Ella's 10-Year Old Photos

After cancelling Ella's 10-year photo shoot over Spring Break in April and at the beginning of summer in June due to Ron scheduling two, different camping trips with the three younger children, I was finally able to get her into the photo studio before school started today.  Ella chose to wear the new, pink dress we bought her while school shopping earlier this month, and she looked darling all dolled up with her hair curled and new outfit on.  She did a great job posing and smiling for pictures and I am so happy with how they turned out.  Ella is such a cute, spunky, active, 10-year old girl.  I just love this chapter of her life and wish that I could pause it for a few years.  Since I know that this is impossible, I am grateful for these pictures that have captured this time in her life forever.

Logan's 12-Year Old Photos

After cancelling Logan's 12-year photo shoot over Spring Break in April and at the beginning of summer in June due to Ron scheduling two, different camping trips with the three younger children, I was finally able to get him into the photo studio before school started today. Although this is not Logan's favorite thing to do, he was a good sport and put on a casual, cruise outfit (as I call it) to wear for his pictures.  He did a good job, smiling for the photographer, even with his brand new Invisaligns in his mouth.  Logan produced several great pictures for me to choose from and I can't get over how grown up he looked in all of them.  My boy is definitely starting to look like a teenager and it's blowing my mind away!

Annual August Family Trip to Priest Lake

The kids and I just returned from our August, family reunion at Priest Lake.  Everyone was able to make it besides Ron and Sarah, so there were 24 people in total!  We were blessed with warm weather in the 80s all week long and no forest fire smoke, so we were able to enjoy spending lots of time playing outside every day.  We enjoyed all of our usual activities at the lake--swimming, paddle boarding, skiing, tubing, beach play, games and movies in the cabin, and large, group meals with everyone.  Overall, we had a wonderful time and I am grateful for this chance that we have to spend as a family every summer in such a beautiful place.

Callie brought a too-small swimsuit to the cabin to give to Lia.  When it turned out to be too small for Lia, it got passed on to Ella.  We thought it was so funny and cute to see Ella matching both of her young adult cousins.  Here are all three girls posing together in their matching swimsuits.

Ella continues to do amazing gymnastics tricks off of the dock and on the paddleboard.  Here she is doing a cartwheel into the water.

The three boys spent lots of time making creations out of the clay they find buried under the sand.  Here they are posing for me while playing on the beach.

Brynn painted Lia's and Ella's nails one day in the cabin.

The three younger kids all got a kick out of Eric and Brent throwing them into the water.  Here is Logan flying through the air.

Ella taking a turn.  I can't get over how much higher she is than my 6'3" brothers.

Emmett doing a split jump in the air.

Although Logan and Ella tried to go water skiing last month, they had no interest in trying again this month.  And, sadly, Lia never ended up going either which meant she missed water skiing in 2024.  I am learning that my children just do not have the desire to learn how to water ski like I did when I was a child.  However, Chris was able to talk Emmett into trying two different mornings.  With Chris behind the wheel and me in the water, Emmett got up really easily both times, but didn't last standing up that long.  Here is a picture Lia was able to take of him after he first got up.

Ella and I enjoyed paddle boarding several times together this week.

The younger kids all loved playing with Uncle Tip on the water mat. Chris lays on one end of the mat and rolls down to the other end while knocking them off in the water.  It is the funniest game to watch them play.

A huge group of us boated over to one of my favorite beaches at the Northern end of the lake to spend the afternoon one day.  We put four of the boys on the inner tubes to get everyone there in one trip.  

Mommy and kiddos.

I gathered all of the kids once we arrived at the public beach for another grandchild photo on the huge, fallen log that is always there year after year.

Silly pose!

Lia, Emmett, Riley, and Trenton standing inside a little pool that someone had made out of rocks.

A rare sibling photo we managed to take.

Uncle Brent found a really large frog hiding under the log and enjoyed showing it off to all of the kids.  Here is Emmett bravely petting it before it jumped back into the water.

At the end of the week, grandma put on her annual, scavenger hunt.  Here are the boys running up the hill looking for their next clue.  The kids still always get such a kick out of this.

Here are the girls up on the road above the cabin looking for one of their clues.

All of the grandkids hanging out on the deck with their loot after the hunt was over.

At the end of the week, Spencer and Hannah arrived with their sweet baby, Emileigh.  Since this was the first time meeting their baby, my kids just couldn't get enough of her.  Here is Ella holding her with Emmett at her side.

As always, Ella enjoyed doing acroyoga with Hannah and trying out multiple poses.

This is the first summer that Emmett has been big enough to take the paddle board out by himself. It was so fun to watch him paddling around the dock several times this past week.

