Happy 9th Adoption Day, Ava!

Silly sisters celebrating with a Reese's cake!

Family Adventure - Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, VA

 We used our last free pass to amusements parks at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg.  Fridays in September lead to an empty amusement park, and a bonus.. the place was decorated for Halloween!

 We are ready to start the day, but first a picture with the pumpkins.

 Halloween Stockade

 More bones and crazy girls.

 Crazy Girls.

 Dave went about 200 feet up on this ride by himself.  Here he is before.

 Here are the girls watching him very high up in the air.

 Swings!

 Girls in blue dinosaur eggs.

 Drew on the play equipment.

 Amelia in the trees

 Happy Drew on the train.

 The headless walking scary lady being creepy at night.  My camera took too long.  That is Dave in the background.  He was posing with this, but my camera took too long!

 A bonus visit with cousin Eileen this morning.  She showed us around town!

 Here is Amelia in the Yankee Candle store decorating her cat candle rainbow style.

Here are Ava and Jenna talking with Santa.  Santa tells Jenna that she will make the "nice" list for being honest about not cleaning her room.

Pope Francis

 

Pope Francis is in DC.  Dave has been helping with security.  He took this photo yesterday on the parade route.

Mom and I decided to go downtown to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Pope.  Here's mom right in front on the Vatican Embassy.  We saw the top of the Pope's head!!! 

Billy Goat

Dave wanted to take the girls to the C&O Canal yesterday to climb rocks on the Billy Goat Trail.  Drew and I weren't sure what we would be doing, but we loved it.  We rolled along the towpath while they took the separate trail.  It was a beautiful day!

Jenna is all Business

We were headed out to catch the school bus this morning when Jenna stopped in her tracks and said she forgot something.  She went upstairs and brought down her orange suitcase full of paper fans she had made and decorated.  She said she was bringing them to school to sell for Green Valley Bucks (our school's reward money) so that she could buy string from the art teacher. 

Charlie

I took these pictures after Charlie and I took a walk this afternoon.

HEART SECRET - 7 Years!

An Anniversary Note!  (Below is my original blog post from day number 1)

 

 

I've enjoyed reading other people's blogs and wish I had started one of my own for several years now. I wish I had documented these past few years and had a written record of how my family has grown. So, today, finally I am starting my own blog! My name is Rachel. My husband is Dave and our kids are Andrew, Amelia and Ava. Our family picture from May 2008 is to the left.

To start things off....my husband and I recently found out I am pregnant. With this blog I hope to document our family's ups and downs. I also hope to document this pregnancy. To give birth to a healthy baby would be a dream come true.

Dutch Wonderland, Lancaster, PA

We spent the day at Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA.  Here is the dinosaur part of the park.  Seems to me at one time, Amelia would have loved seeing this.  Now.. middle school... teenager.. Nope!  No Way!

Ava & Jenna thought this was fun.

 We watched a diving dragons and princess show.  Yes.  Men dove off of very high diving boards.

Dave took Ava & Jenna on this mini roller coaster.  Fun times.

 Jenna and Dave were the only brave ones to ride the biggest coaster at the park.. "Kingdom Coaster".  This is afterwards.  I couldn't get a good photo while they were on the ride.

I rode a ride!  I did! 

Labor Day Weekend Fun