Skills

A few weekends ago, Aunt RaRa and Aunt Cindy invited us to their pool for the day. It rained mid-morning but we waited it out and realized that Isaac has some impressive ping pong skills. My favorite is the no look shot! Here's a video of Isaac playing ping pong, and then at the end some footage of Isaac going off the big diving board at a nearly empty pool. Nothing like having the swim club to yourself!!

Camping

We spent this weekend with Oma, Opa, Aunta, Uncle Mark, Madeline and Audrey up at Crabtree Meadows Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway. With the 100 degree heat wave covering most of North Carolina, we were happy to find a place relatively close by with weather in the 80s. We all had a great time, but the kids were in heaven spending all weekend outside playing together. There was never a dull moment!

The campsite...

Tree Climbing...

My little monkey!

When Aunta and I were kids my parents would take us to the same campground and then we'd ride down the other side of the mountain to a place called Carolina Hemlocks to go tubing on the river. We took the kids down to the river on Saturday and Sunday to cool off in the ice cold mountain water.

Looking for fish in the clear mountain water...

Picking up rocks to throw in the river...

Relaxing in the tube...

Our little daredevils even jumped off the rocks with help from Daddy and Uncle Mark!

Hanging out with daddy...

It was a great weekend, and the river was every bit as fun as I remembered it to be. I'm so glad that Isaac and Madeline (and Audrey too) got to spend the weekend together there. I hope we'll make a lot more great memories in the NC mountains over the years to come!

Go Fish!

Brian took Isaac down to Fayetteville last Thursday to meet up with Boppa for Isaac's first official fishing trip. They didn't catch anything, but from the pictures and the video you can tell that Isaac had a blast!

Best Buddies

Isaac and Madeline spent quite a bit of time together during the week of the 4th of July. They get along great and play together really well. Here are a few pictures taken throughout the week of the two little ones that a lot of people mistake as twins. I hope Audrey and Raynor Baby #2 are as close as these two are!

Cousin Audrey

Audrey Susanne Blevins joined the family on July 5th, 2010 at 11:59am. This is my sister's second little girl. She sure is a little cutie and we all had a fun time getting to know her over the first few days of her life!

One proud Aunt!

Isaac was absolutely great with Audrey. He wanted to hold her right away so he could have his picture taken. He also wanted to help feed and diaper her. He's going to be such a great big brother!!

Madeline and Audrey - two sweet little girls. Madeline acted like an old pro at being a big sister. She learned it all from Aunt Rachel!

Oma and Opa with all the grandkids!

Happy Birthday Audrey!!

Fourth of July

It's become an annual Slivensky tradition to spend the 4th of July out at Terry and Joye Hollar's party on the lake. This was Isaac's 3rd year at the party and was probably his favorite experience yet. He and Madeline played with Daddy and Uncle Mark in the pool. Isaac was quite the little entertainer creating a new dance he calls the helicopter.

After swimming, we ate some dinner and headed up to the huge picture window in the kitchen to enjoy the fireworks. Daddy and Uncle Mark work on the "pyrotechnics team" that creates the now famous annual Hollar fireworks show on Lake Hickory. The kids are still afraid of the loud booms, so watching from inside is still the best place for us. This year, Madeline fell asleep during the neighbors lame pre-show but Isaac made it through the entire 30 minute show. When it ended, he just rolled over in my lap and fell asleep. As always we had a wonderful time celebrating the 4th of July together with the entire family.



Isaac waving to all the boats out on the lake waiting for the fireworks show. There were probably a couple hundred of them!

Dare Devil

A few weeks back we visited a local pool in Raleigh that has a diving board. It was the first time Isaac had ever seen a diving board and he kept saying "I jump?". Since it was a public pool he was, of course, too little to jump. But over the 4th of July weekend, we visited a friend's pool in Hickory and their pool just happened to have a diving board. So, with Oma's help, Isaac ventured up onto it and right to the end to jump. He must have jumped off that diving board two dozen times! When we left the pool to go home around 6pm, he fell asleep in the truck and slept until the next morning at 8am!! I don't think it gets any more fun than that!!