Spencer offered to take both boys for a motorcycle ride in the neighborhood which they loved.  Here he is with Emmett riding on the front.

And Logan riding on the bike.

Since Chris' and Eric's families had to leave on Sunday morning, we still had two more days at the cabin before leaving on Tuesday, August 21st.  As a result, the kids and I spent a lot of time together on our own while Brent's family did their own thing and grandma and grandpa relaxed at the cabin.  We spent a wonderful, peaceful morning at the public beach past Canoe Point on our last day there.  Here are all four kids standing in the beautiful water in this bay.

Lia's Summer Theater Academy in NYC

Lia and I just returned from an amazing and whirlwind week in NYC.  After attending JTF in Atlanta last January, Lia received an email the following week inviting her to apply for one of the iTheatrics theater academies that this company hosts every summer.  We were both so surprised and flattered by the invitation!  After talking it over, we decided to have her apply just to see what would happen. About six weeks later, we found out that she had been accepted for the one week that she was available to attend this summer.  After talking to my two close friends, Amy and Kerry, who both live on the East Coast and making arrangements for free lodging for six of the seven nights we planned on staying in NYC, we decided that we could afford this trip and so I bought airplane tickets and Lia paid for the academy with her very own money. 

After a very busy summer, Lia came home from girls camp for just two days before heading off to NYC with me.  After a very crazy adventure getting there, we spent a wonderful and fun week going in and out of the city every single day.  We spent the first four nights at my friend, Amy's house, in the town of Pleasantville which is about an hour north of Manhattan.  We then "moved" into the city on Friday morning and spent the next three days playing in the city, both alone and also with Kerry and Lacey.  Lia had an amazing time participating in her theater academy, making some wonderful friends and working with some of the professionals in the Broadway Junior world.  We also enjoyed seeing some great shows, eating some delicious food, visiting some fabulous museums, and seeing some of the other sights and sounds of NYC.  It was such a fun experience for the both of us and I am so grateful that we were able to make this happen!  Here is a rundown of our week...

Monday, August 5th:

After finding out on Saturday, August 3rd, that our flight had been cancelled last minute due to mechanical issues, I had to quickly book us on a red-eye flight to NYC via San Diego.  So after flying all Sunday night and only getting 1 to 2 hours of sleep, we arrived in NYC on Monday morning at 7 a.m.  Amy picked us up at the airport an hour later and then we drove in horrible, rush hour traffic for 1.5 hours to Lia's theater.  We arrived there 35 minutes late for Lia's first rehearsal where she had to dive straight into auditions, after missing introductions, on almost no sleep the night before.  Although I was so excited for her to be there, I felt so bad for the less than ideal circumstances that Lia had to start out this week of rehearsals.  After saying goodbye to Lia, Amy and I then spent the morning in the city running errands and figuring out how I would get Lia home on the public transportation system.  As we began the one hour drive back to Pleasantville, Amy's car began to break down.  After it turned off (while we were driving on the freeway) multiple times, we called Amy's husband to come help us.  It turned out that their car's alternator had failed and needed to be replaced. Luckily, we were able to get the car back to a mechanic shop in their town before catching a ride home with Ken in his car.  Although I was supposed to take the train back into the city to pick up Lia at 5 pm when her rehearsal ended, Amy decided to drive me there since she had to take the entire day off of work due to the delay in getting home with the car problems.  I was so grateful for this as I was really tired from the red-eye flight the night before and wasn't feeling up to making this long trek on my own.  After picking up Lia, I took the picture above of her walking back to Amy's car where she had parked down the street from the theater.

August 6th:

Tuesday was the one day of the week that Amy had planned in advance to take the day off of work while we were staying with her so that she could spend the day in city with me.  After dropping Lia off at rehearsal, we went and picked up Amy's niece, Alea, who was visiting her sister for a few days, to join Amy's daughter, Olivia, who had also decided to come to the city with us.  The four of us first drove down to the Chelsea District to explore the floating park off of a pier in the Hudson River.  Here are Amy and I with the NCY skyline behind us.

Amy, Olivia, and I with the floating park behind us.

After visiting the park, we went to the Chelsea Market to walk around for a little bit.

We then said goodbye to the girls for a few hours and drove over to a restaurant in Central Park called Tavern in the Green where I have wanted to eat for years.  This place has been there for 90 years and is a very iconic restaurant in the city.  Amy and I enjoyed eating a lovely lunch in this beautiful location. 

After we finished lunch, the two of us walked though a portion of Central Park to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we met up with Olivia and Alea.

