East Coast Week 4

We left Gramma Lois in Roanoke and drove North through White's Ferry (a quick ferry ride in our car taking us from Leesburg, VA to Poolesville, MD) to Aunt Marcy and Uncle Stuart's new house in Potomac, MD.

Casey joined Jack at his school for a week long "Books Alive" camp.  They did a bunch of arts and crafts, ate green eggs and ham, had water day outside, and on the last day of camp, they got to go to the neighborhood pool.  Casey had a blast meeting all of Jack's friends.  Thanks Stuart for making her lunch all week!!

Tuesday night, while at Marcy and Stuart's, Grandma Gail, Grampa Tom and Aunt Kel and Bodie came over for dinner.

Wednesday night, we left the kids home with a babysitter and met Kel in DC for dinner at Hill Country BBQ.

Thursday, after camp, we went to their neighborhood pool, Country Glen.  After dinner, we met Dyani, Frank and Harper at the Bethesda Big Train College wood bat Summer league baseball game. It seemed like the hottest, muggiest day of our trip.  Everyone was literally drenched in sweat.  Though the game was a bit of a blowout...16-4 by the time we left, and we didn't get to pay that much attention to the game, with the kids all over the place, it was fun visiting with Dyani, Frank and Harper and the kids had a blast, especially after Aunt Marcy and Aunt Kel got them Italian Ice!  Garrett fought through his tiredness.  At one point we thought he might give in and sleep, but somehow he got a second wind and his squirminess was back! 

Friday, Stuart picked up crabs, shrimp and scallops on the way home from work, which we enjoyed out on their deck.  We then played a few games of ping pong, then it was time for the Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Stan has been hooked to my (seems more like his) IPad ever since...keeping us up to date on all the events!!
Thanks Marcy, Stuart, Lily, Jack and Daisy for letting us take over your house for the week.  We had lots of fun!!  Frisco thanks you for taking such great care of her for 2 weeks!

We left Potomac and headed to Burke, VA on Saturday morning.  We are now crashing at Grandma Gail and Grampa Tom's house. Saturday, the kids played in their "outdoor pool," on the deck.
Sunday, we met Aunt Kel and Bodie at the Lincoln Memorial and had a picnic in the shade near the reflecting pool, before checking out the Constitutional Gardens Pond, the WWII memorial and the new Martin Luther King memorial.

Monday, we drove out to see Jessica and her kids, Hunter, Jake and Maddie.  After being shy for most of the visit, Casey finally warmed up to the kids and started playing with the boys and all their toys.

Enjoy pix...

enjoying the pool with jack

hanging with lilster

sweating it up at the baseball game...at least garrett has a fan

swimming at marcy's pool

visiting ABE

picnic in DC

here's looking at you

enjoying the WWII memorial fountain

taking a stroll around the block with Grandma

chillin' on the deck with Gramps

playing with a few toys...

East Coast Weeks 2 & 3

July 8th, we left Lake Gaston and headed to Roanoke to visit Gramma Lois.  Aunt Lisa and cousins, Ashlynne, Morganne and Max were up from Miami for the week.  And Auntie Cousin Blair and cousins, Grayson and Everett were down from Ithaca.  We got to play with everyone, including Aunt Linda and Uncle Marvin and Aunt Donnie.

The kids had fun at the indoor waterpark (because the weather was overcast), got real sweaty riding their razor scooters all week, and just played non-stop.

Saturday, July 14, we left for Emerald Isle, our annual week at the beach, with Gramma Lois, Aunt Lisa and the kids.  We stayed in Sweetwater, a cute house right on the beach.

We had great weather, though it was a bit windy, so the waves were rough.  Stan and I did try and get out to surf, but we are way too out of shape to paddle all the way out to where the waves were crashing.  Instead we got out halfway and just got pummeled.  Good times!

Casey was great this year.  She loved the sand, especially rolling in it!  She would be covered head to toe in sand everyday.  She got pretty brave after a couple days riding her new tube in the shoreline waves.  She would get wiped out and rolled over and get right back up and right back in the water.  It was too rough all week to get her out into the waves, but she didn't seem to mind.  She kept herself busy playing with her cousins in the sand, the little pool we brought, spraying each other with the hoses, playing with play-doh, cars and watching Woody Woodpecker.

