The Jersey Shore

Last month, we went with Bill, Barbara, William, Erica and Will to the Jersey Shore. We got to stop and see my Uncle Art and Aunt Felice on the way.

Alexandra had a wonderful time at the beach! If we would have let her, she would have crawled into the ocean and drowned. She had absolutely no fear. Christopher enjoyed introducing Alexandra to a place that he has enjoyed visiting since he was a little boy.

We bought a tent that we put up on the beach each day so that Alexandra and Will (and I) would not get sun burned.


We bought a bicycle seat that we put on one of our bikes, and tried it out for the first time at the shore. Alexandra loved bike riding! I got a kick out of watching her wave at people from her bike seat and watching her looking down at the road go by.

I tried to find a unisex helmet, but, oh darn, they don't seem to make unisex helmets for toddlers. So, Alexandra was lucky enough to get a Disney princesses helmet instead. It's for safety, you know.

It was a great trip, and we look forward to returning to the Shore next year!

Bubbles

I learned the other day that Alexandra and the cats love bubbles. I'm so glad to have found an activity that we can all enjoy together.

Alexandra tries to catch bubbles with her hand.

Socks is a master at smashing bubbles with his paw.

And Toby apparently shoots the bubbles with crazy lazers that come out of his eyes.

I try not to get in his way!

Practicing

We knew that we'd be going on two fabulous trips in August: to the Jersey Shore with the Yurasko side of the family and the mountains with the Grimmer side of the family. Christopher and I agreed that Alexandra needed some practice for both of these upcoming trips.

To practice for the beach, we tried to keep a hat on Alexandra for a little while each day, so that she'd be used to it when we got to the beach. This worked out really well. Not only was she a good hat-wearer at the beach, but I was delighted to be able to see her in her hats. Here are a couple of my favorite hat shots.

To practice for the mountains, we went on a hike to Great Falls. Alexandra did great in the hiking back pack. Here are some shots of Alexandra and Christopher admiring the falls.

All of this practicing is exhausting!

Fun at the Park

We met up with the Thaiss family at the park while they were in town last month. Christopher has known both Chris and Audrey since high school, and Chris was a groomsman in our wedding. They live outside of Atlanta, and have two boys and a baby on the way.

I really like the photo above of the dads with their kiddos. It's been fun to see our friends with kids a little bit older than Alexandra - it gives us a glimpse of the fun to come!

This next photo is just for fun. We joined Geoffrey's Birthday Club at Toys R Us, which got us coupons, a balloon for Alexandra during her birthday month, and this fun hat. Surprisingly, she really liked the hat, and would wear it for weeks afterwards for short periods of time!

Donating to Charity

I am very proud that I have been so successful with breastfeeding. I started the process without strong feelings about it, but after a couple of weeks, was hooked! Not only have we saved a lot of money, but Alexandra has been a very healthy kiddo, and she and I have had special bonding time - despite my full-time job!

Anyway, formula companies apparently think that everyone having a baby will need their product, so they tend to send new moms tons of samples in the mail. With the exception of the formula we passed on to Will, I saved all of the samples "just in case." After Alexandra's first birthday, once she was able to drink whole milk, I decided that it was time to donate the formula to a worthy cause. I found a women's Crisis Pregnancy Center in nearby Falls Church, and Christopher and I dropped off about $90 worth of formula there last month. I also threw in the Nursey Water that I bought and haven't used. I felt really good about being able to donate to charity, and hope that someone in need will be able to use our formula and special baby water.

Socks wanted to help. Too bad he's afraid of the outdoors and couldn't come with us.

Fruit Picking

We've enjoyed picking fruit this summer. I mentioned a couple of months ago that we are growing strawberry bushes on our patio. I was upset to discover that either squirrels or birds have been eating the berries just before I've been ready to pick them. Christopher put some tule over the bushes, and after a couple of weeks, I had some ripe berries to pick. You can see them in my hand in the photo below.

They were extremely small and very tart. The strawberries are all yours this year, critters!

This next photo is just for fun. Alexandra does not understand the "self portrait" concept.

But she does understand "smile for the camera!"

Around the same time, we headed back out towards Delaplane, VA, to pick some blueberries and peaches. The blueberries were alright, and the peaches were really good. We canned almost a peck of peaches, and I'm looking forward to eating them in the fall and winter.

I wore Alexandra on my back to pick blueberries. So, now I know what it feels like to be a migrant worker picking fruit with my baby on my back! She had fun, too. Before I knew it, Alexandra had picked a whole branch of blueberries herself and was eating them! Blueberries are one of her favorite fruits.

I flipped her around to my front to pick peaches. We gave her a peach to hold, and were surprised when she started eating it! It kept her occupied for a long time!!

"I like picking fruit, Mommy and Daddy!"

A Colonial 4th of July

We had an appropriately Colonial 4th of July this year. Christopher and Alexandra had never been to Colonial Triangle (Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown), which is one of my favorite spots on this side of the country. So, we headed out, stopping at Jamestown and Yorktown on the 4th, and then Colonial Williamsburg on the 5th. We had a wonderful time at Jamestown! We got to see the ruins of the original settlement, now over 400 years old. Alexandra was a great little traveler this day.

Here's Alexandra and I by the James River.

Here's Christopher standing by a statute of Captain John Smith.

Alexandra and I in front of a statue of Pocahontas.

We didn't take any photos at Yorktown because we ran into a huge crowd that was there for the fireworks, so we saw the Visitor's Center and some of the battlefield by car. Christopher managed to see the fireworks from our hotel window (while I took care of Alexandra).

The next morning started off well, with mass at St. Bede's in Williamsburg. We knew that Fr. Jaffe had gone to college at William & Mary (in Williamsburg), and were not surprised to learn that he had celebrated mass at this beautiful new church as well.

After mass, our day went steadily downhill. Alexandra missed her morning nap and was a bit grumpy. We went to Colonial Williamsburg, and she screamed for 30 minutes straight. She passed out (in her stroller) 2 minutes before Christopher threatened to have us call it a day. Christopher and I had a lovely 10 minutes of sight-seeing until it started raining. And then it started pouring. Since we're good parents, we arranged our one umbrella over our sleeping child so that she wouldn't get wet. And then, our 2.5 hour drive home turned into about 5 hours because of the holiday traffic that we hit going north on I-95.

Needless to say, we'll need to get back to Williamsburg at some point, since I doubt Christopher and Alexandra have any pleasant memories of it!

Here's Alexandra and I at the Governor's House (right before her crying marathon).

The next photo is especially for Margaret. This was my happiest moment at Williamsburg - the enormous gift store! I didn't but the dolls that I am holding in the photo below, but, if you're able to zoom in, you would see that one of the dolls is named "Sarah" and the other "Margaret."

This was Alexandra and Christopher's happiest moment of the day - dinner at Bob Evans 45 minutes away from home!