Gator's Family Blog

Friday, August 15, 2014

Riverbanks Zoo

No summer is complete without a trip to our favorite zoo, Riverbanks Zoo down in Columbia. Lauren and her family moved back to the Charlotte area after 7 years down in the Tampa area. We’re thrilled to have them back in the area so we can enjoy fun times together again, like this day in July at the zoo. Jack, Zoe, Reese, and Ella were fast friends—as Jack says, “They’re family from another family.” :)

{note the aforementioned crazy lacrosse shorts—jack’s new style.}

Monday, August 11, 2014

Jack’s 9th Birthday

On Jack’s birthday he was basically king for the day. Present opening, breakfast fit for a king (in that order, of course), and then biding his time until his birthday party sleepover began. Jackson (friends with Jack since they were in preschool together) came over at 2pm (as late as I could push Jack—he was ready for an all-day affair)—and the next several hours were pure 9-year-old boy bliss: video games, nerf gun wars, pool time, Five Guys for dinner, ice cream cake, and then fireworks. Jonathan had gone all out at a fireworks store for Jack’s birthday and they were a hit. We barely made a dent on Jack’s birthday night in the fireworks stash, but it was quite the display—roman candles, smoke bombs, bottle rockets, huge sparklers, and cone firework that ended with a bang. We hope Jack had a great birthday! I’m pretty sure he did—when Jackson’s mom came to pick him up the next day the boys talked her into taking Jack with them to extend the playdate. These two best buds celebrated Jack’s birthday for a good 30 hours, minus some sleep I guess. :)

{i don’t think we had really thought it all through when we decided it would be a good idea to let jonathan light all of the fireworks. hate to say it, but it was kind of amusing to watch him try to gimp away from a lit firework as fast as his crutches could take him. run, jon, run. hee hee}

Friday, August 8, 2014

Cousins Visit

We had a great visit from Uncle Chris, Aunt Chrissy, and cousins Jacob, Noah, and Emilee in late July. I’m so glad they made Charlotte a stop on their whirlwind trip of the East Coast. And, the weather finally cooperated for some outdoor fun during their visit—we hit the pool, enjoyed dinner and s’mores on our patio, and brought Jacob and Noah up to the Play 60 playground at Freedom Park (our first visit, too). Not many pictures, but it was a fun visit!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Camp Harrison

Ella and Jack had a huge milestone this summer—their first full week of sleep-away camp. These two are loving and cuddly but in no way have any attachment issues, to say the least. They were thrilled to spend a full week away from home participating in some amazing activities and jumped right into sleep-away camp activities without looking back—lake slides and jumping inflatables, aerial adventure, paintball, mountain boarding, just to name a few—and hanging out with some great friends. Jack’s best bud Noah Brown and his brother Miles were at camp that week and Ella bunked with Noah and Miles’ cousin Mason as well as a friend from church. Needless to say, they both had an amazing (and exhausting) week making lots of memories and plenty of new friends. Ella sent us page after page of letters and a postcard letting us know what a great time she was having at camp. From Jack, we got a single postcard. Fortunately, the camp posted pictures each morning of the previous day’s activities. It was fun to search out Ella’s and Jack’s smiling faces. Here are the best images from the week of our two cuties, plus copies of their letters home.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Kids Tri! Ballantyne 2014

Ella and Jack competed in the Kids Tri! Ballantyne race (for the 3rd straight year for Ella and 2nd for Jack) in July. That morning, Jonathan participated in the adult triathlon race on a relay team as the runner and, unfortunately, tripped at the finish line and injured himself. Over a week later we found out that he had in fact fractured his tibial plateau in two places (and was therefore on crutches and in recovery for a few months), but on this day we just knew his left leg/knee hurt. Jonathan was a good sport about it, though, as we were on our feet for a good 4 hours that afternoon to watch the kids compete in their triathlon. And boy did these two compete—they are awesome little triathletes! I videoed on my phone and handed Jonathan the big camera to take our pictures for the day (and thankfully, I finally spent the time to figure out how to switch my focal point selection from manual to automatic—handed someone my camera way too many times with it just fixed on a certain focal point). Anyways, point is, Jonathan did a great job photographing our day at the race, bum leg and all. Ella placed 7th in her age group out of nearly 50 girls ages 9-11. Jack placed 3rd in his age group out of 71 boys ages 5-8 and actually received a medal. Go Jack! When Ella was 8, her first year participating in the triathlon, she actually placed 3rd, too. We are exceedingly proud of our little triathletes!

{jonathan had the camera, so i’m actually in a pic. :) }

{ella’s always so polite in her races, not wanting to push past someone. it’s hard to teach a nice balance of good manners, sportsmanship, and competitiveness. it has definitely never been in her nature to be cut-throat.}

{passing the boy she had a crush on at the end of last year…if he’s a good one, he’ll think that’s cool or at least a fun challenge.}

{ages 9-11 do twice as many laps in the pool as the 5-8-year-olds and 3 laps around the track instead of 2.}

{that song was playing when she finished the race—love it. also, fyi, the videos montages are done in instagram format and therefore 15 seconds or shorter and square.}

{his transition between the pool and bike was definitely faster this year with yankz laces (he spent like 2 minutes tying his shoes last year), but because he “didn’t want to lose them” he decided to carry his hand towel and swim cap for his entire bike ride…i thought for sure he’d drop it before his run, but…}

{still carrying his towel and swim cap—i guess it didn’t really slow him down, though, because he killed the run. :) }

{2nd lap without the towel and cap because we told him to throw them down.}

{look how hard he pushed right to the end, and it paid off.}

{the race was at 2pm, so it was H-O-T. jack dumped some water on his head when it was all over.}

Jack - Kids Tri! Ballantyne 2014 from Tricia Williams on Vimeo.

{way to go, jack and ella!}

{congrats to jack! called up for 3rd place. the medals were pretty cool—hand-made pottery.}

Jack - 3rd Place Kids Tri! Ballantyne 2014 from Tricia Williams on Vimeo.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Instagrammin’ in July

Our July was…well…eventful, you could say. July kicked off midway into our week in Hilton Head with my parents and my sister’s family (and also included my 1000th Instagram post—yes, I am out of control :) ). After we returned from HHI, the kids participated in a triathlon in which Jack won a medal, placing 3rd in his age group, and Ella placed 7th in hers. Jonathan was on a relay team with neighborhood friends in a triathlon—he was the runner on Team SCRappy—, tripped at the finish line on the chip timing mat, and fractured his tibial plateau in two places. He was on crutches for the rest of July…as well as all of August and a bit into September… Both kids went to a week of sleep-away camp for the first time and we had a great visit from Aunt Chrissy, Uncle Chris, Jacob, Noah, and Emilee.