Hurricane Irene

It was Saturday morning and we prepped the house! Got ice....food...brought everything in from outside. John and Virginia thought it was super fun to be in the rocking chairs inside!

And then the rain and wind came....and Virginia was desperate to go out. We were supposed to get 1-3 inches of rain and 20-40 mph of wind. BUT instead, we got 5 inches of rain and 70 mph of wind!

We watched....

and watched.

Then the power went out!

So we got snacks.

And had a grand time playing with flashlights. Thank goodness the power went out while it was dusk so we got ready for bed in some daylight!

Oh what fun.......and in the background...the prep work for our ceiling leak! Yikes!

We woke up to no power and just played in diapers because it was hot! And of course had some snacks...as Daddy tried for an hour to find something open for breakfast. We were lucky that our power came back on Sunday. Many around us still don't have it. And crazy as it is....we did not have school today or tomorrow. This will be an interesting teacher work week to say the least. How will our classrooms ever be ready? Who knows but it has been a wild ride this weekend!

Last Travels of the Summer

We traveled one last time for the summer up to Philadelphia to see our good friends...Tessa, Brendan, Riley....and bonus Beth, Matt, and Baby Becca! John and Virginia had a great time with Riley. John mostly. They have always been drawn to each other and this weekend was no exception!

Virginia had her sights set solely on Baby Becca! And even asked Beth if she could change her! Hilarious!

John was not as interested.

Look at these 2 year olds now...with Becca who is 6 months old!

Virginia was hoarding Becca.

We do love to play nap time!

The highlight of her weekend....

Thanks for a great weekend girls! A good one to end the summer!

Welcome Baby Olivia....and the pigtails that never were....

Welcome Baby Olivia! We did a one night trip to Salem to meet this sweet baby girl! Virginia did NOT understand that you can't feed her with a baby doll bottle.

But she wanted to hold her...of course!

And so did John!

Note Caroline's adorable pigtails. We have been talking about this for a long time.

So we tried it. It was a failure.

I mean...she really hated it. Oh well...maybe we will try again some day.

A Tribute to Cousin Sam.....

We remember who got us through Spring Break....oh that Baby Casey. Well...this trip, it ended up being Sam. Virginia's cousin from Colorado....he was the strong, silent type. And she was all over it.

He is just so funny.........

No comment.

And we had a little beach drama. A federal grant gave us a missing beach,tractors and plows a plenty, one angry Momma, cloudy weather (an EXTRA fussy Momma), a Granddaddy on the actual news live, and a newspaper article about our family. Front page! But the real story is that Joe is holding her....but she is holding Sam's hand. Hilarious.

So thank you Sam! You were a trooper....and we appreciate your patience!

Beach Part 2...and the last!

So....we were off to Fenwick Island, Delaware! We had Joe's whole family with us....relatives from Colorado, Washington, and Utah! We do this trip every two years....we missed it two years ago because the kids were in the NICU....so we were happy to make the trip.

Our family photos went great. Of course.

Yes, we are retiring this 3T suit of Virginia's....it just shows a bit much up top. So sad!

John and his Granddaddy....also named John Koontz. They loved this hole.

Yep...we can kayak! The fun thing about this year is that we had one beach side house and one bay side house. So the kayaks usually at Grandma and Granddaddy's house made the trip. Won't be long before we are in them!

Virginia said a thousand times a day, "Where's Maya?" She loves her!!

All grandkids and grandparents minus the adorable Kendall.

His version of boogie boarding.

They had a lot of time with Aunt Meaghan....especially when she kept some M&Ms on hand for kisses and hugs.

A typical Koontz family dinner of crabs! They are from Maryland you know.....

This girl can take down an ear of corn.

They have been reading too much Us Weekly.

We had a bonfire one night. So much fun. This is a weird picture but that is our whole crew at the beach.

John loves the idea of boogie boarding......

but when it comes to performance. He is out.

Joe and his sisters, Aunt Kelly and Aunt Meaghan!

Virginia clearly loved posing with the girls.

Three generations of Koontz men!