Rachel's ONE!!

Hard to believe that our little Rachel turned ONE already on Saturday!  I've always been amazed at how much babies change in their first year of life.  They go from being totally innocent and helpless to crawling (and sometimes even walking!) and feeding themselves all in only 12 months!  Rachel IS crawling and scooting around on her bottom a lot these days -- trying hard to keep up with her 3 big sisters!  She also likes to "talk" and smile with her cheesy 6-tooth grin  :)  We all absolutely LOVE Rachel to pieces (and sometimes I think she's going to fall to pieces after her sister are done lovin' on her!)!!

 

I kept with tradition and made a "bear" cake for her 1st birthday.  Rachel got a ballerina bear!

I think Rachel liked her bear!

She was being so silly...

What a goof!

The big birthday girl

She wasn't quite sure what to do with her cake!

Happy FIRST Birthday Rachel!!

We love you!!

Family Trip (part 1)

Here starts our 2 week vacation out to see Daniel's family in Maryland.  We took a few days along the way to see some sites with our girls before heading to West Virginia to go camping.  We camped with Daniel's brothers, cousin, and parents for 5 days and then headed over to Maryland where we stayed with Daniel's parents for a week.  I've created 6 blog posts to cover our entire trip.  We had such a great time!  Here are ALL the pictures to prove it --

Our first stop was in Chicago at the Legoland Discovery Center.  That giraffe was made entirely out of Legos!

The Chicago skyline made out of Legos

Daniel, Abigail and Indy

We watched a 4D movie -- I guess Rebecca didn't want to watch it in 4D!

Daniel and Lillian about to start their ride

Abigail sending her Lego car down the track

Lillian's turn

Rebecca cheering on Lillian's Lego car 

We drove by the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) and spotted the lookout windows that stick out from the building located near the top.  They are made entirely out of glass -- floors, walls, ceiling -- not something I plan on visiting any time soon! 

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We also went to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky.  It is the longest known cave system in the world with 370 miles of known passageways! 

Here we are about to enter the unknown...

We went on a 2 mile tour that took about 2 hours.  The girls were a little worried at first but quickly decided that they liked it!  It was a nice 54 degrees in the caves.

This area was called "Fat Man's Misery" -- I think you can tell why!

Daniel said I should never dress the girls the same again!  He got tired of ALL the comments from by passers!  They do look pretty cute though if I say so myself!

What a rough life...

Family Trip (part 2)

Here are some more pictures of a few stops we made along the way:

Abigail making her Grandpa Birx proud

This is Cumberland Gap.  It was made famous by Daniel Boone as the passage through the mountains from Virginia into the Kentucky frontier.  It is also the location where VA, TN & KY meet.

Ahhh...

The girls LOVED climbing on all the rocks

This was a cool rock we found on our hike up to the Cumberland Gap overlook.  Somehow it stayed balanced like this on top of the other rock (notice Rebecca peeking her head around the tree) ...

... and here is Rachel holding up the precariously perched rock so it doesn't fall onto her big sister!

Chuckle

Here are the girls in both Kentucky AND Virginia at the same time!  We don't waste any time when we travel!

It just wouldn't be a true Birx family trip without a cannon  :)

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Here we are at the Natural Tunnel near Duffield, VA.  We rode this ski lift down to see the tunnel.  Talk about steep and scary with 4 little kids!  This picture really doesn't show just how steep it was.  No seat belts, just a bar that lifts over your head.  I asked the guy how many people had fallen off and died on this lift and all he said was, "Well, none this week!"  Very reassuring...  :)

We arrived down saftely and boy was it worth the scary trip!  It was beautiful!  This is not the Natural Tunnel -- this is man made so the railroad could go through.  That huge rock wall on the right wraps all the way around to the Natural Tunnel...

THIS is the Natural Tunnel (see Daniel with the girls on the left to get an idea of how huge the tunnel is!).  The tunnel was cut by the creek through the mountain; a railroad and the creek both pass through the natural tunnel.

We even got to see a train go through -- very cool!

We also stopped at this bridge -- New River Gorge Bridge.

It carries US-19 across the New River near Fayetteville, WV.  It is the 2nd highest vehicular bridge in the world.  You could stack the Washington Monument and (2) Statues of Liberty under it and still have 20' to spare!  Amazing!

Family Trip (part 3)

Camping!  We met Daniel's 4 brothers and their families, Daniel's Cousin David and his family, and Daniel's parents at Kumbrabow State Forest in West Virginia for our annual camping trip!  We had great weather -- only about 1 1/2 days of rain and the rest was beautiful!  We really love this time with family!

Our cute little home for 5 days

Hannah and Lillian

Uncle Mark putting Rachel to sleep... ahhh

The Birx Bunch looking good in their camping gear

The 2009 babies

Philip Christian -- Rachel Clara -- Luke Nathanael

Playing in the stream (a favorite pastime)

Grandpa reading one of his stories after lunch

We really enjoyed meeting Luke for the first time -- what a keeper!!

Happy FIRST birthday, Luke!

Rebecca hanging out with Daddy

Cousin Jonathan didn't want to get his fingers messy with the smore -- pretty tricky!

The girls had a mass grave site for any bugs/lizards that died during our camping trip -- may they rest in peace

Sharing old camping memories from days gone by  :) 

Drew showing me one of his many funny faces  :)

It's hard work playing all day long

The girls would literally fall asleep as soon as their heads touched their pillows...

... Rachel, too

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On the way to Daniel's parent's house after camping we stopped at this church.  It claims to be the smallest church in 48 states 

"Our Lady of the Pines" -- Horse Shoe Run, WV

Here are all the Birx grandkids minus Luke and the baby in Sharon's tummy  :)