Vacationing with "Earl"

For an end of the summer beach vacation, we joined our friends the Reemsnyder's down in Kitty Hawk for almost a near perfect weather week at the beach. Up until our evacuation on Thursday morning, the days were absolutely perfect. And much to our delight, both Ella and Caroline couldn't get enough of the sand which meant they both stayed very busy on the beach! Of course dealing with Ella and the sand was much easier than dealing with Caroline and the sand since the latter didn't seem to mind swallowing fistfulls of it. Yuck! After several days though, she finally figured out that maybe sand wasn't as tasty as she had previously thought. However, her sense of adventure never lessened; she crawled around in the sand, played with sand toys, and enjoyed climbing on the beach chairs to play with toys. Ella and "her friend" Brady had a blast and were great little beach buddies for the week. We laughed about the fact that she always referenced Brady as "her friend" ("Where's my friend?")which we think is due to the fact that before the beach, we'd talk to Ella about the beach and describe how she was going to have fun playing with "her friend" Brady. Ha! Another added bonus: both the girls napped on the beach! It was unreal the first day; we sat on the beach watching them both nap and thought the day would never happen (for a long long time, that is!) that we'd have two hours of peace and quiet on the beach! So, adults naps were taken on the beach and lots of reading - yeah!

So....despite Earl, we had a blast!



Can't beat it: both girls asleep on the beach! This was HEAVEN!


Ella on the beach


Caroline found a hole and loved climbing out and sliding back in again!



With Shea and the "big kids;" taking a walk to get ice cream


On a walk to get ice cream


Cute shot of Brady and Ella


Loving the sand


Whatever happened to just toting along a towel and book to the beach? These days, we can't forget the beach toys, sunscreen, umbrella, cabana, towels, cooler, snacks, diapers, chairs, and of course a means to carry two kids! Apparently the packing took long and bored Ella to sleep!


Brady and Ella get buried!


Our little sand baby


Love the smile!


Ella with her daddy


Our house had a pool (and hot tub for the adults!) which came in handy in the morings and late afternoons after the beach!


Last beach picture - Hurricane Evacuation Route!

A Day at the Zoo

With Caroline napping at home with Tim, Erika had a chance to spend the morning with Ella at the Reston Zoo. It had been since Caroline was first born that we had been and with weather so nice, it seemed like a perfect thing to do! We joined some of our friends at the zoo for an afternoon of feeding the goats, petting the cows, and for spying a sleeping fox pup!



Getting ready for a wagon ride!


Taking a peek at the turtles with her friend Ann


Considering giving the goat the whole container of food.....


Ella is a quick learner: keep your hands flat so the animal won't nip the tiny fingers!

77EA

ELLA! Ok, so the order of letters isn't entirely correct, but needless to say, she was quite pleased with herself for arranging letters and the number "7" to spell ELLA!

Busy as a Bee Headed for Hawaii

Definitely an interesting choice of dress-up clothes and in conjunction with her PJ's, the whole ensemble is something to be appreciated. While Ella is busy modeling the latest fashion statement for toddlers, we're looking forward to Erika's last day in her internship (the 13th) and hence, the end of her 4 1/2 years of graduate school. We'll be celebrating with a graduation party but first we're headed to Bethany Beach with Tim's family next weekend and then finally wrapping up the summer in Kitty Hawk with our friends Shea and Jim. So much too look forward to! In the meantime, Caroline is a crawling champ and is also courageously dealing with a whole bunch of teeth that are coming in!

Out with the old and in with the new...but a little less cool

We finally said good-bye to Erika's 1994 Honda Accord; the first car she bought used back in 2001 (or was it 2002?). Even though it hasn't been the most reliable car and aside from the fact that the speedometer hasn't been working for the past four years or so and $1,000 worth of brake work needed, it was still a little sad to sell it. However, it's been replaced with a brand new mini-van (wait, did we say mini-van?)with an all-inclusive working speedometer and brakes! While we never in a million years imagined the Carlson's driving a mini-van, we have to say that it's totally wonderful having all the cargo space. Now if only they could look more like a sports car and less like a mini-van....!