Garrett was a great beach baby.  He really liked standing and having the water wash up on his feet and legs.  I'm sure he would have been really happy if we just let him crawl around on the sand, but we didn't want a full belly of sand.  He loved crawling around his pool up on the deck.  He also loved following his sister and cousins around the living room.  Trying to play with anything they were playing with.

He is now pulling himself up all the time and standing flat footed.  He'll get up and stand there for a while, looking around and talking..."Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah...." on and on.  His teeth are really coming in now, so he now has really toothy grins.  He is a HUGE grinner.  He smiles ALL the time.  Whenever someone walks into the room or if someone looks at him.  A pretty chill baby who goes with the flow.  He is eating 4 8 oz bottles at 8:00 a.m., noon, 4:00/5:00 p.m. and 7:30/8:00 p.m.  He eats baby food with the first 3 bottles.  He has finally figured out how to pick up puffs and put them in his mouth.  He doesn't have it completely down yet, but he can get 1 out of 5 in his mouth the first time.  The rest just stick to his hands or face or neck and then he can't find them.  He has tried real food too.  Sometimes he likes it, sometimes he doesn't. 


Enjoy pix!

sliding at gramma's pool

golf anyone?

scootering with max

morganne feeding garrett

cheesing with ashlynne

garrett, morganne, max, casey, grayson, ashylnne and everett

i am a mermaid...with then turned into...i am a kitty mermaid

chow time on the beach

who's ready to play?

tubing the waves

wading in his own private pool

chillin' with gatorade

gramma and her grandkids

snuggling with aunt lisa

cornhole

brother and sister

East Coat Week 1

We arrived at Lake Gaston on Saturday, June 30 for our annual July 4th week with Grandma Gail, Grampa Tom, Aunt Kelly, Aunt Marcy, Uncle Stuart, Lily, Jack, Great Uncle Mike, Davis and Alex. Monday we went to Busch Gardens, while Garrett stayed at the lake with Grandma and Grampa. Casey rode the Sesame Street Roller Coaster, the Tea Cups, the Log Ride, got to see Princesses sing during lunch, won a pink monkey at "Whack a Mole," chowed down on some cotton candy and sweated her way through the park on a 100 degree day. She was a trooper the whole day, no whining and walked the entire day!

The rest of the week was spent at the lake, swimming, hot dogging, sea dooing to Lily Island to pick up shells, playing in the sandbox, pontooning, sparklers, fireworks and lots of eating.

Casey is a fish (no longer afraid of the fish). She was jumping off the dock (with her life jacket on and she still needs someone there to "catch" her, even though we weren't really catching her). She is still timid about the slide, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that she'll be brave the next time we're there in August.

Garrett loved the lake and seems to have had a growth spurt all week. He now has 5 teeth, 2 on the bottom, 3 on top. He is completely crawling now and is pretty fast. He can pull himself up into a standing position and stand there (while holding on) for a while. He eats 4 bottles a day (6-8 oz each) at 8:00 a.m., Noon, 4:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. He also eats baby food with the first 3 bottles. We have also started giving him real food. He is still learning hand/mouth coordination, but he is getting better each time. So far he has had puffs, yogurt bites, mashed potatoes, bananas, watermelon and a french fry. He kept everyone very entertained with his babbling and smiling. He is still quite the snuggler too.

Casey is a funny 4 year old. She says the funniest things. She uses "actually" all the time. She likes to go through the schedule for the day very seriously. She will say something that isn't true and then say, "Just kidding!"

Frisco had fun at the lake. No issues this year. We did find out she has a hypothyroid, before we left for the East Coast. But she is on medicine and seems to be doing much better. She is on pain killers for her arthritis in her back knees (hoping to get anti inflammatory meds after the hypothyroid is under control). She has definitely slowed down, being that she is 12, but she is still a happy dog. Though Stan has all kinds of plans when after her demise, we hope she sticks around with us a few more years.

Enjoy all the pix...

The Busch Gardens Crew

Casey and Lily and Ladybug

Riding the Coaster with Great Uncle Mike

Grandma and Grampa with their sweet little grandkids

The cousins hot dogging...sort of

Family Portrait...and no, this is not the last time we will have a family portrait with Frisco in it!!!

Ready to Pontoon

Grampa and Garrett sporting the same look

so excited to be with Grandma

My aunts think I'm SO cute

don't even think about it...this is my cookie smore

Mr. Crabby

Sometimes my sister likes me...she was probably bribed with twizzlers for this shot

Climbing out of the lake...