Saying goodbye to summer

We headed down to Myrtle Beach for one last weekend in the sand and sun before we close the book on summer. This time, we took the car and the motorcycle, both kids and both dogs, and it was quite an adventure. On Friday, we arrived just in time for our family photo shoot on the beach with Brooke, and had a blast! Both kids did really great, but Hayden probably had the most fun out of all of us. He got to play in the water, show off his muscles and run in the sand. What's not to like?

On Saturday morning we woke up and packed up for the beach. We didn't know how much Lila would like the beach this time, since she's mobile. It was definitely a different experience from last time! She didn't like the sand at first , and can take or leave the ocean, so she was content napping in her little tent.

The big surprise this time was Hayden...he loved the water!! He went straight in with grandma and wasn't afraid of the waves this time. We couldn't believe it! Once he got really comfortable with the water and even getting his head wet, we got him a boogie board. He had the best time learning how to ride the waves alongside daddy. He came over to me a few times to help get the yucky taste out of his mouth, but we were so proud of him.

After our day on the beach, we let the kids nap a bit while we went shopping for them. When we got back, it was time for a quick dinner and a trip to Dinosaur Golf! Hayden and Jay played 18 holes while Lila and I supervised. Hayden loved all the dinosaurs and wanted to try to climb on them.

We had a great time, but we were definitely sad to leave after our mini-vacation!

Beach vacation: Part 2

After some shopping and beach time, we decided to make a fun day all about Hayden. It's tough going from only child to big brother, and he's handled it pretty well. We decided to reward all his big boy behavior by taking him somewhere we knew he would love: the aquarium! And lucky for us, there's a small dinosaur exhibit at the aquarium right now, so it was win-win.

He loved looking at all the dinosaurs, and only got a little scared when they roared at him! We walked around, looking at the mermaids and fish tanks and all the fun things to see. There was even a tank where he could touch turtles and crabs, and the big tank where we could see huge sting rays and a few sharks. The big draw of the aquarium is the long, moving sidewalk that has a tunnel overhead full of fish, eel, plants and of course, LOTS of sharks!

The aquarium was a little smaller than we'd expected, but it turned out to be just enough for us to enjoy without the kids being too overstimulated. After we'd seen all the fish, we headed over to Margaritaville for some lunch. Hayden was fascinated by the people on stilts and got a pretty cool balloon-sword. Lila continued to enjoy lemons, and mom and dad got some fancy seafood dishes and adult beverages.

After some good rest, we took the kids down to the rides for a little fair-like fun. Hayden was so excited to ride all the rides with his dad!! He rode the Caterpillar coaster, some helicopters, and most exciting...the Ferris Wheel!! They waited patiently in line while Lila and I cruised around until it was finally their turn. He loved being up high and waving down to us. Such a fun night, complete with a few games and a lot of family time.

All good things must come to an end, and we returned home on Sunday after a quick lunch in Calabash to put us on the road around 3pm. It was a long, hot ride home but we had a great time in Myrtle Beach. We can't wait to go back!

Beach vacation: Part 1.5

I had pictures from the beach on a different camera, because I didn't want to get sand in my nice one. But the kids both had a good time in the sand and sun!

Hayden walked down to the water all by himself to get water for his sand creations. I couldn't believe it!

Little miss was waiting patiently for us to set up her shelter from the sun!

Go Hayden!

Waking up after a long nap on the beach.

Love my sweet sweet babies!

Beach vacation : Part 1

July 4th in this family means the beach, now that we're back in the states! This year the 4th fell in the middle of the week, which made things a little trickier but we made it work. We left at around 4am on July 4th to avoid the traffic on the 3rd, and the kids slept the whole way. Leaving in the middle of the night has its advantages, other than traffic and sleeping kids...our a/c was out in the car, so it was a much cooler ride! We got to the condo, unpacked and settled in and decided to spend the day relaxing. We knew this year was going to be a lot different, having an infant, so we decided to let the kids' schedules dictate what we did and how we did it. It was very refreshing, to be completely on our own time and at the same time, meeting the needs and wants of the kids.

Lila, by nature, is a good night sleeper but not a great napper. She decided at 2 months old that her bedtime was 7pm so we were not sure at all how the beach was going to affect that. It turned out to work perfectly! We were busy bees during the day, and she took great naps! A two hour nap in the middle of the day paired with a late nap meant that she was still ready to go for our night activities. We walked down to the beach around 9pm on the 4th to watch the fireworks and the kids had a blast. Hayden asked every night for the rest of the trip to see more fireworks. He loved the lights and the noise of it all, and Lila didn't seem to mind the chaos. What a different baby she is from Hayden!

We ended up only making it down to the beach for about a half a day of our trip, which suits me just fine! I don't care for the sand and the waves, but our beach tent kept Lila cool and out of the sun, and gave me a place to stretch out without the sand. Hayden did much better this year than last year! He was terrified of everything last year. This year he walked down to the water himself, even getting to his knees without holding a hand. And he let Jay take him way out and play in the water. Our big boy is growing up!

