Hershey Park

My parents were awesome enough to take the 4 of us to Hershey Park for the day

Brandon was very excited that he is now a Hershey Bar. 

Love this :) 

 Baby log ride

Per tradition with my parents, it began to rain when we first got there.

So we knew the routine. Brought out the ponchos and umbrellas and had a great time regardless!

Brandon and Kenn got on the Sidewinder Rollercoaster.

My parents and i watched down below thinking that brandon would come off crying...

And it was all smiles. My brave boy!

 so after that we got on a few more roller coasters,

the wild mouse (2x), Mine shaft with my dad and then us.

Then we finished with the very first roller coaster I went on as a child

the Super Dooper Looper

 being a ham...

we were at the park from 10am until 5pm!

We finished at everyone's favorite part the Chocolate Factory.

Lily got on her first ride too!

 She actually loved it. 

If it was better weather we would have done the water park, but next time!

We may need to do 2 days next year so the kids have time to do everything since lily will be big enough to go on real rides. 

We came home with great memories and chocolate. 

Perfect Sunday. 

OC 2013

Kenn and I were able to sneak out of work for 2 days so we took a 4 day trip to OC this year.

Brandon had been asking to go back since last year so we were very excited to get back.

Another big reason was this was Lily's first time at the beach!

We drove down on Friday morning, had no traffic got lunch and went to the beach.

We had a tent that someone had given us previously but never used.

It was pretty fantastic, it gave good shade for Lily and a place to put all of our stuff 

without getting sand everywhere. 

Day 1 at the beach. 

Lily.loved.it.

Below is her first time in the water

Brandon is like a teenager now!

He got a boogie board and everything!

Lily did not really like the non-wet sand.

She would sit in the tent and use the shovel to scoop it,

but not interested in putting her feet in it.

It was actually a blessing in disguise because I was able to keep her inside the tent 

without fear of her walking away. sort of like an invisible fence for babies.

I tried to get her to nap in the tent and even though she was VERY tired, and would lay down,

i was unsuccessful. 

i buried brandon like a merman

 Brandon and Daddy made a sand castle and moat

So second day not so great... Lily woke up with a fever. We went out for breakfast,

then picked up medicine for her and she slept in the room with me while the guys went to the beach.

around noon we went to the beach. lily wanted NOTHING to do with the water today.

I did put a bucket of water at the tent and she would splash in that.

She just hung around the tent for 2 hrs, and we gave up. 

That night we went to dinner and the boardwalk and Lily just hung out in the stroller. 

Brandon got to play his annual arcade games and we did a quick walk around.

(I also got lily a old time photo)

The boys dropped us off early at the room and they went to round 1 putt putt

Day 3 Lily was back to normal!

I was getting ready to take her to the DR so I was very happy her fever went away. 

We went to the beach again, Lily was better but not loving the ocean this day.

(I think due to the weather not being very warm)

After a few hours, Lily and Kenn took a nap and Brandon and i went to the pool.

After naps we drove up to Rehobeth Beach for dinner and walked their boardwalk for the first time.

I think in the future we would rather do that one... 

A lot more family friendly and cleaner.

Below are the kids at the boardwalk

After the boardwalk and icecream, Brandon and I had our date night Putt Putt.

Kenn has more pictures (some of brandon on his boogie board) so i will try to upload those soon. The last day of the trip we checked out and went back to Rehobeth to the outlets where we did some shopping, had lunch and drove home. It was a fantastic little trip, long enough to feel like a vacation but exhausting hauling a bunch of kids stuff to the beach and back. Kenn and I joked that we needed a real vacation just the two of us to relax from that one. but everyone survived our first beach trip as a family of 4 and had a blast doing it!

Carnival 2013

We went to our annual trip to the carnival, Daddy skipped out to stay home with Lily.

You can feel the sacrifice that took...

This year we went with cousin Olivia like normal, but now we have 2 more guests.

Aunt Teresa and Mr. Paul are getting married next spring so Brandon now has 2 new cousins

It was raining when we got there so the kids where hanging out on the back of Aunt Teresa's car.

Rachel, Olivia, Brandon, Austin

The kids got on lots of rides

And played games

 and won prizes

The last picture is the kids in a fun house. They had a slightly difficult time getting through the mirrored walls.

that was well worth the money.

We finished off with the normal snow cones and had a great time. 

The kids LOVE going there and i'm glad we can bring Lily and Kenn next year. 

Turning 1 Year Old

Lily turned One on July 3rd!
Since its been almost 6 years since we've been through all of this,

 I am continually surprised at everything she can do!

A week or two before she turned one Lily began taking her first official steps!

Then a week or so after she turned one she really took off!

It's safe to say she's now walking!

Lily is also talking!

She can say "Uh-oh" (her first word)

"ishh" (fish)  "da" (dog)

"Go" "ohh"

and occasionally "baby"

She is wearing size 18 months and 4 diapers. 

She is completely off of formula and bottles.

(the only part that was difficult was the one before bed, 

I tried giving her a sippy cup instead and she would "yell" at me. 

so now she gets nothing at all)

At her Dr's appt on the 7th she

 weighed 20lbs 10oz (50%)

Length: 30" (75%)

and head 46.5cm (90%)

She had 4 shots, cried for a minute and then was calm by the time she was out the door. 

She loves blueberry waffles, apple sauce, mac N Cheese, Gerber fruit cookies, 

pasta, Gerber pasta pickups, PB crackers, banana's & when she's in the mood fruit cups. 

She loves daycare and is moving up to the Toddler class officially at the end of the month!

She went to that class for the day today and ate lunch at a table with the other bigger kids!

She loves playing with her big brother, playing in the living room with all her musical toys.

She likes things she can open and close and put blocks and balls into. Dancing

She also loves THROWING balls, reading books and splashing in the water.

Bath time is prob her favorite time of day. 

She goes to bed between 7-7:30pm and wakes up 6:30/7am. 

She takes 2 or 3 naps a day on weekends but at daycare its normally one poss two.

With her new class she will be napping on a cot and only 1x a day. 

(She prob wont be on a cot off the bat)

She's grown so much in the past year and we love every second of it!

Lily's First Birthday!

We decided to have Lily's First Birthday at a local park,

we were having a luau and decided it would be easier to accomplish outside of my house.

(Plus the kids could play on the playground)

We had sand buckets as the goodie bags along with lei's and fans.

We also had gummy fish, Sugar cookie starfish and chocolate shell and seahorse pops 

 My picture below came out horrible with my little point and shoot camera.

It was a picture of Lily by month

I forced kenn into carving a sea turtle watermelon 

We had a water table for the kids to play with Hawaiian duckies in 

 Lily's smash cake above

The coconut cake with pineapple filling below for the rest of us :)

 The first finger in...

After being cleaned up with GodMother Aunt Julia (who helped decorate the cookies and make the pops)

 Then back to the duck pond!

Even though Lily was diagnosed with her first double ear infections just days before her party she was all smiles that day! It was pretty hot but no rain! We were very lucky.

We feel so fortunate to have such amazing friends and family to drive all the way to spend the day with us!