Wednesdays with Will and Katie: July 2012

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Sweet Video of Will and Cousin Andrew (11 months)

Friday, July 27, 2012

Single Parenting

Chad was out of town for 2 nights, so I had the kids all by myself. We had a lot of fun, but I really missed having Chad here. He is the closer and seems to be able to always get the kids to sleep easily and without delay.

Me, well... I don't have the touch. The kids stayed up later than normal both nights. I think Katie was looking for Chad to walk in at any minute - he has put her to bed almost all the nights of her life for the past 6 months. I think I have probably done it about 2 or 3 times since she stopped nursing. She knows this, and stalls with me.

Will likes for me to lie in bed with him and talk. It is impossible to resist. He asks the cutest questions and I just love this quiet time with him. "Are monsters scary?" "Are you going to be in the Olympics?" (We have been talking about the Olympics a lot.) "What are you going to dream about?"

We spent our evenings painting and swimming. Fun was had by all, we survived and I was exhausted. I commend those mamas that do this on the own all the time!

mixing her colors

trying out some highlights

LOVE this one of Will in the pool. You can really see his eye color which i love!

Katie. She owned the baby pool!

On the run at the splash park

she loves to drink from the fountains

dessert! push ups!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Flying Home

We had a leisurely Saturday morning before heading to the airport. Chad took the kids to the pool while I finished packing and then we headed out. The kids slept in the car. The drive was easy and leisurely.

We got to the airport and it had started raining some. Because the rental car return and the AA desk are as far apart as possible, Chad and I took turns checking in before returning the car. Chad went in, checked in and checked bags, and then Will and I went in. As they were checking us in, Will told me that he had to pee. We were mid-check in. They were printing the bag tags and adding Katie to my ticket. It took a little while. Once we were done, we went to the bathroom. Will went in his own stall and then he said "oh no, I just wasn't fast enough!" Poor Will didn't get his pants down in time and there he was - all wet. Our bags were already checked.

Luckily, our flight was delayed by an hour and since we still had our car, we headed out in search of new shorts and undies. We got lucky again and found a Bealls Outlet within a mile of the airport. I found Will a pair of shorts and Superman undies and we were set. We headed to McDonalds to kill more time before our flight left at 2:20.

By 1:55 we had returned our rental car and were standing in the security line when I look up at the monitor and our flight is now leaving at 2 instead of 2:20. We had 5 minutes! We cut to the front of the security line thanks to many considerate people. I left Chad will all the carry ons and the kids and I went through security and ran barefoot to our gate where they were paging us. I'm not sure how we made the flight, but we did. The gate workers told me we had one minute to get everyone on board. I went back and got Will and left him on the jet bridge thinking they surely wont leave with him on there! I then went back to help Chad with Katie and the luggage and as soon as we were all on the plane, they shut the doors and we were off.

We were out of breath but so happy to be on the plane. Will told everyone that he held the plane for us. He even told Loli all about it this morning. It was a rush! Luckily, it all worked out.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Seaside Day 5 - Our last day

Sadly, today is our last day at the beach. We had a great time today - digging a huge hole to play in for most of our time at the beach. The waves were just too rough so we only went in once. A big storm rolled through and we got drenched running home. It was actually really fun. Not sure I have even really been caught in the rain before today!

This has been a great week - it has been so fun to spend this much quality time as a four-some. We don't usually get this much dedicated time together - in fact I think last year at the beach was our last time like this. It was wonderful. I feel like we have a new bond as a family. We are already scouting houses for our trip next year!

in the hole

with her daddy

beach boy

self portraits

Seaside Day 4

Today was another great day in Seaside. Hard to believe the week is coming to an end already.

The kids woke up early. 6am. This is not normal for us. Will and Katie are sleeping in the same room, so if one of them is up then both of them are up. The bad news is it was 6am. The good news is it is a great time to go to the beach...so we did!

We went back and got our suits on and headed back down for a great day in the waves. The kids were wiped out and took great naps and then we headed into town for some grilled cheese sandwiches at the air stream trailers. We came back and ate them on the balcony...but only after one more stop at the beach!

We had the beach completely to ourselves!

Sunrise over the obelisk

Burying her feet

One of her faces

Climbing into a beach chair

sandy baby feet

one of my favorites of Will

One of my favorites of Katie

One of my favorites of Claire

Checking out the beach

Will licked his side of the grilled cheese. My sister did this with pizza when we were growing up. I guess this is in the DNA!

Katie's half

Sharing

Another favorite of Katie

Running down the hill together

Katie and Claire

Seaside Day 3

Today we had another great day at the beach. We spent so much time in the water today - it was perfectly calm. Katie fell in love with the ocean today - after playing in the sand for a while she would bring us her floatie to go back in the water. We spent hours in the water!

We also saw something I had never seen - crabs swimming in the water! There is quite a bit of seaweed in the water and the crabs swim from piece to piece. They are about 6 inches long and redish brown - it was neat to see but anyone that picked them up was pinched!

Tonight we are doing our beach pictures. Our friends the Broadbents are here and they are sharing their session with us since ours was rained out. We are so excited and thankful. I just love beach portraits.