Atlanta

After much debate regarding a family vacation, we landed on a three day weekend in Atlanta.  We coincided the weekend with a visit to Dr. Schrader's office which made things convenient.  I was certainly glad to have Chris do the driving for this trip!

Elizabeth and David were gracious hosts to our rowdy crew!  Our boys love their house....beautiful, wooded backyard, Xbox, and a extra large television!  Their house provided our home base for the weekend.  Chris and I were happy with the lower humidity and loved hanging out with baby Bru!

It's always good to see this man relaxed...especially with BunBun in his lap!

Our first excursion was the College Football Hall of Fame.  This place is incredible.  You immediately log in with your name, email address, and favorite team.  Then the whole place is interactive.  For example, you walk into a room with this large touch screen on the wall....

 

And it knows your name and team....

 

Throughout the place there are different activities...all geared to your team and most emailed to your account...I'll just share a few...

Learning how plays work...Philip could have stayed here all day!

Singing the fight song, karaoke style!

Game day predictions...

 

Calling the plays of the game...

 

The bottom floor is a football field with cornhole, field goal kicking, obstacle course, etc.  It was pretty cool.  Our favorite part of this floor was when we waited in line for Chris to field goal kick.  I lost John for just a minute.  When my eyes found him, he was skipping about 5 kids in line at the obstacle course.  Went straight through without stopping!!  Silly boy!!  Thankfully, none of the kids got upset!

 

After all of this football fun, it only seemed appropriate that we take the boys to the Varsity.  It was packed, and I almost considered changing course, but thankfully the line moved quickly.  Not sure we are racing to go back, but we can say we have done this tourist lunch!

 

 

The rest of the weekend was fairly low key.  On Sunday, I enjoyed going to Elizabeth and David's new church where Bru will be baptized in a few weeks.  Bru was an angel through the whole service!  That afternoon, Elizabeth and I spent several hours at Restoration Hardware searching out new furniture for my living room.  While I did that, Chris took our boys on a little adventure down by the Chattahoochee River.

 

 

Monday morning brought a trip to see Dr. Schrader.  Philip's bone continues to grow slowly.  Dr. Schrader continues to believe his hip will be great when the growth is done.  He even allowed Philip to take on a sport in the fall!  We will see how that goes, but needless to say we have a happy little boy who after two years needs to be reminded that we don't run in the house!!!



 

After the doctor's visit, we headed home!  A great weekend away...great time together as a family!

Vacation Bible School 2015

It is no secret...I do not just love Vacation Bible School.  However, I do think it is important for building community and fun for the kids.  So when Trinity brought back VBS after a four year hiatus, I signed us all up!

First day....Gill boys...keeping Polo and AFTCO in business for the next 15 years....

Our crew was small but it was a great start!  My boys had a blast!

 

 

 

 

I taught in the atrium...which is so not VBS...and so much more my speed!!

 

 

The one thing I do love about VBS...the songs!!  Remember this one from my own VBS days.  So fun to see my boys enjoying it too!

 

 

Last day in our t-shirts made at VBS!

 

 

 

Lots of fun...lots of tired boys and a worn out Mama!!

 



A Few Summer Pictures...

Just a few shots of what these silly boys have been up to!

A quick visit by two of our favorite cousins.  Can't wait until these two come back to stay next week!!

One afternoon we drove across the bay to a new splash pad.  When we arrived the wind kicked up causing the fountains to shut down.  Thankfully there is a pretty cool playground right next to the pad!

 

Philip and Daniel are perfecting their ability to sleep past 7:00...leaving these two alone in the early morning hours.  Green smoothies are best when shared...



 



This picture is unfortunately the only one I got of July 4th!  Chris smoked two Boston Butts and we had the Davidson crew over for dinner.  After dinner, we all ventured to Chris' office to watch the fireworks.  A nice, low key 4th with friends!

No explanation needed on this one....let's just say some of us can eat our weight in watermelon!

Legos...still providing the Gill boys hours of entertainment during the summer!!

This picture is a bit old, but a few weekends ago Philip had a friend to spend the night.  Dad took all of us for a day of tubing and swimming on Dog River.  This sleepover will be hard to beat!

 

 

This crew loves a lemonade stand.  I tell them only one a summer...they would do it everyday.  I'm not sure the neighbors would be so generous!

There have been fun days at the pool with friends...

 

And countless hours spent at Christ UMC for flag football.  Thankful for friends and family that make the time fun!  I love how one night during prayers Daniel thanked God for his fans after his game!  

 

 

Pretty low key days!  Our weekends pick up from here on out.  We are ready for some adventure!!

Eight!!

Daniel turned 8!! on Monday.

I think I have said before that these summer birthdays can be hard.  No time for Mom to shop alone.  On Saturday, he and I headed to the Farmer's Market together so Dad and the others could do some birthday shopping.  Daniel remembered doing the same thing the year before...especially me getting him a pink lemonade.  I guess a tradition has begun!

Monday evening we celebrated with family. 

 

The usual dinner...baked chicken, roasted potatoes, peas and salad...all his choice.  A football cake.

 

Birthday video and presents.

 

On Wednesday, we had five friends over for playing in the yard, Legos, pizza, and cake!  I will admit the party had a slow start.  Daniel struggled at first with the different personalities of his friends and how to be a good host to everyone when everyone wanted to do something different!  To make matters worse, a thunderstorm rolled in keeping them from playing football.  Eventually, they all settled in and when the rain stopped basketball saved the day!

 

 

Sweet boy!  Hope you had a great day!!  Your smile in these pictures leads me to believe you did!

More Summer Fun

We've done so much...it's hard to keep up with the posts!  I think I'll just throw in a few pics of our lazy summer days.

We finished swimming lessons!  Yay William and John...and Campbell...who was also in their class!

One fun day after swimming we had a picnic with friends at the playground.  The boys played hard, so a little frozen yogurt was in order!

We had a fun morning picking blueberries with Aunt Susan and Campbell.  These guys helped me pick 7.5 pounds of fresh, organic blueberries.  We ate lots fresh and saved several pounds in the freezer.  Good stuff!!

One Saturday brought a neighborhood festival at the church.  It was hot and I was relieved to leave early to babysit sweet little Reagan.  She was dream!

We have played more games of Monopoly than I can count.  This kids beats me every time!!

Lots of early mornings with this guy.  None of our boys sleep in well, but this one rises earliest of all.  At least he is good help in the kitchen!

We all got to visit with the newest boy cousin, Bru!  How cute are these cousins!  Sweet Campbell, the only girl!!

Every day involves a bike ride of some sort.  The big ones now go on their own...lots of times meeting up with neighbors and staying out for hours.  Love that lazy schedule of summer!

Last weekend, I had my last weekend of Level I CGS training here in Mobile.  These boys' sweet Daddy took them to the hunting camp for a boys weekend.  A great time was had by all!

Yesterday brought a trip to the Exploreum.  Best part of the trip was right here...

For almost ten years, we have repeatedly waved to Daddy whenever we are traveling through downtown.  I texted Chris while the boys were standing in this window at the Exploreum.  He stood up in his office and waved...and we saw him!!  How cool is that!!

And then this...

Silly boys...I took you to the Exploreum for a change of scenery.  A break from Lego monotony.  And yet this is what you choose to do!!  We are addicted!

They did take a break to build a fortress...

and then tear it down!

And of course, flag football continues on.  Daniel is loving it!!

On his touchdown run...snap...

Hand off...

Going...

 Touchdown!!!

So many other adventures that don't have photographs to document.  We are loving this summer!