We made a stop at one of our favorite restaurants, Hamburger Joe's, on the way to Barefoot Landing. Lila had her first taste of lemon and Hayden ate half an order of onion rings with his hot dog. Success all around! We got there just at the right time to beat the crowd, and enjoyed some shopping after our bellies were full. We had a great time, and Hayden found a few things to keep him busy as well...

Happy 4th of July!

This year we had quite a big event scheduled to celebrate America's birthday. Long before we left Germany, we thought about getting together with some of our Benning-bound Army friends for Independence Day. That's a four-day we knew they'd be getting, and South Carolina seemed like a good place to "meet in the middle". When we mapped it, we realized it was a 3.5 hour drive for us but an 8 hour drive for our friends. That was a lot for a four-day, so we accepted that it might not happen. But Liz and Matt go down to SC for the 4th every year, so we decided we'd head down for the holiday weekend. We were excited to see our friends, the boys were excited to have the bikes where they can ride sans helmet, and Hayden is always excited about something new.

A few weeks before the 4th, we found out that one of our very good friends was going to be at Ft. Bragg for some training and that his family was driving up for the 4th to see him. Ft. Bragg is much closer to Myrtle Beach than Ft. Benning in, so a plan emerged. We were SO excited to be able to spend the weekend with TWO of our favorite families! Hayden, Oscar and I loaded up while Jay slept in a little on Friday and we got on the road. About 90 minutes into the ride I realized I left the keys to the beach house at home. Doh! I called Jay to let him know we didn't have the keys with us, and we just kept going on our way and hoped he'd catch up!

Hayden, Oscar and I arrived with no keys and Jay was at least an hour behind us, so we headed to the park to stretch our legs. We walked to the swings and slides for a few minutes, but then Hayden wanted to take Oscar down to the water. There's a pond with a fountain at the bottom of the park so we headed that way. Hayden loves to hold Oscar's leash, but I don't usually let him when we're around a bunch of people so I held the reigns. Which was moot, because once Oscar saw the ducks in the water, he pulled out of his collar and dashed into the water after them. I couldn't believe it! Oscar usually has to be coaxed into the water but he jumped right in! The ducks scurried away but Oscar stayed in and swam a bit. Jay and I joked how things like this NEVER happen when I have an extra set of hands, so naturally it was bound to happen while I was on my own.

We got back into the truck and grabbed a little lunch. Jay and the Pollards arrived soon after, keys in hand, so we were able to get in and get settled. The boys did some grocery shopping while Amber and the little boys and I hung around in the A/C and talked about how big our kids had gotten in the six months it had been since we'd seen each other. That night we decided to grill out, and Matt and Liz joined us for burgers and hot dogs. We went to play mini-golf at a really fun place with a train! It took you to the top and you played your way down. Hayden had a great time playing putt-putt for the first time, and loved all the water and waved every time the train went by us. After golf we got some ice cream before heading home. Not a bad way to start our vacation!

Saturday the boys had an early morning tee-time so they were out of the house before 8am. We got the boys up and ready to hit the beach. They were so excited! The Pollard boys had never seen the ocean and we couldn't wait to get them there. Gabe and Logan had a great time playing in the water but Hayden was still not interested. We hung out in the sand and tried a few times to get Hayden in the water but he just wouldn't budge. The boys finished up their golf game and came out to join us and build a few sand castles. After we cleaned up from the beach, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe, one of our favorite haunts we tried to hit in every city we could while we were traveling in Europe. Always a good time!

Sunday we went back to the beach for a bit, and then headed to Alligator Adventure. What a fun place! We saw alligators and crocodiles, white alligators and the world's largest alligator, one with no tail and babies not yet in the water with their big brothers; we saw bats and lemurs, lizards and frogs, turtles and tortoises; even birds and a few cats! Hayden loved seeing all the gators and got to touch a baby one! His favorite part was petting the giant tortoises and it was really hard to tear him away from them! After the gators we headed to Grandma Pam and Grandpa Don's house, Matt's grandparents, for a BBQ and some swimming. Hayden had a BLAST in the pool and it was almost an act of Congress to get him out of the water! The boys took turns throwing him up in the air, and he even did a little swimming on his own in his life jacket. Logan took a liking to the little pool, which he dubbed "Logan's pool", but told us he would share his pool with us. We enjoyed chicken wings and burgers and dogs, and Lizard's cucumber salad didn't last long of course! We were SO stuffed but managed to make room for some of Grandma Pam's brownies. Yum!

We could tell Hayden was getting tired because he kept tripping over his feet. He ran into the gate and got a nice goose egg on his forehead, and after he fell two more times we decided it was just time to go. Hayden fell asleep immediately in the car, and we headed to pick up some fireworks while he napped in the truck. We headed to Barefoot Landing, where we thought they were doing fireworks. We walked around, got ice cream, did some shopping and waited. Then we checked again and found out the fireworks weren't until Monday night! Bummer. We headed back home and I think we all were ready for bed as soon as we walked in.

