4th of July 2010

We had a great 4th of July this year.  It was actually spread out over two days.  Around Charlotte, the parades and firework displays were actually on the 3rd so we started our celebrations early.  We attended the parade in Harrisburg, followed by a late breakfast at IHOP.  Then we went home for naps and ended up on Lake Norman on the boat for the fireworks display.  I'll say that cruising the lake after dark was QUITE the experience and crazy busy, but in the end we had a great day!

Katelynn and her friend Camryn waiting for candy to be thrown.

On the 4th, we had a low-key day with a cookout at Jonathan's parents and Katelynn got to try out her very first sparklers.  The first dozen went well, but then she got a little crazy and ended up burning her hand... I guess that's a classic thing to happen with darn sparklers!

Busy June Month with Miller Boys!

June was a very busy month for us!  Jonathan's youngest brother, Matt, returned from a 6-month stay in Sweden and Daniel (who lives in Michigan) came down for a week long visit.  We had that week packed full of activities!  Our first stop when Daniel got here was a visit to Great Wolf Lodge (which we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE and are so lucky to have it only five minutes from our house), followed by trips to the mall, boating, bowling, movies.. and probably more that has slipped my mind two months later.  It was so much fun to all get together in one state!

Katelynn got daring and tried a big waterslide all by herself!  I was so proud of her!!  She did it twice before she flipped the wrong way and got too scared to do it again.

This was Justin's first time bowling.  I couldn't believe they had rental shoes his size- VERY CUTE! 

Father's Day!

We spent this Father's Day on the boat, which is what Jonathan loves to do most of all as a family.  My mom was here for the weekend so she came along and we got Katelynn and Justin to go tubing!  This was Justin's first time and the first time Katelynn has went and loved it!

Memorial Weekend in Georgia

Jonathan started traveling near the end of May so the kids and I took advantage of it and headed to my parent's house in Georgia for Memorial Weekend.  Katelynn was super excited to swim in their pool, and we took a trip to the Atlanta GA Aquarium, which was pretty neat!

The Miller Family's Month of May 2010

The month of May we spent a lot of time outdoors.  The weather was perfect, nice and warm but not hot.  We played with bubbles, on the swingset, and took family bike rides on the greenway trail behind our house.  We even found a great path to go take the sidewalk home and stop at the ice cream shop on the way home!  We didn't spend much time at the pool just yet, but the kids did enjoy the sprinkler and hose quite a bit!  May is such a fun month when you live in North Carolina!!  The weather is soo perfect!

And how could I forget strawberry picking?  Since Katelynn has been born, it's been a regular tradition to go once a year and pick our own strawberries.  This was Justin's second year attending, but he was too little last year to participate.  This year I couldn't stop him from eating strawberries.  He was grabbing them and eating them without even picking them off the vine!

Katelynn's Big Dance Recital!

After returning home from our cruise, we jumped right into Katelynn's dance recital weekend.  Katelynn LOVED dancing on stage with her friends, and it might have been the cutest recital I have ever seen (Of course since it was my daughter's very first!)!  Both sets of Grandparents were in attendance and so was one of Katelynn and Justin's great-grandmas (Norma's mom).  In the group shots, Katelynn is the last one on the right side.

Our little ballerina with her flowers for doing such a great job!

She of course put on her own dancing show afterwards.. trying to copy moves she had seen the older dancers doing during the recital.

Our little family <3

Vacation (Day 4): Castaway Cay

The third day of our cruise was a port stop at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.  The island was amazing!  No pictures could do it justice.  It was beautiful.  The water was two shades of aqua and blue and it was so clear you could see your feet when you were in the water swimming.  Everything was within walking distance, and they had all kinds of rental equipment and activities going on at the island.  They even served free lunch on the island instead of having us get back on the ship like we have to do at different ports.  And even more awesome was that the island was only populated with employees of Disney and the guests aboard the Disney Wonder Cruise Ship!  We didn't have to deal with any locals bugging us like we did in Nassau.  The weather was beautiful that day, and we enjoyed every minute of our time on the island relaxing on the beach, swimming in the water, and playing in the sand. 

These first pictures are the view of the island we had from our balcony off our room.  When we woke up that morning, we were already at dock and we had a great view of the island!

I forget the name of this ship but it was in Pirates of the Carribean apparently?

On our walk to the beach, we stopped to take a picture with Captain Jack Sparrow.  Justin wasn't really scared of him; he was just wanting to get back down and play in the sand, which is what he had been doing while waiting in line to see Captain Jack.

The line was a little long to see Minnie Mouse, but Pluto was right next to her and was a short enough line that we stopped to say hi to him too!  That's our cruise ship in the background (and the side of the boat that our room was on too!)

We finally made it to the beach and the kids dove into the sand. 

I have no idea what Justin's plan was, but he was pretty set on sticking his head in the sand.  He did it over and over again for a good two minutes.

It made him have a pretty sandy head!

Katelynn didn't ever want to stop for pictures.  She was way too busy making her sand castles and "dancing" around in the water.

I had to put this picture in- this was Katelynn's sandy bum after hanging out in the sand for hours.

While Justin was napping on the beach, Jonathan and Katelynn were swimming.  They came up from the water to show me what had been hanging out on Jonathan's back.  He said that he didn't even feel or notice the crab until a little boy walked up to him and was staring at his back, half scared out of his mind but way too interested to turn his head away.

The beach had a ton of hammocks all around that you could lounge in.  Two people around us (adults) fell out of them trying to get in them.  It was a pretty funny sight to see!

These were some painted rocks right off the beach!

After spending a good five to six hours out in the sun, we went back to our room, showered and got ready for the last big show of the cruise.  Every night at 6 pm we saw a Disney themed show, but that night was probably the best one.  It was a show about believing in your dreams and performed all different parts to different Disney movies.  Katelynn saw lots of her favorite princesses in that show!  When we got back from the show, the kids had a swan towel waiting for them!  These towel animals never got old to them!

At the end of the night, they did a "farewell" party and had most of the characters all in one place.  We were able to see some of them before the end of the party.

And then once again, everyone crashed HARD!