Family Beach Trip, Part 2

Just a few more beach pictures from our week away and then I am moving on! We spent the 2nd half of the week in Orange Beach. It was very relaxing and we did not do a whole lot which was great. We were all getting a little tired by the middle of the week anyway! So we rested and ate and enjoyed hanging out w/Shug (Nathan's mom.)

We put pigtails in Hayes' hair and she looked so big with them! Oh I love them so much! Her hair is getting longer and thicker so it's pretty easy to get them in now. So she had them everyday at the beach. I cannot believe she is 18 months already-crazy!


Boatwatching w/Daddy


On Saturday we went out on Nathan's Uncle Pat's boat. I had no idea how she would do being out there all day but she was such a trooper! She loved swimming in the water and even got her little feet down on the sand to play thanks to her Daddy and Grandaddy. Oh and the water was great, no oil that we could see!


Playing on the boat and eating her Ritz!


It was a great trip. The best part was being together and having Nathan all to ourselves for 10 whole days!!! I could get so used to having him w/us everyday!! He definitely gets a Daddy of the year award for all his hard work. He had all the big hot, heavy Daddy jobs-thank you Nathan for always putting us first and never complaining about anything-you're our hero!!
Also, we celebrated our 5 year anniversary while we were away. I love this man with all my heart. Each year just gets better and better! I love you, Nathan!! Happy Anniversary!! And thank you, LORD, for 5 wonderful years with my best friend and each day that we all get to spend together.


We are leaving tonight for a little late anniversary getaway (sans Hayes:) for 2 nights!! I'm so excited about not changing diapers and sleeping late!! But we'll miss our little munchkin.
Many thanks to Shug and Ann Carole for keeping Hayes for us!!

Family Beach Trip, Part 1

I'm going to do my best to document our fun times we just had at the beach! I hope it won't be too long, but I have a hard time leaving things out! We went to Dothan on Friday afternoon and spent the night w/Nana and Papa to make the trip a little shorter. Hayes did incredibly well in the car on the way and I'm sure it was because Daddy was with us. She never does that good if it's just the two of us. We played a few games of peek a boo and lots of her favorite music-Cedarmont Kids Hymns-(she's obsessed with this) to make the time pass.





That night our sweet big cousin, Holley, came home from a week at camp!! She is SO big. I can't believe she went for a whole week by herself. She loved it. We're so proud of you always, Holley-and almost a 3rd grader-WOW!!


We spent the night with Nana and Papa Friday night-Hayes loves their yard. It's always beautiful thanks to Papa! She found her favorite spot!!


We got to Panama City on Saturday and went straight down to the pool and beach. Hayes looks like she is having a ball with her feet in the wet sand in this picture below-don't let it fool you!! She did love the waves and water, but she had an extreme fear of the sand!! I don't know why. It was beautiful but she would not put her feet down for a second on the dry sand. She screamed and climbed up both of us like a monkey. Maybe next year!





We went out to eat ALOT, like every night. Not the easiest thing with an active toddler. But we do like a challenge, especially if good food is involved-haha! The restaurant activity bucket came in very handy. Hayes loves all the toys and junk we keep in there. We use it every time we go out to eat. Stickers are her favorite thing right now.


DID NOT like the lifejacket swimsuit we bought her while we were there. But the child would not stay in her float and didn't want to be held in the pool for very long. I really don't blame her though, it looked very uncomfortable!


Thank goodness for sweet Daddy-she spent a lot of time over his shoulder in the pool!


Our family at Boondocks-we loved this place. They had live music outside and ducks everywhere that were fun for Hayes to chase around!






Nana, Aunt Alyssa, and our big cousins all came on Tuesday to entertain us. Hayes loves her cousins!! They are so sweet to her and she absolutely adores them. H and MH are so funny to her. She laughs at everything they do and loves for them to chase her. I soooo wish Holley lived in B'ham!! She would be a great babysitter!




at Pier Park


Thanks Nana and Papa for an awesome trip to the beach!! It was beautiful (and oil-free!) We can't wait to do it again next year! On Wednesday morning we packed all of our 9 million items up and got ready for our next stop, Orange Beach!! Be back later with the rest of the week!

No place like home!

We just got home from a wonderful 10 day vacation to the BEACH-2 beaches actually, Panama City and Orange Beach. Both were BEAUTIFUL-sand, water, weather, everything. This is really a great time to go if you still have time left in your summer! I took an insane amount of pictures and I'll try not to share too many, but still need to unpack, clean, organize and get our life back to normal. It's a lot of work being away from home that long with a baby!! Be back soon w/some fun pics.

The 4th in pictures

We had a great long holiday weekend! I love it when Nathan has the day off, it makes the weekend so much better to me! I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. Something about both the pool and my camera scares me-haha! (therefore, I have no documentation of our many pool trips so far this summer-better safe than camera-less.) On Saturday we spent the day in Tuscaloosa at Brent and Lindsey's. We swam and ate all day. They have such a great pool in their nice backyard. Hayes loved swimming and loved playing with Baker and his toys, all new to her! Despite her blank expression in most of these pictures, she really did have a great time!





Just waking up from her nap to have some watermelon. She could not take her eyes off Nathan in the pool though!



On Sunday we went to church and then to eat lunch with my Dad's side of the family at my aunt and uncle's house. Our big cousins were there and we're always happy to see them! This is Hayes and her cousin John Lee (2)-the youngest of 9 cousins here in B'ham!



Sunday night we went to the Homewood 4th of July festival. It was fun, but Hayes was too little to ride or jump in anything-maybe next year!



I can't even remember what we did on Monday-just played all day I think! We were just so glad to have Nathan home with us all day. It was a very nice and relaxing weekend being together! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Summer Days

We've been to lots of storytimes at the libraries around here...


The Vestavia one has tons of great puzzles to play with-we went 2 days in a row here. We went with friends on Wed. for the storytime for all ages and really liked it. It was more singing and dancing, noisemakers, and moving/jumping around, way more appropriate for a my little toddler than just sitting and listening the whole time!





Playing with our friends...(Hayes and Caroline)





Sunday School social last week, we love all these friends...thanks to the Harpole's for having all of us!




Swimming at the pool with Anna Leigh...


Kids Gym...


McWane Center, we've been twice in the past week. I do love an air conditioned place. Oh, and late Sunday afternoon is a GREAT time to go. We were there almost completely by ourselves and it was so nice. There's so much for a 1 year old to get into!







Turtles and fish!