Photography Session

Here's the rest of the photos from our photography session.

Drummond Island, MI

We visited my parents in MI this past week. And since 11 ½ hrs of driving wasn’t enough, we thought we’d hop in the car for another 5 ½ and make it an even 17 hrs driving North with 3 kids.

We drove to Drummond Island, which is in the Upper Penninsula near Canada. Or, for the Michigan natives, we went Up North. Growing up, my family would go to DI every summer for extended periods of time. My sister and her boys have been hiding out on DI for the past 6 weeks while their house is on the market. The only thing worse than their 11 hr trip, is trying to show a house with 4 napping boys. So we gathered our ‘cold weather clothes’ and joined them for fun.


It was kid paradise. My parents have their cabin rigged up with every outdoor toy a kid could dream of. In Cameron’s words it was “totally, totally, totally awesome!”


 Tubing with Aunt Stephie was Jackie's favorite part of the trip! She kept signalling to Grandpa to speed up while Steph wanted Grandpa to slow down. I think they both laughed the whole time they were tubing. Steph even convinced Jackie to try to water ski!


A typical day on DI: oatmeal prepared by Grandpa, riding up and down the hill in the tractor and/or golf cart, berry picking along the road (w or w/o multiple bee stings), swimming in Lake Huron and playing in the sand for a few hrs, lunch, naps, jet skiing, tubing, swinging, riding 4-wheelers, dinner, frog & turtle hunting, campfire and s’mores, fall into bed. Somedays, we added in fishing.

 As many of you know, Lucy is not a fan of the water. Grandpa and Grandma were able to coax her in after a few days and she did great!

  Lucy was initially petrified of the boat and water and did an amazing job overcoming her fear!

 Lucy and Cameron loved fishing! Cameron caught a little fish, but it got away before he could reel it in.

 Jackie's version of fishing is very similiar to mine!

 Jackie thought it was the coolest thing to be able to drive Gma and Gpa's golf cart. She wanted to give everyone rides.

 When it was time to travel back to NC, the kids were so wiped out they napped a huge part of the drive. And I was thankful! It was a great time visiting my family and wonderful to see all the cousins having so much fun together!

Dead Broke Farms

We decided to break the pool party tradition this year and celebrated Cameron's birthday at Dead Broke Farms.

Warm-up included getting tossed off the merry-go-round at least once for every kid. The irony is that we signed a waiver to ride the horses & couldn't even wear our own helmets. But the kids all got tossed off the merry-go-round, some with minor injuries. And yet, they all got back on again and again!

We asked how the farm got the name Dead Broke Farms. Apparently the horses are so easy to ride, they are considered 'dead broke'.
I have to thank Julie for all the pictures. Since I was coordinating the party, I didn't get many pictures. This one of Anna Kate and Olivia was one of my favorites.

After each kid got saddled up, we were off for a 30 min guided ride through the the woods of North Raleigh.

First, all the horses got watered. It was hot!

It was a beautiful walk and a welcome change from yet another pool party.

Of all the kids, I think Leigh was most excited about horse-back riding. Buttercup was her favorite horse. She's decided this is the sport for her!

Lucy still remembers the name of her horse - Brandy!

This is the third car-themed birthday cake. The boy loves his wheels.

We had to fake blow out candles b/c it was too windy. But the birthday boy didn't mind.

Happy FIFTH birthday CamO!

Extreme Michigan

Our babies

For the first time ever, we had professional photos taken. I think there's some good stuff here!

Our local photographer was Heba Salama, the season 6 at-home winner of The Biggest Loser. Check out her website http://www.hebasalama.com/. She was fantastic to work with! The best part is that we discovered a great new location for photos- UNC Coker Arboretum.