Saying good-bye to the Honda....a little sad


Introducing our new ride to the neighborhood. One day while driving the 'van,' Erika asked Tim how she looked in the drivers seat. "Like a mom" was his response. Ouch. That hurts. All cool factor has been forever lost.

Baa-Baa Black Sheep Have you any Wear?

Ella's newest addiction is reading nursery rhymes out of her "Mother Goose and Friends" book and as a result, not only have we personally now added to memorization 47 nursery rhymes but Ella too seems to be retaining the words. You know it's over kill when we catch ourselves singing "Three Blind Mice" to ourselves in the car or "Hey Diddle Diddle" in the shower! Aside from this, we've really enjoyed testing Ella's knowledge and have been amazed at just how many rhymes she has memorized. For example, we'll start her out with the first line from "Sing a Song of Six Pence" and she will complete the second. We'll continue this through the entire 5 or so versus of the rhyme and now it's become a game to us to try to stump her. Even on rhymes that we barely read to her, she seems to know the words. But what's even cuter is that she'll sing some of them but the words are not exactly right; does the black sheep have any wool or wear to sell!???! :) And speaking of expanding her verbiage, Ella's response to Erika about needing to go poo-poo was "Mommy, I don't want to talk about this right now." Oh.

Before we could get the swimsuit on, Ella decided that an afternoon in the neighborhood was totally fine just being minimally dressed. Besides, if you're going to paint and play with side chalk AND take a dip in the pool, aren't clothes over-rated? And frankly, we thought it was pretty darn cute, too!


A picture from one of our first trips to the pool back in May; she loves the water!



Interesting combination of dress-up clothes. Hmmmm.....nevertheless, she was pretty darn proud of herself! "Look at me, mommy! I did it all by myself!"



Taking a ride on Pappy's boat!


In June, Erika took just Ella to a local farm for the afternoon so she could have mommy's undivided attention for a few hours! Here is Ella looking at the pigs but enjoying the breeze from a barn fan - it was hot that day!


A little nervous at first, but she finally got brave to hold the sparklers from July 4th!

Sitting is so yesterday

Just recently, we were forced to pull the gates out and begin to baby-proof our home since Caroline has decided that crawling and cruising is so much more interesting than sitting in one spot and playing with whatever was given to her. Unlike Ella who we remember was more hesitant and seemed to take a few weeks to master the crawl, Caroline didn't seem to need so much practice or encouragement (and trust us, we were not pushing the crawling thing!). One evening, she was just up on her knees and crawling away, almost as if she'd be doing it for weeks beforehand! And not within one week of crawling was Caroline pulling herself up on furniture and in her crib. In fact, Erika was quite startled to go into her room one morning to find her not laying down, not siting up, but proudly standing up and grinning from ear to ear. We've also noticed her take a new interest in some of her toys; she's understanding the concept of putting items in and out of containers or boxes and seems to grasp the idea that objects can stack as witnessed with one of her toys. Plus, she loves to clap her hands and will do so quite often to tell us she is happy! Music moves her too - she'll rock to the beat and pump her arms in the air to any and all types of music (including Erika's singing, which definitley isn't saying much).


This was the extent of her practicing...as much as she would lean forward, she never made it fully on her knees until she decided it was time to officially take off!


Here she is (6/30/10)on one of her first crawling adventures; we love how she sucks her lower lip as she learns to maneuver her new capabilities!


Now, when she's not crawling on the floor, she's crawling out of pools....


...and up the stairs or really anywhere she can go!


This was a sweet surprise! Look at me, she says! Good morning, I can stand!


And finally, she can join big sister Ella at the toy kitchen. Life doesn't get much better than this!




Say cheese!