dinner at evelyns

We're still recapping our trip to Nana and Pops house.

While we were there we were able to visit one of our favorite restaurants ... Evelyn's Drive-In. The seafood is yummy and the view is amazing. They were recently featured on Diners, DriveIns and Dives on the Food Network, so we're no the only ones who love it.


Not a bad view for dinner.

Here was the view from our table.

Maddie and Daddy checking out the menu.

We all had fish and chips and I had a margarita... which I have to say wasn't bad at all. Wish we could go there tonight for dinner!

more pictures from nana and pop pops house

I'm slow to upload pictures from our trip to New England. Im just getting these off the camera this morning.

Here are a few more shots of the girls at Nana and Pop Pops house.

beantown and the beach

While we were at Nana and Pop Pops, we took a day trip up to Boston to check out the sites and enjoy the beautiful city where Jim and I met.

Unfortunately my camera pooped out halfway through the day, so we only have pictures of the first half of the day.

We decided to take the train from Braintree to Park Street so that Maddie could take a train as part of her "Boston experience." We got off the train and spent an our or so walking around the Commons. Maddie loved the Make Way for Ducklings statue...although we've never read the book! I guess I need to look for it at the library.


Next up we hit the carousel.

After the commons we met an old friend from college and walked to Fanuel Hall for lunch. After lunch we walked to the waterfront. We wanted to see the results of the big dig that we lived thru while we were there. The waterfront was beautiful. The walk from downtown to the water was quick and painless and it really ties the city hot spots together. After a walk to look at the boats and the water - Maddie was pooped. She went from RUNNING up and down the wharf - so completely passed out in the stroller in about 30 seconds. She slept the entire walk back and the ride on the train. She finally woke up when we got to the car. I think she had a great day!

We were also able to meet our friends Dennis and Courtney at the beach one night. They have two really adorable kids and we had a great time getting the kids together and catching up with them. It was almost impossible to get a picture of all four kids and the adults. You can see little blurs of people in the two pictures below... the pink blur behind Dennis is Maeve and Maddie is headed out of the frame.

Now we have almost everyone but Maeve... she's bolting out of the picture in the lower right hand corner.

Caroline had a GREAT time at the beach all week. YOu can tell by the look on her face in this picture. She would crawl and crawl and crawl down the sand and right into the water if you let her. Putting shells, pebbles and of course sand in her mouth all along the way.



We were able to hit the beach quite a few times while we were home and Maddie keeps asking when we're going to go back to the beach. Guess we'll have to plan another trip soon!

Little Compton 4.8 miler

Jim, Aunt Jen, Cousin Tay and I all completed the Little Compton 4.8 mile Road Race last weekend. We had a great time, although it was MUGGY! My time was definitely slow, but I stopped at every water station to make sure I stayed hydrated so I knew I wouldnt be breaking any personal bests.

We met my old friend Dennis and his wife and kids at the race and Jim and Dennis ran the race together. Tay and Jen walked the course together and I ran. Nana and Pop-Pops watched the girls while we ran.

Here are mom and Caroline sitting waiting for the race to begin.

I think this is the beginning of the race. The car there is leading the pack.

Apparently Jim and I were just too fast to catch a picture of, but here's Jen walking by! Go Jen!!!

We have no pics of us finishing- but trust me, we did. :)

The shirts were yuck. Not technical and the graphic was pretty corny. AND my biggest pet peeve... the smallest size shirt they had was a mens large. Considering the race has been around for 30 years, thats a pretty lame effort on their part. Most races these days that are longer than a 5K have upgraded their shirts to technical shirts. The plus is that it was fairly cheap to enter so I guess thats the trade-off. Not sure if Id do it again, but the scenery was decent.

early morning bird watching

 

One of the perks of Nana and Pop Pops house is the bird/boat watching from the back deck. I think we'll have to invest in some kid binoculars for Maddie - she loves them!

happy 40th mere!

We made it to the northeast and are having fun at Nana and Pop Pops house! We're braving the crazy heat and humidity and are still managing to have a fun time. :)

We got to celebrate Cousin Mere's 40th birthday with her on Friday.

It was great fun to see the family and meet our new little Cousin Riley. He and Caroline are only a month apart. He's so cute... check out his HUGE eyes and skeeeeeny little legs (compared to Caroline's that is!).

We're hoping to see the family again this weekend and get to know little Riley a little better. More pics to come!

happy 4th, maddie's new ride and the kid is all over the place!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

We had a great day. We woke up and packed up the car in the morning and headed down to the coast to see Aunt Susan at her new house and hit the beach! She lives just a few miles from Carolina Beach and we loved being able to visit her and spend time at the ocean.

