Summer Recap: The Beach!

North Myrtle Beach has been an annual trip for a few years now. It is nice to get away from home as a family. The actual beach is a little hard with the little ones (so.much.sand), but there was plenty of pool/waterpark fun to keep us busy. Both the girls loved the lazy river. We loved the free breakfast buffet and we even managed to go out to eat at restaurants for dinner :-). Not pictured is the "Alligator Adventure" we had. To make a long story short, we promised Harlow we were going to see an alligator and had to pay $47 to see 700 (creepy ones).

A Pinterest inspired attempt at a beach photo, harder than it looked! 

Harlow 2 1/2 years

Our sweet Harlow Louise is 2 1/2 today. She has sprouted 2 1/2 inches in 6 months and is 37 inches tall (85%) and 30 lbs (75%).  Two year old preschool is starting in two weeks. She knows how to count up to 7 (but then goes back to 2 ). She repeats EVERY phrase we say...it's scary how fast she picks them up. Her favorite thing recently is to hold one finger up and say "be right back" and then go to get something in another part of the house. She still wants to do everything herself, she can get pants, shorts, dresses, and her crocs on herself. She has really come around on her sister and likes having her around now and making her laugh and smile. We are working on being polite. She knows she is supposed to say "no thanks" instead of "nope" but she says "nope" and then grins and laughs and then changes it to "no thanks". At night we have been doing "butterfly kisses" and she came up with "butterfly hugs" I still can't really figure out what a "butterfly hug" is but then she says "regular hug" and gives me one before bed. She is the sweetest girl!

 

Summer recap: Michigan in July

July was our annual summer Michigan trip. We did the usual hanging out with friends and family. . We spent time with my family, Mark's, some of my extended family and snuck in some time at The Pond with my friends. It was great to see the Miller's before they moved to Mexico for two years. The girls loves all their aunts, uncles, and cousins!

annual anniversary pic

The Pond with friends

bubbles with Aunt Sarah

party dresses

4th of July

Violet 10 months!

I sorta of skimped on the pictures this time, but she's getting hard to take a photo of these days! Today she kept grabbing for the sign and taking it down. This month she has started to "let go" and stand for a few seconds. Today she also walked behind the walker toy on wheels! She claps every time we say "yay".  She is starting to figure out "kisses", the awesome wide open mouth ones babies are so good at. Still just two teeth and is now recovered from bilateral ear infections (again) this month. I can't believe she is just two months away from being one!

Summer recap: Ohio in June

This week I am going to try to catch up on blogging about all our trips we went on this summer. I thought our goals were lofty when we planned trips to Ohio, Michigan, Myrtle Beach, and Tennessee all in three short months. I was worried how the kids would be in the car, how they would nap, what would happen if they DIDn't nap, and how they would sleep at night. Turns out they did great. While 'vacation' is exhausting with a 2 and almost a half year old and a 9 ish month old, it is SO worth it. We made some great memories with friends and family. We learned some things too like: doing long drives overnight is the way to go; DVD in the car is the best thing ever invented; Harlow will sleep anywhere if you make a bed on the floor and call it her "little bed"; Violet takes a few minutes the first time sleeping in a new place but gets over it quickly; if Harlow doesn't nap one day it will be OK, we can all survive until 7:30pm especially if Frozen is involved.

The first thing we did in June is meet Mark's brother, sister in law and their three kids in Ohio (about halfway for each of us) for an extended cousin play date. We got a hotel with a pool in Columbus. It was about a 6 hour drive and just two nights but it was so worth it so see Harlow having fun with her cousins. The adults also had fun playing euchre after bed time. Except for one minor poop issue at the McDonald's play place, the trip went off without a hitch!

Nine month stats

Violet had her nine month check up today. She is 19 lbs, 2oz (62%) and 28 inches (54%). Again, I am surprised to have an 'average' size baby!

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