Colonial Beach here we come ... oh wait

Last week we were on vacation with Dave's family, minus his parents who were livin' it up in Alaska. We rented a house in a small southern beach town. We had a great time relaxing and just spending time together. We don't live close to one another and it was nice to have some time to enjoy each other's company. We of course shared many laughs and a lot of good food.



Dave and I decided to fly to make the trip faster and easier, or so we thought. Long story short - after 4 hours of delays due to thunderstorms on the east coast our flight from Detroit to DC was canceled. So we stayed at a hotel in the airport and got seats for the 2:00 pm flight the next day. The girls were great! Dave and I on the other hand couldn't believe what was happening. Who thinks about flight issues due to weather in June?

So we tried to make the most of the situation. Dave and Morgan swam the next morning in the hotel pool. Rumor has it the water was freezing. Notice Dave was the one who got to swim. :)What a good dad! Did I mention this was Father's Day?

So here is our Father's Day picture for this year. Morgan was so exhausted from the day before she slept the whole plane ride. She was so excited about the her new backpack filled with surprises and all she really needed was her hippo to lay her head on.

So our arrival was a little rough, but once we got to there we had a really nice week.

Hey baby

One thing we were not short of this trip was babies. Three under 10 months and one big girl cousin. Morgan really does a good job with the babies. She is gentle with them and loves to bring them toys or talk to them if they are fussy. I know that as time passes she will also be good at telling them what to do. :)

Benjamin is the only boy, and he is ALL boy. We call him Benjamin the destroyer for a reason. Even his voice is low and "manly". He loved Morgan. Every time he would see her he would start "yelling". It was really funny.

Grace was busy mastering her latest discovery. She rolls ALL over the place. I don't know if she will ever crawl since she is able to go where ever she wants, quickly, by rolling. "tuck and roll, tuck and roll, tuck and roll" As you can see, Grace is getting to experience some of the finer things in life, like Oreo's.

These three often found themselves on a blanket together. At least until Grace made her great escape. Often Adrienne was off a little bit to make sure she didn't get hurt. This group is going to keep things interesting. I can't wait to watch them grow up together!

The Happy Clam

The guys hooked us up with some great seafood. Thanks to Eben's navigation system they discovered The Happy Clam, a local seafood market. Of course they made friends with the fisherman. They brought the fish home to grill, but the shrimp and crabs were prepared for them at the market. We had this meal 3 times, and it never got old. The last night we also got crab cakes from the adjacent restaurant. They were AWESOME! Too bad we didn't try them sooner.

Dave was happy to find out that Morgan likes fish. She also liked drinking her lemonade out of the can. It's the little things.

Where are we going? To the park!

Come on vamanos - everybody lets go. Come on lets get to - I know that we can do it! Ok enough with the Dora references. There was an awesome playground across the street from our house. SCORE! Of course we made many trips there over the course of the week. I think some of the parents had just as much fun as Morgan did. Playgrounds bring out the kid in everyone! We made friends with some of the locals there. They were a special breed of southern pride.

Morgan is listening to Sarah talk to her in the "phone", from across the playground. That was pretty cool.

Dave couldn't resist climbing the swing set. What is it about guys and needing to conquer things? I, on the other hand, am perfectly happy swinging on the swing, with no thoughts of climbing to the top.

The beach

Morgan loved the beach. That didn't surprise me since she loves Grandpa and Grandma's pond so much. She didn't need much to be happy. She was a little concerned when people would walk on "her beach". Good thing it wasn't very busy.

Jill found this abandoned ball the first day we went to the beach. We had fun kicking it around all week. Our last day there, when we went to pack up it had mysteriously disappeared. I guess another family can have fun with it for a week.

It wasn't worth it to build sand castles with Morgan. At this point she just wants to stomp on everything. So Dave started making "rivers" that went around an island. She liked that, but eventually she would stomp down the island too. She loved the beach! I think Morgan would have been happy there all day long.

Adrienne's 1st vacation

This is what Adrienne looked like most of the week, when she wasn't sleeping. She even smiled when I was putting on her sunscreen. She is truly a happy baby and I love it! I hope she continues to be so good natured as she makes her way through life. :)

Adrienne seemed to learn a lot from watching her cousins. She rolled over from her belly to her back for the first time while on vacation. She started standing that week. She learned some new noises from her cousins. Then the day after we got back she rolled from her back to her belly for the first time. Crazy isn't it?

We did put her feet in the water. She seemed indifferent about the whole thing. She didn't smile, but she didn't cry either. The important thing is that she looks really cute in her suit! :)

So here is where Adrienne took many naps. Most of the time this worked really well. We would walk around until she fell asleep then we could play at the park or the beach. There were a few times where she just wasn't havin' it.

