handsful

As I mentioned a while back, we hosted a Spanish exchange student for the month of July. We tried to provide a fun time for Hayde’, with lots of American experiences.

Her month is over now, as she left to return back to Valladolid, Spain on July 26th. We will miss her!

Here is her time with us, in pictures…

First picture of her, as we met her at the airport. She seemed very tired, and also ended up getting sick because she said the airplane food was no good! (She made sure to make a sandwich for the flight home)

The big kids were still on tour with their Testify choir, so it was just us and the littles at first. We went to a museum downtown and let the kids (and us) play.

jellyfish!

A lesson in the pulley system :)

We joined the other students and host families to watch the EuroCup, where Spain and Italy were in the championship game. Spain kicked some Italian booty and won easily!

With the big kids home, we quickly introduced her to the lake. During her time with us, we went boating about 4-5 times. I lost count. I think the lake was her favorite thing.

Abbey and Hayde’ realized they both love volleyball and, despite the incredible heat, went out for a short volley.

Soon after this, it was the birthday weekend frenzy where she went roller skating with the big kids and joined the teens for party food and a movie.

The kids played Scene-It…Abbey gets a little competitive with this game. (Is anyone surprised at this?) I think Hayde’ enjoyed watching her as much as playing the game itself.

More boating. Hayde’ LOVED tubing and decided this day to try kneeboarding. She got up on her first try.

Lainey and Dylan LOVED having Hayde’ around, and she was always extremely sweet and gracious with them. I reminded her more than once that she could say “no” to their requests for playing, holding them, etc. She would usually just smile or laugh at me :)

We took her to a certain restaurant (rocking chairs on the front porch, checker tables, gift shop…) to introduce her to southern food. As hard as we tried, she still declared on the day she left “Spanish food is better”. Ha!

While Hayde’ was here, Randy’s brother Tony, his wife Dee Dee, their 6 kids, and their dog came for a weekend visit. It was a full house…

Samara gave them a little makeover and hair session.

A kid pile-up!

We quickly realized (and her dad confirmed for us on Facebook!) that Hayde’ could shop with the best of them. She had a long list of things to buy for herself, her family, and friends. I think she loved every minute of it.

One day, Hayde’ informed me that she wanted to make a traditional Spanish dish for us. I was thrilled, and the girls jumped in to help. I don’t recall the Spanish words, but it translates into “Potato Tortilla”. It reminded us of an omelet with potatoes, but creamy and delicious! I’m hoping I can somehow copy it, but I need to find out the ratio of eggs and potatoes. Marley helped her to turn them on the stove, which was very precarious!!

Oh, I wish we still had them…(and, yes, those are tomatoes and corn from our garden!)

It’s not a great shot, I only had my phone camera…but, this shows the 3rd water sport that Hayde’ tried and succeeded in. She’s a natural in water sports :)

Another shopping trip, this time the outlet malls. Abbey tagged along, too.

More shopping, but this time just playing around. Lainey and Hayde’ share the same taste in shoes! She did spend this trip grabbing up some American foods/snacks that she’s learned she likes. Mac n’ cheese, rice crispy treats, and veggie straws to name a few!

Since we’re only about an hour from mountains, we had to give Hayde’ that experience. She did some exploring, we visited an old general store that sells candies by the barrel, and then attempted (again) to turn her into a southerner by eating at the Daniel Boone Inn. I think I’m still full from that dinner.

I’ll be adding the rest of the mountain pics in a separate post later on ;)

On her last night, we asked her what kind of food she’d like for dinner. She chose Mexican, so we took her to one of our fav places, Sauza’s.

And, then it was time to take her to the airport. One more errand beforehand…she wanted an American flag to take back and we found a beautiful one. Then, we all climbed in the van to wish her farewell. Not goodbye, because we’re hoping she can come back next summer :)

Our month with Hayde’ was fabulous, and we hope she can look back on her month and smile, remembering the fun we had.

Did I mention in my last post that we decided to bring a little of Florida back with us? The boys friend, Nate, hitched a ride back to NC and spent this last week with us. Lainey and Dylan were almost more excited than the boys were – Nate LOVES our littles and showers them with tons of attention and love. He’ll make a great daddy one day.

