Now you see us, now you don’t.

Posted on July 12, 2012 by carrie

Well…I’ve finally unpacked and finished the laundry and…now I’m repacking. Yes, we are jaunting down to San Diego for a few days of comic nerd-i-ness with Daddy and Uncle Jeff. Well, the girls are heading to ComiCon with the boys and Mommy is heading to the spa, beach, pool….all three maybe?

But before we pop off on another quick little vacation, I wanted to wrap-up the last vacation which was, as Emma said, “the best cousin vacation EVER!”

I have to admit it was so great to get some sister time.

And the girls got their camping ya-yas all out while they stayed with Meesh for the week.

There was a lot of beach fun…

And these two were as thick as thieves the whole week….

Although these two gave them a run for their money once they got into their groove…

I left the happy campers for a few days and met up in Ludington with my best college friend and we celebrated our birthdays and 22 years of friendship.

Ludington…is gorgeous.

We stayed in a lovely little cottage, hiked to a beautiful lighthouse, kayaked around the lake, ate good food, and just talked, and talked, and talked, and then talked a little more. It was the perfect catch-up and getaway.

(Lots more Ludington photos over on Flickr!)

Then….it was back to camping! S’mores, campfires and more beach time. How cute are all of our hosts?

And we celebrated a certain someone turning NINE.

Addie was tall enough to drive the go-carts by herself. I think she was terrified, but she powered through bravely and made it around the course a few times.

My favorite photo of the Newman family before we left them…

Then the girls and I trekked downstate and melted. Literally. Whew…it was H-O-T.

We went to to the 4th of July parade. Papa gave the girls an empty bag and told them it was for the parade. Em looked very confused and asked, “to sit on?” “No, for all of the candy” he explained. OH. MY. CANDY. Manna from heaven. My poor candy-deprived children.

The parade was a hit despite being 100 degrees, and it was nice to see Papa and his guys sing too.

Our second week was a little more laid back. Lots of swimming, visiting with friends and family and catching fireflies. Yes, there is still a definite fascination with fireflies.

And fireworks.

Thank you everyone in Michigan (and our Wisconsin family too!) for making our vacation spectacular.

June 2010 D.N. (During Newmans)

Posted on July 7, 2010 by carrie

Okay, at long last…a little round-up from the last few weeks around here while the Newman clan visited.

And as I’m sorting through nearly 800 photos, (and those are just of when the cousins were here!) I’ve decided that there will not be any photo editing or nice bordering going on here. There are just TOO many photos. So, what you see is what you get. And I’ll try to edit myself so that this doesn’t go on for days. Already, it might, ok, MOST definitely will need to be a two-part mini-series.

But, to all the naysayers and people who called us crazy – we did six kids for the week, and we did just fine! Everyone was bathed (for the most part), well-fed, and no ER visits. I can’t recall for sure, but I believe we didn’t even have a band-aid incident, which all adds up to a successful week in my book. Of course, I had Lexer, who is quite the mother’s helper, J. made sure to come home early-ish almost every night, and I conned our sweet 14-year old friend to come help me when we went to the pool so I had an extra set of hands.

We managed a zoo trip…
(See the cute monkeys?)

Although, the “best baby in the world” probably doesn’t remember much of it…
(See the little joey in his kangaroo pouch?)

We had a lot of popsicles…

Tried out the Easy Bake Oven…

And swam…

A lot…

Just a little more…

We hula-hooped…

We were sassy…
(Ha! Actually she was great all week, but this photo! But that is my SasserElla!)

Some were just stinkin’ cute…

And before we knew it, Meesh and DJ were back from Hawaii. Feeling the love…
(DJ hates cats, but Tiger LOVES him!)

So we did the requisite tour of Hollywood…
(Squint through the haze you can see the Hollywood sign up there!)

Visited with some friends…

And some stars…

Showed Lexer where she will sing when she makes the next American Idol…

And made sure she got to go have the Miley Cyrus milkshake…
(Although she was led to believe that all the pop stars hang out here, and we didn’t see one!)

Mmmm…milkshakes…

Then we took a trip to the beach…
(In the middle of the chilly June gloom that has extended into July. It IS JULY now, gloom go away.)

After being buried in the sand, took a dip to wash off…
(Freezing, I tell you. I won’t get in the Pacific until at least mid-August, but it didn’t stop the crazy girls.)

Although some of us chose to play in the sand where it was warmer…
(Was she eating the sand?)

