Hess Family Beach Trip

We spent an amazing week in the Outer Banks with my parents and Geordie and Mary. We decided it was the best way to celebrate my mom's upcoming 60th birthday. Sorry for giving away your age Mom, but if I look like you when I'm 60 I'll be thrilled! We had a great house on the beach and pretty much spent the whole week relaxing on the beach. We went to the aquarium one day when it rained briefly. Otherwise, we had our toes and Maddie had much more than her toes in the sand! She loved the waves and the water, but we had to hold onto her for dear life because the current was so strong from a storm off the coast. So she mostly just played for hours in the sand. Her favorite thing of all was to run down to the water and then run all the way back up to our umbrella at full speed. Here are some of my favorite pictures that we took and a video. We had a photographer come and do family pictures as a present for my mom and I'll share some of those when we get them back.

The beautiful view from our house. I've never seen the Atlantic so green!

Wild Child

Maddie discovered that she can jump onto the couch from the arm of the couch and land on her butt. So far she has escaped injury, but I don't know how long her luck will last. So we're telling her NO.....but first we had to catch it on camera! Some parents we are!

Mia and Nora's Visit

My good friend Mia and her daughter Nora made their big trip to the East Coast from Colorado and we loved seeing them! We went out to dinner one night and then to a playground with the girls. The first two pictures are from that night. Then we spent all day Friday here at our house hanging out. Darcie and Stacy from work both came and Stacy's daughter Caitlyn joined in the fun. The girls played in the pool and we had a great time. Nora mastered a jump into the pool as if it were 3 ft deep instead of 1 foot and had a bruise on her butt to show for it. We miss them more now that they're back in Colorado. I had to use Mia's pictures for this post....sorry Mia, I didn't get the copyright permission from you :) Her pictures ROCK!

Father's Day Weekend

For Father's Day, Dre's parents were kind enough to let us invade the lake house, yet again! It is so much fun there, we all had a great time. It was Paul, Dre, Marissa and Kaitlyn; Paul, Michelle, and Livia; and the three of us. The guys went golfing very early Saturday morning, but the rest of the time we hung out by the water. We went for a boat ride, went kayaking, swam, floated on rafts, and the girls loved playing together. Livi is walking now and so cute! Kaitlyn and Maddie sat in the swings for literally an hour. Of course, their entertainment was me singing the entire soundtrack to the Sound of Music. They belly laughed a lot and seemed to make each other laugh harder. They even held hands, it was precious! Maddie, Marissa and Kaitlyn disappeared a few times and were found jumping on the bed together! Three little monkeys jumping on the bed....none fell off thank goodness! It was a great weekend get away and we are so lucky to have such great friends. Watching the girls grow up together is going to continue to be lots of fun for sure!

Say Cheese!

Maddie is finally starting to pose for pictures now. The times she really likes to do it are when she's wearing something silly like my hat or my socks. I just had to post these.

A Great Day

My birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, which meant I didn't have to work. Maddie slept in until 8:15 (yipee!) and when I called Chris at work to tell him, he said, "well, she doesn't have any money, that's the only present she can give you!" We spent the day together relaxing (as much as one can with an almost 2 year-old) and playing. Grandma Mary came over that evening so that Chris and I could enjoy a nice dinner out. I took my camera to the playground with us earlier in the day. Maddie is becoming quite agile on the playground, I don't need to help her much anymore. She's able to hang from a bar and pull her legs up. People say, "oh, maybe she'll be a gymnast too..." Not if I have anything to say about it :) For now, we'll just enjoy her playing on the playground!

Go Boston! Go Airplane!

We had been talking about our trip to Boston for my cousin's wedding for a while and Maddie would say, "Go Boston, go airplane." She's still talking about it. I woke her up the other morning and asked where are we going today? The right answer was Grandma's house, but instead she said, "Go Boston, go airplane!" We did love the city, so hopefully we'll go back someday. It was a very fun time, beautiful wedding, amazing food, LOTS of dancing, and time with family. We had a babysitter for the reception and we can't thank Tracy (my aunt Joanne's friend) enough for taking care of Maddie so we could enjoy ourselves. We have never danced that much ever at a wedding!! I relied on others for pictures....I slacked. Thanks Aunt Jo!

The ceremony was at the Harvard chapel. We joked that it was Maddie's first college visit. Here she is enamored with her second cousin William.

The beautiful bride and groom

Our lifesaver and babysitter Tracy, thank you!!!

Busting a move with the cousins.....literally, that was the song playing, hence the funny expressions on our faces. I don't think we stopped singing (at least I didn't) to take this picture.

The Hess Family, we missed you Grandma!