What did we spend our week doing? Lots of boating…

Played some games (Kylie, Marley’s friend, was with us that day)

The boys played a fair amount (ha) of computer and video games. They also kayaked, fished off the dock, rode bikes, laid in the hammock, played football, and ate an enormous amount of food. Nate eats about twice what our boys do. Easily.

Nate joined us when we went bowling with our new homeschool co-op, went with the kids to youth group Wednesday night, and finished off his week getting no sleep at ALL at a middle school Lock In last night.

Did you have tons of fun, Nate?

Lining them up for a few last pictures proves to be harder than I thought.

Guys

Gals (aren’t they pretty?)

Everyone but Abbey. She slept over at a friend’s house last night.

One last hug before heading to the Lock In.

Glad you could hang out with us, Nate! See you on our next trip to FL.

I realize the blog has been full to the brim with lake pictures lately. So, this one is for the grand parents, who truly want to see more of them! Sorry to the rest of you :)

Marley loves the new skis

Anna Grace and Marley strap into the knee boards. There are no pictures to prove it, but I actually knee boarded for the first time on Friday. Got up on my second try. It’s harder than it looks!

Samara…she also did some skiing, but I somehow deleted them all. Makes me a rotten aunt, don’t you think??

So, I’ll post two of her on the knee board. She’s making it over the wake here. She had a massive fall off the tube on Friday and pulled a muscle in her leg. Lake fun is dangerous.

She also joined Lainey in kneeboarding. This is the first time Lainey has held onto the rope, rather than just the sides of the board. I didn’t see it, but she had a scary moment when she fell and the board flipped over with her legs still strapped in. Randy said he swam like lightning to her, but she freed herself before he got to her. Kinda glad I didn’t witness it.

Micah, getting some serious air on the board. He tried skiing too, but couldn’t quite make it all the way up.

This is the closest he got. Not bad.

Josiah, the youngest of Randy’s brother’s family.

Sister-in-law, Dee Dee. She loved the kneeboard, said she could’ve done it all day. She was good, too. She rode with me when I tried, and was very encouraging as I struggled that first time!

All of these pictures are from Saturday. We went out on Friday too, but didn’t have the camera. It was that day that Ethan, Gabe, and Payton rode the tube together. Randy likes to give tube riders a good time (eh), and all three fell off at the same time. Ethan’s eye was cut, did alot of swelling, and is now a nice purple color across the whole lid.

Gabe. He loved trying everything and going BIG when he did.

Kneeboarding can be done in twos, which helps a lot when you’ve got 11 kids that wanna do things!

Ethan and Micah

We’re getting a lot of use out of our skis this year, since the kids got a new pair for their birthday. We even pulled out the adult skis.

Yes, that’s Randy doing something OTHER than driving the boat. I’m not the best boat driver (he’s gonna teach me), so having Tony here gave him a chance to ski. It had been years, but he got right up.

Tony also took a turn.

Of course, Ethan had to show everyone how it’s done on the wakeboard.

And, how to fall gracefully.

I don’t have shots of Abbey – I wasn’t on the boat when she was, and the weather was getting really windy – making it hard to take pictures. I’m told she landed some really good jumps on the kneeboard, and has the sore muscles to prove it. Dylan rode the kneeboard on Friday (again, a no-picture day), and did a lot of swimming on Saturday. He just asked Randy a second ago if we could “go boating”. Most of us are just about boated-out this weekend!

But, we had a wonderful time, no serious injuries, and no bad sunburns. Success.

Life is going at break neck speed these days…where are the lazy summer days? Not here! Our calendar has been FULL. But, it’s been mostly fun stuff. Tons of company, lots of boating. Can’t really complain, eh?

So, now I’ll take a break from the craziness and blog.

Last weekend, we doubled our numbers. 4 adults, 12 kids, and 2 dogs. That happens when Tony (Randy’s brother), Dee Dee, and their six kids hang out with us for a few days. One word….LOUD! Oh, and fun.

What did we do? Randy split our big group into 2, and took us out in shifts on the boat. We ate a lot of food – including a night of made-to-order omelets with Dee Dee and I tag-team cooking. We introduced them to our new favorite frozen yogurt place. We laughed a lot. We ran out of food. We totally forgot about taking pictures until their last day with us.

And, here they are…

We call this “rodeo”…when we pile 5 kids (max we’ve been able to get on at once) onto the tube and off we go. Here we have our two big guys, Gabe, Micah, and Josiah.

