Calloway Gardens

"The water looks green" you say? Why yes, you are correct, it's not just a weird reflection. This gross green lake is about as close as it comes to beaches here in GA so we bite the bullet and went. Unfortunately after swimming and swallowing all the grossness, we spent the entire next week being sick. The girls missed two days of school in their first week because everyone was suffering from flu like symptoms and coughing up tons of nastiness. Through deductive reasoning I concluded it was the lake water because my mom was the only one who didn't dunk her head in the water and she wasn't sick at all. If it was just something going around then I think she would have been the first to get sick since she sleeps with the kids. Andrew, myself and Trinity were swimming alot and ended up drinking half the lake and thus we were the sickest. Yes, I Perry Mason-ed the situation. Got some nice family pics though!

This is the life...

Who would want to grow up when this is what you do all day long? Cyri has really got the good life now. With both Trinity and Anaiya gone all day long, Cyri has Grandma's full undivided attention and is loving it! Their day pretty much consists of breakfast, pool time (which usually last for atleast 2 hours), a stroll to the park, lunch then nap. I keep telling my mom that if it's too much she should slow down but she insist it gives her day purpose and gives her good excercise. Grandma's are great!

School days, school days....

Well, this will be a bittersweet year. My girls have such late birthdays that they feel like they have to wait forever before they can go to school so Anaiya was over joyed to finally be going to Kindergarden. Trinity on the other hand enjoys reminding us that this will be her last year in elementary and next year we will have a middle schooler on our hands. I was impressed to hear her say that as a 5th grader she's going to try her best to be a good example at school cause she's now one of the oldest kids at the school. She also said that because Anaiya is in Kindergarden, she wouldn't want someone else to be mean to her little sister so she's going to stick up for little kids being picked on. Yea.....patting myself on the back right now....I've taught her well. Just kidding, I can't take credit--she's just naturally a sweet girl.
Andrew almost can't handle it sometimes, she's already inquiring about when she can shave her legs, pluck her eyebrows and wear make-up. I ofcourse told her she doesn't need to worry about stuff like that yet and just want her to concentrate on doing things that make her feel good and confident about herself. Geez, how fast they grow!
Very proud daddy.

They were so excited to wear their 1st day of school outfits that they picked out.

Some more pretty Chinese girls

I've posted pictures of the girls in these dresses before but I love these dresses and am afraid this might be the last time they wear them so here we are again.

Cyri was rockin' her boots.

Summer Soccer Camp

The summer officially ended with soccor and swim camp. I didn't get pics of the girls at swim camp cause it was while I was working and my mom had to take them but soccor camp was fun. I was able to attend the last day where they had fun tournaments and got to show off some games and skills they had learned. The coach said this was the hottest soccor camp ever cause the class took place in the blazing hot sun from 11am -1pm in the afternoon. Tempatures where over 100 degrees! Trinity showed amazing sportsmanship and was chosen cutest on the team. Anaiya on the other hand didn't enjoy it so much. Anaiya just does not have a competitive bone in her body. As soon as someone was beating her or running faster than her she would just stop and shut down. We had to bribe her with Chuck-e-cheese so she would go the last day with promises of participating.

Cyri and I were so hot sitting in the sun watching the games.

What a zoo!

On Monday we went to this really cool safari zoo. You ride around in this school bus with windows but no glass and the animals come right up to you, stick their heads in your face so you can feed them. They were just your typical zoo animals like zebras, giraffe, bulls, gazelle, ostrage, horses and such but what made it amazing was to be so close to these creatures.

As you can see Cyri was literally leaning so far out the window I was afraid she would fall...but that only lasted until the animals came....this story is to be continued.

This guy was staring down Anaiya for some grub.

You can hand feed the animals but Anaiya was scared and would just put the food on the window ledge.

Ah yes, as I was saying before, Cyri was no where to be found after the animals came. Notice the little head down by Trinity's legs. That would be the baby that once was so eager to jump out of the bus.

And the feeding frenzy continues. They walk right up to you and just open these enormous mouths in your face and expect a treat.

The shorter animals that couldn't reach the windows would try to swipe the food from your hands with their gross long tongues.

To hand feed the giraffe was pretty amazing.

Anaiya eventually worked up enough courage to let the giraffe lick her hand.

This picture almost looks fake.

After the safari ride we went to the other side of the park which had a little farm walk through area.

Happy 4th!

We hope everyone had a safe and fun weekend! We sure had a very full and exhausting schedule but it was well worth it. There is something about celebrating the 4th on an Army post that really makes it all that more patriotic. Probably because of the visual reminders of seeing all the soilders in uniform. I had to work on Saturday so Andrew first took the girls swimming then to the local fair on post. It was fun and surprisingly not very crowded so the kids didn't have to wait very long to get on the rides. After I was done with work we went over to some friends for a BBQ then it was off to watch the fireworks.

A little R&R before all the fireworks begin.

Now you see us...

now you don't.

Saturday was so festive and fun but we did still manage to make it to church the next day--barely. This is the girls on the ride home from church. They were exhausted as you can see.