Done with Training Wheels

 Mike has been working with the girls to get the training wheels off their bikes. (Ethan has been without his for quite some time.)

 Mia finally rode without them. She's our cautious one, and it can take some convincing to get her to try new things. The plus side is that she NEVER gets hurt. I don't have to worry about her being a dare devil, unlike her brother.

 Riley was excited to try. She did tip over a few times but she has it mastered!

She was so proud of herself!

Last Day of Kindergarten

 Summer vacation has begun! As you can tell, they were very excited for this day! Seeing Mia's long hair makes me want to grow it out again.

I forgot I had these pictures, so this post is a month late. Better late than never!

Riding Horses

Mike's uncle and cousin live in Aberdeen and they run a horse training business. They were gracious enough to let us come out and ride their horses. The kids were so excited!

His cousin told us that the owners of this brown horse have all ready spent $60,000 on him with all of the training and boarding. Absolutely crazy!

Look at her face. She was over the moon. She's a natural. It costs about $400+ a month to board a horse. Sorry, Mia. We'll buy you a horse when we win the lottery.

It was pretty dusty in the riding coral. They do take the horses outside and on trail rides, but it's easier to train them here.

Ethan was a typical boy and was filthy dirty by the time we left. The kids had such a good time. It makes me want to move to a farm and have a bunch of animals! If only I could convince Mike...

Storybook Land

 We made it to Aberdeen this summer and had to visit Storybook Land. I have fond memories of this place when I was younger. My grandma lived close to Aberdeen, and we came here a couple times per year growing up. It's exactly as I remembered!

  These three are ALWAYS hungry. You wouldn't believe how much they can eat. We had to hit up the snack bar right when we walked in.

 I loved the castle when I was little. The kids got a kick out of it.

 You can see Mia giggling at me. They had fun with these mirrors.

 I'm sure Mark is going to love this photo. I had to include it.

We had to get one of Mike as well.

 The kids went on a few rides. They had quite a bit of fun.

 We took a train ride. It felt good to sit down and rest. It was very very hot that day.

Trying to get a family picture. It was a little bright out!

Swamp Tour

 One of the things I was most excited for was going on a Swamp Tour.

We initially signed up for the Air boat tour. They told me that I could ride even though I was pregnant. Well, right before I got on the boat, the manager stopped me and told me I couldn't ride on the Air boat. It had something to do with Coast Guard regulations. Our tour guide felt bad since it was his company that said I could ride. I was really disappointed. We drove over an hour to get to the bayou. I told Mike to go ahead and I sat in the waiting area for an hour and a half. He said he had a blast. :)

 I found another Swamp tour that used pontoon boats and they allowed pregnant women to ride. Later that afternoon, we went on another swamp tour.

 The bayou is so neat. There's Spanish moss everywhere. I definitely would not want to be in the water!

Ladies, this is the tree that Brad Pitt touched in the movie, "Interview with a Vampire."

 There are wild pigs everywhere. Someone released some pigs in the bayou several decades ago, and they've thrived and reproduced like crazy. The tour guide said they ruin a lot of native vegetation due to all of the rooting they do.

 The tour guide yelled, "here piggy" and they came running. He feeds them marshmallows and they absolutely love them.


The big momma pigs came running to get some marshmallows as well. There was a feeding frenzy going on!


The tour guide has trained the big pigs to jump up on the boat to eat marshmallows. A split second before they jumped, he turned to Mike and me and said, "you two are going to get dirty." Sure enough, when these pigs jumped on the boat, Mike and I were sprayed with dirty muddy water. We just laughed because there wasn't much else to say!

The pigs were having a grand time being fed when one of the big pigs started squealing as loud as she could. All of the babies and the big pigs too ran for land. We turned around and saw this guy coming. The tour guide said that the big pigs can sense when the alligators are near.

 Alligators are so quiet and so fast. They can hide underwater and hold their breath for two hours. They're fascinating animals!

We saw dozens of them that day. There were quite a few monstrous ones too. They also like marshmallows and will eat hot dogs as well. They used to feed them chicken but the alligators were getting too aggressive and trying to hop in the tour boats. I really enjoyed the swamp tour! I'd highly recommend it if you are ever in New Orleans.

New Orleans Trip

 Mike had a work conference in New Orleans this year. We decided to make a mini-vacation out of it and stayed for four days. It's such a neat city. We walked along the Mississippi river, which was very close to our hotel. The water was very dirty. Actually, the entire city is very dirty.

 It was lined with huge boats and cranes. The Mississippi River is a huge part of New Orleans. Most of the people work along the River. After Katrina, many people didn't see the advantages of rebuilding New Orleans, but a tour guide told us that the reason it was rebuilt was because of the River. Homeland Security didn't want to lose this important port.

 We took a haunted house tour. It was pretty fun. We met at a Voo Doo shop which is the picture above. They had some pretty weird stuff in there.

 It was 90+ degrees and so so humid. I couldn't even enjoy an ice-cold beer, either. Poor Mike. He was vacationing in one of the biggest party cities in the United States with his pregnant wife.

 I loved the architecture of the city. The guide told us that property in the French Quarter is $10,000 per square foot. If the residents want to repaint the outside of their homes, they have to get permits and okay it with the city.

 This is a picture of one of the oldest bars in the United States. It's also very haunted, or so they say.

 The inside was pretty dark and dingy. It had air-conditioning, so that's all I cared about. I did have a non-alcoholic hurricane and it tasted awesome!

 This property used to be owned by Nicholas Cage. If you've seen, "American Horror Story", they have a story based upon the lady who used to live here. She tortured slaves and did unspeakable things to them. It's supposedly very haunted.

I had to include this picture of Spanish moss. It's so pretty.