Beach Vacation

Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 by Laura

This last week we took a beach vacation and rented a small house at the north end beach in Virginia Beach. We had a good time though will not rent locally again, but because I know better this pregnancy that only a fool leaves your doctors at the end of pregnancy AJ humored me the location for this trip. Even though we were only 30 minutes from home we stayed in the oceanfront area the whole week and didn’t venture past a 4 mile radius of the beach house. The first day there it rained and so we went the Aquarium to spend the morning and got to venture out to the beach that evening. AJ and I had a lovely dinner at ‘One Fish Two Fish’ on the Lynnheaven Inlet for our 6 year wedding anniversary. The next morning I had some pregnancy insomnia and got to see what the beach looked like at 6am. Naturally I took my tea with me. We went to the beach everyday and in the evening biked to the boardwalk or to First Landing State Park, saw a boardwalk concert, and took Brooke to the nearby parks to play on the playground. We spent a morning at ‘The Narrows’ the inlet beach in First Landing State Park as well. Though we had to stay out of the water because of two rowdy sting rays and a lot of jellyfish. We had a great time and our beach baby loved endless destruction of sand shapes we created, being buried almost daily in sand, burying Mommy or Dadda, going on walks and getting shoulder (Dadda) and piggyback (Mommy) rides, playing in the shallow waves, collecting water and dumping it on the ground, herself, us, and of course being out in the ocean waves jumping and dunking for hours. It was a wonderful restorative trip and so nice to spend time together un-distracted from life as a family.

Greenbrier Summer Concert Series

Posted on Friday, June 20, 2014 by AJ

Today was the first of the Greenbrier Concert Series where bands play every Friday night at a shopping complex five minutes from our house. We all had a fun time listening to the music, having a picnic dinner, and playing. Also we scoped out which areas of the audience that were shaded for next time.

Pool Time

Posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2014 by AJ

Today was hot, so we went down to the pool as a family. We have gone for the past couple of weeks, and Brooke has seen some other kids with their “noodles” and wanted to play with them. This was surprising considering about a year ago she was deathly afraid of them, but Laura bought her one and we got to test it out today. Brooke loved it. She had her own independence in the water while using it and seemed to like floating free.

Father’s Day 2014

Posted on Sunday, June 15, 2014 by Laura

Because AJ worked during the week and the weekend, I planned a surprise for him to extend the Father’s Day into a weekend of fun and relaxation. It started early Thursday morning before AJ went to work with a surprise scavenger hunt to find F-A-T-H-E-R clues that were hidden all around Chesapeake City Park ending in meeting Brooke and I with the gifts that correlated with each clue. Friday AJ slept in and we spent time as a family at the pool and then AJ got treated to a well deserved steak dinner date night. Saturday morning we spent relaxing and doing whatever AJ wanted to do which was car shopping. Sunday morning AJ got to sleep in again and had a delicious pancake breakfast made by myself and Brooke. We hope he got to enjoy his time with us!

Mommy/Daughter Long Weekend

Posted on Sunday, June 8, 2014 by AJ

Thursday AJ left to have a Daddy weekend off and fun at his friends wedding in Phoenix. Brooke and I had a lot of fun on our Mommy/Daughter long weekend. There are no pictures from Thursday as it was a tough day for Brooke. She is used to Daddy leaving and going to work but was very confusied that he took Allison to the airport and never came back. Friday morning Brooke had school and instead of running to the grocery store, target, and other errands for the family I usually do while she’s at school, I decided to do something nice for me and enjoy my ‘Mommy’s morning out’. I decided to try my hand at ‘selfies’ and took some pictures of my morning starting off with sweet tea (my most recent pregnancy craving- though starbucks version was not as good as local restaurants) then a visit to the Chrysler Museum and the beginning of Harborfest’s parade of sail. Talk about getting a lot done in 2.5 hours! (I also did put an errand in there.) Saturday morning we had a playdate with Heather and her daughters Annabella and Kierianne at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. We had fun smelling the roses and playing in the pirate sand ship then cooled off in the fountains. We spent the rest of Saturday starting a surprise for Daddy- getting the nursery done! Brooke had fun with all the things for baby like my ERGO and enjoyed wearing her baby. She happily ‘organized’ the baby toys while I completely organized the closet, baby clothes, bedding, nursing gear/pump, and furniture. She also found some fun accessories for her baby. Sunday we had an early morning. I made Brooke pancakes and she said she wanted to help to make the scrambled eggs so I let her. I cracked the eggs in the cup and handed her the fork and cup and she scrambled her own eggs. Then I got the pan ready and handed her the spoon and YES I let her cook the eggs. She listened very well and did not touch the pan and just used the spoon to push around the cooking eggs. Eventually at the end I had to chop them up more but she cooked them herself. She seemed to enjoy the result. We spent the rest of the early morning finishing the nursery and Brooke helped me by using her tools to build the bookcase for the baby. She also helped me decide where to place the wall decals. Thank you very much to Oma and Opa for purchasing pretty much everything we needed for the nursery: mattress, all the bedding, the dresser, the lamps, all the decorations, the shelving unit, and the bookshelf! After the baby’s room was done Brooke got to add some very special decorations to her own room. I bought her two butterflies for her room and she helped me pick the exact location on each butterfly and then climbed up the ladder with me to hang them on the ceiling. We ended the day out by going to a froyo fundraiser for our friends Navy Unit and playtime at the park. It was a great weekend!! [Both galleries below]