Spring Break: Beach 2

Okay, last Spring Break installment. While we were at the beach, I mentioned that the weather was terrible. We managed to get out to the beach a few times between the clouds, but we mostly hung out inside, napped, went to local surf shops, and included a brief, intense dinner with a fussy baby. Fun times were had by all. Here are some more photos of our short and sweet trip.

Mommy opted out of this sand session. I had to snap some photos of baby and Daddy though!

Mark really wanted her to sit and watch the waves. Ha!

They really should list on rental descriptions if there is no tub...

Someone didn't mind!

"Hey Mom, do you like my sandcastles?!"

"If you need me, I'll be in the ocean."

"What stairs? I was just playing on these mini tables!"

Oh my goodness. The cuteness. Loves her Daddy!

And she loves the beach!

Anna Kate, over and out. "PICK ME UP!"

Five on Friday!

We had a fairly eventful week this week!

{one}
We have been enjoying the outdoors a lot lately. Now that it is warm enough to be outside, Anna Kate has been dying to be out and about in the yard and driveway. As you saw earlier this week, she loves the mulch more than anything. We are on the hunt for a sandbox, and are working on a safe, flat, shaded place for her to play in the yard. Below you can see her swinging to her hearts content. If you go around the back of the house with her, she will point and make noise to get you to take her to the swing.

{two}
Baby gate alert! I know.. we are late to the game with this one. But she honestly had a very low interest in the stairs until the past week or two. Then, something clicked, and she won't stay away from them. Per our usual rate of getting things done, the baby gate was just installed. We borrowed one my parents had purchased for their house to see how it would do with our weird angles and banisters, and it did great! Fortunately, for now, this has lessened Anna's interest in the stairs. She sees that the gate is closed and moves on to bigger and better things!

{three}
We are continuing our quest to hike with Anna. Mark and I did 3.6 miles again this past Sunday while we had a house showing, and we managed to get through the entire trip without lovey. Usually, she gets a little cranky around 2.5 miles, but leaves and passing strangers helped her keep on trucking. Everyone we passed kept commenting about how she didn't look tired.... so I figure that meant Mark and I sure did!

{four}
I'm addition to last weeks pointing, Anna Kate has also added saying "dis" when she points to things. It's adorable. And sometimes hard to tell what "dis" she is talking about. Luckily she is satisfied with most any response. A friend of Marks commented about their own baby, saying, "I'm pretty sure 90% of what she is talking about us "oh my gosh what is that I've never seen it before!" And the rest is about wanting food and milk". I couldn't agree more!

{five}

We have had a pretty eventful week. I wish I could say that we are going to enjoy our usual Friday at home, but we have another showing. Sell house, sell!

We did enjoy a fun play date that included several babies around Anna's age, where she walked 8! steps (hasn't been repeated at that length) and was very independent until she got hungry. We also enjoyed a visit from Julie and Erin, two of Mommy's best friends this week! Besides an hour in the honda dealership, we have had a wonderful week!

Happy Friday!

Spring Break: Beach 1

So, after a fun few days at the lake, Anna Kate and I left the beagles (Thanks Mom & Dad!) and headed to the beach. Mark had been wanting a vacation after several weeks of long hours, so we happily obliged and left our busy lives at home. The house was fairly last minute as we kept waffling over where we were going and if we could take the dogs or could figure out how they could stay with someone. We ended up on a beachfront property where the waves literally came up under the house. It ended up being a good thing, too, because with all of the rainy weather we may not have known we were on a vacation otherwise.

Anna Kate had an awesome time, nonetheless. She was finally old enough to enjoy some of the aspects of the beach- eating sand, fearlessly crawling at full speed into the ocean, tasting shells. The works. I can only imagine how much more fun she will have when there is a little sunshine and warmth involved. Mission go back to the beach asap!

Photo overload. They were all just so cute!

Sitting with Daddy, watching the waves wash under the steps.

This is how close to the ocean we were!

Taking some steps in the sand!

At first, we did try to keep things out of her mouth.

Sweet beach baby!

Love those little sandy toes!

 

Tasting the sand..

"I'll take one handful of sand for lunch, mom."

How big does my baby look?!

Fear. Less.

Love these. First the kicked out legs, then the little toe, testing out the water.

Five on Friday!

Well this is a little later than normal...

Per usual, I took so many photos over our long week of vacation that I didn't take many (even on the phone) this week. I'm kind of like a bad dieter when it comes to taking photos... Binge and then no food. Er, photos. Anyways, here are some of the fun things we did this week. More about our vacation next week!

{one}

You'll read about this next week, but while at the beach we decided to go out to eat one night. Obviously, Anna came with us, being that it is apparently not cool to leave your child at home without a babysitter. I mentioned in last weeks Five on Friday that she was not very into sitting in the restaurant. Turns out that may not have been a one time occurrence. We were those people with the fussing, occasionally screaming, child. Let's hope it's just a phase. You can see below, she has her happy face on... Not.

This is at the restaurant. Can you tell how she feels about eating out? Haha!

