KY/WV Trip

Almost my entire family lives in Kentucky or West Virgina.  My mom and I moved out West when I was in second grade and have been here ever since.  However, until my teenage years I spent a significant amount of time back "home" and truly do feel like it will always be home to me.  A couple weeks ago my mom, the boys and I packed up and headed back for a visit.  Henry has not been there since he was 6 months old and this marked Oliver's first trip to the country.  While traveling with two young children is no easy task and not much like a vacation it was a beautiful week watching my boys meet and soak up all my family.  They both loved the billions of kids to play with constantly and experienced many "firsts."  Here are a few highlights:

- Henry got to see his very first lightning bug!  One of my favorite things growing up was to catch them.  There is just something special passing down and witnessing the sparkle in your child's eyes as they experience one of your favorite past times.
- As long as I can remember my dad or papa has made sure I wake up with fresh pink doughnuts from the local bakery, Dave's in Flatwoods,KY.  The world's best & really only doughnuts I enjoy.  This trip I was the one up bright and early picking up these amazing pink delicious doughnuts for my boys.  Olie loved them.  Henry preferred the chocolate sprinkle ones instead.  But, hey it was the whole experience of being on the other end that just warmed my heart.
- Henry enjoyed an overnight at my Aunt Maxine's with my mom.  They truly live in the country and he was in heaven.  He not only saw lightning bugs but got to walk in the creek, catch a crawdad, throw rocks in the creek, jump on the trampoline, see a huge fire pit and just have some good ole' country fun with papa Kelly and the kids. 
- Henry also got introduced to play guns.  I guess you can't take a boy back to the country without this happening.  We have kept these type of toys away and luckily I think he has forgotten about them.  His dad may be a hunter but this is not something we play around with and have very securely put away in our home.  Too many risks in my opinion.
- Oliver enjoyed his first swim with mommy & Henry at my Aunt Tena's with a whole bunch of our cousins.   
- We got to go to my nephew's 3rd bday party which was extra special to me as I haven't been able to share any bdays with my nephews yet.
- Henry experienced the ice cream truck and finally enjoyed his first ice cream cone!  He enjoyed every little lick and was the very last one to finish.  He was covered in ice cream and could not be any cuter!
- Henry also witnessed my cousins 2 yrs old dropping his drawers to pee on a tree a few times.  I truly think this got him interested in the big boy potty as he has been peeing on his potty at least once a day (2x today!) for the past 4 days.  He was very excited to get the Lightning McQueen Pull Up diapers.  Fingers crossed we continue to make progress and I can soon have only 1 kid in diapers!

It was a great trip and lots of memories were made.  I am so thankful to have been able to share these little men with everyone and even more so to all the family that took the time out of their busy lives to share time with us.  We had two huge bbq's where we were able to enjoy my mom & dad's entire family & were able to see just about everyone which is no easy task given the amount of us!  I miss my dad a lot already and am looking forward to his annual trip out in October.  I so wish it was a shorter trip and we could spend Sunday dinners together every week.  I miss and love you all and hope you all come out and visit us soon!

Now, some of my favorite pics...