The Beach!

Last week was our family's annual beach trip. This year we were fortunate to have a lot of family there, many of whom we had not seen for years. Unfortunately, due to prior work commitments, James couldn't join us this year, but he promises he will make it next year! Evan did remind me several times during our vacation that he "really misses Daddy." James was a saint however, and in between long hours at work, was caring for our new dog Lucy, who had an intestinal infection. Yuck. We will introduce her in a future post.


Arrival at the beach. My Dad walks the boys out. Evan is skeptical, Drew is enjoying himself.





Madison and Kirsten, blowing bubbles out on the back deck.



The running of the tots.



Spaghetti monster.



Celebrating May birthdays.



On the beach.





Ice cream at Painter's.



Evan eating Penne a la Betsy. I made it for everyone one night. I couldn't believe he actually tried and ate it. Thank goodness for other good little eaters in the house.



Sweet Madison.



The kids watching a movie during a siesta.



Heated pool and hot tub. Nice!



Back of the house.



View on the beach.



Lucky lady bug on Drew's beach hat.



Walk on the beach with Grandad.



Story time with Grandad.



Aunt Leigh taking the kids for a walk.



You are looking at the next Vijay Singh here folks! No, I am not talking about Mike. Mike and I took Evan to Putt Putt and we had a good time! Mike showed Evan the finer points of putting.





Playing on the beach.



Going for a bike ride.





The kite runners.





The found object: Dora kite. Ed found it on the beach, tied on a new sting and voila, instant fun for hours.







Somehow or another, kite flying led to naked babies on the beach.















Kite movie:



Evan's last day of preschool was a week early due to our beach trip. We are going to miss it, and his wonderful teachers, Ms. Kim and Ms. Lee.

Holy Smokes! It has been a month!

I should probably be flogged or something. I have been taking pictures, just not enough to justify the trouble of posting one or two. But now I have many! Life is good here, and just the usual. Evan is wrapping up preschool and he will miss the last week due to our much anticipated beach trip. James is working hard on a project at work. I work at Home Depot in the evenings now and I am enjoying that and the extra money that comes along with it. I am also gardening in the back yard and enjoying that quite a bit. I will take pictures of that in the next few weeks. The boys are great, Evan is full of funny things to say every day. Drew is saying words like car, binkie and he makes sound effects when he drives cars. He is walking and running and climbing over everything.

Here are some more Evanisms for you:

Ice Clubs = Ice Cubes

Sun Scream = Sun Screen

Door Map = Door Mat

Peanut Butter Cups = Butter cups (flowers. Any yellow small flower is a peanut butter cup, including dandelions.)

Evan calls his freckles, "Ankles"

The other day I was comforting Evan over something he became upset about. I said to him, "Aw, Evan is your nose running?" And he replied in his whoa-is-me voice, "Yeah...it's running back and forth."



This is the new fun activity in our house. They like to empty out the book shelf and bunk in them.







Drew loves to climb into the dryer while I am emptying it out.





Cookie face.



Drew was trying on Daddy's boots.



Chocolate milk mustache.



Evan talking to Grandad on the phone. Evan declared, "I'm naked!" This was right before bath.



James and Evan went together to pick out my birthday cake. Evan insisted on chocolate.



Drew is astounded by the candles. Good thing we didn't have the same amount of candles as how old I am, or it might have singed off Drew's eyebrows.







No space is safe with Drew. I caught him digging in the trash and his hand was stuck in toilet paper roll like a little raccoon paw in a trap.

Welcome to Earth Mia!

Evan's buddy Vince has a new little sister and my good friend Lori, and her husband Jim, have a new baby daughter named Mia. She was born on Saturday! I took Evan for a visit with his buddy today and we were able to meet little Mia.





Vince is pretty excited to have a new baby sister. I think he is also excited now that he AND Evan are big brothers.



Drew is 15 months old!



He is walking all over the place, saying words like, Binkie, (Buh-KAY!) Cracker, (Kah-Kah) Mommy, (Ma ma ma) Daddy, (Dah-dah or Dah-DEE). Drew is so affectionate and a snuggler and LOVES to go outside and walk around. He thinks it is SO FUNNY to run away from us when we want him that we have to keep an eye on him all the time. Luckily Evan is protective of Drew when we are out and about and he lets me know when Drew is headed out of bounds. What a good big brother!

Drew can drink out of a cup very well, but don't expect him not to spill it when he is in between sips. He is likely to turn the cup upside down. Drew swiped Evan's chocolate milk right off the edge of the table in this picture. I didn't dare take away his prize though! Good thing Evan had finished and was in the other room, or it would have been WWIII.



Evan has loved to paint on his easel recently.



Grandma H came to visit for a few days as James had to go out of town. It was nice to see her, as usual. Reading a story before bed:



Chloe always goes into a deep depression after my Mom leaves as well.



My Mom noticed a small local carnival so we all went out on a cold afternoon. Everything was also still quite damp and muddy from the days of rain we had, but it was still fun. The great news about all that rain is that our drought is relieved!





Drew was suspicious and really couldn't get over a dragon ride right next to the Merry-Go-Round. The dragons looked like they were giving side-long glances and that was just plain untrustworthy in Drew's book. It came to the point that he would fuss every half second we were rounding on the dragons.



Eventually he just tried to block it all out.



This is where Evan is a real trooper. You couldn't go on the ride if you were over 60 inches, and I had a hard time convincing the ride guy I was under 60 inches, even though I am 61 inches. So I brought Evan into the ride and buckled him up to go by himself. Evan kept the same stone faced stare for the first half of the ride, and the second half he closed his eyes, it was his turn to try to block it all out. But when he got off he said he had fun, and I guess that is what counts.





He stone face stared down the slide too but broke into smile once James and he came to a stop at the bottom.



Fun times.