{two}

One of our favorite things to do in the area for a while now is to go to Lake Norman State Park to hike the trails. The dogs have always loved it, and we are trying to get Anna Kate used to riding in the backpack Kelty carrier. Monday, we decided to go with Nana and Aunt Lisa, knowing that Mark would be a little late from work (without the beagles, poor girls, I can't handle a baby and two dogs!). This was Anna's fourth or fifth time, and she did great despite being late for dinner! We hiked 3.6 miles in about an hour.

{three}

This isn't something terribly notable, but I do have a photo! I have mentioned AK and I like to go to the YMCA during the week, and on Mondays we have a nice little routine of going to a class and heading to visit Daddy during his lunch break. Here are my two favorite people walking around in the parking lot... She was much happier, but of course by the time I took a photo she was done.

{four}

On Wednesday, we headed to Taylorsville to visit Anna Kate's Marshall/Tarlton great grandparents. She had a wonderful time! I really should have had the camera, because she did so well playing and loving on her greats. At Great Grandma Marshall's, she insisted on exploring the entire house and loved having Great Grandma walk her around! She also insisted on throwing her Goldfish snack all over the floor, which wasn't as adorable, but you win some you lose some. At Great Nanny and Paws, she had fun throwing around the Legos and toys, and absolutely loved "playing" with Molly, the dog, through the fence. She is very lucky to have so many great grandparents to love her!

Walking around Nanny and Paw's backyard picking dandelions.

{five}

This is not phenomenal developmental news... But I think it is absolutely adorable. We have a pointer! She started kinda pointing over the last week or two, but this week she has it down! She seems to be able to point now to show what she wants (when eating) and appears to be asking what things are otherwise. She is usually satisfied and stops pointing when I point as well and tell her the name of an object. Sometimes she mimicks my speech, but obviously with very very limited sounds. She also thinks it is hilarious when she points and I just point back at her... Silly babe.

Pointing at the goats in our neighborhood. We went on a run, and she kept pointing at anything unique (flag, mailboxes, power lines). I say I burned extra calories from telling her what everything was!

Spring Break: Everything Else Lake Edition

So while I tried to do my best, it was truly impossible to catch every cute, silly, crazy moment with Avery and Anna at the lake. The two of them are just too much cute to handle when they are together! Here are some pictures and stories from the rest of our trip.

When we first got to the lake on Monday, it was actually nice and warm. Gigi had set out a baby pool of water to get warm for the girls, and Anna Kate immediately wanted to play in it. By play in it, I mean drop rocks into it, fish them out, taste them, a few times. She also wanted to drink the pool water for some reason and would try to cup it to her mouth using her two fingers. Here, we gave in and stripped the girls and threw them in to play. Avery is having a good time...

Baby Anna, not so much. I love that Avery is still grinning here...

The girls got some Easter buckets while at the lake. Anna Kate loved to turn them over and throw eggs everywhere!

Avery playing with bendable bunnies from when we were kids, you can see AK's egg destruction all over the floor. In fact, one time Gigi "hid" the buckets on an end table, and Anna managed to get around the toys in front of it to pour out all of the eggs!

Here are some blurry pictures of Avery "getting Anna up" from nap. You can see how happy Anna Kate is to see her big cousin. Until she realized Avery couldn't get her out of her baby prison.

Gigi got Anna Kate a tunnel for her birthday, but thanks to slow shipping from Zulilly, she didn't get it until at the lake. Avery loved it... we still haven't gotten Anna to crawl through.

Someday Avery will find this soooo annoying. Anna Kate trying to be just like her big cousin, sitting in her baby Adirondack chair watching Little Einsteins.

"Oh, so this is how we do this..."

These are the "pat-a-ran" blocks, according to Avery. (We worked on her pronunciation of pattern, but it never did stick). You can see how distraught Avery is that Anna Kate keeps "making a mess" of her pattern blocks. 

Anna Kate getting another handful to throw out, Avery stacking them carefully to put back in. This game could have gone on for hours..

Spring Break: The Lake- Playground Edition

As everyone in North Carolina experienced last week, we had some lovely rainy, cold, yucky weather. The bathing suits I packed for Anna Kate never came out. Nor did the sunscreen. But in between rain and clouds and wind, we managed to get some time in at a playground at the nearest boat ramp. Avery, as to be expected by her vast playground expertise, loved it. Anna Kate was soon to follow in after we removed mulch from her mouth...

Avery showing off her playground skills! She could climb up everything.

How cute is my niece?!

Obviously Anna Kate wanted to try...

"Thanks Gigi!"

Ignore the hobo shoes. They were her "getting dirty" shoes until Gigi bought her some more that didn't look so ratty!

Avery was all about being a good big cousin. She wanted to teach Anna Kate to walk, show her how to play with toys, would ask her to "say Mama", and even gave her hugs whenever she got upset. Here, she insisted on "catching" Anna at the end of the slide!

Gotcha!

Love these two! Getting ready to go down the twisty slide/get caught trying to go down the slide!

There was a lot of assisted walking going on this week..