A fun (FAVORITE) week

Last week, before we left on Thursday for Hatteras, we had a fun and BUSY week! Lots of fun stuff going on keeping us busy...

It all wore Andy out.  Taking pictures of him sleeping crazily is a favorite of mine!

Bruce started the week with some snuggles from CalBoy...  How can this not be a favorite??

After working out on Monday morning, I took the crew to the grocery store.  They like to hang on to the side of the cart and call themselves garbage men.  It's great until they start grabbing random things and SLAMMING them into the cart as hard as they can.  

It was a HOT one on Monday.  Seriously.  Ugh.  

 The boys got Chick-fil-a for lunch (a favorite, obviously!) and I suggested Cal get a CFA sandwich (a number 1 for those who are familiar......) since he devours some kids meal nuggets and is always hungry soon thereafter.  Well, he loved him some number 1! He kept saying, "this is really so so good...." I totally agree, buddy.  It is quite amazing. Pretty sure Cal has a new favorite this week too...

Monday afternoon, we had BOWLING with the Sharks! All of the coaches go and the kids have a great time bowling with friends and coaches.  

 While bowling may not be a favorite, watching these guys have fun IS!

These two lanes were LOUD and WILD and a LOT of fun! We just need Brad to be there... he was out of town for the week and sorely missed!

With the sweet coaches!  They are definitely favorites of ours. 

Harrison is great with the little guys.  My kids adore him; he's their favorite!

 After bowling, we left and headed to the pool for afternoon practice.  Andy collected his (participation) ribbon from the meet the week before and was SO SO SO excited.  He was beyond pumped to get a ribbon with HIS name on it. He wanted to sleep with it...

 Look closely.... 1:35.28.  That is one heck of a lap! hahahahaha BUT HE DID IT!

Tuesday, we went to morning practice and afterward, Andy practiced getting air off the board.  He was loving hurling himself into the water.  One of my favorite things is watching my kids play in the pool together or solo....meaning they don't need me to entertain them.  I love watching them!

After playing for a while, we got dressed and headed to Target.  The air was cranking in the store and Andy's wet hair made him chilly... Cal offered to warm him up.  Sometimes they fight like you wouldn't believe.  And then they do stuff like this.  It makes me want to freeze time...

 ...until they beat each other up.  Then I just want to roll my eyes.  Still a favorite of the week.

Tuesday night, Eddie took the boys to a Durham Bulls game.  I had a meeting that night so I told them I would meet them there, but it ended up I had the dog sitter coming by so I couldn't go. 

Andy spent the day wearing a baseball hat and singing "take me out to the ball game" on repeat.

Eddie sent me pictures from the game... they had a BIG time!

Cal is a little ham ball... 

Eddie posted the below picture to instagram and someone commented "dude, that little guy on the left is your twin!" and I have to agree...that is soooo an Eddie face....

Wednesday morning, it was Hank's turn to get some love... he is such a good dog... I love him way too much. He is my most favorite ever!

Wednesday was also our NINE year anniversary! WOAH.  How did we celebrate this big day??

AT A SWIM MEET, of course!!! It was super romantic.  

Andy was ready and rearing to go again! Cal was ready to haul tail too....

One more thumbs us before flying off the block...

 Andy did his best again and was about 5 seconds faster than his last race (insert hysterical laughing face...).  He had fun and as he got out of the water, he burst into tears and asked for his ribbon... #instantgratification

Cal managed to break FOUR pairs of goggles at the swim meet.  I was ready to beat him.  (not really).  He was twisting his pair and snapped them in half.  Something similar to that happened time after time.  He swam his 25 free in these borrowed goggles, which were HOT pink.  By the end of the race, they were broken off of his face.  He then borrowed Andy's PRIZED goggles and broke them too.  #damnit

Cal was moved up to heat one because some of our best swimmers were out of town, and he actually held his own and did great! I was proud! He went as hard as he could-- I love watching him swim.

Andy only swims in one race so after he was done, he and Lee had fun goofing around under the boards taking it all in.

At the end of the meet, the other team's coaches challenged our coaches to a relay race.  Our coaches SMOKED them.  It was AWESOME to watch it!

The meet didn't end until super late but I wanted to stay so Cal could watch the race.  We didn't get home until close to 10 and then I had to pack for Hatteras.... it was a long night!

Last week was such a fun week with lots of favorites! 

Have a WONDERFUL 4th of JULY!!!

#carriedaway: week 24

Week 24:

 Day 163: took about 16 tries to get this one. And it's not great.

 Day 164: a bunch of pool rats!

 Day 165: my view as I rolled over this morning. They'd rather sleep on the floor together than in beds apart.

 Day 166: all ready for VBS!! But is VBS ready for them...?? #redday #leefitch

 Day 167: UNC soccer camp! It was only 102 degrees today....

 Day 168: Andy swam in his first swim meet tonight...it wasn't real pretty, but it was really, really awesome. Soooooo proud of my Nug!

 Day 169: "call me nugalicious all night, okay, mommy?"



 

Weekend Update: Hatteras Edition!

We packed up Eddie's truck at the crack of dawn Thursday morning and headed to Hatteras for the weekend with the Corley family!

It was about a 5 hour drive, but it was so worth it! The drive was beautiful...