I did a great job packing up all of our stuff... and then realized once we got to Susans house that the big bag with the girls bathing suits, sunscreen and swim diapers was on the couch at home... so we had to make a quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some suits. Whats more American than that? Surprisingly, Wally World had no bathing suits smaller than a 3T and this one she's wearing below was about the only one they had. Luckily it was only $5.00 so I couldnt complain that it wasn't exactly my "style."

Maddie really really enjoys the beach now. She played the entire day in the sun. She had Susan taking her out in the water over and over and building sand castles. Im proud to say that she was in the sun all day and did not get a sunburn! Im a little phobic about my pale skinned family getting burned! Me on the other hand forgot to put on sunscreen altogether (because I was too busy keeping Maddie lubed up and making sure Caroline wasnt eating sand) and I didnt even get a tan! :)

We don't have many great group shots at the beach because we all had our hands a little full. Little Ms Caroline decided not to nap at all ... all day! She was happy and playful, so we were happy about that - but I spent most of the time in the chair trying to get her to sleep! Of course, as soon as we got in the car and past the canal, they were both passed out. Nothing like a day at the beach to wear two little girls OUT!

We got home and gave them both showers (just a little PSA: Be careful bringing babies in the shower with you. They get SLIPPERY WHEN WET!), and put Caroline right to bed. We let Maddie stay up because I wanted her to see the music and fireworks on TV. She's never really seen fireworks as she's always been fast asleep by 8pm - so i thought it was time she had the whole 4th of July experience (on TV of course, i knew she'd hate fireworks in real life). So... we all loaded up in the theater room with the DC 4th of July show on TV. We danced and waved our little American flag to Hootie and Reba, but once the fireworks started... she HATED it. She didnt even like the loud noises on TV!!! We had to mute it for her to even watch the show! There was also a good amount of neighborhood fireworks going on right outside our house -which she (and Tucker) also hated. So, she asked to go to bed and we put her to bed. She made me sleep with her for a bit and Tucker crawled under the bed until I got up. Oh well, better luck next year!

On to something she does like... check out Maddie's new RIDE! I thought I would have at least 13 more years til I had to worry about her running something or some one over... but no, the time is here.

Grammie and Grandad got her a really cool pink and blue JEEP! She's still getting the hang of steering and putting her foot on the pedal to move, but she'll get it. Grammie and Grandads backyard is perfect for cruising.

Caroline decided to sneak a ride while Maddie was off playing with Grandad. Don't you see this happening in 17 or 18 years?

She looks too cute, doesn't she?? How can anyone get mad at her for stealing Maddie's car? I can't get enough of this little baby. And her big news?? She's CRAWLING NOW! She starting crawling just this week- so at about 8 months. She's getting around great and I'm reminded that I need to get anything and everything out of reach! She LOVES tearing and eating paper (oh and choking on it if she gets a good bit of it in her mouth before we catch her)!

Just a few more days til our big trip up north to Nana and Pop Pops house! We can't wait. All four of us on an airplane... should be interesting! Hope they're ready for us!

8 months

Baby Sister is 8 months!

She is still the happiest, sweetest, most-smiley baby you've ever met. She's a ball of love. She now has two teeth and is just about to crawl. She's mastering the army-crawl and I think it'll just be a day or two before she figures out how those legs work. She's sleeping great- goes to bed around 7-7:30pm and is up around 6-6:30am.

I can't believe how big she's getting. Its all going by too fast! Slow down baby girl!

a very happy fathers day on the lake

Wow, I can't believe a whole week has gone by and this post has been sitting in draft! We've been really busy lately with life and work, but managed to squeeze in a really great Fathers Day with Grandad and Grammie.

They invited us out on their boat on Jordan Lake. It was Maddie's first time out on a boat and of course- she loved it! Grammie was nice enough to stay on shore with Baby Caroline since we didn't have a life jacket to fit her. They played in the sand and CC tried to put everything she possibly could in her mouth. I love this picture below... here they are waving us Bon Voyage!


Here's Grandad relaxing a bit before we got started.


Maddie loved the boat, she kept asking Grandad to go faster and faster!

Maddie knew where the best seat on the boat was.


And look at Daddy! Maddie thought it was pretty crazy that Daddy was floating on the water with two sticks strapped to his feet. She wanted to get out there and ski with him. Maybe next year! Daddy's still got it! He tried to get Mommy and Grandad out on skis too... but we weren't quite in the mood. Maybe next time.

After a ride around the lake and a little skiing, we went back to our little cove and had dinner at the picnic area. Here the guys are with their kids/grandkids.

Happy Fathers Day to Dad, Grandad and of course Pop Pops too! We love you guys!