First day with the fam

After several trips to multiple airports, everyone was finally here by lunchtime on the 23rd.  My parents drove from Kansas with my sister Layne, my other sister Lauren flew up from Tampa with her husband Jesse, and my Grandma Randolph, Aunt Earlyn, and Uncle Verl flew in from Oklahoma.  Whew!  We are so glad that we didn't have to travel anywhere with two little ones and very grateful that everyone came to us.  

The people that didn't do the airport runs on Thursday stayed at the beach house to get lunch (or dinner, as the Oklahomans call the midday meal) ready for the rest of us.  We had a nice lunch there and then people rested up before supper.  (It seems like we just ate our way through the holidays, and it was glorious!)  Supper was back at our house and Dan was in rare form, very excited to see everyone.  While we were eating dinner, he would go around the table, pointing at each person and naming them.  

Dinner was followed by bath and bed for the boys and game-playing for everyone else.  We play a dice game called Yap (kind of a homemade version of Yahtzee) and Dan was very interested in the rolling of the dice.  I just love his chubby cheeks and little grin!  

Soon-to-be 4-month-old with a soon-to-be 93-year-old!

Dan loves Ben's new Jayhawks hat

Hitching a ride on Great Grandma's walker

Updates coming....

The last of our guests are leaving so I will have time to update, I promise!  We have a ton of great pictures from the last week or so, so please be patient!  Here's a pic of extra-cute Dan with Great Grandma, to hold you over until the real updates:

Big Boy Bed!

Christmas came a few days early for Dan this year (or maybe Hanukkah came a few weeks late?).  We want to transition Ben into the crib from the pack & play in our room, which means that we need to transition Dan into a toddler bed first.  Zach and I put it together yesterday (mostly Zach) and this morning we opened a present from Granny Rash--construction bedding!  So far, Dan loves his new bed, but we'll see if that continues when it's actually time to stay in it and sleep.  

Since the boys are going to share a closet, I ordered a system from Container Store to keep everything organized:

It's so hard to say goodbye.....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, not outside, but inside our house, it is!  Outside, the weather is dreary and rainy and mid-40s (which is better than the 9 degree wind chill from last week).  But we finally got a tree and all the decorations out of the attic, so at least it's festive inside our little cottage!  This is the first year that Zach and I have had a tree since we got married seven years ago.  In Hawaii, the live trees were very expensive and pretty dried out by the time they were shipped from the mainland.  Plus, we were always traveling back to see family anyway so we didn't really need to decorate our own home.

But this year, everyone is coming to us!  Aunt Lauren flies in on Monday; Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Layne drive in on Wednesday; Uncle Jesse flies into Jacksonville on Thursday, and Great-Grandma, Great Aunt and Great Uncle fly in to Wilmington at the same time on Thursday.  Whew!  They are all staying in a huge house on the beach, about five miles from our house, which will be perfect.  We'll do present-opening and big dinners here and then just hang out at the beach the rest of the time.

Yep, I made all those!

Zach's nutcrackers

More nutcrackers!

Road Trip! (overnight with the Lynch family)

Our last stop was in Solomon's, MD, with Jes and Shaun and their kids, Siena, Isabella (Biz), and Patrick.  Jes was my roommate freshman year at the Naval Academy and Shaun was also in my class.  I visited them in Japan way back in the summer of 2006 so it was high time for another visit.

Dan loved Patrick and all of his cars and trucks and toys.  I hope Patrick didn't mind having a little shadow for the day!  Dan wasn't so sure of Biz's bunny rabbits.  He wanted to get close enough to look at them but he definitely did not want them out of their cage and hopping around.  Until we were getting ready to leave on Monday morning, of course, when he suddenly became fascinated by them and didn't want to go.

Siena is 13 (!) and absolutely wonderful with kids.  I wish we lived closer because she would be my on-call baby-sitter.  She gave Dan his bath and read to him before bed and loved sitting with Ben, making him smile and laugh.  It was great to catch up with Jes and Shaun and to see their fantastic house, right on the water.  The drive home was not terrible, so I see a return trip to Solomon's when the weather is warm, the crabs are in season, and their new kitchen is all done!

Siena, age 13

Biz, age 8

Patrick, age 5

Jes has the magic touch!

Road Trip! (a few days with the J's)

After saying goodbye to Kim Turner and the kids, we headed off for a short drive to Millersville, MD, just outside of Annapolis, to visit my sponsors, John and Renee Jolicoeur.  Since almost everyone who goes to the Naval Academy is not local to the area, families volunteer to sponsor midshipmen to give them a home away from home on weekends.  I spent many a Saturday lazing about on the Jolicoeur's couch, watching their TV and eating their food.  So I thought I would re-create the magic, this time with a toddler and a baby in tow!

Mr. and Mrs. J graciously opened their home to us for four days and we had a great time!  They live about a block from an elementary school so Dan and I went to the playground at least once every day (and most days, twice).  Even better, they live in the final approach path for BWI, so large jets flew over every few minutes, making Dan a very happy boy.  Ben was less impressed with the playground and the planes, but he had a good time too, getting lots of extra attention from the J's.

Here are a few pictures from our playground trips:

On Saturday morning, Mrs. J found a hayride with Santa at a local park so we bundled up for some frigid fun!  Dan recognizes Santa but isn't quite sure what to make of him.  He's not exactly afraid but he also doesn't want to get too close.  He was much more interested in the tractor pulling us than in the jolly fat guy with the beard.  Before and after the ride, we hit the playground at the park, which was just as fun as the one close to the J's house.  Meanwhile, Ben slept through the entire experience.  I'm pretty sure that I could just use the exact same picture for Ben in all of these posts, since he was bundled up in his stroller the same way each time.  

My two boys:

A huge thank you to Mr. and Mrs. J for a wonderful few days at their home.  From the steamed crabs one night to Midnight Madness shopping in Annapolis to driving through the Christmas lights at Sandy Point State Park, we had a great time and I hope to get up there again while we're still on the east coast.

Next stop: Solomon's, MD, with the Lynch family.

Road Trip! (overnight with the Turners)

While Zach is away at SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) school in Maine, the boys and I decided to take a little road trip to see old friends.  Well, I decided and they came along for the ride!  Last Tuesday, I packed enough stuff to fill the Explorer, actually remembered both kids, and we hit the road.  The boys are both very good in the car (in general), so we only had to stop a few times.  One of the times was in a tiny town with old gas stations (I just knew there would not be a changing table in the bathroom) and only diner-type restaurants (ditto), so I had the bright idea to stop at the town library.  Genius!  They had a nice bathroom where I could change both boys and then we just stayed and read a few books before piling back in the car.

After about six hours in the car, we reached our destination in Stafford, VA.  The Turners were with us in Hawaii and we hadn't seen them since we left over a year ago.  (Kim's blog is over on the right.)  They have four great kids so Dan had a ball playing with them and all of their toys.  They were fantastic hosts and Kim even gave me a bag of goodies to take on the road.  The chocolate chip cookies might have lasted five miles or so!  A few of our other Hawaii friends stopped by, too, so it was a little reunion of aloha.  All of their husbands are now in HMX-1, the squadron that flies the presidential helicopter.  It was great to catch up and see how much the kids are growing and changing.  Hopefully they can make it down to see us--when it's warmer and we can hit the beach, of course!

The only time I could get most of the kids in the picture was when Nick gave them a bath.  McKenzie (the oldest) stayed far away from this craziness and Ben was too little, but the others are all in there!

Dan, Trevor, Tyler, Addison

Next stop: Millersville, MD!