As promised, here is the super cute beach video of Tyler. The other cute little boy in the video (dressed in green), is my six year old nephew, Max.




We arrived home Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. The drive was just under six hours. The boys weren't fed up until just before we reached home, so it wasn't too bad!

The rest of the weekend (mercifully, a three-day holiday weekend!) has been spent recuperating. And having a little fun - this afternoon we went back to that playground we were at several weeks ago:
Tyler of course wasn't much interested in the section of the playground for his age group - he only wanted to play in the big kid section!


Evan just wants to stand ALL THE TIME now!

This was the first time he has felt grass under his feet - he was quite perplexed!

The weather was beautiful today and we were glad we got to spend some time outside. Now it's back to work and daycare tomorrow. I'm not exactly looking forward to it! Oh well, the holidays are coming up, so I have lots of time off to look forward to!

Lastly for today, I just have to post this picture I took of Tyler this afternoon:

Isn't that precious?? He is so aware of the camera now and sometimes he refuses to smile. But I guess it doesn't always take a smile to get a beautiful picture!

Farewell

This is the last night here *sigh* . I've finally gotten the boys off to sleep, and we're all doing some cleaning up and packing.

Every morning this week I've gone for a nice walk on the beach all by myself.

It's been very peaceful, even if I have felt a little guilty taking some "me" time. I brought Ziploc bags with me on my walks so I could collect shells to commemorate Tyler and Evan's first trip to the ocean. I will have to figure out some way to display them, or store them away safely. They will probably be no big deal to them, but I've felt compelled to do it. My walks might be what I miss most when we leave here tomorrow. I am anxious to get back to our own surroundings, with the boys back in their own cribs, and back to my own dishwasher!! Funny how you can miss such a thing, but the dishwashers here (there are two) are terrible! And I'm grateful that it is a holiday weekend so I'll have two days to recover before returning to work!

On the second night we were here, we had a professional photographer come to take family portrait photos on the beach. It was a great experience, and the pictures came out beautifully. Yesterday, my mom, my mother-in-law Fay, my sister-in-law Ashley, her mother-in-law Daphne, and I went to the studio to look at all the pictures and pick out the ones we wanted to order. It was not easy!! I bought two prints of my clan, and a montage of four pictures of the boys, and I spent more money than I had a right to. As Mitch reads this, I'm sure he's wondering just how much I spent, but sorry honey, I don't plan to tell you. The bottom line is that the pictures are beautiful and I see this as a one time deal. And I know I'm going to get my money's worth. I really wanted to do Christmas cards as well, but those were ridiculously expensive. So this afternoon, we got back into our picture clothes and had our own little photo shoot on the benches at the top of the walkway to the beach. The quality won't be as good, and I don't have the ability to do any of the "touching up", but I think the cards will be nice just the same. Here are a couple of shots from today's photo shoot - without showing you the one I chose for the cards because I want you all to be surprised when you receive them :)!!

And here are some shots from a trip to the neighborhood playground this afternoon:

Time to pack up the laptop now and head off to sleep. A lot to do in the morning (we have to be out by 10:00 a.m.!!!), and a long drive ahead of us.

Fun in the Sun

I have some really cute video of Tyler on the beach that I've been trying to upload for two days to no avail. The connection here isn't the greatest, and pictures take three times as long to upload as they do at home, and videos don't seem to upload at all. So, here are some beach pictures for now, and I promise to post the video when we get back home!

Late one afternoon, Mitch, Tyler and I spent a little alone time at the beach:


On his first day at the beach, Tyler decides it's time to shed the life jacket...


The old beach pro, covered in sand!


My mom will probably kill me for posting this one, but I happen to think it's adorable!


Here is my footprint in the sand next to Tyler's itty-bitty footprint:


Ok, this isn't a beach pic, just a cute one of Tyler chillin' in the hammock that hangs on the deck outside our bedroom:


And it seems that once again, little Evan does his best napping on the beach:




And here are some pictures of the house:


Front:
Back:

Living room:


Kitchen:

View off the back decks:


We only have one full day left at the beach house. It's been a great week, but all good things must come to an end. The drive home on Saturday will be sad, but the good news is that we're all already looking ahead to next year - picking dates and looking at houses. I think this will become the new tradition, and I'm thrilled about that. It will be fun to have something like this that my boys will look forward to every year!

(I know the date on this post is Wednesday, because that is when I started it, but it is actually Thursday night at 10:15 p.m.!)

Life's a Beach!!

After waking up a few times during the night, Evan decided that 4:00 a.m. was a good time to start the day on Sunday. Tyler was awake too, but he and daddy went back to sleep. So Evan and I headed upstairs so as not to disturb them. This is what 4:00 a.m. at the beach house looks like:


And this is what the sunrise looks like:




Later on in the day, the boys got their first taste of the beach - literally!! It didn't take long before they were sampling the sand. But they both seemed to enjoy themselves!




Well, little boys who get up at 4:00 a.m. get very sleepy on the beach.....


There are many more pictures to share, but it's been a long day, so they'll have to wait!

We're Here!!!!

Well, vacation is finally here!! We left home this morning at about 9:00 a.m. (because we wanted to leave at 7:00...). It was a bit hectic, but we made it out of town.

Here is Mitch loading up the car:

And here are the boys waiting (patiently?) for everything to be ready:

Soon we were all gassed up...

all buckled in...

...and ready to go!!!

By the way, do you think we could have fit anymore into/onto our car?? We prayed the whole time that the rear axle wouldn't break! :)

It was a good ride. The weather was beautiful - perfect traveling weather, and the boys were ANGELS for the whole trip!! Not a fussy moment among them! Of course we stopped a couple of times for stretching and diaper changes, and a little fun...

and of course a little food...

These pictures are for the benefit of my friends, Mae-Beth and Leah, who always smiled and nodded politely every time I declared that I didn't want my kids to even know what McDonalds was. Convenience has won out!!! Just to be clear, Evan is NOT eating McDonalds! He was eating some pureed, organic concoction out of a jar. Although, he was eyeing the french fries... like mother like son!!! p.s. A shout out to Leah who is looking in on George and Felix for us while we're away!!

Even with the stops, the trip only took about 5 1/2 hours, and soon we were headed across the Currituck Sound into (onto?) the Outer Banks.

The weather looks promising for the week, and we're psyched to be here. I'll be back later in the week with pictures of the house and the boys' adventures on the beach!!

The Early Bird...

Please forgive the darkness of this video. But if you'll note the time of this post, it'll all make sense. GOOD MORNING!!!

October 1st

Happy Anniversary to my dear husband, Mitch! It was 8 years ago today that we tied the knot on a sunny afternoon with our dearest family and friends looking on. We've had our ups and our downs, and I love you even more with each passing year. You and our children are the best part of me.

Of course I don't have any digital pictures from our wedding or honeymoon, but here is a decent shot of us at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney (Opera House in the background) from our trip Down Under in March, 2006 - incidently that was our last vacation!! Which is why, as you can imagine, we are so looking forward to next week! The Outer Banks are no Australia, but it will be fabulous just the same!