A New Toy

We have been talking about getting him a big ride on for Christmas, but it didn't happen. This weekend we decided that we should get him one. We live on the perfect yard to ride around on one of these...

Bradley has been over the moon about it! He was hardly awake on Sunday morning telling me that he wanted to ride on his Jeep. He can already drive it really well. I swear I saw him do a three point turn when he was stuck by the swing set. It was hilarious! He was looking over his shoulder and everything. Chris even taught him how to park it in the garage! Can you believe that this morning was the first time we have left the house since we got it?!!

I'm not sure who loves it more, Bradley or Chris for seeing his little boy grow up before his eyes!

Summer Time

I haven't had much to post about lately, we are just doing the usual. Seeing a few friends and enjoying these last few weeks of summer. I did have some fun pictures to share of Bradley's favorite activities. He has been spending a lot of time with Daddy outside. He LOVES Chris's riding lawnmower. He calls it a 'tractor' of course. Chris will take him on endless rides around the house for hours of entertainment. Look how proud he is in this picture!!

The other evening I looked out the kitchen window and Bradley and Daddy were golfing. It was the cutest thing! Bradley was trying to play with his little golf set and Chris was hitting the ball around in the yard. I saw Chris showing Bradley how to hold the club and hit the ball. I love when you get a chance to peek in on those little moments. Bradley charged in the house for dinner telling me that he was 'golfing with Daddy.'

I couldn't talk about summer without including a picture of Hershey our chocolate lab. She LOVES Bradley and is always following him around outside. Bradley will throw the ball and the stick for her. She can get really excited around Chris and I, but she is very gentle with Bradley. Hershey will come up to him and drop the ball at his feet, or hand us the ball instead. It is amazing how animals know who is smaller and not as strong. This is his best little buddy!!

Another little buddy that Bradley has known since he is a baby is sweet Pierce. Katie and I met through the local Mom's club when our boys were five months old. The boys are just a few weeks apart in age, and it has been so fun seeing them grow up together. I remember having playdates with Katie when the babies were hardly sitting and now we have two crazy kids running through the house. My biggest challenge with playdates is showing Bradley how to share. It is amazing that he allowing Pierce to sit in his beloved police car with him. He did let Pierce drive it for a while, but sat on the couch and cried/whined until it was his turn. He seems to want toys that hasn't played with in months. We are having a BBQ this weekend with lots of kids, so he will get some good practice in on sharing.

Happy Summertime!!

Weekly Rituals and a Photo Shoot (again!!)

A few weeks ago I did a post about our little weekly rituals. I love blogging, because I think it forces me to think about the small moments, and how special they are to us. This summer we have spent a lot of time at the park. Bradley can do and explore so much more at the park this summer. He is so fun! He can climb up the ropes, swing on the big swings, and is just so independent. We have one park in particular that we go to once a week. There is lots of swings, and big trees which are perfect for our picnics that I bring! We usually meet a friend or two, have some lunch, and PLAY! Oh I love summer (but I am getting excited for preschool to gear up again!).

Little Miss Chloe striking a pose

What a gorgeous backdrop, so you have throw in a photo shoot or two:)

Air and Space and "THE TRAIN!!"

We got the chance to zip up to northern, VA to visit Aunt Kim and Uncle Adam! We had a great trip, and I think the highlight for Bradley was "THE TRAIN!!!" or 'the metro' in our terms. We could have ridden around on the metro for the whole morning and he would have been satisfied! It was Bradley's first time staying at Aunt Kim and Uncle Adam's house, but I know there will be many more trips in this boy's future. We did go to the Air and Space museum, which was great too! Bradley really liked seeing all of the planes and just riding around the museum looking up. Kim and Adam were wonderful hosts, fixing yummy breakfasts and pushing Bradley around DC. We also got to visit with Uncle Shawn too! We are hoping to sneak back up there in October to visit the DC Zoo in the cooler weather. I am so excited for another trip!

Can you tell he is excited to see the 'train'?


Totally mesmorized, hilarious!

Daddy pointing out the big planes

Is Bradley already learning not to smile from his Daddy?

Bradley and I checking out the 'moon' exhibit, he was really into this!

He was cracking us up with this pose while Kim pushed him around Alexandria!

Lucky for me, my best friend Janna lives 20 minutes from Kim! So we got to pop over and visit this ADORABLE new family!!!! I was so excited to see baby Thomas (TJ) and the new mama. Everyone is doing great, and they look liked experienced parents already. Little TJ was so sweet, he smelled so good! I loved seeing two people we love so much as parents. Love you guys!! They gave us lots of baby time, and I miss holding a little one so much!

Janna let me feed him too! So much fun! Can't wait to see them again soon. I know TJ will be so much bigger. It is hard to be so close, but at times so far away from your dearest friends.

Friends and Photo Shoots

I am cramming everything else into one last post about the beach, sniff, sniff! I cannot even express how much fun we had with Rick and Cali and their girls. There was a lot of relaxing, but our families are very similar with our schedules. If the weather was nice we were out swimming or finding something fun to do!! We got a sitter one night and treated ourselves to the most amazing local seafood dinner. I had a crab cake wrapped in a puff pastry, it was excellent (I should have taken a picture for you!) One day the boys treated Cali and I to an afternoon of shopping and pedicures, and we sent the boys out for crab legs and beers another night.

We pretty much did everything together, from the beach, to the pool, to cooking! We would get the kids in bed, and treat ourselves to some great meals. The boys made an awesome seafood dinner of fresh fish and crab cakes, yummm! Can you see there was a big focus on food while on vacation??

Everything was laid back, and it really rubbed off on the kids. They had a blast playing together, and even entertaining themselves around the beach house. Here are some of my favorite shots of the kiddos in action:

One afternoon when we were sick of the pool we headed to the Currituck Lighthouse. Bradley loved it! He kept asking to go up to the top...maybe next summer. We brought our new kites and flew them in the park nearby. It was just beautiful, although extremely HOT!

My best attempt at a group shot!

Amalie watching the kites with her Mom, she was a little scared of them at first!

Bradley 'flying' his kite.

Larken 'flying' her kite!

Then Amalie jumped in there to fly the mermaid!

This is one of my favorite shots from the trip, the kids, the kites, and the lighthouse!

Both families brought our bike trailers and we rode our bikes EVERYWHERE!! There was a grocery store, ice cream shop, and all of the trails and pools around the neighborhood. So, we pretty much biked to everything except the beach. Of course Bradley and Larken wanted to ride together...now that is a heavy bike! You got a workout if you were pulling them:)

Now if that wasn't enough, we also did quite a few photo shoots with the families. These are all of my favorite pictures from all of the shoots. They get a little redundant, but I LOVED how they turned out! I would love to get into photography even more and take some classes.

Just add it to my 'To Do' list!