Ocean City and Ballet!

Dear Friends and Family,
It's been a fun two weeks.  Thanks to my Dad and his girlfriend, Dixie, we had a wonderful family trip to Ocean City, MD. Thank you, Dad and Dixie for renting the house and for making this vacation possible! It's so wonderful to have time to really visit, especially since we all live so far apart.

Also, this past week, Claire started her first ballet class (so cute)!

Prepare yourself.  This blog post has LOTS of pictures...

On Friday night, my Dad and Dixie arrived and they both finally got to meet Will!  I say finally because we really kept them in suspense.  Dad and Dixie pulled into the driveway at about 8:30pm and the kids were both in bed.  So Dad had to wait until morning to meet his first grandson...then Will stayed sleeping until I went in to get him at 7:30am!

"Hi, Papa! It's nice to meet you! You can shake my foot. I have recently decided that my feet are fascinating."

Dad and Dixie left around 10:30am on Saturday to go open up the house.  Since we were waiting for Sara to arrive on Sunday to leave for Ocean City, we got to attend our community block party!  Will stayed home and snuggled with Chris while I took Claire down to have some fun!

Just chillin' with Dad!

The block party was lots of fun!  They had a DJ, lots of food and drinks, corn hole, and a moon bounce for the kids. I didn't expect Claire to want to go into the moon bounce because 1) she doesn't like to get bumped into, 2) she doesn't especially enjoy falling down and isn't the sort of girl who would do this on purpose, and 3) [perhaps the biggest reason] I can't go in with her.  However, she surprised me and rushed in when the big kids were evicted for a little kid bounce session. Once inside, Claire quickly made her way over to the mesh window next to me and happily sat, letting the other kids' bounces lift her slightly into the air.  I told her to get up and jump and I got a picture of her doing this very daring hop!

I'm not sure her feet ever left the ground, but she was very pleased with herself for giving it a try. (I was proud too!)

On Sunday, my sister arrived and she jumped in the van with me for an easy 2.5 hour drive to Ocean City.  Chris followed in his own car because unfortunately, he had a busy week at work and could only stay Sunday night to Monday evening.  I was so glad to have my sister with me, not just for some great girl chat, but also to help Claire on our potty stops. Otherwise, the kids were GREAT!

Claire rushed into her aunt Sara's arms when she arrived and hugged her for a long time!

When we arrived at the vacation house, Nana Dixie already had a fun activity planned for Claire - feeding the seagulls! Claire had a ball!

"Mom, look at all the birds!"

 

 Dad grilled up some burgers and hotdogs for dinner and we used the hot grill later to roast some marshmallows! YUM!

Sara and Dixie's son, Rick discuss the qualities a perfectly roasted marshmallow should posses.

Rick, Dad, and I tell stories while our marshmallows toast!

The next morning Dixie and Rick started fishing and crabbing, but we caught the wrong kind of crab! Sara freed this one from the net - she's our horseshoe crab wrangler!

Claire enjoyed seeing all of the sea life, but especially loved cuddles with Aunt Sara.

Chris got some good playtime in with Claire too before had to leave.

On Tuesday, my brother arrived and the siblings were all reunited!  It was nice for us all to be together again and Kyle was happy to play with Claire and visit with Will too!

Sara and Kyle played a game of, "hide the seashells" with Claire. They would scatter them around the yard or hide them in the plants and then Claire would search the yard for them!

Cuddles with Uncle Kyle!

Dixie checked our crab trap on Wednesday and we only had one female crab...so we decided to leave our crab feast to the professionals and headed to the "all you can eat" special up the street!

It's a girl! Looks like we'll be tossing her back...

"Oh no! A crab has Rick's nose! Don't worry, Kyle will get it!"

Claire was chowing down on crab until she saw where it was coming from and then stuck to just french fries and apple sauce!

Our house's back deck had an amazing view and it's own private pier so evenings were fun for relaxing and playing around the yard.

Claire swaps hats with me!

Will liked to sit in his lazy boy/bouncy seat and watch the sunsets

So pretty!

Sunsets weren't the only thing this Mama got to see, thanks to Claire's early waking (5:55am) I got to see the harvest moon set too...

The picture quality is terrible, but it was quite stunning in person.

As my reward for this early morning, God sent a school of dolphins through to say good morning! 

Thursday was a fun filled day with a morning trip to the boardwalk and then Rick rented us a boat to tour the bay and for fishing!  Thanks, Rick! That was SO much fun!

I love this picture!  Claire's hamming it up for the camera and I couldn't be more proud!

Claire was a big fan of the boat too!

Rick reels in a blowfish!

Blowfish before...

Blowfish, blowing up!

Then Dixie pulled in another blowfish!

Keeping it in the family, Dad and Kyle were the next to reel in a catch, each scoring a flounder!

All in all it was a great week!  Will lived up to his reputation for being totally chill and I thank God for his sweet personality every day...Sorry, I know this post is HUGE, but I can't resist sharing lots of pictures of this face!

Claire started ballet this week. It's called baby doll ballet so the kids can bring their favorite doll or stuffed animal with them as a comfort away from Mom and Dad. I knew Claire would be a cute ballerina, but I wasn't sure how she would do in a class on her own. I was so impressed to see her (as I peeked in from the lobby through the doorway) quickly take to the teacher and follow her instruction!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!
Love,
Bethie