Had to Wait for Matt to go to work for this one...

So...about two years ago Matt was given a remote controlled airplane for Christmas.  He was excited, Matthew was excited, Ben was excited and Chassie was REALLY excited (chasing shadows of flying things is her most favorite thing ever besides treats and licking herself).  It was a very cute (manly!  Sorry!) yellow cub and looked from the box, fairly easy to fly.  Minimal buttons and switches and whatnot.  So, as soon as we could, we all trekked up to the local school/soccer field to try it out.  

The first 30 seconds went GREAT.  The plane went up, flew around, and we all got so excited that we did not realize how close we were getting to the school building.  (mind you, this soccer field is HUGE.  You have to go pretty far to get to the school building).  Somehow though, the unthinkable happened.  The airplane (COMPLETELY OF ITS OWN ACCORD I was told) flew up and landed in the gutter of the (two story) school gym.  Really high up there.  We all kind of just stood there looking at it for a while...until Ben, master of stating the obvious was like, "UH OH DADDY YOU STICKED DE AIRPLANE IN DE TOP OF DA BUILTINGGG".   Super funny now, not so funny at the time.  Matt glared at the baby and then stomped off toward the car. 

"Uh, honey?  Are you gonna just leave it?  I mean we could try to get it down?"

"OF COURSE I AM NOT GOING TO LEAVE IT. I"M GETTING SUPPLIES"

Supplies.  Hmmm.  I'm thinking ladder?  Maybe?  But no.  Matt, who watches way too many survival shows, comes back with a 20 foot extension cord with one of these tied to it:

and then attempts to lasso the airplane down.  And while he was able to thoroughly clean leaves and debris from the gutters (you are welcome middle school) he came no where near the airplane.  (note: I took one picture of all of this and then received the look of death so I decided to delete and retreat.  Sorry folks, no pics).  So...short story unnecessarily long...the airplane has lived up there ever since.  And Matt has sworn off of RC airplanes FOREVER.  

Except that a few months later, because we all knew that he really loved the airplane...for his birthday he got another one.  Which sat in the closet for another year.   Until finally...after months and months of Ben begging, Matt reluctantly took out of the box and charged up.  

This time?  Was WAY better.  Lesson learned, we stayed awayyyyyy from all buildings/trees/tall things and had a wonderful time flying the airplane.  Matthew brought his flying toy (air hog?) along which is very cool and very durable so the little's were able to play too....Good times!!

Prepping the plane

Chassie chasing shadows

Matthew flew his air hog right off of his head...

Caitlin's turn!

Flaps? Check.  Prop? Check.  Tongue out? Check.  

Matthew helping Ben

Hannah bo

After the airplane had had enough we did a little baseball...

Ben hasn't figured out how to keep his eyes open yet...

Da babies...

Snow Day 2014

Cold but fun!!!!  And enough snow to get all of us out of school and work :)

Matthew unintentially attempting the split...

The snow board gave up when Matt tried to take a turn...

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!!

'