The pictures are after the post today...

So!!  (as it turns out, I like to start most of my posts with the word so.  I think it's the best thing to say after a long awkward silence between posts maybe.)  Anyway, after looking at the camera roll on my phone, I realized that I have more than a thousand pictures!!  And how many of those have you guys gotten to see?  Maybe like, 700?  So I feel all bad, like I haven't been sharing enough!  So I went ahead and posted just a few to clear my conscience (and shame on you if you scroll down before reading all my words.  SHAME).

The first pictures are from our wonderful end of the summer trip to Chattanooga.  Matt, after seeing Caitlin's insane soccer game schedule (y'all she has like four games every single weekend, two of which are always out of town) decided that we needed a family getaway before the madness begins, so we planned a trip to the Chattanooga aquarium.  It was wonderful!!  So wonderful that we ended up getting a year long pass!  The aquarium has two parts, a freshwater side (which also included birds and butterflies...the butterfly room was amazing!) and a saltwater side (which had sharks you could pet! and sea horses! and Nemo! oh my!)  In short...we loved it and can't wait to make use of those year long passes :).

One of the best parts about staying in downtown Chattanooga was that there was a free downtown shuttle that stopped one block from our hotel.  This shuttle would take us anywhere we wanted to go downtown, including the aquarium.  For free!!  We definitely met some interesting characters on the bus (a refugee with 6 under 6, and the local who announced to the entire bus that we were clearly much too young to have so many children and who did they really belong to) but it was a slice of life which is my most favorite thing, so I was happy.  In addition to shuttle riding and visiting the aquarium, we also ate at some really great restaurants and enjoyed some time at a local playground.  On our way to the playground we stumbled upon a gigantic festival celebrating all things beer related (seriously the only signage visible was "beer this way, bathrooms that way".  No messing around for these folks).  Matt and I were slightly sad that we could not partake but had a wonderful time at the playground with the kids.  We give Chattanooga four thumbs up and we hope to go back soon.

The next pictures are from a race that I recently participated in...I won't bore you with details but it was a 10k that started at 11pm.   We had teams, and had tees specially made for the event (which statistics show reduces race time) and even though our team lost (y'all they put girls vs boys and it was straight up based on time.   Just sayin') I did manage to place third in my age group and the prize was a ball cap that I wouldn't be caught dead wearing.  But I'm happy :).  Also shaved an entire minute from my pr so BOO YAH BOYS!!  It was for a great cause and one of the best parts of the entire night was the luminaries they set off in honor of those who have lost their battle with cancer.  Very beautiful...very moving.  I really hope that Matt and I can do it together next year :)

The next few pictures are from our summer of Hertz visits....when I got a job I knew that I might not get to see my family as much as I did when I stayed at home, so this summer I was thrilled to death to be able to see 4 of my 5 siblings and their families.  I did not get to see Elizabeth which makes me sad but hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later.    I got to see Gin and her family in St. Simon's and at my parents house over the summer which was wonderful.  And made me wish desperately that teleporting was real.  We got to see most of Stephen's family (Jenni it was not the same without you!!  I think Matt missed having you there to exchange looks of WTF these Hertz's) at mom and dad's and a good time was had by all.   Gus and Steph graciously made us a part of their end of the summer trip back home from Florida and my goodness our kids get along well!  Andree and Tim came on a last minute trip to Georgia and we got to hang out with them- I finally got to meet sweet Finley who was probably the most chill baby I have ever met... Andree and Tim put her to bed one time and girlfriend did not make a peep...in a new environment!  Good baby :).

Anyyyyway....it's been a good Summer...sad that it is over but glad to have some good memories to take from it.   Pictures should be after this post :).

Pictures now, words in a second.

VideoBomb

Lately the kids have been asking me to take video of them...riding scooters, being silly, or during sports.  The other day we were at the pool and Matthew asked if I would take a video of him jumping in the pool so he could see how big a splash he made.  Evidently Hannah had other plans for the video....

St. Simons 2013

Another great trip to the beach!!

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Hello 5:00!

After 2 soccer games, a ten mile run, and a trip to Kroger I can't think of anything better!!! Kudos to Dee for the chair recommendation :)

Spring Break

Since we are all (except for Matt) now slaves to the school calendar, the Schroeder family decided to take advantage of Spring break and head south for a week.  After much deliberation (and many hours on VRBO) we decided on our old standby-Navarre beach.  It's such a perfect beach for us...very family oriented, minimally developed and man! are there a lot of good shells.  And once again, it did not disappoint.  However!  Before I report on the trip, I want to back up a bit to fill you in on why this particular beach trip was so well timed.

About 3 months ago, after yet another incident of Chassie/Matthew/Ben dirty paws all over our 'used to be white-ish' carpet, Matt and I decided that this was the year.  We were finally going to replace all of the carpet in our house.  We had not ever done it and it was really, REALLY grody.  And then Matt had the brilliant idea to have it installed while we were already out the house for spring break and that way we could just come home to a newly carpeted house.  Sounds amazing, right!?  

And it was!!  HOWEVER.  Did you know that if you get carpet replaced, it's not like you can just leave your house as it is and then come back to find it just as it was except for the new carpet?  Because you can't.  Apparently the carpet places don't want to have to mess with things like, all the random junk that has collected under your bed in the five years that  you have lived there.  Or the seriously overcrowded closets that belong to the children and possibly the adults as well.  They are happy to move big things (emptied dressers and disconnected television shelves),  but not all the random stuff.  And as it turns out, we have a LOT of random stuff.  Which I found out in the seven hours it took Matt, Me, Nana and Dee to collect, box, and find new, temporary homes for all of said junk.  HOLY BANANAS we have too many things.  

BUT!  We did get the job done, and because of all that unpleasantness just prior to the trip, we were especially glad to go to the beach.  Somehow seven hours in the car didn't seem so bad....

And when we got here everything was just perfect.  The kids were so thrilled to be at the beach...the weather was amazing (75 degrees at the beach is great.  Hot in the sun, but the breeze cools you right off), the heated pool was perfect and the Target was just close enough.   We made the most of all of it:

Matt-horsing around in the pool with the kids during an evening swim.  I opted out...decided to take pictures instead of freezing :)

I don't know who had more fun...Matt or the kids ;)

Easter morning sunrise

Little sillies!

And of course the beach trip would not be complete without nighttime crab hunting!  

Someone had made a couch out of sand-we couldn't resist the photo op!

One of the best parts of our trip was going to the Gulf Breeze zoo.  It was one of the best zoo's we had ever been to-it was HUGE and there were so many animals.  The first part of the zoo was a petting/feeding area where we got to feel goats, llamas, guinea pigs, and our very favorite...the giraffe:

He was so sweet!  Very very gentle and even Ben could easily feed him!

And the zebras!  Pea was especially happy about those.

Part of the zoo was a train ride around the 50 acre wildlife preserve-

We got even closer to the zebras!

So so much fun!!

The weather was a bit uncooperative toward the end of the trip, and since we were anxious to get back to the new flooring, we cut our vacation a day short-which was good because it gave us a little more time to put the house back in order.  

Overall, it was another great trip though.  And we are all really looking forward to the St. Simon's trip!

Hockey!!

It's official: we love hockey! We got to go to a Gwinnett gladiators game last week and was so fun!!!! No- we don't know the rules or any of the players but the excitement and craziness was great. Hopefully we'll be back soon !

Here are some pix: