Pastor Chris

A few weekends ago we headed up to PA again for my brother's ordination and instillation as a PCA pastor. We crammed a lot in to the short weekend and loved the time with ALL my immediate family, both grandparents, and several friends. Here are a few pictures from the weekend... I didn't get any of Katie in her classroom (we visited her at school on Monday), any with Kjerstin and her kiddos, or many other things, but you can get the drift. :)
About 30 seconds after we arrived there were two Cinderellas running all over together. :)
and then a third joined them :)

Gracie had a blast with Grandpa and both her Great-Grandfathers.   
That evening we all went out to eat and since it was Chris' birthday as well as ordination, Kate made party bags for all the kids for at the restaurant - great idea and perfect for helping them make it happily through dinner!

The ballerinas and fairy helping Uncle Chris with his cake :)
After church on Sunday we tried to get some sibling and cousin pictures, but you can see how much interest there was in that... haha!
 
The ordination service Sunday night was really beautiful and meaningful. I wasn't prepared to emotional during it! I thought it was just pregnancy hormones until I realized Kate and all of us sisters (who were sitting together) were tearing up! So thankful and proud of my brother!
Monday morning we went to a petting zoo and park before heading back home...
The park had an exercise loop and the girls were hilarious at each of the stops.
I think they eventually resorted to just picking flowers though ;)

Chalk Festival

Williamsburg had it's second annual chalk festival the other weekend and we had a great time going down and watching the artists, playing in the bouncy house, and checking out the local vendors. We had to leave before most of the pictures were done for naps but we went back later with Nathan's parents to see the final products. It still amazes me what people can do with chalk. There are all different age ranges from kids and preschool groups to professionals. This year's them had something to do with flight in case some of the pictures seem random. :)
(not sure how this one related to the theme...)
A new frozen yogurt place just opened up in town too and their ice cream mascot was there. Evie LOVED him. :)

It looked like rain all day, but thankfully it held off and everyone was able to enjoy the art!

Pumpkin Time!

Even though it was 90 degrees on Sunday, we decided "it's October, we're picking pumpkins". Thankfully several of our friends for up for it was well so we headed across the ferry to our favorite pumpkin patch. The girls had a blast on the ferry and wandering around the HUGE patch with their friends.

I didn't get any pictures of the wandering, but it was fun letting the kids spread out and find the perfect pumpkin. Here are some of them with their finds. :)    
Gracie was BEYOND pleased with her little pumpkin and quite possessive of it. No trading with anyone else for their small pumpkin, she knew which one was hers!
I didn't get any of the pumpkin ice cream that we all thoroughly enjoyed after all our labors, but trust me, it alone was worth the trip across the river. :) Thanks, friends, for joining us! :)

Planes, Boats, and Diggers...

We've been learning a lot about different means of transportation over here the last few weekends, namely planes and boats. :) The other week the Williamsburg Airport (yes, there is one... yes it is super tiny and down a dirt road behind some fields ;)) had a small planes show that was open to the public. We took the girls and they LOVED it. There were maybe 30 different small planes there and planes taking off and landing all the time. They loved watching them all arrive for the show and waving to them. They're actually quite a bit closer than they look in these pictures.
To make it even more exciting, the airport has a fun restaurant and playground where we had lunch (but no pics) AND for the show they had all these mini planes which were, obviously, a huge hit with our girls.

Fearless Gracie's way of getting out of the plane... walk down the wing!
That same weekend Nathan's office chartered a sailing ship (I think it was a schooner) for their office end-of-summer party. I was a little worried about being on a small boat with out real sides for two ours with the girls, but they loved it. Well, Evelyn loved all of it. Gracie loved it once she got over the fact that she had to wear a life jacket. ;) Oh and there were snacks and a real cannon - both things that helped keep it entertaining. :)
Selecting the victim for our cannon firing...
 
Getting ready for it to fire!

Quite pleased (and don't worry, there wasn't a cannon ball in there and these ships are friends ;))...
Gracie's response when they fired back at us - haha!

Such a fun outing, thanks, Daddy's office!! :)

We decided the next weekend since Gracie was already used to the life jacket idea that we'd go rent a row boat at a lake near by. It was a lovely fall day and the girls thought it was great. Row boats I think are in our future for a bit while longer... not sure if we're ready for the whole not-standing-up idea with a canoe. ;)

And of course a stop at Cookout for lunch completed the outing. Grace LOVES ice water in styrofoam cups from restaurants. I think I'm going to stop ordering her food when we go out and just get her ice water. ;) This is what she does the WHOLE time.
I know this is a lot of pictures already, but last transportation themed pics from this month, I promise. The girls are very intrigued by "diggers". They're doing a lot of building in a shopping center near by so Nathan took them to look at the diggers. The purple one was the favorite, as you can see. ;)