Randy’s brother Tony and his wife Dee Dee.

Tony didn’t stand a chance of staying on long with his brother driving the boat.

I think he’s a little upset.

Payton and Micah…Micah’s the one in mid air.

Gabe and Ethan

Captain Randy

I don’t have any shots of the girls, since I wasn’t on the boat with the first shift. Maybe Tony will share some of the ones that he got.

My tubing partner was a cute little guy named Dylan.

Look, mama, no hands!

Ethan had to take a spin on the wakeboard, too.

catching some air

Gabe tried the wakeboard, and did well for his first time. It took Ethan a whole summer to master getting up.

And, then, it was time for them to go home. More pictures.

Abbey (15) and Samara (18) – they’ve always been close. And goofy.

cuteness

These three were quite a trio…Micah (11), Josiah (9), and Dylan (3)

Same with these three – Gabe (14), Payton (12), and Ethan (12)

Taking a cue from the older girls…Marley (12) and Anna Grace (12)

The dozen cousins!

And, I promise to take the time to blog more often! I sure do miss it when I don’t. This blogging thing can be addictive.

Our “old” friends from NC, the Clade’s, dropped by for a visit.  They were on their way to see family down south, and fit us in their schedule!  Awesome.  We’ve known them for about 15 years, and our oldest kids are less than a year apart.  Val and I learned how to be moms together :)

Speaking of our oldest kids, here Abbey is showing Zack how to work his new Facebook account. 

Interestingly, our youngest kids are also less than a year apart.  Josh and Lainey take a swing together. 

Marley and Danielle are about 3 years apart, but have always been close friends. 

The big kids…Ethan is holding Christopher.

Bob and Val, we LOVED having you here…when we get together, it’s like no time has passed.  Can’t wait till you stop in again soon :)

In August, we made our annual trip home for Cousin’s Day…a full 24hrs worth of crazy fun for Randy’s dad and step-mom Kathy.  The very first CD had 5 in attendance, I think.  Kathy, correct me if I’m wrong.  With Abbey being the 3rd oldest, that would be maybe 9 or so years ago.  We’re now up to 17, with our Lainey being the youngest!  They were all there this year…

Out of the 6 or 7 pics I took, this was my best shot.  Hopefully, Kathy got a better one to use in her annual Christmas card :) 

It’s very unlike us, but we barely took any pictures during our trip to NC.  Not sure why, other than we were just so busy not being busy.  It was a nice trip (with the exception of bringing home the flu – amazingly 13 / 17 grandkids got this!)  Here are some shots I did get:

Granpa and Ethan having a jam session. 

Grinning with Granma

Lainey attacking Granpa with her black bear.  I’m not sure who was laughing harder. 

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting with my Grandmom.  I just love her! 

Have you ever seen a sweeter picture?!?

Now for the “comings”…

Randy’s mom and step-dad Paul came down to FL for a visit this past week.  We had no big plans…they relaxed, we went out to eat, we swam, etc.  It was a really nice visit for everyone…

Gram brought her crocheting and knitting bag and was instantly swarmed by Lainey and Marley.  She makes little caps and booties to give to her local hospital’s NICU and she taught Marley how to make them. 

She made 4!  (Today, I used my 50% coupon at Michael’s and bought her her own knitting looms)

Lainey spent a ton of time at her feet, cutting and winding yarn.  I guess I know how to keep her busy from now on. 

When she wasn’t “knitting”, she was sitting on Pa-Paul’s feet.  Weird kid. 

Everyone went swimming on Friday…Gram was really looking forward to that.  She looks pretty happy to me! 

Gram and Pa-Paul, with 5 of their 11 grandkids.  Thanks for coming to see us!

Under rainbow skies…

Living “on the way to Disney” has it’s advantages.  Mainly the chance to see friends and family that we miss from NC.  The Deckert family stayed with us last night, leaving this morning for Jeff’s business conference / family vacation to Orlando.  We’ve known Jeff and Jan for years, we were friends BK (before kids) and our children played together when they were little. 

Here they are playing together now that they’re bigger :)  Nice shot, Abbey.

Boys, stop squirting the girls so I can get a decent picture!

Thanks…here’s Abbey, Taylor, and Marley

Payton, Ethan, and Ryan

Randy snuck up and got a pic of Jeff and Jan. ;)

Thanks for taking time to hang out with us during your vacation, guys!