once upon a time in may

Many moons ago I went on vacation with my whole lovely immediate family.  We hadn't done a week-long going someplace kind of trip since 2007 when Thumb was a wee baby.  Originally my lovely sister-in-law planned for their family to spend a week in May visiting Michelle and her crew in the DC area, and it somehow morphed into a whole-family trip when the rest of us invited ourselves along.

Shane and I drove to Kentucky and rode the rest of the way with my moma and the Popster, which broke the trip up into smaller chunks and gave us a buffer.  Shane and I have a history of grating on each other if we're left alone too long.  So our first stop was Lexington to see Ring and Pinkie play t-ball.  The weather was in question as it had been raining on and off.  It was clear when we got to the ballpark, but the infield was muddy.  All the coaches were hauling sand and drawing bucket-fulls of standing water from left field while the kiddos warmed up.

But just when it seemed like they were getting the better of it, the sky opened up again.  So we missed getting to see Pinkie play pitcher--a treat Coach Daddy had been saving for the game we were there to see--but we did get to see the little cuties in their uniforms. 

Pinkie was being especially uncooperative in posing, but I got this precious bit of sibling affection anyway.  Sometimes when you say ridiculous things like "act like you love each other," they will actually follow instructions.  Bless their little hearts.

Thumb and the Popster had fun too.

The next day we made it to Virginia.  I've got loads of pictures from the touristy things, but for this post, I'll just dump all the cute family stuff, including the two birthday parties celebrated during the week.  I fully acknowledge that there are more pictures here than anyone could possibly care about besides my moma, but I can't part with a single one--and I did pare it down considerably.  I'm restrained, trust me.

Thumb turned three on the Monday of our trip.  His party had a cheetah theme.

Cheetahs are his big deal these days, and he thought he was something special in his ear and tail.  He was right.

I love when babies squat like that.

 The cheetah cake.

 

Three generations of my favorite girls.  All three of them are going to find something to hate in this photo, but it's perfect.

When I asked Thumb what he thought he might get for his birthday, he told me "dames."  The only dame he got was Don't Break the Ice, which was a hit.

We've already seen a few shots of Ring's birthday which careful readers will recall was celebrated early since we were all together, but here's a professional level pose to show to Grams. who gave her that book.

I always say that my moma loves to iron, which is probably a ridiculous lie.  But she is great at it and easily conned into doing it for me when we're together.  Thanks, Moma!

We spent an afternoon at one of the coolest pools ever, but I don't have any decent pictures as I was swimming too, but I did get a couple shots of the Handful when they got into Michelle's big tub to cool off from an exhausting day of sight-seeing.

I ended up with lots of meal-time photos of Thumb, who's a huge mess-mouth.  Here's the lone cute, clean one.

Pointer and Ring, professional posers.

Pinkie wouldn't look at the camera, but at least I've got proof of those eyelashes.  That kid is pure gorgeous trouble.

Posers at the table, comedians at the bar.

Lego Rock Band featuring The Handful.  One of their greatest hits:  "We Will Rock You."

Nana and her girl.

Popa and his little freak-face.

Joshua and the mini-mes.

Michelle and her little clone.

Officially Pointer doesn't look like our side of the family, but I think there's some resemblance here.  Maybe it's just the glasses.

I practically had to chase him down the stairs to get a shot of his face.

Precious.

My girl is into serious poses.  This kid is a perfect combination of her moma and nana and aunt Ellen.  It's hard not to think she's spectacular for it.

Getting a decent picture of all five of them is like herding cats.  But they do clean up nice.

I don't have photos of Will lying around recovering from back surgery or the hours of NCIS we watched after the kiddos were in bed or all the ice we went through or the trips to Wegmans or even the cute little Sophie dog, but those things happened too.  Still to come:  a post or two about the actual vacation-y bits of our vacation.