First "Camping" Trip

Instead of a big boring bar party, Brian's office decided to have a camping trip to celebrate the four majors pinning on Lt Col. The catch: we were camping in the yard of one of the major's parents' lake house AND it poured rain for about 24 hours.

Not to be daunted by rain, James had the bravest day of. his. life and jumped off this platform (repeatedly) without hesitation.

Turns out, Molly loves marshmallows ALMOST as much as she loves her thumb...

Campers.

Sanibel Island 2011

Annual soak-a-thon at Sanibel Island, FL.

This year's highlights:

Molly taught herself how to swim and Kevin & Halley got engaged!

Most of the family:

Soaking....

Swimming:

LOTS of walks on the beach:

James and his buds, Crawford and Walton:

and, of course, the annual retina-blinding photo session:

KC & Missy Engagement Party

Two weeks after moving into our new place, we headed up to the Jersey Shore to celebrate KC (Brian's cousin) and Missy's engagement at Uncle Kevin's place in SeaGirt, NJ. The night before the engagement party, KC and Missy asked me to

OFFICIATE

THEIR

WEDDING.

No, really, read it again.

Yup, true.

I am a rock star.

The icing on the cake: the wedding is in Sonoma, CA (wine country) on the day before my birthday. It's like they planned the wedding for ME! I shall now know it now as "my weekend" and the wedding will be just a fun side note. Ha!

Really, I am honored (honored!) that they would even think of me and I couldn't be happier to use my clergy-status (bah!) to marry them. Missy is "that girl" - so genuine and pretty and fun and easy going and KC taught James (at age three) to hide behind corners with fake guns waiting for bad guys and then pop out and shoot them "to death" and last Thanksgiving he taught James the art of saying, "duh!" but, I mentioned Missy, right? ; )

Anyhoo, back to the Jersey Shore.....

I'd say this is Molly, in rare form, but this is Molly on any given day, in any season.

We have beach babies. Even if the water is about 8 degrees.

One of our "traditions" at SeaGirt: get the kids out of the house asap and feed them donuts in their pajamas while we sip our coffee and open our eyes and discuss the gaming and mayhem from the night before.

The engagement party and us with KC and Missy. James loves KC SO MUCH that he wakes up at 6am asking, "where's KC? Maybe KC wants to play" and doesn't stop until bedtime. KC is ALWAYS obliging so, Brian and I have been known to hit the 3pm mark (after gaming until 2am the night before) saying "Hey, where's KC? Maybe KC wants to play."

Molly really loved this chocolate dessert...

... and then immediately jumped into Brian's lap and wiped it on his shirt. He loves that.

This is Sidney, Missy's little sister. Just one month younger than Molly. I have no idea what their familial relationship will be, but Molly is sure they will be BEST FRIENDS and she proves this by stalking Sidney relentlessly and kissing her for uncomfortably long periods of time...

Perhaps she learned that from KC...

At the after-party: These are just too DELICIOUS not to include. Best potatoes I've ever had in. my. life. Please note the small size of the pieces of potato because that is the key (KROIAN!).

Love these people.
Uncle Kevin ALWAYS has the best travel route from any location and he's been around the world so he's like our own personal google map. For our trip back to Hampton, he suggested taking the Garden State Parkway (beautiful!) and the Cape May Ferry (awesome!). And wouldn't you know that the ferry has a gift shop, an elaborate snack bar, an actual bar, and these fun teak chairs on which to perch and NOT think about the boat swaying back and forth, back and forth.....

Congratulations KC & Missy. Can't wait to see you for MY WEEKEND in April! ; )

Another Town, Another Museum

If you ask James, on any given Saturday, "James, what do you want to do today?" He will, without a doubt, pause dramatically and then say, "How about a museum?" I think we may have set him up for endless museum-going during our 2 year DC tour (FILLED with FREE museums).

So, we checked out the Virginia Air & Space Center and became members on our way out. We have since (it's January now) been back no less than 10 times and James did a two-day science camp after Christmas.

We love museums.

This particular museum has an actual-size Air Tran airplane in the middle of the 2nd floor. The kids love flying the plane, from the real cockpit and serving us snacks and demanding that we put our seat belts on. It's been more than once, that we have sat there with seatbelts on, feeling like we can't get up for fear of reproach from the flight attendants/pilots, when James & Molly have up and left the "exhibit" when they were done.

Seriously, how about a little "the plane has landed, feel free to move about the cabin?"

And then, lunch at the marina where we discussed how badly James needed a haircut.

July 2011 - Moved AGAIN

Moved into this little project on the Chesapeake Bay! LOVE IT. There is WORK to be done, but love the beach, love the neighbors, love the sound of waves all.day.long.