Oak Island 2011

We celebrated the 4th of July at the beach again this year at Oak Island.  With perfect beach weather, great company (the CRUZES!), lots of good food, and lots of Dominion tournaments, it was the perfect week.

Scott started something that I'm sure will be a continued tradition at the beach....night crab catching.  He took the kids down to the beach one night with one flashlight, a bucket and a net.  When they all came back to the beach house, no one could stop talking about catching crabs.  There was this awesomely spooky heat lightening that night, so that, combined with crabs darting toward you in the dark was pretty exciting.  We all went the next night and it was just as exciting as the kids described.  David held the flashlight, Trey held the net and caught any poor crab that happened to come across our beam and then Scott would pick it up and put it in the bucket.  The best part was when the kids would gather around the net watching when all of a sudden the crab would get away and go right toward them, sending everyone, including me, screaming and running.  I wish I had some pictures of that adventure.

 Afton became everybody's friend!!

My favorite beach moment was when Sydney surprised me by buying me an icee on the beach with her own money.  And then she wouldn't let anyone take any bites of it. (:

Last year Trey and Lydia became beach buddies.  I'm not sure it happened, but Lydia always hung out with Trey in the water.  This year it seemed like Lydia remembered this and they has some more Lydia/Trey beach time.

We ♥ Basketball!

The four oldest Sexton's have always loved basketball. The three youngest have been pretty indifferent about the game......until this year.  Something clicked and instead of asking if they can stay home from going to a game of Trey or Allie's, they now get more excited than if they were going to a birthday party.  Between Trey and Allie we sometimes had 3 games a week, so everyday the kids would ask "is there a game today?!?!?!  It didn't stop with watching their siblings.  Tanner, Connor and Sydney are college basketball fans as well.  They have each been to 2 UT games this year and prefer to watch college basketball on tv over pretty much anything else.  Their enthusiasm can be seen in the handmade signs they make to go to games, and in the comments they make to the refs when there is a bad call, i.e.:  "oh, come on ref!  You've got to be kidding me!"  Connor needs to work on not getting upset with a loss, however.

When Connor was the "student of the week" he even answered that shooting hoops was his favorite thing to do.  He goes outside to shoot pretty much every day.

Tanner and Connor like to take turns sitting on the bench with David during Trey's games and being the assistant coach.

Watching Allie play in her church ball games is especially exciting since I help coach and the kids know all the girls playing on the court.

We wish it could be basketball season all year long!

A perfect afternoon

Trey was working at the Empty Stocking Fund this morning downtown so we decided to pick him up and take the kids ice skating in Market Square. I wasn't sure who would like this activity when it actually came time to hitting the ice. Happily, everyone loved it! David was the only one who had no interest in skating. So he took pictures instead. The kids liked it so much they asked if it could be a family tradition. I love a happy family day!:) (The best part was there was no fighting the whole day.)

Camping and river rafting

That's trey in the front of the boat and allie in the blue t-shirt

We went our 3rd annual back to school camping/river rafting trip. This was the best year so far. Warm weather while we were on the river, cool evening for camping. For anyone who has not gone down the Nantahala River, you must! It is just good family fun. Our group has grown each year and the kids love being able to camp with their friends from the ward. David didn't even complain about the camping part. He did need a little help getting our tent up though :)

Building a dam in the river

Of course the lightsabers and wands had to come along

My birthday

I feel a need to write down my appreciation for my family. Birthdays are magical. Especially when you're a child. I remember getting to a point where I thought, "birthdays have lost their magic." Then I got married and had kids. Even though getting older is not so fun or magical, my family makes it so. Their complete love, attention, devotion and affection is so much better than birthdays. Thanks for always making me feel like the luckiest, most spoiled mom and wife in the world!

Laurel Falls

After looking into several hikes in the Smokies we decided to fall back on the trusty Laurel Falls trail. 3 miles round trip, paved gentle incline, the reward of seeing the falls when you reach the top....... it had been good to us in the past. And it did not disappoint this time either.

Our faithful scouts lead the way, on the look out for indians.

David, the ever cautious outdoorsman, points to the sign that validates what he has been trying to tell us all these years: people can die if you're not careful

Smokies aquarium

During spring break we took the kids to Gatlinburg for an overnight trip. The first day we visited the aquarium. We knew they were excited, especially Connor b/c of his fascinaiton with sharks (he currently doesn't like pizza because it reminds him of a humans blood during a shark attack), but we had no idea the amount of enthusiasm they would show while we were there. Here are some comments heard as we were walking around:

- "I wish we could live here!!"

- "This would be a great place to have a sleep over!"

- " This is the best day of my life....I'm not kidding!"

These kids loved it! The biggest hits: The shark tunnel and giant spider crabs.

These are a few of our favorite things

Happy New Year! Here are some of our favorite things from the holidays:

Trey's favorite: a car given to him by his grandparents.

Every 16 year old's dream...unwrapping a small box with

a car key in it! (the key belonging to his grandmother's

old 2001 Nissan Pathfinder)

Allie's favorite: she had been wanting a guitar for a while and was very surprised and excited to finally get one.

David's favorite gift he made: THE ALAMO. With the help of grandpa, David built his dream of what an Alamo playset should be. The boys got lots of army and Mexican men to play with. As much as they loved it, I think David loved it more.

One of Sydney's favorite things: Finally getting to see and hold baby Afton. (can you see her?)

Tanner and Connor's FAVORITE things were: their Davy Crockett rifles and a George Russel costume (for those who don't know about Davy, Russel is his trusty side kick). True story: Connor recently decided he couldn't be a teacher when he grew up b/c they have to get a flu shot. He told me the other day he figured out what else he could be when he grew up: An indian hunter. I'm not kidding. He received the Daniel Boone series for Christmas and had seen lots of glorified Indian hunting going on, and thought that might be for him. Soooo glad this conversation took place in the privacy of our car and we could explain that American Indians are people just like us and we don't fight with them anymore. He then said "well maybe I could just hunt animals and the Indians could protect me."

My favorite things are family time and traditions: