Summer Fun!

I have been a little lazy with the blog posts this summer. We have been busy enjoying summer now that the weather has decided to cooperate! Rain was the story for most of June, but we did manage to fit in some fun activities.


Mid-June my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and two nephews came in to town for a visit. It was a short visit, but we did manage to squeeze in some beach time, pool time, and a trip to Sea World. Our Sea World trip was fun, but wet. It started raining right as we arrived and by the time we left the park everyone was soaked! Thankfully all of the kids seemed to enjoy themselves despite the wet weather.

The Shamu show was a hit! 

Noah got an oyster. 

Nate was along for the ride! 

Noah posed with the jaws of a great white! 

Sea World wore Nate out! This is how I found him the following morning. 

Nate and John were big buddies! 

It is crazy hard to get two babies to cooperate with the camera! 

Cousins!

Beach baby, beach baby, there on the sand!

Amazingly enough Nate has lived in Florida for over a year and has never had an official beach trip. Well, in order to help celebrate our friend Andrea's birthday we took him out. We weren't sure how he was going to take it, but he had a blast! I didn't even dress him in his swim suit because we didn't think he would take to the water. We were wrong. When we put him in the sand he squirmed his toes around before pointing to the water. Matt took him down and they stood in the waves awhile. I got some cute pictures and videos of the two of them. Nate liked it so much that when we took him out of the water and back to the beach he made a beeline back to the water. Matt and I (along with a few friends) took turns with him in the water and allowing him to play on the sand. He ended up soaked and happy! He was fussy when we made him leave, but now we know where we can make a weekend trip with the kiddo!

Matt and Nate testing out the water!

My beach baby!

The whole family at the beach. Nate is enjoying some chocolate courtesy of Janie! :-)

On another note, Nate has been feeling quite nostalgic lately. He has been trying out some of his "baby" toys. He is way too big for most of them, but it's cute that he wants to play with them again. Here are a few pictures from his latest adventures...

We dismantled the jumperoo. Apparently, someone still wants to jump! 

I love his expressions! 

Yeah, we're going to have to nip this one. 

Staring at the rain. (which we have gotten a lot of lately...) 

Minding his business eating the puffs..... 

maybe eating the puffs?? 

Not eating the puffs! The fire helmet makes for a nice bowl! 

He sat in this for the longest listening to the music. Notice how he's grown...

He was so tiny!!

Well, summer is now in full swing so I'm sure there will be plenty more posts and pictures to come! 

Belated Birthday post

My birthday this year was pretty fun. It fell on a Sunday this year. Matt, Nate, Mom, and I started celebrating early with lunch on Saturday at Bahama Breeze. It was yummy! Nate gorged himself on Matt's dish and helped himself to some of my fish tacos. He is such a hearty little eater!

Saturday night my mother looked after Nate while Matt and I went to an Irish pub at the Landing. The food was very good and we had a nice riverfront view with some jazz music playing in the background since the jazz festival was in town. Our friend Kristy joined us there and we had a fun time hanging out.

Nate must have known it was my birthday because he was up around 1am on Sunday. My sweet mom took him and rocked him because she wasn't sleepy. He eventually dozed back off and woke up around 3am. I put him in the bed with Matt and me but he refused to go to sleep. By 4am he was up and going strong. I had already put him back in his bed, but I heard him up again. I went to check on him and he and my mother were up eating bagels and watching TV. Crazy! At 5am I relieved her and she went back to bed. I finally got him down for a nap around 6am and when he woke up around 7am I kicked Matt and told him it was his turn. I slept a little longer and when he finally crashed for a longer nap earlier in the morning the entire house went down for a nap! Needless to say, we pretty much wasted the morning.

I was supposed to go see Gavin DeGraw with my friend Hannah on Sunday night. We made it all the way to the amphitheater only to find out they cancelled the concert. Tropical Storm Beryl began raining down and caused them to change their mind about having the concert. I was with Hannah and two of her friends and they decided I needed a birthday cake. So, we stopped by Publix and had cake at Hannah's before I decided it was time to hit the road before the massive rains hit. I made it home safely and Matt was cooking soup. Nate was glad to see me so we stayed up and played since I was out of school on Monday. 

Overall it was a pretty good birthday! Here's to another great year ahead!

One of my two birthday cakes this year!

Happy Graduation!

The weekend before last was a crazy whirlwind! Nate and I flew back to Bama in order to attend my brother's college graduation. He got his B.S. in mechanical engineering from UAB. I took off Friday and Monday in order to attend the graduation on Saturday. Things were going well that week until I got a call from daycare on Wednesday that Nate was running a fever. Ear infection number four. I was a little discouraged because we were going to be flying on Friday, but the doctor said all would be well by then. We packed up Friday morning and met Matt for lunch before heading off to the airport. 

Nate was a gem on the flight up to Birmingham. My dad picked us up and we went to visit Jeffery at his new apartment. He got a job outside of Birmingham and has officially set up camp on his own! After visiting we headed to Gadsden where Nate had to visit with a few people. Needless to say, he was exhausted Friday night, but not ready to crash. He was having way too much fun and his mean mommy finally put him to bed close to 10 pm. 

On Saturday we got up and got ready for the big day. I had no intention of taking Nate to the graduation so he stayed with my friend Shannon. She was a life saver! Nate would have gone nuts on us if we had taken him to the graduation. It was a long day for all. Jeffery got to walk and I got a picture to prove that he's finally out!!

The flags representing the colleges. 

Jeffery made the JumboTron! 

He's somewhere out there amid the sea of green.

Daddy took us back to the airport on Sunday. It was a rainy, dreary Mother's Day. Nate slept on the ride to the airport which didn't bode well for our flight home. Sure enough he (as Matt put it) "didn't let me forget I was a mother" the entire plane ride back. His ears were really bothering him and we had to change altitude a few times to avoid some storms so it was not a pleasant trip. He has been great on every flight before so I guess I was due a rough ride eventually!

He had fun watching the planes -- even if he called them trucks!

The monkey and me on Mother's Day!

We used Monday to recover from the craziness of such a short trip! Now the countdown is on until summer!!

Such a big boy!

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- my little man is growing up too fast! We took him last weekend for his first official hair cut. He looks so much like a little man now! He did a great job and only got fussy toward the end. As sad as it was to do, it was definitely time for his little half-mullet to disappear! He sat in Matt's lap and let the barber work his magic.

In the chair ready for the cut! 

He was not so excited about the barber at first! 

The first cut!

The finished product!

Spring Break Fun

This past week was an adventure for our little family. Amazingly Matt and I had the same week off! That doesn't really ever happen for us! We left last Sunday for a trip to Gulf Shores. This was our first major road trip with the little man. It took us about eight hours to get to the beach. I didn't think we were going to ever get there! Nate did a pretty good job, but understandably he wasn't the best at traveling in the car for such a long distance. When we did arrive he hopped out and got busy exploring his new surroundings. We took him to Lulu's that night and he was not a huge fan of the sand. 

We have arrived!

 Not so sure what to think of the sand...

 He quickly unburied his feet!

On Monday we took him to the zoo. It was hot and Nate couldn't really see the animals. We hung out for a little while and then grabbed lunch before heading back in for a nap. Matt and I quickly learned that regardless of how tired he was Nate would not come back and take a nap. He had to play for awhile before he decided he would pass out. 

He was checking out the people and the lemurs! 

My handsome little man! 

Camels

Nate enjoyed watching the lemurs. 

I was hot. I can't even imagine what this guy was feeling! 

Roar! 

 This peacock was freely roaming the zoo.

He was a trooper!

The zoo wore him out!

On Tuesday we slept in and decided to go shopping. We ate lunch at Lambert's and then went to the outlets. After shopping we came home and I took Nate to the pool. He wasn't hugely impressed! He splashed around for a few minutes and then climbed out of the pool. After I got him out of his swim suit he decided to pull all of my clothes out of the suitcase and put himself in it! It was so cute we had to take a few pictures! We went back to Lulu's tonight and Nate was a bigger fan of the sand. We had decided that the beach probably wouldn't be Nate's favorite place and weren't planning on taking him. However, I reconsidered after seeing him play in the sand Tuesday night. I decided it might be worth it!

Checking out the boats sans pants. 

That truck travels with us everywhere! 

Playing on the train at Lambert's.

 Hmm.....

And he fits! 

 It's hard being Nate!

I love this one!

Destroying Matt's sand fort at Lulu's.

Matt building the sand fort. 

Yay for sand!

So when we woke up on Wednesday it was rainy and dreary. There went the beach plans! We hung out and eventually made our way to The Original Oyster House for lunch. Nate was so tired he fell asleep right at the table! Since it was so wet and yucky we went back and hung out while watching random stuff on television. Later we went back to the outlets and then got a take and bake pizza to eat. We were pretty worn out by this point!

Sleepy baby.

On Thursday we packed up and headed back to Florida. We had a fun trip, but it was good to be home! We settled in Thursday night and relaxed. Moose was very happy to see us and Nate was very happy to see Moose!

Friday morning Nate had his one year old check up. Yes, we're about a month late, but whatever. Nate is weighing in at 18.85 pounds. We're trying hard to break 19!! He is doing very well and is currently cutting 3 molars! Yikes!! After the doctor appointment we took him to daycare for a few hours. Matt and I caught a movie while Nate played with his buddies. After the movie we went back for his Easter egg hunt and party. Nate was so busy trying to play outside that he only found 2 eggs. Apparently the mulch is very tasty at daycare because Nate reached down and scooped up a handful which promptly went in his mouth. When we came back inside he had some fruit, cupcake, and juice before we said goodbye and headed home. Nate was ready for a nap so he crashed and so did Matt and I! We had a lazy night that stretched on in to Saturday.

Nabbing an egg!

Nate had fun at the Easter egg hunt! 

 On Saturday we decided to hit up the Mexican restaurant. As usual, Nate got his own order of guacamole...

 Aunt Kristy came over to play Saturday night!

Sunday morning Nate woke up around 1am vomiting. We're thinking it is a reaction to the MMR shot he got on Friday. He puked a few times and was back asleep by 3:30. Later he got up and discovered his Easter bunny basket.  Thankfully, Nate recovered by Sunday afternoon and was back to his old antics!

 Eggs!

 Nate's goodies from the Easter bunny.

Yes, he'd rather play with the shoe than get the goodies from the basket! 

Outside checking out the penguin that blows bubbles! 

 Bubbles!

Matt and I head back to work tomorrow. We had a wonderful vacation and I'm already counting down the days until summer!!