Little bit of this and a little bit of that

NERD ALERT! These three kids and their games ... They got a kick out of the game "You Don't Know Jack". Then there was the small addiction to Bouncer Ball that Sarah and Dave had. It had me a little concerned, but I think everything will be fine. One night we played Catch Phrase. It would have been fun except that the babies kept waking up. Adrienne and Grace both woke up twice and Ben once. Morgan was the only one who didn't wake up. I'm not convinced that they were waking up because we were being loud, but it was pretty funny. Pickled pears anyone?

How was I supposed to know that hiding under that layer of mulch was 6 inches of mud? We were having a great time playing until we went down the side by side slides. Morgan half fell off the end of the slide onto the ground where the mud reached up through the mulch to greet her. What you can't see in the picture is that her arms are covered just like her leg. Needless to say that trip to the park ended a little early. The baby wipes just couldn't do the job.

Here we are again with the larger then life stroller. It made our job of getting from here to there with 2 kids much easier. Morgan thought she was pretty cool in her front row seat. We gave her jobs like pushing the button for the elevator which made her feel pretty special. Did you catch that - no stairs or escalator with this baby - we always had to find the elevator.

White Sox save the day ... again

By the time we actually got on the last plane (after another delay due to thunderstorms), we were all running a little low on patience. I was sitting my Morgan and we weren't having the best of times. She was testing me and I was not in the mood. Dave saved the day by throwing his White Sox hat on her and as you can see she thought it was great. Funny thing is the last time we flew with Morgan she was about 6 months old. On our last flight that trip she was also on the tired side when dad pulled his hat trick. I guess when something works the first why not try it again?!

ALL WET!

This afternoon Morgan was given the task of going potty as we were moving toward eating supper. Her new thing is " I want to do it by MYSELF!" So she goes and does everything and we just go to do clean up duty - wipe. So she had spent some time running around the house naked going from potty to potty, being totally unproductive, just messing around. She ended up in Dave and my bathroom as we were in our room getting things around for our upcoming trip. We heard some commotion and then "AAHHHH, HELP!" We go in to find Morgan sitting on the potty, without her little potty seat, with a very disgusted look on face. She quickly announces "My BUTT is wet...it hit the water...in the POTTY!" Dave proved to be the better parent in this instance. He remained collected and proceeded to help her by wiping her butt that was indeed ALL wet. I on the other hand, couldn't keep from laughing. Come on ... she fell in ... that's funny. You would have laughed too!

"My special place"

The other day I was cleaning up the living room - putting blanket away in the ottoman's storage area. Morgan decided she wanted to try laying in there. She wasted no time making herself at home, bringing a pillow and some of her favorite books. She spent most of the morning in there reading. She wanted me to get in there with her to read to her. I explained that I was too big to fit in there and was a little afraid I might ruin the ottoman if I got in. So she was satisfied with me sitting beside the ottoman to read to her. She kept referring to it as her "special place" and was excited to show Dave when he came home from work.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles

Our friends Teneesa and Amelia came to visit this week. It was a beautiful day so we played outside for most of the morning. I decided it was the perfect time to try out our new bubble machine. Can I just take this time to say that the amount of effort required to release a new toy from its prison of cardboard, tape and metal twisties is ridiculous! The girls were very patient, perhaps more patient then I was.

Once we got it up and running it was a hit! They had a great time running in the sea of bubbles. There was a decent wind that morning which made the game a little more interesting. A couple of times the wind shifted and before I knew it I was inhaling bubbles. All in all good times were had by all.

Rockband

Jill and Sarah got Dave the game Rockband for his 30th birthday. He hasn't tried the guitar yet, but has spent some time trying to master the drums. Morgan loves being his lead singer. She puts on quite a show. Her favorite song to perform is "Akuma atata ... it means no worries ... for the rest of your days ..." She likes her version better then the real Hakuna Matata. We've tried to tell her what the words are, but I guess she can sing it how ever she wants. :)

Adrienne 4 months

Adrienne 4 months

Here we are at the 4 month marker. I heard again today, what I hear almost every day about Adrienne - "She is so smiley!" Today it was my brother Mitch, other days it is a complete stranger who has caught her eye and been blessed with her smiles. She is very good natured. Last week I got her to giggle playing Patty Cake. I was so excited! So of course I said the rhyme again and again. I couldn't wait for Morgan to wake up from her nap or Dave to come home from work so they could hear it too. I haven't been able to get her to giggle since that 1st afternoon. So here we are almost a week later and I am still the only one who has heard her giggle. She is starting to sit in her little Bumbo seat for short periods of time and does ok sitting with support on the couch. Of course we have to be right there to pick her up from the inevitable nose dives. :) She is becoming quite grabby, holding on to toys, my shirt and as Morgan learned this morning, hair. She still loves looking in the mirror, talking to us and especially watching her big sister. Just in the past week she has started "singing" herself to sleep, sometimes at quite high volumes.