Summertime Fun

I haven't been very good at keeping up on the blog lately, huh? Work has been crazy busy and home has been about the same. Then, you add in not getting enough sleep (which I'll tell you about in another post).....and you end up with someone that has no time or energy to post.

We've had lots of fun this summer, though. And, I thought I'd update you on a few things that have happened in the last month or so.

I found a local group of mom's (the Hip Momma's) from meetup.com. (If you haven't heard of this and you're looking to make new friends, find people that have common interests, etc., check it out.) Anyway, many of them are stay at home mom's, but some are working momma's, too. I got together with them about a month ago for Mom's Breakfast Out and had quite a nice time. We were at the restaurant (Mom's in the Kitchen...how cute is that?) for over 2 hours.

Anyway........they do weekday play dates and things, too. Well, a few of them were going to a local beach on a day that the girls were home from daycare (since Miss Lisa was closed) and I took a vacation day. I only took Lacey so she could have some time with mommy. Lacey loved it. We really didn't make it to a beach last year, so it's been since our trip to the OBX that she's seen it.

This little find is on the Chesapeake Bay. The water is pretty calm and it's very shallow. (In the picture below, Lacey is kneeling.) The only bad thing is jelly fish, but they didn't seem to be too bad.
Next, was a trip to visit Chuck & Nancy in Pittsburgh. With 2 little ones, it ends up being about a 6-7 hour drive. On the way up, we drove to see Butch's Aunt Janet....just a slight detour. It's a good spot to stop since we get to see her, she sees the girls and we all get a break from the car so the girls can truly run around. (And run around, they did.) I don't know how I don't have pictures of that stop, but I don't. Maybe she does and will send them to us.

The drive went fairly well and Leah slept a nice chunk. However, Lacey didn't sleep one minute. Who doesn't sleep on a long car ride? Even adults do (as long as they aren't driving)! Nope, not my kid.

When we arrived, Lacey found her newest Princess dress waiting for her. It wasn't quite done....but as soon as the pins were out & she could wear it, she did. Love the goofy grin, huh?

On Friday, we headed to the zoo. I'd been wanting to get Lacey to a zoo for a while. It turns out, Nancy had been wanting to go to the Pittsburgh zoo for quite a while. So, of course, Grandma was thrilled to go. We saw lots of animals....although not many were too playful that afternoon. The polar bears were lots of fun - one kept jumping in his water with a red ball and swimming around. And, the sea otters were really cute, too. There were a few minor meltdowns, thanks to a 3 year old with no nap since Wednesday. Not too bad, though.

Getting nice family pictures when you have two little ones proves to be a bit tough....
Oh - this is what happened as soon as we got in the car. No joke. We were still in the parking lot.
On Saturday morning, we headed to Kaelin Farm Market. They are friends of Chuck & Nancy and Grandma was anxious to show off her grandkids. So, we walked around the store, waiting for Mrs. Kaelin to come to work. Just when we were pulling out, she drove in. So, we stayed in the car, but were able to say hello.

Then, off to Soergel's for a visit. They have lots of fun things for the kids, including a petting zoo and a little play area. Grandma was really wanting to go to another park, but the girls needed a rest before our afternoon fun began.

After a brief rest....off to see Wayne & Maria (and kids). Butch went to high school with Wayne. We don't always get to see them when we are in Pittsburgh, but always try. I really like hanging out with them. If we were closer, I'm sure we'd see each other often. They were actually heading to Ohio that evening for an overnight visit at her family's, but they still made time to have us over. There was beer, wine, chips and salsa, blueberry crumble, badmitten (where Butch & Wayne played against Wayne's 6 year old son....no joke). Lacey played with their girls' Sweet Street toys and thoroughly enjoyed her time alone. (She was much to shy to play with the girls.)

Unfortunately, while we were there, Lacey had an 'accident', which I later learned was the start of a stomach virus. Luckily, I had a change of clothes....I don't always have that. Poor kid. (This virus - or whatever - went on for 5 days.)

Chuck's birthday was Sunday! Great timing for a visit! They had a picnic with family over. Lacey was in heaven with Heather & Erin. (Lacey adores girls that are in their teens or so.) Nancy (of course) had tons of yummy food to enjoy. And, it was nice to catch up with everyone that we only see every once in a while.
We headed out Monday morning and were home by around 3:00.

Oh - while we were gone, I had Kyle (my nephew) house sit so that we wouldn't have to board Brady & have a pet sitter for Kramer. It all went fairly well. The only real glitch was that when Kyle arrived on Thursday evening, he couldn't let Brady out of her crate right away. Her hair was standing on end and she was growling. It took 30 minutes for him to feel safe enough to let her out. Then, she peed on the floor because she was so scared. Funny.

I took off the last Friday that Butch was off (and the girls were home) so we could go back to Chesapeake Beach. Both girls loved it. Butch agreed this little beach was a great find (thank you Hip Momma's). And we had a great time. Lacey was ready to go after about 50 min., but that was fine since we were getting tired chasing Leah. Leah had no fear at all. She was just heading straight into the water.
I forgot to mention that there was this butterfly hanging out that wasn't afraid of us at all. We could get really close to it and it didn't budge. In the first picture, you can see it on the left of Lacey.


We head to Dad's every weekend to visit, cookout and swim. Leah loves the pool.
I just realized how few pictures I have of Lacey in the pool this year! Guess I'll have to fix that tomorrow when we go to Dad's to celebrate his 71st birthday!