The outside of the beautiful museum as we headed in to enjoy it for a few ours. Amy and I left the girls at 4:30 to go get the car and pick up Lia from her rehearsal at 5 pm.  We then drove back to get the girls from the museum before heading home.

There had been a storm predicted to arrive on Tuesday and we were lucky to escape it all day long.  However, as we picked up the two girls from the museum, it started to rain.  The one hour drive home turned into a crazy, 2.5 hour drive home as torrential rain began to fall as we crossed the bridge out of Manhattan.  This is what the dark clouds looked like in the distance as were on the bridge.  Although there were warnings of flash flooding, I didn't understand what this meant until the freeway we were taking home was completely shut down due to a section of the road being completely flooded.  This closure caused a huge backup of traffic and a detour that we had to take on and off of the freeway.  Although this added 1.5 hours to our one-hour drive home, the five of us ended up having the most spontaneous, car-dance party during our ride back to Amy's house.  Although we had a great time driving home, we were very grateful to pull up to Amy's house safe and sound at 8 o'clock that evening.

We enjoyed a late pizza dinner back at Amy's house.  Here is a picture I managed to take of Alea, Lia, and Olivia before heading to bed.

August 7th:

This was the first of two days that I took Lia to and from the city both directions.  The entire trip took 3.5 hours taking the train to Grand Central Station, then catching two subways, and then walking about 10 minutes to the theater.  It was quite an adventure figuring this out on my own, and I thoroughly enjoyed the train ride each way.  Here is a picture of Lia on the subway as we headed back to the train station from the theater on Wednesday afternoon.

I was blown away by how beautiful Grand Central Station is and loved being able to show it to Lia.  Here we are in the main lobby before catching our 4:45 train to Pleasantville.

August 8th:

After learning that Amy's town is a neighboring town to Sleepy Hollow, I couldn't resist asking to see if we could visit it one day this week as my kids and I have loved watching the Disney,1949 version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" on Halloween for years.  Luckily, Amy had a break in her work schedule on Thursday and was able to drive me over there after I arrived back to her house after taking Lia to rehearsal.  We enjoyed driving around this beautiful town and finding several landmarks including the cemetery where Washington Irving is buried.

Amy then took me to a park where she likes to go on walks with her dog.  We enjoyed seeing some lovely views of the Hudson River before she dropped me off at the train station in her town so that I could make the 3.5 hour commute to pick up Lia and bring her back to Amy's house.

August 9th:

We packed up our belongings and left Amy's house for good on Friday morning.  Amy was able to take us into the city where I dropped off Lia at her last rehearsal before taking a cab to the hotel where we would be staying for the night with Kerry and Lacey.  After dropping off our suitcases, I ventured back out into the city and spent a few hours walking around Time Square and the Broadway district.  I then went back to Lia's theater to see the first of two performances that day.  The entire cast did an amazing job putting on an hour performance of The Prince of Egypt Junior, especially after only practicing for 4.5 days.  Lia was cast at the Queen's handmaiden and did a great job.  It was so much fun to watch her perform in this venue.

After her first performance, I rushed down to find Kerry and Lacey waiting for me outside the theater.  They had arrived from Baltimore via bus a few hours earlier and had come to meet me after the first show.  We had just enough time to walk back to the Broadway district to purchase tickets at the theater for The Great Gatsby which is one of the shows that Lia really wanted to see that week.  Since I was willing to sit separately from the rest of the group, we were able to snag last-minute tickets for only $40 each.  We then headed back to Lia's theater to watch the second performance of her show at 3:30.  It was so fun to be able to watch it again, especially with Lacey and Kerry.  Here are the four of us posing together after the show was over.

The cute picture I was able to take of Lia as we were leaving outside her theater called The 52nd Street Project.

After grabbing dinner at a pizzaria and enjoying a dessert at a bakery, we headed to the Broadway Theatre to watch the 7 o'clock show of The Great Gatsby.  Here is a picture of the four of us outside the theater.

Although I sat on the other side of the theater than the girls, I joined them at the very beginning for a picture.  We then watched one of the most entertaining Broadway shows of my life.  The singing, the dancing, the costumes, and the sets were all amazing!  We all agreed that it was the best $40 we have spent in our lives.

After the show was over, we tried doing something I have never done before, and it worked! Lia had me ask one of the ushers in the theater where the actors came out if they were signing autographs that night.  I was told where to go right after the show and we managed to secure spots right up against the guardrail.  Within in a few minutes, all five leads of the show came out one at at time to sign autographs and take pictures.  I couldn't get over how easy it was to make this happen.  Lia was so excited to meet everyone, especially one of her all-time, Broadway favorites, Jeremy Jacobs, who played Jay Gatsby.  Here are the girls posing with the actress who played Jordan Baker.