And since we needed some more enough excitement, we took the kids to Disney for Madey’s birthday.

The inseparable Cheshire cats…
(Can we all say “joined at the hip” for the entire trip?)

Took a spin on the teacups…

Or got spun on the teacups?
(I was in this cup, blech. Spinning is not my forte.)

Even Mav took his first Disney rides…
(I think he liked it!)

All the kids were champs. ALL day. You see quite a lot of “melting down” going on at Disney – tired, over-excited and stimulated kids, but our crew was great and we got to do quite a bit of the park. And then it was time to go home – literally. DJ and the girls pulled out of our driveway to start the trek home maybe 45 minutes after we pulled in from Disney. Some of the girls were a little pouty on the way to our house, and I think Meesh might have been pinching Ella in this last shot to get her to smile…

All in all, it was a lot of chaos, but OH so much fun. We should do it again…oh, wait we are! Next week!

To be continued…

This & That Thursday

Posted on December 31, 2009 by carrie

So I totally skipped Crafty Tuesday this week. Sorry ’bout that. Apparently, I am pretty far into vacation mode and the fact that it was Tuesday, that just missed me completely. I did take photos of all of the Christmas presents I have been delivering and they were all hits, so I’ll share them next week!

The SuperCapes were hits as well, and Em and Ad brought their capes to their cousins’ and they all played SuperHeros. I have some cute video. Also will have to share it next week.

Besides the SuperCapes, the cousins found many things to keep them busy. At the top of the list was capturing and carrying my sister’s poor kitties around the house. Meet one of the most tolerant cats in the whole world. This is Griffin…

He looks like he is being held on Em’s lap against his will here, but neither of the cats seemed to protest too loudly. And they both sought out attention if they were left alone for too long. I know my girls are already missing them, and I think the kitties might just be missing them, too.

We spent most of our time just relaxing, which is what I love about going to my sister’s. It is a step back to nature, the middle of the woods, a place to unplug and detach and just be with the girls…and now “the boy” too! (Ella calls her new baby brother – “my boy” as in, “hey where is my boy?” She cracks me up.)

And try getting six, SIX, kiddies all looking halfway decent and somewhat sort of looking at the camera. It is not an easy feat, let me tell you. (Even Mav has a little smile on his face!)

We also celebrated Ella’s actual birthday. She wanted to go see the “Chickmunk” movie, so we all piled in and over to the theater and watched a movie…

Addie is mad because she couldn’t sit next to Ella, but Ella didn’t even want to sit. It didn’t take Addie long to snap out of her crabbiness…

And then ruin the ONLY photo of my sister and I from the weekend…

Then we had a little dinner at Ella’s fave dining establishment (MickeyDee’s)…

Had some more cake (with blue frosting!) and went for a “swim” in the hot tub…

It was a pretty full and fun birthday, I think…

Then it was time for us to say goodbye and time for the dynamic duo to disband. My favorite photo of the week. I found the “sweet spot of light” at Michelle’s house. Finally. On the very last day.

That shot is SOOC, straight-out-of-my-NEW-camera. I struggled with it most of the weekend and found I am so thankful for warm, sunny, lots-of-natural-light, California. I can’t wait to get back and be able to really play, turn off the flash and shoot. But, right in front of Meesh’s sliding glass door with the reflecting snow – that gave me this pretty shot of our beauties.

So we traveled downstate yesterday for a few more Christmas celebrations and visiting with more family.

I’m already taking bets on whether I will make it to midnight tonight, in order to usher in the New Year. Usually J. and I watch the NY celebration in the LA timezone (which is 9pm, our time) and then we call it a night. I’m thinking being in the Eastern time zone is going to seriously but a tax on the total vacation and relaxation mode I have going this week.

(Yawn.) We’ll see.

Wishing all of you a very happy, healthy and beautiful New Year!

Catchin’ Up

Posted on August 27, 2009 by carrie

I have been desperately trying to catch up over here at Chaos.

What with all that first grade excitement, squeezing in a Cubs game and Disneyland trip last weekend, plus trying to attack the laundry piles, never-ending errands and editing photos from our Michigan/Chicago trip (Have we really been back for over a week already?), I’m just left shaking my head and wondering where our entire week went already.

So before I get even further behind, I need to throw up some of my favorite photos from the first half (at least!) of our trip. I just don’t want to forget that this was the trip where…

…we were introduced to the four-wheeler. Here Em is getting some last minute instructions from Aunt Meesh.

And then, Aunt Meesh actually let her DRIVE.

