Beach Trip

Ok -- so we're finally "organized" back at home after our beach vacation!! Now it's cold here today .. boohoo!

Well, I must say for those of you that hate "those people" that post 100 pictures of their family vacations -- skip this post. I think I took about 200 pictures while we were @ the beach. I've tried to keep the picture post to 20 pictures on this post so I didn't bore anyone, but we had such a good time, that I had a hard time picking. Mike's mom even made me make double copies of almost all the pictures I took because she couldn't decide which ones she wanted copies of.


Most of the days at the beach were beautiful, hot, and calm. However, there were a few days that the wind was strong and the sun only peeked out of the clouds. I will say that this beautiful child of ours let NOTHING get her down. We were on the beach EVERY SINGLE DAY. The rough surf didn't stop her. She would make us swim with her even when there wasn't another person on the beach. Even when it was one of "those kind of days" she found a way to find joy.

Don't you wish as adults we could have the outlook children have on life?!

2 family pictures taken @ the beach house before dinner in the evenings.

I had to post this picture. We thought it would be cute to take pictures of all 3 of our feet in the sand, and when we later looked back at the picture we noticed that a shell (while washed up by a wave I suppose) made a heart shape in the sand right next to our feet.

Enjoying a sunny day on the beach. I just love this picture of her.

This was her favorite thing to do all week. She would sit in the sand with one of us & let the waves come up and hit us & then jump up and laugh. It was so cute..... sometimes the waves got the best of her. (Notice the feet in the air?) But it never stopped her!

One night we got dressed up for dinner and then went out to the beach for "posed" pictures. I took so many of these it was hard deciding which ones to post.

When we were little kids my family used to get all the cousins together to take pictures like this. We would sit w/ our backs to the waves and mom or my aunts would take pictures as soon as the waves came up on us. I "talked" Mike into this ... Anne Marie had more fun than he did I think!

She made sand castles every day. We found a whole new set @ a CVS store at the beach for $1.75 since it was the end of the season... best purchase we made there!

Anne Marie "sharing" her sun hat with daddy.

One of the other things she enjoyed doing every day was searching for seashells and "pretty rocks". Every day we would take a walk and dig for a handful. We ended up having to weed through them all before we came home, but I think I'm going to make a little shadow box with some of her pictures and her shells she found.

This was one of those days that there was no-one on the beach except for us. She made us get right in the water like it was a "normal" day. She got hammered by the waves, but as you can see, she found it quite humorous.

Our last day on the beach! Sad to see it go, but it was a BEAUTIFUL day!!

Coke And A Smile :o)

We're finally back from our 10 day beach vacation!! Can you say Ahhhhh? I had set up posts to update while we were gone-- things that had been going on in the past week or two before our vacation, and since we're too tired to post much right now (MANY beach pictures to come though -- keep checking back) I thought I'd post some cute pictures of Anne Marie tasting soda for I think only the 3rd time in her life. Grandma & Grandpa took us out to dinner before we went on our trip & at the deli Grandma gave Anne Marie a couple sips of her Coke --and her face was priceless! She laughed & laughed - grabbed her tongue - and laughed some more. It was just a cute moment.

Our Brave Little Swimmer

A couple weeks ago we spent some time with some friends of ours while the "boys" went to a baseball game in Baltimore. Our friends just got this new HUGE pool/slide. I wasn't sure if Anne Marie would want to slide down the huge slide -- ha! Who was I kidding?? She was not able to climb up the stairs in the back (her legs were too small) but she begged to be placed at the top of the slide so she could go down just like her "big friend Molly"....Oh what fun!! She didn't stop until we finally released all the air out of the pool/slide!! Thanks so much to our great friends for loving us enough to invite us to play on their really cool toys!!

Lazy Saturday Mornings

It's rare, but everyonce in a while we have no plans on a Saturday and can just "hang out" around the house all day. We had quite a bit of rain this past Saturday, so we decided to clean out all the closets and drawers in the house to get rid of things we no longer need & donate them to my Mom's Church yard sale.

Since we knew there was no where to be, Mike and Anne Marie (and Elizabeth) decided to watch cartoons in bed. Remember the "old" cartoons?? - I didn't know they were still on TV. Mike had just as much fun as Anne Marie - and it made my heart melt to watch them cuddle and enjoy cartoons like my Dad and I did when I was little.

Birthday Tea Party

A couple weeks ago was our VERY good friend Avery's 4th birthday party. We received an invitation to come dressed for a tea party. Anne Marie has a few dress up clothes, but I thought that I'd look for a couple new items to create a whole outfit. Thank goodness for family that passed down some really cute items, and the $1 bins @ our local Target!! (Wow, they really do have some cute stuff at Target).

Anne Marie woke up that morning excited about the party & I had a "surprise" waiting for her. I had laid out the new skirt, necklace, and shoes. (I also had laid out her other items we already had) We ate breakfast & then got dressed to go to the party.

I think all the kids had a great time - Avery's mom is so creative and had a "make a crown" craft set up, musical teapots all ready to go w/ "tea" (apple juice), a pin-the-tea-bag-on-the-tea-pot game, and we even played musical chairs to songs about tea-pots.

Anne Maire opening her new dress up clothes & jewelry.

Anne Marie all dressed up

All ready to go in her outfit w/ her cloak, wand, and purse (w/ puppy along for the ride)

We got to the party and there was an entire box of other dress up items to play with.

The birthday girl and her pink pony cake

Enjoying a "spot of tea"

Playing games with all the party goers

A group picture of all the princesses - and prince of the party

Anne Marie and the Birthday girl

Olympian In The Making

We were excited that we were able to sit down as a family this year and watch the Olympics.

I was so interested to see some of the places we were able to visit while in China back in 2007. I also loved the fact that all the news channels would run specials about China, their people, and stories from around the country.

We tried to catch at least part of the activities each night. Anne Maire LOVED the diving, swimming, and gymnastics. Every time Anne Marie saw the floor routines during the gymnastics events she would get up and do her own "routine". I finally caught it on camera and video one day - The "finale" of her routine was my favorite part ... it was too cute, so I thought I'd share!!

Anne Marie watching the floor routine

Anne Marie's own "floor routine" !

Happy Grandparents Day!!

We just wanted to give a "shout-out" to the Grandparents we love so much!!

Nana, Grandma & Grandpa - we love you bunches and can not imagine better Grandparents!

Love you,

Anne Maire

A future musician???

Sunday after Church we spend the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa. We had lunch, sat around read the paper, watched tennis on TV (you can't go there and not do that) and played with the great new toys Grandma got for Anne Marie. A set of PINK wooden musical instruments! Anne Marie could not have been happier!! She loved them - she played with each of them, put them on her head and played, & made other people play them.

(I think we're going to need to get a set of these at our house!!)

"I love these" - "I can make as much noise as I want!"

How'bout this way?? Better sound??

Getting Mommy in on the "act"