Oh Suzanna!

My little sis made her yearly visit to our place...only this time we've switched and our place is on the east coast and hers in on the west. She just finished up her 1st year at BYU-I and we were delighted to have her come visit. So, of course we made the most of our time...first up was the beach, only bad thing was the hurricane that was suppose to be coming. We made the 3 hour drive to the Jersey shore, and only to spend a few hours in the sun, before the storm hit. Here are some pics:

Ben was a sport and built a sand castle with the kids.

Notice them just watching how it's done? I tried to help, but got in trouble (by Maddie) for doing it the wrong way!

Me & Suzanne soaking up the rays.

{Notice my triple tongue roll...yeah, I'm pretty talented}

Had to make our mark.

Suzy & the kiddos. Cam & Hazel's first time at the beach and Maddie hadn't been since Hawaii when she was 8 months old.
{you'll have to excuse the quality of some of these pics...they were taken by my phone camera}

Geez Ben, what blinding skin you have...soon to change, believe me.

OK, whiteness doesn't get much better here either.

Loving it! Darn hurricane...wouldn't let you go in the water past your thighs.

A bit windy, eh? (I turned Canadian!)

Auntie Suzanne

We stayed the night and headed to NYC the next day...Naked Cowboy greeted us not long after arriving. We saw him from afar and Suzanne just had to get a closer look!

We watched a grandma get violated by him just before it was Suzanne's turn to get her picture taken...I was a little scared for her.

"both sides ladies"...that's what he insisted on, so of course she complied.

Hailing a cab...but we were too cheap to actually take one. Makes for a cute picture though.

Who doesn't love a crazy dancing man, dressed in women's clothing?

{Click on this pic to get the visual. Gross!}

I must say that we bring out the shoppers in each other, not that it was a secret or anything.

And we had to take some cheesy hat pics to complete the experience.

What a nerd!

Suzanne also agreed to help the kids make a castle.

Look who's doing all of the work...?

She learned to sit up (finally!) and the beginnings of an army crawl this week.

Who can resist a cute uni-brow baby?

And I had to snap some shots of her on the beach. We did the same with Maddie when we went to Hawaii a few years back. She and Hazel have so many similarities...

Our big cheese.
And lastly, we had to hit up Indian Ladder Farms for some apple cider doughnuts {to die for!}, fresh corn, and apples, and animal petting.

Windy, you think?

Is it just me or is this a theme...

Poor little guy needs a dentist.

The trip was an overall success. Thanks for coming Suzanne, we miss you already!

If you like giveaways...

then this is for you!

Have you heard of Give Away Today? It's a blog that gives away something everyday (Monday-Friday) for FREE!! All you have to do is enter to win! So, TODAY (August 26th), they just happen to be hosting a giveaway for me! Pretty snazzy, huh? They were recently on Good Things Utah and will be on Studio 5 in September, or so I hear. I've been looking on there pretty frequently since I found out about it, entering to win all sorts of cool stuff. Check it out!

baseball & caverns

Our next destination was Cooperstown...which is actually where Ben has been doing his hospital rotation these past few weeks. We were able to see the hospital he's been going to along with the house he stays in when he's scheduled for a few days at a time and doesn't come home. However, our reason for going was to see the Baseball Hall of Fame, per Shane's request. It was actually a really cute town. We grabbed a bite to eat before the museum and had a picnic near some water. It was perfect, we were even joined by some ducks.

An angel once again. Sweet little Hazel Basil.

So, I'm just realizing that I only snapped 2 pics in the museum. Guess my priorities were elsewhere...

Look, I caught a baby!

{It's a glove she's sitting in...in case you didn't get my lame humor!]

Next up for the day were the Howe Caverns. There was a place like this that we went to a couple of times when I was growing up, so it brought back some memories. Lots of stalagmites and stalactites. Our tour guide looked to be about 12 years old...but he had some interesting facts nonetheless.

Shane & Camden

This pic makes Ben look like he's wearing one of those biker vests, so you can see him in the dark. Pretty fun.

There's a cool boat ride near the end of the tour.

This pic of Shane makes me laugh. He somehow got stuck holding my purse for most of the tour...and looks happy about it or like a tiger, either one.

Better view of the 'man bag'

We had so much fun with you, Shanner...he probably doesn't read this blog...but if he does, we had a blast with you! Thanks for coming to visit! We just love our east coast visitors!