Little Underwood, Big Harte

Who doesn't love a long weekend? We fully enjoyed our time together and with friends, and we took advantage of what Florida has to offer ... the beach!  First up, on Saturday, Stefan and Gavin had some Daddy/Son time and made a trip to Starbucks and Stefan's work to play on the turf while I got some things done around the house.  My loves - Gavin's becoming more addicted to that darn paci, but we'll let him have it for now and deal with weaning that when he is a bit older.  Sunday we celebrated a few friends here getting married at their couple's shower. Monday we met with the newlyweds from the east coast wedding we just attended and made it a beach day. The days of snoozing in the sun are long gone replaced with buckets of sand everywhere and on everyone. Man oh man, going to the beach with a toddler is pretty hectic, but it was worth it. He even made it into the Gulf since the waves were light.  Hope everyone in the U.S. enjoyed a nice long weeke...

We had easy and smooth flights and layovers this time around for our weekend trip to Kentucky Lake. We visited with study abroad friends Stefan met during his time in Australia nearly 12 years ago. Thanks to Heidi for hosting us at her family's beautiful lake house where we had our own room with a room and a crib for Gavin! The weather was not as warm as one would like while at the lake, but at least we got some sun and no rain appeared.  Before the trip Gavin had his 15-month appointment. He barely weighs over 20 lb and is 31 in so still around 70% in height and down to only 10% in weight. The doc says he looks healthy and she is not at all concerned. He didn't pass an eye screening test though, so we do have an appointment for July to see an ophthalmologist just to be sure all is good.  He still enjoys his morning smoothie and gets lots of good stuff in there, and he pretty much has all his baby teeth in (until the last molars come in I think around 2). The count is...

We hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day. I got to sleep in/stay in bed (Yep, parenthood means that 7:30 a.m. is sleeping in.), then my boys made me breakfast! We followed that up with lunch out at our favorite restaurant after Gavin's nap and Skype/Facetime calls with his Grandmas (and Grandpas!). Homemade hashbrowns, eggs and real bacon, yum! My new Athleta skirt from Gavin - Happy Mother's Day to me and nice work picking it out S! My main squeezes. In the afternoon we drove by our new house to make sure it was okay after the flood even though we were told that it was fine. It is on the slightest of hills, so it does appear to be okay, but many homes around it were not. Below is our new street. So many homes flooded and they haven't flooded in this area in over 100 years. We still have a month and a half before we move, so I'm sure things will be back to normal by then.

Our first trip in May didn't go as smooth as we were hoping. After a tornado watch right above our neighborhood the night before we left, we should have been more concerned, but we went to bed still thinking we would be leaving as planned the next day.  The Wednesday morning we were supposed to leave around noon, we were woke up to alerts on our phones at 5:45 a.m. for flash flooding in Pensacola and a cancelled flight. Stefan got right on the phone to work out a solution so we could make it to the east coast for a wedding and a visit with the Blissmer cousins. After an hour and 10 minutes on the phone we finally had a new plan. We learned the Pensacola airport was closed all day, there were no flights the next day that could get us where we wanted to go and most airports around us didn't have anything left that would work for our schedule. We pretty much had one option to get out in time to make the wedding, so we risked it after Stefan tested the roads and made it out to...

Our parents both celebrate their same anniversary within 10 days. Happiest of wishes for a wonderful 37th anniversary. Thank you for the wonderful example of love, commitment and dedication toward a marriage and a family. We love you so much!