Rebecca's 3!!

Rebecca is THREE!!  She had such a fun birthday filled with lots of smiles, giggles and Dora!

About a year ago Rebecca received some Dora hand-me-down pajamas from friends.  Ever since then she's always liked Dora!    

She reminds me of Dora -- full of energy and always ready to explore!  She even looks a little like Dora...

Her first ever Dora doll!!

Thank you Grandpa & Grandma Birx!

Grandma Lucy made Rebecca her very own Dora blanket  :)

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday dear Rebecca...

Happy Birthday to YOU!!

We Love You, Rebecca Lynn!!!  :)

---------------

Last weekend my parents went to a nearby threshing show with us.  What a fun and MUDDY time we had! 

It rained the night before...

Watching the men work the thresher

So many tractors (and so much mud!)

Having fun milking a cow

Showing off their little trinkets from the blacksmith

After a long, hard day's work

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! 

-------

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  :)

-------

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!