Perhaps it wouldn't take so long if we didn't have to stop for this so many times...

 After arriving and having a quick lunch, the boys were in bathing suits and ready to go! The house they rented had a great pool and was right on the beach.  We went to the beach right away and played for a while and then came back up to the pool. Cal and Bennett loved playing together.

Hampton's brother and his family came down too, and they have a 6 year old who was so much fun too. 

We spent the whole weekend playing, beaching, swimming, and having fun.  The boys were constantly going going going!

 Until they weren't.....

All the boys were worn out and in need of a lazy morning...

The laughter that occurred during this pile on was awesome...

My boys were in heaven with all these big boys.  They were constantly snuggled up to someone, sitting on someone, or leaning into someone... (cal and jack below)

More pool time for these cuties...

And played hard.  Like really hard.  He was having the time of his life!

And homeboy took a nap EVERY.DAY we were there! PRAISE JESUS! It made ALL the difference in the world for him (and me!).  He would wake up happy and would be able to hang with everyone way later than bedtimes every night.  I've also discovered a way to get him to sleep through the night, so that's pretty awesome.  (post to come later)

These boys played so hard in the pool.  Unfortunately, we were out on the beach Friday and all the kids were in the water on bogey boards when we got a call from Eddie that he heard there was a shark bite a few miles up the beach from us.  We went ahead and got everyone out of the water.  No time for sharks.  Seriously. Go away, sharks! Ain't got time for ya.

Thankfully we had this pool and these kids were more than happy to go wild in there.

I have no pictures of Eddie from the weekend (or me either...!) for a very good reason.  Eddie and Hampton spent a LOT of time out on the water kiteboarding.  It's a new hobby for Eddie and he is HOOKED. He was a happy guy getting to spend so much time on the water.  

We had such a great weekend with our sweet friends and we are so thankful we were invited to go! All of the kids got along so so well, which is great since there were 6 boys of all different ages. 

That was my first time going to Hatteras and I loved it! Eddie commented multiple times how much he loved it and wanted to go back! Here's hoping we do!!!






 

Last Week

Often if my pictures aren't my #carriedaway pic of the day, they don't make the blog at all.  We had a great week last week so I wanted to do a quick post about it...

Cal spent the week at UNC's soccer camp.  He LOVED it! It was close to 100 degrees every day and he never once complained about the heat (he got that from his father.....).  

Andy wasn't old enough to do soccer camp, so he did Vacation Bible School at our church...and LOVED it!!!! Monday was RED day: 

Monday was also Bruce's birthday! Hard to believe this sweet boy is one year old.  I remember getting the message that the puppies were born.  He's a wild thing, but so much a part of our family now. 

He needed extra love and attention on his birthday, so he got a long massage-- Cal wanted to take a picture of him.  Please ignore my lovely sweaty hair.  

Tuesday, after soccer camp, we picked up Cal's buddy Jack for a playdate-- but we had to get a picture of these three little soccer studs first:

All three boys wanted to sit in the third row together-- look at those smiles!

They played SO nicely together! They were going a million miles an hour building forts (can you see them below??) and playing outside (it was sooooo hot!), that I finally had to give them an iPad to make them calm down a little bit.  

Lee was dropped off at our house and then about 25 minutes later, Jack went home.  I got to experience life with 4 boys for about 25 minutes.  It was chaotic, but it was fun! ha!

The swim team was having their coaches serve ice cream at TCBY with a portion of proceeds going to swim for smiles.  So I loaded up the car and took these three guys for a little afternoon treat!

Think they were happy to have some ice cream?

Wednesday was yellow day at VBS and we didn't have a yellow t-shirt.  Andy was MORE than happy to wear this one that had yellow on it that said NUGGET! hahaha

At drop off on Wednesday, Cal decided he could walk in by himself.  This is a camp filled with kids 5 and up.  And there goes my little guy, walking off like it's no big deal.  I totally got choked up.  He just looked so little on the big fields.  But he did it just fine! Momma needs to be better about letting him do things independently.  It ain't easy!

Meredith took Andy after VBS on Wednesday out to lunch.  He had a blast with these two!

On Thursday, the last day of soccer camp, the coaches gave out awards.  Actually, they gave out awards at the end of each day for the camper of the day.  I thought it was a really great way to acknowledge the kids who were working hard and listening.

As I walked up to pick up on Thursday, a friend turned around and said "Cal got camper of the WEEK!" I was super proud of him.  The coach said it was for always helping his other team mates and being ready to listen...or something like that.   Glad he's ready to listen to the coaches.....because I would love for him to be ready to listen to me!

We left Thursday after camp for Myrtle Beach.  It was a busy week, but the boys had so much fun at their camps and play dates.  We are loving summer!


 

#carriedaway: week 23

Week 23:

 Day 156: a bigger deal than you realize...

 Day 157: first swim meet in the books! Super proud of my buddy!! #bribery #whateverittakes

 Day 158: pool daze

 Day 159: sweet splashing sharks

 Day 160: I adore these sweet, sweaty, stinky, AMAZING boys.

 Day 161: go sharks!

 Day 162: note to self: Bruce is not ready to be out of the crate when home alone. And also, this "non-destructible" bed is very, very destructible.