VA Winegars

Just returned from a fantastic week with the Warners in Myrtle Beach.  What a fun place!!!  We had a great time on the beach, in the pool, and at my brother's house.  We were all so sad to leave and can't wait to get back.

We visited Charleston and took a great walking tour.  The kids had a great time seeing the sights.

Two little peas in a pod.

I love, love, love Charleston.  It is in my top 3 favorite cities in the whole WORLD.  And I liked it just as much this time as I did the first time.


The kids really did have a great time together.  We love our cousins so much.
 A little monkey business at the battery facing Fort Sumter right on Charleston Harbor.

She was so mystified that the balls didn't come off.


We spent time relaxing on the beach.

And admiring all of the "she-shells" that we found.

The kids had a great time playing with Grammy's new iPad.  We couldn't pry it out of their little hands.

Couldn't keep Trevor out of the water.
 ...or Virginia.  Look at those raisin hands!!

 This girl is a beach girl, for sure.

Did the kid pit.  Not sure why Savannah looks so grumpy in this picture.  I promise she was having fun too.

It RAINED and RAINED and RAINED for a time most days.  Unfortunately this little storm rolled in right when the grill needed to be going.  That umbrella will never be the same.

 Seriously, this child LOVED the water.  She was just blowing some bubbles for a little while.

After a bit Romney lost interest.  She kept on blowing.  The water in this little tidal pool had to have been at least 85 degrees.  I didn't blame her for lounging around in it.

We very nearly had the whole beach to ourselves.

Virginia also could not leave baby Eva alone.  At all.  And Virginia's souvenir from the trip is Eva's little cold.  Small price to pay for a week at the beach with all of the cousins.
Please, can we all go back???

Sav and I love dress-ups and VA is just starting to love them too.  Couldn't get anyone to hold still long enough for a decent picture.  You get the idea though.

We visited the Waco Zoo yesterday.  When I told my Dad we were going he said, "You know what they say...happiness is Waco in your rear-view mirror."  Okay, so Waco itself isn't much to see but the zoo was AWESOME.  It is not huge, really shady, not crowded, and the animals are REALLY close to see.  Like, we stood 6 inches from the huge male lion who roared and roared right at us through the glass.  It was super cool.  Even Virginia could see and understand the animals.  We loved it.  Too bad I didn't take any pictures except this little movie of this wonderful in-ground chime next to the orangoutangs .  I could have listened to it all day.  I played on it for a while myself.  So fun.  Great find.  Thanks Waco.  We'll be back again soon.

We spent the day Saturday manning a booth at a community health and wellness fair.  Savannah had so much fun passing out toothbrushes and toothpaste.  She had also been to the office to pick up some jewelry and accessories to give to kids.  (See her hot pink gem ring she is wearing?)  It was so fun to see her be so outgoing with everyone there.
Also, see that astroturf?  Yeah, this is a HIGH SCHOOL stadium in a very small, very blue-collar town.  What you also see is the opposing team's bleachers.  What you DON'T see is the jumbotron.  We live in Friday Night Lights country, to the -nth degree.  It is real folks.

And, last but not least, Virginia has seriously pleased me with her rhythm skills.  (Not necessarily dance skills, but singing/rhythm skills.)  This is from the "Tangled" soundtrack, which is awesome, by the way.  I have replayed this song at least 200 times at the girls' request and this happens EVERY SINGLE TIME.  It is so funny to me that I think I could still do it another 200 times.

Savannah's preschool has been having "Ethnic Day" periodically where each student comes and talks about their culture and/or ethnicity and feeds the class.  Yeah.  What exactly is our "ethnicity"?  So, harkening back to our Utah roots, we talked about pioneers.  I borrowed a classroom set of pioneer bonnets from my mom.  By the end many of the hats looked like "cones of shame" but the kids loved the novelty of it all and in the end we had fun.

We said goodbye to a great old friend this week:

Remember when we bought this car??  We have loved it.  Now that we have Smi we just didn't need a THIRD vehicle between the two of us.  Really.  So I posted it on Craigslist and in about 30 minutes this darling 16 year-old girl and her dad pulled into our driveway.  She be-bopped out and around the car for a minute and her eyes got big when she saw the old funny door remote and the iPod plug-in thingy.  I knew it was all over about 10 seconds after they arrived.  She looked at me with her eyes wide and shimmery and seriously said, "This is totally my dream car."  And I thought, "you are totally my dream buyer."  I wouldn't have been satisfied with any other teen driving off in our trusty old Accord.  Goodbye old friend.