August

Labor Day has passed and I suppose summer is officially over. I have to say I’m not sad to see it go. My favorite season hands down is Fall. I love the cool weather, the leaves changing weather, jeans and boots, football , etc…. . I digress. I was talking about August and the end of our summer. Our summer was nothing glamorous or very adventures which I suppose is expected when you have an infant. We certainly didn't make it to the pool as much as we had wished but I suspect that to be very different next year. There was lots of backyard fun with our favorite neighbors, yummy dinners, a concert, birthday celebrations, our friend’s wedding, the zoo, a visit to the Renaissance Fest and the start of preschool for Cole! August was also the month Emery decided to go from a baby to a toddler. Well not really but she’s on the move and there’s just no stopping her. Watching our ambitious little girl move has been very entertaining and scary for all of us. Life is one big ball of crazy, I so wish I could slow down and write about it more or even just post pictures. These infrequent posts are as good as it’s going to get for now. So here's a bunch of pics in no particular order.

 Cole hugging his sister...I may of bribed him to sit there so i could take a picture of him.

My always smiling girl

My beautiful friend got married and I seriously couldn't be happier for her. Buddy and Laura are a perfect match!

We went to the Zoo with GG and it was great. Every time we go Cole finds something else to love. This time the birds and the Zebras were a hit.

We explored the entire Zoo, they have a slide that is built into the tree. I believe Cole went down it 20 times before we could move on.

Getting a picture with the 2 of them looking and smiling is nearly impossible as you can see below. My mom tried to catch one and then I did. No luck. But still adorable.

This is Cole roaring in GG's ear. Kid be crazy!

Emery and GG :)

Courtney and Chris came up for Court and Mom's birthday. Cole was beyond happy, he doesn't leave either of them alone when there here. Its pretty cute.

This place is called the Point and it's not to far from our house. Whenever we got the chance to go to dinner sans kids we headed here. 

Been about 15 years since my last visit to the Renaissance festival so I wasn't really sure what to expect but it's certainly a show.  And just perfect for my little 3 year old boy who is in love with Dragons, Swords and Nights. 

We went down this slide 3 times. He loved it! 

Just a lazy morning with these two cuties

****Update - Don't know how i forgot this photo***

He was very excited about his first day and is loving school!

West Virginia Mountains – Part 1

A couple weeks back we made a trip to West Virginia to honor the passing of both Cam’s dad Henry and his Grandmother Betty who had both passed in the last year. Cam’s dad had always wanted his ashes to be spread in both Cancun the place he love and in West Virginia the place he called home. There was a lovely ceremony for both Henry and Betty that was followed by the towns Pioneer Day. It was a special event that Henry always tried to make it back to West Virginia for, so it only seemed fitting we were there that weekend.

On our drive up the Mountain to Snowshoe

 

It was my first time experiencing the West Virginia Mountains. Is it country? Yes. Very different from Severna Park. But man is there something so beautiful about it. It’s so peaceful and laid back. Cole loved just about every second of the trip. He loved being able to see the mountains and experience new things. 

We stayed in a nearby resort down called Snowshoe that is very nice. I can only imagine what it’s like during the winter season when its alive and buzzing with tons of people. It was HOGS weekend when we were there so they had some activities going on that kept Cole very interested and we also got some great people watching in. 

 First day we walked around the Snowshoe town area, tons of restaurants, shops and bars.

 

Here they were doing some kind of jump thing and they also had zip lines going on above us. 

He stood there awhile watching it all

 

Such a Cole face

   

 We made are way around the town area and over to the trails where there was Mountain Bike trails and some truly dare devil guys that were brave enough to go down them. Very fun to watch.

 

About two seconds after this picture was taken a guy went right over the side with his bike. Cole was in amazement!

 

Little Ms Emery was a super baby, with little sleep she was happy and napped when she could. Could not have asked for anything better.

 

 

This was the view from our room. Emery stayed with us while Cole got to sleep in bunk beds. The top bunk while Grandma took the bottom one. This was very cool for him!

 

 

The first night there Vicki was kind enough to let Cam and Me go out to dinner and grab a drink sans the kiddos. 

 At Dinner, playing with the new lens I got...

 

 

We rested up for the next day’s events which included the ceremony, pioneer day and the indoor pool and watersides! (Part 2) 

To many pictures not to split this up into two blog posts.

Family Pictures

I really wanted to have some newborn pictures done of Emery just like I had done with Cole, so when she was 6 days old Seven Set Studios came out to the house to take pictures of her and the family. We choose our master bedroom actually our bed to be the spot to gather the whole family. As I had suspected Cole wasn't really into it, well at least any pictures that required him holding Emery. It was all so new still to him so I understood . I'm not above bribing Cole but he just wouldn't play along. Oh well. My expectations were not very high...I just wanted one picture of all four of us and one picture of Emery and Cole. And we got it!

 So here are a few of my favorites!

 

 

Catch Up Time

During our long weekend off a few weeks back we decided to go to downtown Annapolis for breakfast and walk around. I seriously love that place. Growing up I really took for granted that it was only 10 minutes away and I promise not to let that happen with Cole. I want him to be very familiar with this town by the Bay and all the little things it has to offer. We started with breakfast at Chick N Ruth's then walked the historic streets down to the playground by the bay.

 

Cole loves that park it's huge and has all kinds of neat things to try.

 

He calls these marshmallow tops.

 

After the park we walked over to the bay to feed the ducks some bread.

 

It's one of those mornings you wish wouldn't end. I wish we could spend everyday together like this.