Best Family Weekend

First of all...HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! Thus begins the biggest birthday month in the Hertz Family. We kicked it off a little early with a big family reunion at Mom and Dads and it was FUN!! We had 25 people there! The cousins had a wonderful time getting to know one another while the parents swapped stories about what we've all been up to. I managed to take 153 pictures, but im pretty sure blogger would cancel my account if I tried to post them all at once, so this may take a couple of days :).

When we first got there Grandpa had set up the slip and slide and was in the process of setting up the baby pool for the kids-and they were all excited! Here are some highlights:

There were also squirt guns...intended for the kids...but often abused by the adults (Uncle Gus):

Uncle Gus terrorizing his own children....

Lil' Gustav out for revenge....

Matthew is about to squirt Grandpa...who has no idea. Uncle Stephen looks like he's trying not to laugh...

After all that excitement it was time to eat! And boy did we eat-mom had so much good food (stored in her be-yew-tiful new fridge :))...in addition to all the deliciousness that Andree brought-I will be dieting for months to recover!

Little Termites!

That is one tired little boy....

Sarah...who is as sweet as she is adorable!

SOPHIA!!!

Later that night we had a big crawfish boil-courtesy of Gus and Steph and Steve and Jen...it was so fun!! (Matthew was a bit traumatized by the fact that when it started the "mudbugs" were alive and well, but after being put in the pot...they were dead. Caitlin had no problem with the whole thing and kept asking for more)

Crawfish hottub. Really hot tub.
Overlooking Uncle Gus cooking the crawfishDinner's on!
Um...mom? I think there's something wrong with this one...He's not moving anymore!

Caitlin was facinated! I think she preferred them after they were cooked...much less wiggly-

The rest of the visit was just fun fun fun! Caitlin and Callie played a lot and even had matching bathing suits! Matthew just ran around like a crazy man. These next pictures are just a sample of all the fun-

Dad and his (second) favorite dog....

All right, thats enough for now. More later...maybe.

New Trick

We are getting closer to walking! I walked in this morning to check on her (she was making all sorts of noise when she was *supposed* to be napping) and this is what I saw:

So I layed her down, told her to go night night...and i could tell she was really listening because this

is what I saw when I walked back in! The problem (aside from the whole not listening thing) is that she doesn't know how to get down, so she just has to stand there till someone comes in and rescues her. And she does this again, and again, and again! I must have put her to bed 10 times this morning.

Kinda reminds you of this, doesn't it?

Grandma and Grandpa visit

Yesterday Grandma and Grandpa and Killie and Bennie flew in the Mooney to visit...we had such a good time! Apparently the dogs saw Grandpa pulling the airplane out and went crazy! Any thoughts they had of not taking the dogs disappeared. We were so glad they came too-

Lunch was delicious and the company was even better. I can't wait till they come over again!

Hannah Bo eyeing Grandpa's pasta salad....

Grandma and Hannah

Father's Day

Father's Day around here started early Saturday morning-I decided that it was time to get Matt a new TV, so we spent all day long shopping and ended up with this:

And you can see who _really_ likes it:

Nothing like watching Mickey on the big (?) screen right?

Sunday Morning Matt took the big kids swimming-they are doing so well! They can swim without waterwings across the shallow end (which they are not quite tall enough to reach) and have learned how to swim under and come up for breaths (important skill) and then keep on swimming.

Here they are with daddy lifeguarding:




This was just a random picture I took of the three of them...

St. Simons

Two beach trips within a month! I wish I could say that I was "beached out"...but no-I miss St. Simons already! This year was supposed to be our last at this particular conference but they all had a meeting and decided to do it again next year!! Im already counting down the days...

We had so much fun this year! We have really gotten to know our way around and where all the fun places to go are (aside from the beach and pool of course ). The kids favorite part of it was probably swimming in the pool without water wings-it was shallow enough to allow them to stand up and when they got tired instead of relying on me to catch them so they loved the freedom of it. Hannah liked it too-as long as the water was warm...which it was!! REALLY warm. Even the ocean was like bath water...(a little ew, but whatever). Hannah was scared of the waves though..It was noisy and a little intimidating to her, so every time we would go near it she would just cuddle up to me and bury her head in my shoulder-lil' sweet thing!

Everyone slept well there-Hannah had a closet all to herself and Caitlin and Matthew shared a big kid room-and so it felt like we had plenty of space when we needed a break from the sun. During that time C and M learned how to (sort of) play yahtzee and monopoly. Its so great that they are getting big enough to play games with!

All in all it was wonderful! We just love St. Simons....here are some pictures!




Laying out...and digging.
Hanging out with daddy in the waves! They managed to find a ton of little crabs and sand dollars-I guess the warm temperatures brought everyone out to play :)
Caitlin at the beach
Hannah eating at one of the restaurants-she loves french fries!
At the playground by the pier...
Eating after a long day at the beach!
"No pictures here please!"
Mommy and The Babies
Daddy and Caitlin and Matthew. In their new bathing suits. Which we had to buy first thing because mommy forgot to pack them.

This crocodile (alligator?) was swimming around skippers fish camp..where we had dinner...(it was right on the water)...hoping that someone was going to fall in...yikes!
At the pool! These shots are a little blurry...I think my camera was sweating :)

The fam...(the crocodile/alligator was right below us)
Lil' Caitlin. Doing her latest camera smile-

Rub a Dub Dub, Three...

...babies in the tub!!

Happy Birthday...Dragons!

Today we decided to celebrate Mr. Diamond and Fire's birthday-the two dragons belonging to Caitlin and Matthew. They apparently turned 199 today! So the kids and I made a cake, decorated the kitchen table and had a pizza party in honor of the occasion. Here are the highlights:



Greasing the pans....
Stirring the batter

Licking the bowl!! (the best part)
Waiting for it to be done...(the hardest part!)
Sad because she can't have any cake...
Eating pizza with the dragons
Blowing out the candles
Hooray for Funfetti!
Enjoying the cake...I guess it was too good to share with the birthday dragons...