Best Buddy, Braydon

For the past five years, these two little boys have been best buddies. Although they are quite different in many ways, they love each other, will miss each other greatly. Besides cousin friends, Braydon was Garrett's first best friend. Many of Garrett's memories of the the past five years include Braydon. Sad day for Garrett.

All the good times are coming to an end, Braydon's family has moved to Seattle for work. But Garrett is not the only one who will suffer due to the move of the Hansens, Leeanne, Braydon's mom is one of my dearest friends in Manassas. She was my visiting teacher for years, and a true and caring friend. I always enjoyed seating on the Hansens front porch and talking things through with Leeann. Her wisdom and Christlike ways have inspired me to be a better mom, wife, sister and friend. Sad day for me.

Braydon's older sister, Tieona, and Shaylyn have been favored baby sitters among our children. We will all miss the friendship of the Hansen family tremendously, but wish them well on moving back to the west coast.

I love the many CRAZY faces of Braydon. This kid cracks me up. He can say and do the funniest things. Even though, he is half the size of Garrett, he wrestles him with no fear or hesitation.

Once again...

I have fallen behind in my blogging. So here come about six posts to cover the past month.

Grandma Hatch came out to watch the kids while Keith and I went to New York City for 4 days. I don't know who had a better time me, or the kids?

We stayed at the Hilton right off 5th Ave, so we had a great time shopping and walking Time Square, and Central Park, with very little exhaustion to me. As luck would have it, after checking out the Natural History Museum, I sat down on a bench to rest then got up, and walked away. Less than a minute later I realized that I didn't have my camera, but when we went back there was not sign of it. We checked inside, hoping that I left it in the Whale Room, which by the way does look just like the movie, Night in the Museum, but no luck. I'm bummed about all the great picture I had taken with my little powershot camera, but the camera took a dip in the ocean last year while we were at Outer Banks, and has never worked right since.

Therefore, no pictures of N Y.

Huge thank you to Grandma Hatch for watching the kids, helping with the quilt, and loving on the kids. Kendall cried the whole way home from the airport after we dropped you off, "I miss my Grandma."

On the way home....

We realized that we could just pull over in the empty parking lot at McCarthy Tire to see all the fireworks from our car. Taryn fell asleep so Keith pulled the other kids out, put their PJ's on, and put them on the hood to watch the show. As the fireworks ended, we hopped in our car and was home in ten minutes. Nice!

4th of July with the Beatty's

This year we once again had high hopes of going into watch the fireworks on the mall, but just could bring ourselves to do it. Between me being huge and pregnant, the heat, three small children that require a lot of junk, and the crowds, we decided to save ourselves the misery and stay closer to home. Thank heavens for good friends like the Beatty's who like to party and do it well. We joined in on their BBQ, slip and slide, pre-fireworks show, and overall good time.
Taryn had no fear trying out the slip and slide even with the many big kids cruising down the giant tarp. She probable figured she has nothing to lose with her arm already broken and it double use at a weapon.

Garrett enjoyed the fun, but as usual, Kendall avoided the crowds by staying on the swing set.

After dinner we enjoyed a little sparkle fun. We had to give Taryn a time out from the sparklers for trying to touch the hot end. She took it hard as you can see.

The Kunz family and cousins provided a fantastic pre-show for the kids in the street. As you can see my kids took a front seat and loved every minute.

HUGE thanks to the Beatty's for always letting us join in on the fun. Beatty's know how to have a great party. But due to my large size and general exhaustion, we decided to avoid the traffic and head home as the Signal Hill Park fireworks were just beginning.