Saturday, August 31, 2013

OBX 2013 - Part 1

This is the first of quite a few posts to document our trip to the Outerbanks of NC.  We just got back today and it's no fun being back from vacation.  The trip down and back was smooth sailing - early departures meant 6 hour drives.  The way home, we didn't even stop other than to pee twice and Eric never got out of the car.  The boys were so good all things considered.  

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and had to unpack, grocery shop and get settled.  On Sunday, it was sunny but VERY windy . . . too windy to go on the beach.  So I took Evan to see his first movie (Planes) in the theater.  Terry, Wyatt, Jenny & Keira joined us too.  Evan loved every minute of it - he ate his popcorn happily and sat still through the whole thing.  I can't wait to take him to the next one.

On Monday the wind died down and we were able to really enjoy the beach.  Each year we take a picture of our footprints in the sand - Brian and Evan's on the left and mine and Eric's on the right:
Eric really enjoyed the beach:
He had his buddy Ian there to play with - he's 6 days older than Ian, though Ian is about 6 inches taller than Eric.  Last year, they were 3 months old.  What a difference a year makes!
Evan was loving life.  When we got home today, we asked him what his favorite part of vacation was and he said "the ocean".
Here Evan, Keira & Wyatt were running into the ocean.
Here's the whole crew together on the beach - 18 of us (10 adults, 8 kids):
And all of the kids (except Evan who refused to participate, of course) together in the hole that we had dug:
One of the perks of this year's house was the movie theater room.  Each night, the kids gathered to watch a movie together:
 Evan and Brian in the movie room:
Evan & me in the movie room:
And this picture makes me laugh because we let Evan take the camera to try to take a picture.  But he could barely pick up the camera, so we had to bend over to get into the photo.  Not a great photo but it makes me laugh when I look at it:
This was just one day's worth of photos.  Lots more pictures to come - didn't want to put them all in one post.

Monday, August 19, 2013

More Touching of Trucks

Straight from the wedding, we drove back to West Chester right to the Touch-a-Truck event in our township.  These events were just made for little boys who are in their glory getting to jump into their favorite trucks.  I think Evan currently would like this more than Disney World.  Here he is driving a firetruck.  
Eric got in on some of the action driving a rescue truck.
Both boys in a truck:
 
Onto a tanker truck next: 
 All three boys waving to me from inside the tanker truck:
Onto a UPS truck:
And a crane!
Looking down from the crane at the camera:
Next up was the forklift.  Eric was just so tiny compared to these trucks:
So serious - he really thought he was doing something with these controsl:
One of his favorites - this string pulled one of the loudest horns you could imagine.  The whole parking lot was a "symphony" of horns. I think we needed some ear plugs for this event:
These two pictures just make me smile - Eric next to some large tires:
This was certainly not our last Touch-a-Truck event :)

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Chris & William's Wedding

This past weekend, we got the pleasure of having a night away to attend my Chris's (my good friend from college) wedding.  It was in the Catskills in upstate NY - beautiful day and beautiful place for a wedding:
Kelly was there with us for the weekend and we were wearing matching yellow dressses:
Moving inside to the hotel lobby for some more photos:
Before and after pictures from college and today:
Kelly and I posing on the couch:
Now with Brian:
Now onto the wedding ceremony:

Not too many dry eyes in the house:
Enjoying the reception now:
More before and after:
Lucky guy:
Some very yummy cocktails:
One last before and after:
Posing at the reception:
Big thanks to my brother, Chip, and Jess (Uncle Chip & Aunt Jessie) for taking care of the boys overnight so that we could attend the wedding.  Evan is still talking about feeding the "fishies" with them over the weekend.

Two weddings down for the year . . . three to go!

Monday, August 5, 2013

Another Weekend Away - Why Not?

If there is one thing this family is used to, it is traveling . . . in the car . . . for hours upon hours.  We headed back up to Elmira on Friday, to Keuka on Saturday (why not?) and to the Felt family reunion in Sayre on Sunday before driving home.  One thing that is pretty common on our road trips - fast food.  And this is our "bad" eater, chowing down on a full hamburger.  He's come a long way:
We got up on Saturday and drove back to Karen & Cliff's at Keuka Lake for a day with family.  Eric was certainly happy to be back:
I'm not sure what changed but, when we were here three weeks ago, Evan wouldn't so much as put his toes in the water.  Perhaps it was a trip to the beach that helped or a trip to the pool . . . but whatever it was, it worked.  This weekend, he was like a fish in the water and we couldn't get him out.  Here he and Morgan are having a blast playing in the water:
Diving in . . . yeah, he wouldn't put his feet in three weeks ago:
                            
Full on swimming:
Eric checking out the scene in the water: 
                            
Eric and Brian:
Kisses:
And high fives:
And the little fish even put on a life jacket and went into the deep water with Brian:
And swam pretty far away:
Next it was Eric's turn:
And then all three kids piled on:
High in the sky:
Eric wasn't so sure about the water but began to warm up to it:
Eric shooting a rocket into the lake:
                           
Sitting on the steps with Papa:
Looking up to Brian:
Held captive on the deck:
Aunt Karen was nice enough to get a shot of all of us.  I realize that is the only picture I'm in the whole weekend:
Evan didn't take a nap for the day and insisted he wasn't tired when we were leaving to drive back to Elmira. Fast forward a few minutes and this was the scene in our backseat:
On Sunday morning, Nana, Morgan and Evan picked flower bouquet for me.  They ran around the yard to all of the flowers that they liked and brought them to me one-by-one.  Very sweet:
And Sunday afternoon, we headed over to the Felt family reunion where there were about 80 Felt family members gathered.  I'd never gone to one of these reunions before and Brian didn't even know many of the people, but it was fun to get to chat with some of the Felts.  Here are some of the Felt cousins hanging out:
Three generations of Felts - Brian's grandfather, Andy, and father, David, with Brian and the kids.  Eric wasn't too happy to be away from his mom in this picture:
All in all, it was a great weekend!  Getting home later on a Sunday is not too fun but we survived it.  And thankfully we have a weekend at home coming up . . . time to get a lot done around the house.  I think I'd rather be traveling :)