4th of July at the beach

Happy 4th of July!!!

I hope each of you had wonderful holiday weekends!

The boys and I headed down to my parents beach house with my mom the Thursday before the 4th... on Friday, my dad, Aunt Libby, Eddie, and Eddie's mom and sister all arrived at the beach.  Eddie's mom and sister decided last minute to make the trip and we are so glad they did!  Mom and I stayed for the full week with the boys and I was in HEAVEN!  My mom just knows what I need, when I need it... for example, she knew that Andy was waking up at 4:30 every morning and NOT going back to sleep.  She walked in the room, took him from my arms, told me to go to sleep and not come out of the room.  It was AWESOME.  She also came in one day, told me to get outside on the dock and go read my book while she watched the boys.  Again, it was AWESOME.  I did not want to leave the beach, obviously! Momma, if you are reading this: THANK YOU!  You are the absolute best! 

I took a ton of pictures during our week there, and I will try to share some of them here... I have a lot of catching up to do, blog-wise!

Cal was pretty good in the car on the way down (shout out to Nemo!), but when we got to the house, he was a WILD MAN.  He ran through the house like a crazy person.  While we unloaded the car, fed the babe, etc, he pulled every cushion off of every chair and couch and made a massive pile on the middle of the floor.  He thought this was hysterical.  I just loved seeing his smile while he was doing it!

 Again, my mom was wonderful the entire week...the boys loved having her around!  This picture below on the left CRACKS me up.  Andy is obviously a boob guy--haha!  He buried his head and passed out on in her chest!  We were worried he couldn't breath, but he was snoring away all snuggled up!
The picture on the right was typical in the house.  Cal loved to help Grandma brush her teeth.  He would take the toothbrush and brush his own teeth too-- we are all family, right??  (if you are grossed out by that, quit reading my blog.).  Mom-- the boys love you!

We spent a TON of time outside and Cal was in heaven playing in the little kiddie pool.  We have a deck that is on a canal (not on the beach) so we could watch the boats go by as he played.  Cal discovered he LOVES the boats and he would run to the railing and scream, "LOOK! A BOAT!" and everyone on the boat would look up and laugh and Cal would wave and say "HI!".  It was pretty funny to watch... Andy got a little Bjorn time and was happy too!

 

 We have a wagon at the beach that Cal loves loves loves!  We broke out some flags to celebrate the 4th and Cal was obsessed with putting them in the little holes in his wagon.  He was very patriotic the whole weekend :) If you look at the bottom picture on the right, his aunt CB is holding him while they look at boats and he is clutching all of the flags behind her back-- such a sweet picture!

Andy, although still very patriotic, didn't really care where we put the flags!  He found a great resting spot: right in the middle of the living room on the couch!  I know he shouldn't be on his tummy...we went through this with Cal, remember??  BUT, I do think it helps his tummy issues (more on that in a later post) and he sleeps much better on his belly... he also likes the carseat, but we are finding we get longer stretches of sleep when he's on his tum. Check out those lips....couldn't you just smooch him??

We spent a lot of time on the water too.  The paddle board is so much fun and we all enjoy doing it.  I was the first one out... both boys were napping and I was fully clothed and could not wait, so I jumped right on...thankfully I didn't fall... it's much easier than it looks...not to mention a great workout!

Cal wanted to join his daddy in the activities, so Eddie took him paddle boarding as well!  Cal is wearing a life jacket as the main rule at the beach house is you have to wear a life jacket as soon as you step off the deck towards the water-- Grandpa is very strict on this rule and the kids are all really good about following it!

 After he was done, he did a little swimming in the pool:

After dinner one night, Cal climbed up on Grandpa's lap to point out some boats.  How sweet is that picture? Melts my heart...

Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about Andy!  On the left, he's taking another great snooze (you might find it odd that I took pictures of him sleeping, but it's been kinda rare that he snoozes that long, and I was excited.  Like a lot...)
And on the right...you guessed it: A SMILE!!!  He is smiling more and more now and it seriously is the cutest thing ever!  He must think I am pretty funny looking because he cracks up at my face all the time.  This picture just caught the half smile.  With the camera's delay, I missed the full on smile, but you get the idea.  Pretty cute, huh??  I'm allowed to say that, right?

Our neighborhood down there has a great 4th of July parade and we were super excited to participate in it this year!  We decided we would pull Cal in the wagon, so we had to decorate it up a bit... I took it to a whoooole "nutha" level....

We woke up on the morning of the 4th and got everyone dressed and ready to head to the parade!

Cal saying CHEESE with his grandparents:

 The boys' outfits... I got a few better ones of Andy, but you can't really see the outfit :)

 Carrie Beth, Grammy and Andy waiting to go...

 Cal in the wagon!!  When we first got there, he was excited to be in the wagon and see it all...

 It was a hot hot hot morning, but we were happy to be there!

 Once Cal realized he could get out of the wagon and walk, it was all over.  He wanted nothing to do with the wagon again!  He was all about walking!

 We started out towards the back of the parade anyway, but with Cal trotting along at a snail's not-so-fast pace, we were soon the caboose of the parade...Cal didn't care though!  He was taking this very seriously!

 When the parade wound back around, we waited and joined back in in the middle, so we really only did half of the parade route, and it exhausted our boy!  We came home for some swimming! 

This is my favorite picture from the weekend:

 Eddie and Hank out in the canal:

We had really great weather most of the time we were there, and one day it was slightly cloudy (hardly at all), so we came in for a little bit and Cal was into everything...literally:

 We went to dinner in Beaufort that night and ate on the water where Cal could see all of the boats... he was so excited to point them all out to us!

This picture of Andy is so funny to me... he loves to sit up like a big boy!

 And finally, playing with the hose in the pool!  Eddie's mom gave Cal this "Cars" hat and he loves it.  He loves all things from that movie and screams "McQueen!" every time he sees anything related to it- haha! He loved getting sprayed in the face with the hose-- seriously... and at the bottom picture, he was yelling at a boat that just went by our house...haha

 I got some great pictures of Eddie's mom and sister from this week, but for some reason, they aren't loading on the blog... I tried two different ones of them and they aren't loading.  They must be too gorgeous for my site :) but I do love y'all!!  There are a ton more pictures up on MobileMe.

It was a wonderful week and I was not excited about coming home, but I must say...it feels quite nice to be back again. We've been gone a lot and it is nice to just be HERE.... remind me I said that this week when everyone is melting down at the same time....!!!