March - June 2010 Update from the Lynes Clan

One of my 2011 New Year's resolutions is to blog more regularly. So I decided to catch everyone up on the rest of our year in 2010. Here's a brief recap!

One of our favorite things to do is play with our friends. We had a (just about) weekly playdate at a small bounce house in Easley. Alex likes to terrorize the other kids. Mainly the girls and since Peyton wasn't having any of his foolishness, he targeted Avery.

Our neighborhood hosts a lot of fun family activities. In April 2010 they hosted an Easter Egg hunt. The boys had just turned three and were really starting to understand the magic of the Easter Bunny and Santa, etc. So this was a lot of fun. They got lots of candy and found a ton of eggs. Though....it helped that most of them were "hidden" on top of the pine straw and grass in the common area.

So several things happened in April/May. Creighton and I took two trips. One to Cancun to celebrate our 10th anniversary.

And one to Anguilla, BWI. Thank you, ScanSource!

These trips were huge for our little family because they were the longest we had ever been away from the boys and it was good for us all to realize that we can be apart for a while. Both trips were five days each. They were incredibly relaxing and I personally loved being an island girl/beach bum for the whole time we were there. Thank heavens for Skype which allowed us to talk to our babies everyday! The boys stayed with my parents at our house while we were in Cancun and with Creighton's parents at our house while we were in Anguilla. Without grandparents........we wouldn't have been able to have these wonderful vacations!

In May, we decided we were tired of buying diapers and since pre-school was starting in August it was time to potty-train. I was expecting the worst but as per usual with our boys, it only took them about a week to get the hang of this new thing. They did great during our first outing in underwear, which was to our good friends, Payton & Parker Anderson's 5th birthday party.

Alex had one small accident but I was prepared with a change of pants! Along with big boy underwear came a trip to IKEA and the purchase of big boy beds.

These beds are super cool. They don't have the tents on them in this picture because they were actually out of stock when we bought the beds. But they come with a tunnel style tent that clips on the top. These beds are convertible. So we have the parts to convert them into loft beds with a ladder. The tent works with both the loft and the standard style bed. The boys took a while to get used to them but now they love their beds.

We met a wonderful lady named Michelle Giles in April. We had a photo shoot with her for family portraits in April.

Then in June, she did a shoot of just the boys. I fell in love with these pictures as soon as I saw them! We've always known these little guys who went through so much were SUPER, but this just proved it.

These super heroes LOVE....and I mean LOVE tunnels. They are obsessed with tunnels. Even when we go under an overpass on the interstate they yell, "TUNNEL!!!!!!" So we decided to take them to a kind of abandoned tunnel near Clemson called Stumphouse Tunnel. We met our good friends the Larsen's there and had a fun day with our friends.

AND!!! FINALLY!!!! An event that I think Creighton and I were more excited about than the boys....TOY STORY 3 came out mid-June. Creighton took the day off. We had a fun family day going to lunch, then to the movies. It was interesting since we were still iffy on the whole potty training thing, but they did great! I made them go to the bathroom 1/2 through the movie and Alex screamed as I'm pulling him out of the packed theater, "I don't have to go pee-pee! Want to watch BuzzWoodyJesseBullseye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Our last summer hurah!

At Myrtle Beach enjoying the end of summer! Clair at the beach on our first morning! Kate looking for a great beach find!

Bowen working on the Bright sand castle!

The sunrise the first morning!

The kids loved playing in the sand and the waves. We had so much fun. We can't wait to go back in a couple months and enjoy a less crowded beach!

Camping and Hiking

Here are some photos from the rest of our camping trip including two hikes...one to white water falls and one to stump house mountain tunnel. Yummy camp food - this was our hot dog dinner and I made a yummy pineapple upside down cake in our new dutch oven! I love that thing!

This is the white water falls gang!

I seriously have the most beautiful kids...I just love taking pictures of them!

Now on to the stump house mountain tunnel. There is the enterance behind Bowen and Stephen! Such a cool place- literally!

Our long weekend trip ended on a bad note - Kate got bite by a spider at some point. Her ankel got huge and she couldn't even walk on it. It was red and swollen and tender to the touch. I had to take her to the doc and they put her on heavy antibiotics. Luckly after about 3 days on the meds we started to see improvement!

A day at beautiful lake Jocassee

As soon as school was out we headed off to camp with some of our neighbors for a long weekend! We were lucky to discover that some good friends of ours from church were planing on being on the lake near our camp site with their boat and sea-do. They were SO kind and great examples of good members of the church! They invited us all to join them on the lake and boated us out to a little island where they'd set up a shade tent in a little cove. Here is Clair riding off to the island with Brother Taylor - I think Clair is going to be our thrill seeker! She didn't' hesitate to jump on the sea-do and wanted to go faster! Just look at that lake - isn't it beautiful! Here is Brother Smith with the first of three boats full to ferry over to the island! Kate wanted to ride in the boat - NOT on the sea-do!

Now Bowen's turn on the sea-do!

Here we are on the island...the kids plated in the water and in the sand and just had a blast!

Bowen REALLY liked the sand! He also really liked taking a ride in the little kayak.

Clair and her little friend Zoe loved the rube ride! They kept their thumbs up to go faster the whole time!

Here is Clair after the tube ride - at which time she proclaimed -"This is the best day of my whole life!"

Kate rode on the purple scarier tube, but had the protection of her favorite YW from church, Alexis! I am so glad she has good girls to look up to that are kind and considerate!

Clair got her first sting - a wasp we think. She was "uncomfortable" for a long while...but later she said, "Even though I got stung, it was still the best day of my life!" So, no harm done I guess!

The weather got a little stormy - but man I love this place! Now the Bright family has been bit by the lake bug and we long to have a boat of our own!

Kate's 2nd Grades Awards Day

We were so proud of Kate and all her hard work this year. She really shined at 2nd grade award day! She won several medals for placing in the PTA Reflections contest...she placed in photography, writing, and art. Here is Mrs. Parker (principal) giving her another medal and a big hug! She also won other awards for jump rope for heart, St Jude's math marathon, and the Governors reading award...here is her whole class receiving the reading award they earned!

We were also proud that Kate earned the 2nd grade female music student of the year as well as principals honor roll for making all A's!

Way to go Kate - we are so proud!