Over the Mountain and through the Woods....

...to Grandmother's house we go. And Granddad too. Mid-July, we loaded up the kids and junk, threw it all into a Southwest 737, somehow survived a very long (okay, it was only 4.5 hours) ride to the East Coast from VA. I won't name names but it was awful--no one napped, someone pooped alot, same someone didn't want to be held longer than 10 seconds. We were so glad when it was over! The way home wasn't as bad, probably partially due to experience and lowered expectations. We spent 10 days at Steve's parents house in Virginia (a few of which Steve and his Dad were down in SC tending to our rental home between tenants). We played on the farm quite a bit, rode the ATV alot, visited the cows daily, enjoyed the cooler weather (cooler than AZ at least) and got to visit with lots of family.

The 5-wheeler is always good fun

Some of the ladies

We were out looking a cows one day and this cute little turtle just came walking out in front of us, it kind of surprised me because I didn't know wild turtles lived in the area. (Give me a break, I'm a city girl) So when I saw it, I'm all "oh my, a turtle, get Brian over here quick to see this!" and Steve's all "um, I don't think it's going anywhere!" Oh yeah, duh!

Brian was very interested in the little guy

4 Generations of Hurts--that's alot of Hurt right there, look at all that blonde! You can't breed it out of the Hurts, it just sticks, no matter what!

Enjoying the porch swing at Great-Grandma and great-Granddaddy Hurt's house

Steve and the kids on the "big rock." Every generation back to Steve's grandpa and his siblings had a picture on big rock, you guessed it, a really big rock in the middle of the farm. We'll have to get a better one when the kids are older and more cooperative (and also, maybe not wearing a Perry the Platypus shirt?)

Independence Day in CA

I've pretty much gone missing on our blog the last month because we've had two big trips in July and are packing up for another one right now. I'll start with our first trip, a last-minute trip to CA for the 4th of July. We made the most of our time there, having hardly a second to spare between events. But we had fun, especially Brian and Emy who had a great time with their grandparents, aunts, and cousin Grace.

We went with our friends, the Cummings, to see Cars 2. Katie and Mark had taken Mason to see Toy Story 3 at the El Capitan theater in Hollywood last year, complete with a carnival type thing afterwards and they invited us to do the same to see Cars 2 with them. It was a blast. The theater was old and neat inside, we enjoyed the movie, and then spent over two hours in the Cars themed carnival afterwards. It was great to see our friends and have a "Daddy-Mommy-Brian date" which is just a nice way of saying we left with wiggly screamer home with the aunts and Grandparents!

The fam minus Emy

All dolled up in our Independence Day best

Cousin Grace and Brian

The 3 Harris Grandchildren (Emy is not happy here because she believes the hairchair is reserved for eating only and she was asking for food the second her butt hit the seat. She is serious about eating)

Great-Grandma Helen, Me, and Emily Helen

Little kids + sparklers = fun?

Allan and Laura practicing their sparkler hearts for the upcoming wedding day!

Grace and Aunt Julie

Sparklers + Drunk People = This

Good times! We were home for a few days and then off to Virginia to see the Hurt side!