Monday morning came and we made breakfast and started packing up. The last day of vacation is never any fun. We were sad to see the Pollard go and even sadder to head back to reality, but we were so glad that we got to spend the weekend with some of our favorite people!

Some beach, somewhere...

A few weeks ago, Jay decided we needed to get outta dodge for a few days so we took a quick trip to the beach. We packed up on Friday, with clothes and toys and Oscar and Hayden, and headed out with Jay in front on the bike. We enjoyed a weekend of sun and sand, shoppping and relaxing. It was exactly what we needed!

Hayden was not a huge fan of the ocean. He loves the sand, but the crashing waves and sand being pulled out from under him due to the current is not his idea of fun!

He really liked for Jay to build a mini-castle so he could kick it over!

We're back!

Well. The Rogers are always up for an adventure, and an adventure it was! Space A in summertime can be a beast, but we managed to get out on our second day. We flew on a C17 (giant army plane) into Pope AFB in Fayetteville, NC. Hayden enjoyed the flight for the most part, even though it was really loud. Towards the end, he did let Jay put in earplugs for him. He slept a good portion of the flight, and had some fun rolling around on the floor of the giant aircraft. From there one of Jay's soldiers who is now stationed at Ft. Bragg picked us up and took us to the Fayetteville Regional Airport, which I didn't even know existed. Luckily, we were able to rent a car there and return it to Raleigh at the end of our trip for a nominal fee so we got our little white Saturn and headed to Raleigh. There we met my parents, who were bringing us Hayden's pack 'n play, and dropped off one of Jay's soldiers who needed a ride to the airport after our military flight. We decided to drive as far as we could towards Virginia and get a hotel room when we were tired. We picked up some food as it had been a long time for our hungry bellies, and got on the road. We made it as far as Smithfield, NC which is just barely out of Raleigh. Our bodies reminded us of the lack of sleep we'd had over the past three days, so we got a hotel room immediately. Once inside, it wasn't long before all of us were sound asleep.

Friday morning we woke up well before our wake up call at 7am, enjoyed hot showers (with a sink bath for Hayden) and free breakfast and got back on the road. We drove to Virginia mostly uneventfully and arrived to a very excited family to see Hayden (and us, but mostly Hayden). Saturday morning was our first 4th of July with Hayden, and mine and Jay's first one together since 2004. We went over to Jay's Aunt Marcie's house for steamed crabs, shrimp and enough food for a small army. Hayden wore his July 4th outfit and had a blast playing with all the toys Jenny brought out for him. After refusing a nap, we sunscreened him down and put him in the pool in his floatie with Jay. Once we added the little tent that goes over it so the sun wasn't so bright, he loved it! He is a big fan of the water, especially when daddy splashes and runs him around the pool. When he fell asleep on his floatie, we were pretty sure it was time for a nap. We got him out, dried him off and he fell asleep while his Poppy was holding him. His nap was short-lived, but recharged his batteries enough to play for the rest of the day. We left Hayden at home with his grandparents so we could see the fireworks, which I fell asleep waiting for. Travel is hard work!

The rest of our trip to Virginia was full of some firsts for us, mainly getting to go to dinner and see a movie by ourselves for the first time! We did some shopping and spent lots of time with family and way too much homecooked food. One beautiful day we decided to take Hayden to the beach for the first time. Going to the beach with a baby is much like going with adults, only twice the gear and sunscreen. We searched everywhere for the beach tent that I wanted but ended up with a two-sided blanket and an umbrella that did just fine. Once on the beach, Hayden was fascinated with the sand. He kept trying to put handfuls of it in his mouth, and was successful on more than one attempt. We walked down to the water but it was too cold for me and Hayden, so we just dipped his feet. He didn't care for the crashing waves, but was perfectly content playing with sand on his blanket. We were out there longer than I thought we would be, Hayden made it a few good hours before we were ready to go back home.

Jay and I got to go to the beach by ourselves one day, which was nice! Too bad it was freezing, but still. We decided to take our nephew to the Baltimore Aquarium, which is about two hours away from where we were in Virginia. Since we live so far away we haven't gotten to spend much time with Shawny since he was born, so this was a fun trip for us. He was shy at first but opened up after a little nap and some McDonald's. We spent a lot of time looking at the sharks, and had a blast with all the fishies. Strollers are not allowed inside, but they lend out backpack carriers. Hayden seemed to enjoy riding around on Jay's back and seeing things from 6' in the air. On the way back home we stopped at one of Jay's favorite sub places for the most giant cheesesteak I've ever seen. I got one half the size of Jay's and couldn't finish it. It was a nice way to wrap up our trip, and Friday morning we got on the road to head to NC after picking up oysters for my dad and checking the mail for the clothes Jay mailed home to avoid too much luggage (which didn't get there while we were there). If you think the first half of our trip was busy, wait until you hear about the second half! For now blogging must wait while I try to put this house back in order.