Beach Week #2 2012

This year's trip to Virginia Beach with my family was definitely different as we were missing quite a few family members but lots of fun was still to be had. Here's a rundown of what our week looked like:

There was a lot of swimming in the ocean

Plenty of "sand construction"

A few instances of shaved ice eating (Eli loved them!)

The boys had a morning of lighthouse exploration at the the Cape Henry Lighthouse while the girls shopped a bit. Eli wasn't tall enough to climb the actual lighthouse, so he helped Grandaddy clean-up litter around the area with his new bucket and shovel.

The grown-ups went to the midnight showing of Dark Knight Rises. I think we were the oldest ones there. Mark was very excited that we were able to keep this tradition alive, though!


Eli's first Japanese Steakhouse Experience

And his first major restaurant meltdown....NOT fun! Sorry, no pics of this one.


Many wonderful memories were made during our last beach vacation as a family of 3!

THE END

The Face

We are back in NC after another wonderful beach vacation with family and I figured I'd post a quick picture we received recently that captures our little guy perfectly. This is the face that we see quite often these days. He is such an imp but I love him so!

A post about our latest vacation is in the works and will be published very soon. Stay tuned!

Anniversary and Explorations

Summer continues to march on with its ridiculous hot temperatures and we've been doing our best to entertain ourselves without completely melting.

Mark and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on the 9th with a dste-night to a yummy restaurant in Chapel Hill. It was so nice to enjoy a leisurely meal with each other for the first time probably since Mark's birthday back in March. Sadly, I totally forgot to take a picture of the two of us. I'll work on that next year! Just so thankful for the 7 wonderful years of marriage we've been blessed to share thus far!

Mark was off Monday, so we decided to take a last-minute trip out to the Natural Science Center of Greensboro. A couple months ago we became members of the NC Aquarium to get free admission to the NC Zoo (long story but Mark got us a sweet deal) and this museum happened to be in the network of museums that the membership would get us into for free as well. It was definitely a mix of older exhibits and newer stuff but Eli loved it and that was all that mattered. They had a lot of animals in the outdoor section of the museum, complete with a few exhibits where you could pet the animals too.

We found some cool dino-bones

Eli made some new sheep and goat friends

We also saw two really hot tigers. All of the animals kind of looked like this!

Jumped off a beetle with Daddy

There was a little snake petting too...not by mommy!

After all of our museum exploration, Mark and I decided to make a quick pit-stop at the local Krispy Kreme for a quick snack. This was Eli's first Krispy Kreme experience. He is totally his mother's child. When asked to choose one donut from the glass case, he chose the frosted with sprinkles and enjoyed every bite as you can see in the picture below. I think we have a new Krispy Kreme fan!

Sugary Donut + busy day in the heat + No Nap = one quiet ride back home!

Happy Fourth!

This year, since Mark was off Wednesday and Thursday, we decided to celebrate our nation's birthday at Smith Mountain Lake with some of my family. Usually we stick around home to do stuff locally, so this was a fun change of pace. Fourth of July is pretty big up there and we had a wonderful time. The fireworks show was pretty late, so we had a couple hours to kill beforehand.

We checked-out the boats

Climbed a firetruck

Saw where the fireworks were going to shoot off and the crazy people that were sitting nearby.

Enjoyed a gorgeous sunset

And camped-out in the grass to watch an awesome firework show!

At first, Eli was a little worried about the loudness of the firework show but once things got started, he was totally into it. When it finished he declared to everyone that fireworks are "not scary" and that they were really cool. So glad he enjoyed them. Looking forward to having another little one to share our celebrations with this time next year!

Beach Week #1 2012

We spent the last week with Mark's family for our annual beach week at Topsail Island and the week was filled with the brim with lots of fun things. Here's what we were up to: First, we had to start things off with some pre-beach preps. Besides the usual packing of everything we own, Eli and Dada had a quick boogie-board lesson in our kitchen. There was a lot of playing in the sand. Eli especially loved using his construction equipment to make roads and dig holes. Sandcastle Building Deep ocean-front discussions in PJ's Beautiful Sunrises A Visit to the Aquarium to find some sharks A Little Kite Flying (A Shark kite, naturally)

Snow Cone Eating And Some Wedding Celebrating (Mark's Uncle got married while we were there)and Eli loved eating cupcakes and dancing the night away. The boy was busting some moves out on the dance floor the entire time! Loved it! I think we wore him out!

Father's Day 2012

We spent the Father's Day weekend with some of my family at LakeNear again this year. It is always nice to be up there, where Eli can run around inside and outside the house and just be a little boy in nature. The weekend was pretty laid back and that was alright with us. On Father's Day we celebrated the Dads of our group by making a yummy breakfast, going on a hike/swim at the park, and finishing the day off with a yummy dinner from the grill, ending with a dessert of homemade blackberry pie (picked from the bushes on the property). Eli thinks the world of his Dada and I'm sure baby #2 will feel the same way. Our kids are blessed! Playing with the water-table on the back-porch (little turkey refused to smile with his eyes open) Reading Mark's new book from Eli about dads who never grow up. Ha! A little skinny dipping in the Lake = priceless Father's Day memory! We love those sweet cheeks!

Get exciiiiited!

After much thought (and harassment), well over a year of it, I've decided to continue updating our blog. We have many family and friends who are spread out all over the place these days and it's just an easy way to share our lives with them and keep a little "record" for us too. So, here's a few updates on what's been happening. Eli's been growing like a weed. He'll be 3 in a few short months and I'm blown away each day at how quickly he's turning into a little boy. Mark and I are loving every moment of this crazy time! Mark continues to work hard to enable to me to stay at home with Eli and I am so thankful for that. I'll admit, some days I find myself longing for the routine of "the workday" but then I quickly realize what stuff I'd be missing out in these early years of his life. And finally, we are also anticipating a little bit more change around these parts... If you didn't catch the shirt, Eli is going to be a big brother sometime around January 1, 2013. I'm 12-weeks along and everything looks great. We are thrilled about this and look forward to quite the new year!