After leaving the theater, the four of us walked to Times Square to see it all lit up in its night time glory before heading back to our hotel after a very long day!

August 10th:

After a late night, the four of us got up early to get ready and head back out into the city for our second day together.  After grabbing breakfast at a bakery, we headed over to Radio City Music Hall for our 10:30 behind-the-scenes tour of the Rockettes.  Kerry suggested this tour and it turned out to be so interesting and fun.  Although the Rockettes only perform during the holiday season, we were able to meet one to ask questions and to take pictures with her as part of the tour.

We finished the Rockettes tour right at lunch time which was perfect timing to walk over to Ellen's Stardust Diner in Times Square.  This is an iconic, 50s diner-style restaurant where the waiters and waitress sing and dance to Broadway songs while waiting on tables.  It was absolutely amazing to listen to their incredible voices while eating our lunch.

After we finished lunch, we walked around Time Square again and took some pictures on the iconic, red steps.

We then took the subway to the Harry Potter store in NYC that opened the summer after Lia and I last visited.  There are only two Harry Potter stores in the world--one in NYC and one in London and I have wanted to visit it ever since I read about its opening in 2021.  It is a massive, two-story store and it reminds me of what a gift shop would look like if you combined all of the shops from the Harry Potter theme park in Universal Studios into one store.  We had such a great time exploring it!  Here are Lia and Lacey standing in front of its main entrance.

Lia and Lacey posing inside the British telephone booth inside.

We then walked just a few blocks to visit the Strand Bookstore which was Lacey's request.  This is the largest bookstore in NYC and the girls absolutely loved wandering around this place since they are both such avid readers.  My feet were aching from so much walking the past two days, so I found a cozy chair on the third floor to relax in while the rest of the girls explored the store.  This is the cute picture that Kerry took of us after they found me.

After exploring the bookstore, the four of us returned to our hotel to check out and say our goodbyes as Kerry and Lacey had to catch their 5 p.m. bus ride back home.  For the first time since we arrived in the city on Friday morning, Lia and I were able to rest for about two hours after checking into our new hotel for our last night in the city.  We left about 6:30 to head out for the evening.  By total luck, our new hotel was just a few blocks away from the Walter Kerr Theatre where the Broadway show, HadesTown, is currently playing.  This is the show that Lia has wanted to see for the past year, so I agreed to buy her tickets as one of her Easter gifts.  Luckily, Amy and the rest of her family also wanted to see it, so the four of them drove down from Pleasantville to join us for the evening which was so fun.  Here are Lia and me outside the theater before the show began.

This was the darling pose that Lia did in front of the main sign outside the theater.  She chose to buy this dress and the red flower clip in her hair specifically to wear to this show.

Amy and Ken and their kids joined us a few minutes after we arrived at the theater for the 8 o'clock performance.  We had the most amazing seats on the 7th row of the main floor.  It was so amazing to be this close to a Broadway show and to see one of Lia's other favorite actors, Jordan Fisher, deliver such an amazing performance as Orpheus.

The group pictures we were able to get outside the theater after the show was over.  We sadly said goodbye to Amy and her family before walking back to our hotel at almost midnight.

August 11th:

We woke up on our last morning in NYC and packed up and checked out of our hotel.  After grabbing breakfast at another bakery, we walked several blocks to visit the Museum of Broadway which had been one of Lia's requests for the week.  I had never heard of this museum until one of Lia's theater friends had visited it the summer before.  As a musical theater fan, it is a fascinating museum to visit as it contains costumes, props, and other memorabilia from many Broadway shows over the decades.  Lia and I absolutely loved our visit there!

Lia and I posing next to two of the costumes from the original production of Hamilton.

After spending the morning at the museum, Lia and I walked along a section of 5th Avenue and stopped to visit St. Patrick's Cathedral.

From 5th Avenue, we walked over to Rockefeller Plaza where they currently have a big display set up for the 2024 Olympics taking place in Paris.  I then took Lia to the American Girl Doll store which is right off of Rockefeller Plaza to wander around that amazing, flag ship store that we visited together in 2021.  From there, we walked back to Time Square were we ate another pizza lunch and walked through the Disney Store and M&M Store.  At about two o'clock, we decided to head back to our hotel to pick up our bags and catch a cab to the airport for our 6 p.m. flight home.  We made it home safely that night and were so grateful to see Ron when he arrived at the airport to pick us up late that evening.  Overall, Lia and I had the best time in NYC and I am so grateful that we were able to make this special trip together.