Thacker Family Reunion (FYI - this is a long one, if you are not a Thacker you may want to skip this!)

Kevin's extended family has a reunion every 3 years and this year it was at Outer Banks in North Carolina. Two of Kevin's siblings were not able to make it and a couple cousins, we really missed them and hope to see them before the next reunion in 3 years.

Almost everyone was able to stay in the one big beach house. It was a family reunion dream "hotel."


We spent plenty of time swimming and at the beach. (it was too fun watching the kids swim with the Great Grandma Thacker and with the Grandpa and Grandma Mumford)








We went to the dunes one morning and tried to fly kites.




Ghost Crabs - many were doubtful but they exist! We took flashlights out to the beach and searched for ghost crabs - Bryson counted for us and we found 43.





We went to the Wright Brothers Museum


We spent lots of time playing games. Kaitlyn loved playing the bean game with grandpa

There were lots of kids our kids age. Kaitlyn was always off doing something with the girls
and Bryson loved playing the Wii or other video games - he is pretty good bowling - he gets strikes quite often.

Stanford Friends

We were very fortunate to get to see Stubbens and Prices this summer, great friends from Stanford days. We are so glad that Catie and Steve live just 7 miles from my parents so that we get to see them whenever we are in North Carolina. It was especially great to celebrate with Catie after this long year for her. She is an inspiration to us all!

It has been 3 years since we saw Prices but it felt like it was only yesterday that we were neighbors at Stanford(except they added 2 kids to their family and we added 1 since the last time we were together). Prices currently live in Texas but were visiting family in Chicago so we were able to spend the 4th of July with them. We had fun swimming and the dads and kids went canoeing and even caught a turtle.

Pigtails and Teeth

Our baby is growing up!!! Alyssa got her first 2 teeth on the bottom, has enough hair for pigtails, and just today started doing more walking that just steps from location to location - she will now walk across the room just because she can:)

Wolf Howl and Fire Flies

Friday night we went to a Wolf Preserve that is just a few minutes away. We got to see several wolves up close and then they had us howl and the wolves howled back.

When we got home the kids went and caught fireflies. They were pretty good at it and caught several but were good about letting them go after a few minutes.

Fish Fish and More Fish

Fish has been a common word in our house for the past few weeks. Bryson and Kaitlyn left to stay with G&G barely swimming - Bryson a little bit and Kaitlyn wouldn't get her face wet. Two weeks later they are little fish. You can throw Bryson in the deep in and he can swim for 5 minutes without touching and then swim to the side when he needs a break - I love watching him take the tiniest breaths and then staying under water for a long time. Kaitlyn can swim the width of the pool underwater. They laugh at me but I just keep calling them Mr. and Miss Fish. Alyssa doesn't want to be left out and loves the water as much as the others. I never could get a photo of Bryson in the water cause he just spends all his time under water.




Unfortunetly I don't have a good video that does justice to how good Bryson does but this does show him as my Mr. Fish!!!

Speaking of fish, Bryson used some of the money he had been saving and bought his first fish. He even bought a fun space fish bowl and the food. He is a great child to have a fish cause he has remembered faithfully to feed it each morning without me ever needing to even think about it.

Stubborn or Smart

Alyssa is almost 16 months and still not walking. It is now getting funny cause we know she can do it so it is either because she is stubborn or smart (she knows crawling will get her there faster) - I think it is both. She will take 4-5 steps no problem and walks all around holding the tip of our finger. She loves to walk around pushing her little carebear push toy. The new thing she loves doing since the kids got back is to push them on it. We all can't stop laughing watching her push these big kids and little her and she can even get going pretty fast.



Truthfully I am grateful she is letting me enjoy her being little as long as possible:)

Only Child

Alyssa loves being an only child more than I even thought she would. Kevin had a conference in North Carolina last weekend and took Bryson and Kaitlyn with him and dropped them off at Grandpa and Grandma Garner's. We will drive out the end of next week and pick them up. I thought Alyssa would be lonely without the kids and you can tell she misses them but she is totally living it up. She loves that she gets to be in control of the schedule during the day and can have the 2 naps she likes to get but seldom does. Even with all the sleep she is getting she still enjoyed herself and slept in one morning 'til 10 and a few mornings later 'til 11. The first few days she was my helper in making sure the house was clean and organized from top to bottom. The first morning she was handing me the laundry, a piece at a time, and when she came to a wash cloth, she shook her head that she wouldn't give it to me and then proceeded to spend the next 15-20 minutes wiping the floor and the doors. She is going to be good little worker when she gets just a bit bigger.





Kevin and I are loving the honeymoon at home and the kids were both screaming with excitement on the phone today when I talked to them about all the fun they are having. We are just hoping that this won't kill off Grandpa and Grandma:) Thank you mom and dad (and Riley), we really owe you!!!