The Gicklings: Another Catch up . . .

Another two months has whisked by and it is time for another "catch-up"! It seems like most of my posts are catch-ups, but I guess posting something, sometime is better than nothing! :-)

So here are some highlights of the past few months.

Here are some things we did around town:

These first two pictures date back to July when my sister and her daughter came to visit. We enjoyed going to the discovery museum. Even the baby got to experience the beloved water table.

Last minute, we decided to go to Chick-fil-a on their Cow Appreciation Day where you get a free meal if you dress like a cow. How do you like the trash bag costumes? Quite pathetic, I know . .. but hey we got a free meal! And Lauren looked really cute but all she got for it was a tasty seat belt. :-)

Always love our season passes to Carowinds. . . Kayla is tall enough to do some of the adult rides now and let me say. . . she is fearless! The Carolina Cobra, which goes backwards and forwards and loops, is her favorite.

Luke attended a sports camp where he got to try out five different sports while Kayla was busy making candies in her Sweet Artz camp.

The weather this summer was great, so we spent a lot of times at parks. We still loving going to Squirrel Lake park, but our town just renovated their park and added a splash pad which is really fun too.

A lot of time has been spent finding all kinds of animals in our yard including turtles, geckos, and butterflies. Kayla loves butterflies and is the best butterfly catcher ever. In her second grade science class, she is watching caterpillars turn into butterflies and she is loving watching the process.

This is a picture of Luke with a "We missed you" sign as we waited for Kayla to get off the bus the first day of school. Not sure what happened to the picture of her actually getting off the bus.

Here are some things we did on vacation:

In July, Hunter was able to fulfill a life-long dream of his and go on a fishing trip to Alaska with his dad and brother and he LOVED every minute of it.

His lodge was in a national park and was so secluded that anything that came in and out of the lodge had to be by airplane. They enjoyed catching lots of fish, watching all of the bears, boating around the beautiful lakes and rivers, talking and catching up, and eating the chef-prepared gourmet meals.

While Hunter was on his amazing Alaskan trip, the kids and I went with the grandparents to the mountains for a not very exciting trip as everytime we tried to do something it started to pour . . .which is not fun when you are in the middle of a hike or in the middle of a festival with three kids in a tow. Also, we had to make a trip to the ER after Luke hit his head. But there were some good parts to the trip in between the rainstorms and ER visit. We went canoing, walked around a beautiful lake filled with lilypads, and visited the oldest Mast General Store.

Our annual September Hilton Head was so much fun. This is the first time in five years that we went by ourselves. It was really nice though . .. we had great weather, a nice condo close to the beach, and we just loved to be together as a family of five . .. it would have been the perfect getaway if our baby was in a better mood.. . she was a little crabby . . .I would have been crabby too if I kept eating mouthfuls of sand. The rest of us though loved hanging out out on the beach, going on bike rides around the beautiful island, and eating at our favorite restaurants. Can't wait until next year.