Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The beach

This morning Lynn, Grampy and I took Claire down to the beach. If you recall, the last 2 years, Claire wanted nothing to do with the beach. Would this be the year? Watch the video to find out.

From maine 2010 claire and laura



Tonight for dinner we had lobster. Claire was a little undecided. see some photos here.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

angels in flight

the girls were absolutely perfect on our flight to maine today.
when we got to the airport and were in line for security, claire (without prompting) reached down, pulled off her crocs and threw them and her backpack into the gray bin and said, "i'm ready." perhaps she could teach some of the other people in line what the proper procedures are for going through security. :0 anyway, it was hilarious.
we landed and got to the lovely condo without incident. and took the following pictures.
we'll keep it updated, including photos of the pet duck next door.
-lynn

Monday, July 19, 2010

maine bound



clicl here for a few more photos from today when the girls were helping me pack for our trip!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Dallas, TX for the weekend

On Friday, we headed to the Big D to attend the wedding of Kim's brother. It was Laura's first time in an airplane and Claire was so excited to be flying again. We lucked out and all of us were upgraded to first class. Here is Claire in her roomy seat. Both girls had an uneventful trip - the way we like it. On Friday night Lynn and I went to the rehearsal dinner. Kim arranged for a babysitter for Claire and Laura. Laura was up to her usual tricks and cried for about 4 hours on Friday night. Amazingly, the babysitter came back on Saturday night, so we could go to the wedding and reception. That babysitter (Sarah) was awesome.


The wedding was fun, but the reception was better. We got to see old friends and make new ones. On Sunday morning we headed to Paul's (Kim's dad) place for a great brunch, then off to the airport to come home. It was a short, but fun filled weekend. I only wish that the girls had more time to spend with Kim and Jason's kids. More photos of the weekend can be found here.

Lastly, we want to wish Uncle Paul and Auntie Taya a happy anniversary. A year ago today, they were married. What a difference a year makes! Congratulations Taya and Paul!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I want to go ice skating

A couple of weeks ago, Lynn took Claire and Laura to watch me play hockey. Since then Claire has been asking to go ice skating. With Paul, Taya and Lola in town, it was a great opportunity to fulfil Claire's wish. See how she does in the video below.













As you can tell from the video she had a great time... Until she fell down between my legs, in which in turn caused me to fall on top of her. The result was a nice shiner and cut under her eye. Boy did I feel awful. Other than these injuries she is ok. If fact she wants to try it again - after I buy her a helmet. Well, when we got home, she was feeling better. She wanted to have a dance party, which we were happy to oblige.


Monday, July 5, 2010

family = love

we are so blessed to have lola, uncle paul, and auntie taya visiting with us this week. laura has been an absolute angel. she has been loving all the snuggle time with her canadian rellies. no crying for mommy - just a content little baby. i love it!
laura was baptized at our lady of la salette catholic church yesterday morning. she was perfect the whole time. father reyes took her around to the congregation where the members laid hands on her to bless her and she just took it all in - not even a whimper. later, when she was being formally baptized, she didn't take her eyes off father reyes. she just watched him as he talked to her and walked around. she was absolutely perfect. we got some lovely pictures (click here) of all of the family.
claire has been awesome as well. lots of quality time with her lola, uncle paul and auntie taya, too! she played basketball with uncle paul yesterday and went to the pool with auntie taya. i think uncle paul and daddy are going to take her to learn how to ice skate this week, too. well, at least try. today they are all off to the fernbank museum. laura and i are staying behind so she can sleep and i can get some work done.
since it was mark's birthday week, we have been socializing a lot. friday night we had dinner with dear friends tommy and laura and then saturday night was a cook out with the perdues and the estes. it was even more fun as both the perdues and estes had their extended families with them. we were hanging out in our newly landscaped backyard and played cornhole (click here to learn more). a total blast. then last night, we had an improptu hang out session at the perdues with a short 2 on 2 -ball game with mark, paul, taya and me. it was fun, but difficult in flip flops. :)
of course, taya and i have been in the hot tub every night doing some sister-bonding. one night we were in there for about 2 hours!
all in all, we love having our extended family around to share in the joy of our girls. we will continue to post pictures of the visit, so check back.
on friday we head to dallas for michael and meg's wedding (kim's brother).