In reality, she did better than Mommy and her first time driving one. And when Em got off she said to me, “Mom! That is fun. We have to get a four-wheeler!”

Uh huh.

We also spent much (but never enough) time with the cousins. Swinging together…

…or just alone. Grandma B’s house is full of fun.

And we went to the racetrack to cheer Uncle DJ’s horse, Tallyhorsie, on to a victory. Waiting for his race…

Still waiting…

Here he comes! And we were his good luck charm apparently – he had his best race so far, and placed third!

Then we moved the party down to Nana & Papa’s house. They had a pool party with all the neighbors and family.

The girls got to hang out in the pool.

And Emma is ready to move in with Nana & Papa (and their pool!) permanently. I wonder if she realizes that you really only get to swim for about 3 months in the midwest. I’m guessing not.

And we got my eldest niece, Alexis, diving. She was persistent and just about had it down by the end of the day.

It was a super fun way to end our time in Michigan.

I’m going to use this weekend to finish catching up on everything. So I’ll throw some more from our trip at you soon. In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Cousin Time ~ Best Shot Monday

Posted on August 9, 2009 by carrie

We have landed, at least for a few days, in Michigan. Since our feet have hit the Michigan soil, it has been nothing but kittens, kittens, cousins, and more kittens!

Poor Griffin. I don’t think the girls have left the poor kittens alone for more than two minutes.

And when all of the cats are occupied, just grab your closest cousin and give her a squeeze.

The girls will follow each other anywhere…

And even oblige Mommy (Aunt Bean) and stop for a photo op before a thunderstorm drove us back into the house. Although they avoided actually “sitting” on the log because it is “dees-gustin!”

This last one is my Best Shot for today because it just makes me happy when the girls can all be together. And also when they all fall into bed with pure happiness (and exhaustion) after spending the day together.

Yep. The aquarium…again.

Posted on April 17, 2009 by carrie

If you haven’t figured it out – the LB aquarium is at the top of our list of favorite places in the LA area to visit. We take everyone who comes to visit us there, and we usually make at least one trip by ourselves every month or so. I love the ocean, I love ocean life and I LOVE that the girls are just as fascinated as I am with all things “ocean.”

So naturally, when the girls came to visit last week, the first place we took them? The aquarium. To see the
“fiss-hhhies!” as Ella would say.

I think she liked the fishies. Addie certainly liked being older than someone and being able to show off the stuff she knows.

The sting-ray touch pool was a definite favorite…

And I think everyone (except maybe Madey, she wanted to touch them until they came within 3 inches of her fingers) got to touch one of these…

And look! I relinquished the camera yet again. When J. is with us I end up in a photo…

…sometimes even two!

We can’t get enough of the aquarium. So come visit us – we’ll take you, too!

Deep Discussion? ~ Wordless Wednesday

Posted on April 15, 2009 by carrie

What do you suppose these two are having such a deep discussion about?

More WW here.

A-Boo-Hoo-Hoo.

Posted on April 10, 2009 by carrie

We are in a bit of mourning around here.

Missing our peeps who left us late last night.

(Don’t they all look like a bunch of sweet, angels – bathed in a heavenly glow of light? Haaaaaaaaaaaaa! Oh…that is a hoot. A good one!)

I’m just sitting here editing photos and laughing remembering all the “awwwsum” and “a-sgusting!” (awesome and disgusting as said by Ella) fun we had.

Also realizing that I owe you all a million stories and photos including the jogathon update, someone getting a new bike, and a mess of birthday goodies – not counting all of the fun stuff we did when Meesh and girls were here.

So, they’re coming…they’re coming.

But first, Uncle J. is taking Em (and also us – yeah!) to Disney tomorrow. The never-ending birthday continues. We’ll catch you on the other side of Easter.

Have a good one!

Three ~ Theme Thursday

Posted on September 12, 2007 by carrievoris

I went through my photos quickly to find one that would fit today’s theme of Three and found this of Three of the cousins snuggling on the sofa at my parents’ house earlier this summer. I love how Ella is staring at her big sister and cousin, and how both of the big girls are looking down. Those eyelashes!!

After I uploaded it I realized that I have my own little theme going this week.

Sweet, sweet Emma.

Note her hand on Ella’s chin here, just as it was on Addie’s chin in the Best Shot Monday… I’m not sure where she got that from (do I do that to her?), but she really is cavity-inducingly sweet sometimes.

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Category Archives: Cousins