And another Summer ends...

So another summer has come and gone. I am always sad to see it go. I enjoy spending time with my children more than anything else. I love to take them to see and do as many things as possible, so we made sure to have an action packed summer! They are growing up so fast, I don't want to miss a thing. We visited 7 states this summer! We started out summer with a camping trip to Edisto Island State Park in the South Carolina . We took the RV, and went with Mema and Denise and the boys. We had a great time, and enjoyed staying at such a BEAUTIFUL place!!

Second stop, camping at FDR State Park with all our good friends. This has become an annual event for us. We always have so much fun! We took the RV for the week and visited Callaway Gardens, The Liberty Bell Pool and hiking trails.

After our second camping trip, we enjoyed a wonderful week at vacation bible school, before heading off to the Big Easy to spend the week with my cousin and see the sights! We had never been to Louisiana before, so it was a first for us all. My cousin, who I grew up with, moved to Louisiana 13 years ago. She comes here to visit once a year, but we had never been there! She so kindly invited us into her home, cooked, cleaned and "tour guided" us around for 5 days! We had the most amazing time! She took us to Baton Rouge to the State Capitol, to LSU to see Mike the Tiger, to tour New Orleans, to the Mississippi River, on a 2 hour swamp boat tour and sooo much more! I think this was my favorite trip of the summer! For more pictures and details, see my cousins blog post:

 http://thebayhamfamily.blogspot.com/2013/07/and-then-not-so-lazy-days-of-summer.html

After our trip to Louisiana, we came home for a couple of weeks. Then the next stop on our list was to visit my best friend Nicole. She lives at Camp Lejuene in North Carolina on a marine base. The kids really like visiting the base, it's like a whole different world. Her house is only 15 minutes from the beach, and she has a pool. So we were set! We bought fresh shrimp and blue crab from the market, went swimming, and just hung out! It was a relaxing trip. We also were able to meet another Banana! (If you don't know who the Banana's are- it's a group of 10 women that I met on the internet 2 years ago that all have babies born in July of 2011. I have met 5 of them.)

When we got back from North Carolina, we packed up the camper and took it to Saint George Island State Park for the week. This was our only trip Kevin could go on, so this was our "family vacation". This is truly a beautiful island! It rained a LOT while we were there, but we got to spend a lot of great family time together and rest and relax! We visited the light house, rode bikes, explored the beach, had a fresh shrimp low country boil, and visited the surrounding cities! The bridges in the are are great! Several 4 to 5 mile bridges connect the land, and we enjoyed driving over them! 

Our last trip of the summer, we went out with a bang! I only THOUGHT I was tired, until we returned home from our Six Flags / White Water adventure! My crazy 2 friends and I decided to use our free Six Flags reading tickets, spend the night in Atlanta, and hit up White Water the next Day! We had a great time, and the kids loved it! We finished up our adventure with a trip to the Varsity on the way home. I think next year, we will plan this adventure at the beginning of the summer, not the end!

I feel so blessed to have been able to take my children all over the place this summer! I am sad to see summer go, but I can now return to blogging, cooking, couponing and running. I am also going to enjoy my precious time I have with sweet Kennedy!