Phase 10 at the Cabin...

Our Phase 10 crew got together for a summer overnight getaway at Michele's family cabin to play as many rounds of Phase 10 as we could get in. Phase 10 is a card game that could take several hours depending on how many people are playing and how quickly they get phases. Typically when we get together to play for an evening we only get one game in, so we were all excited for the extra time together.

We arrived at lunch time and enjoyed the cabin's deck, gorgeous weather and scenery of being right on the lake.

After lunch it was game time.

Lots of healthy game time snacks.

Sarah was the winner of our first game. She was so excited as this was her first time winning a game. We each have won a game and Sarah was the last one to get her name on the shirt. We have made it a tradition that when someone wins the game they sign everyone's shirt and date it.

After our first game and dinner we all got our shirts on and of course had to take a group shot, which was one of the best parts. These girls are hilarious!

Our evening game was much slower. We were all getting tired and not getting our phases quickly, but we still had quite a few laughs. Michele was the winner of this round.

We had a really good time away together. We all enjoy the game, but mainly the company we get to play it with.

Braydenism...

You know your 6 year old might need a break from electronics when they ask the front desk clerk at the hotel you are staying at, "Do you have strong Wifi here?"

Home...

It was amazing to be away from home for the 2-1/2 weeks this summer, away from our day-to-day life in New Jersey. We were so thankful to be with both of our families, but in two very different locations in North Carolina.

Kids were exhausted and had a good sleep driving home.

However, it was so wonderful to be back home. Being home again, we couldn't have been happier.
It is right where we belong.

Corolla and James Got Talent Show...

We had our first "James Got Talent" show on vacation with new up and coming talent.

Aunt Susie was the producer. She did an incredible job putting on the show.

The kids had a practice session, made the sign for the show, as well as tickets for all those attending.

First up was Sammy James who is 5 years old. Sammy chose to sing "Eye of the Tiger". He really showed us he had the eye of the tiger when he belted out the chorus. This kid screams ROCK-N-ROLL!

Brayden James who is 6 years old was second to perform singing "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. He has become a little Beatles fan because the 2nd-5th graders put on a concert this year with the Beatles as the theme. He really gave it his all on the chorus.

Sophia Reise, age 7, choose to perform "Let It Go". She was so inspired by the movie Frozen and you could tell it from her performance. She had amazing poise. Her movement and voice were flawless during the performance.

Sarah James, age 13, was last to perform. She was a bit hesitant to sign up for the talent show, but she agreed with the promise of a Krispy Kreme from the producer. Sarah performed Taylor Swift's "Never Grow Up". It was an emotional performance, especially for mom, but AMAZING none the less. Sarah has such an incredible voice, I could listen to her all night.

For the grand finale they performed "Everything Is Awesome" from the Lego movie, had Grandma join them for "Happy" and then everyone joined in on "Can't Touch This". The dads have some interesting moves.

It really was an incredible show. These kids really do got talent and I hope they never stop showing it off.

Corolla and the aquarium...

On Tuesday we went to the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island with John, Susie and the boys. It was an hour away from our house, but we made a day of it and had a lot of fun.

Who knew that aquariums and dinosaurs had so much in common? We didn't, but we walked through their animated dinosaur area, which was pretty cool. 

Tri-sarah-tops, she came up with that herself.

Digging for dinosaur bones.

Whose afraid of this BIG BAD T-Rex? Not this kid!

Next stop was the aquarium where the kids each got a turn to spin the shark trivia wheel to get a shark tooth. With a little help from the dads, they all got their own shark tooth.

 

They had a sea turtle hospital where they take in sick sea turtles and help them recover. The boys got to ask any questions they had about sea turtles. Brayden and Sammy then became special sea turtle technicians at the sea turtle center where they got to help diagnosis and treat their sick sea turtle and release them back into the ocean.

We also got to touch stingrays, watch them get fed, as well as touch starfish and hermit crabs. 

The last exhibit we watched 2 scuba divers who were in the large tank with fish and sharks. Really cool! We could ask the main diver any question about sharks or the tank. He had a microphone and could talk to us from inside the tank answering our questions.

The black and white stick is used so that the sharks keep their distance from the divers.

The guys got this picture taken half-way through our time at the aquarium.

We stopped to look at it as we were leaving and decided we all needed to get in the picture, so went back and got group/family shots taken as well. Stephen was fast asleep, which is why he isn't in any of them.

On our way out Sammy and Brayden got into this hurricane simulator. They thought it was pretty cool. We just laughed at them and their reaction.