont Lake Monster's game. Unfortunately for everyone, the only day they could go was super hot - It was well over 95 - by the end of the first inning, they were melting right down into their seats! You wouldn't know it by the smiles though.

Since they got there early, they watched the team warm up on the field, and had a chance to meet Champ. It was very brief - he didn't stay long, but I guess who wants to stand around in a big green monster suit in that heat!


Morgan happy as a clam - but who wouldn't be?! Within the first hour they were there they had hamburgers and hotdogs, popcorn, snowcones, ice cream, peanuts, cotton candy, and lemonade.. I'm amazed they didn't all have stomach aches!


Of course, the hottest day of the year was kids run the bases night - after the game.. By 10:30pm, the game was tied and going into extra innings - even Aydin was done by that point. Auntie Heather would have stayed, but since everyone else was ready to go, she would have had to walk home by myself.. It turned out to be a good thing though - the game went on for 13 innings and didn't finish until after midnight - heading home was a good call!

In case they didnt get enough camping...

Since they had so much fun they decided to set the tent up in mom's backyard for a few more nights. And by "they", I mean Aydin, Morgan, and Auntie Heather - everyone else was happy to be sleeping in their own bed, out of the heat and away from the bugs! Morgan happily carried the lanterns out to the tent for us so we'd have light once it got dark.

All changed into jammies, our beds are set up, and the lanterns have batteries (most important of all!)

While they waited patiently for the fireflies to start blinking, they played a few games of checkers.

Finally, they thought they saw something! Aydin grabbed the lantern and Morgan grabbed the headlamp so they could head out into the darkness..

In search of the ever elusive firefly...Victorious! They were finally able to catch not one, but two! They had a third one, but it got away at the last second.. Aydin was so happy - he was dying to watch them blinking in the dark of the tent. Heather said she thought he fell asleep within a few minutes - it was well after 11:00 when they finally got ready to go to sleep.

Morgan however, wasn't so sure. Once we were quiet she said, "I don't know if it's so much fun to sleep outside.. what if there are bears?!" Heather reassured her there were definitely no bears in grandma's backyard - I'm sure she was thinking now would be a good time to go back inside with grandma! She decided to stick it out though, and happily marched back to the tent the next night - lantern in hand!

Kids are camping...

Their first adventure in Vermont was camping - Aydin and Morgan loved it! Although, I have to admit, what's not to love? 4 days spent fishing, hiking, sitting by the fire and roasting marshmallows... I (Heather) could do that every weekend! Kevin, Brandy, and the kids joined everyone so in all, there were 10 of us for most of the weekend. Here are Jacob and Morgan by the camper..

And sitting by the fire..The campground they went to was beautiful. It was right on a huge lake with a beach. Heather heard one of the life guards say they had trucked in 4 dumptruck loads of sand for the summer so she had to laugh as she watched the kids picking it up in buckets and dumping it in the water!
The other great thing about the lake is that they rent paddle boats and canoes - and it's within rowing distance to a general store that sells ice cream! They did that not once, but twice :)

Here are Aydin and Ella in the paddle boat..
These pictures are from their second trip - Heathers camera had an unfortunate accident and ended up slipping out of her pocket as they were paddling and is now sitting on the bottom of Silver Lake.. good thing Taylor brought her camera or we would have no pictures at all! Mom and Morgan - If left to her own devices, they think Morgan would have driven the boat in circles - just steering to the left! They had to keep re-directing her..

Mike, Mom, and Adyin trying to fish from the canoe as the rest paddled around

TaylorMorgan got such a kick out of floating in a life jacket - she couldn't believe she was just bobbing along in the middle of the lake! She laughed every time Heather told her to watch out for the boats :)

Kids Vermont trip

Mom flew to Florida to bring Aydin and Morgan back to Vermont for a two week visit - we had a great, great time! We did something new every day: camping, movies, swimming, the zoo in Montreal, Lake Monsters baseball game, sleeping out in the backyard, miniature golf... There wasn't very much we missed. I don't know who was more tired at the end of the visit - them or us?! Here are the five kids sitting by grandma's garden. We have the same picture taken when Morgan was about a year old - I have to find that one.. They've all gotten so big! It's kind of ridiculous - Taylor will be a sophomore this year and Morgan will be in kindergarten - Crazy!
Silly faces..