jet ski!

Can you do us a favor and give us a vote? Not only did we fall of the blogging page but we also fell off the top baby blogs! Oops. 

Back to Grayson...

This child loves adventure. 

Thrives on it. Needs it! Who in their right mind though would allow a one year old to go jetskiing? Oh that would be us. Poor grayson sits on the jetski all the time playing with the handlebars making vroom noises. How could you not let him go for a ride? Take note this "ride" was simply a putzing with zero acceleration infront of the house. We will save the wave jumping for next year! I present to you- grayson's first jetski ride.

let's go back in time

We are taking a step way back in time here. I have a ton of stuff from over the summer that i never posted that i don't want to forget about. Therefore we are going backwards for the next 10 posts or so. Try not to get confused!

 

June was an awesome month. It was just starting to get warm enough for some real beach time. I was so excited with summer ahead. Nothing makes me happier then when it starts to get warm enough to wear shorts and sit in the sun. It brings me back to every single summer as a kid. The whole day was spent outside. The sun stayed out late. The biggest worry was whose house to sleepover that night. Summers don't mean quite the same thing now that i am older but they still hold that promise for excitement. This year that excitement was grayson- sharing all of those things with him. We rounded up his friends and spent a few leisurely weekdays down in wildwood.

It was an awesome time. The kids love being around one another. I personally love having other adults to talk to and keep company. We ate junk, smuggled beer onto the beach, chased around our little monsters. We walked around the boardwalk for hours. This age is nice because they are young enough to enjoy all the lights and toys but not be screaming that they want to play every game and ride every attraction.

 

 

However i did learn that life on the beach with many children is a bit challenging. Thank goodness it was smack in the middle of the week off season and not many people were around because we were quite the spectacle. We have a million things in tow (seriously- these small people require so much stuff) and a ton of wild children. At one point the umbrella took wind and ran down the beach, eventually taking out a family. Then, without any warning at all, after hours of fun and happiness, one child started to cry, then another and another. For no reason at all! Literally every child but grasyon was balling. I have never seen so much stuff packed up so fast in my life! It was a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off trying to clean off sand toys and change small children. Amusing for everyone else. Chaos for us!

Despite the challenges it was still a good trip. Exhausting. But good. 

Butter Lane Cupcakes

a while ago my sister and i bought cupcake classes from butter lane cupcakes. a few weeks ago i was up in nyc visiting her and we decided to cash in. the class itself was super elementary but it ended up being fun anyway. the cupcakes were super sweet but that of course didn't stop us from indulging.

 

butter lane is located in east village. i love that part of town. i had never been there before but after walking around a while i was pretty much in love. it's so quirky and posh. do those two words even go together? i loved it though, i thought it was great, and this shop fit in perfect. a little hole in the wall with amazing old new york store front doors and large planking wood floors. very charming. 

 

you could make vanilla, chocolate or banana cupcakes. we went for the banana. the banana cupcakes were actually amazing, the icing was just a bit too sweet for my liking. and the fact that there were bananas in it made me feel a little bit better about eating them.

 

they taught us how to ice cupcakes, which was actually really helpful for me because i am the worst at that. believe it or not i even got a prize for "best iced cupcakes', which tells you a lot about all the other people's icing jobs (although i thought my sister should have won over me). 

the class wasn't exactly what i thought it would be but i walked away knowing how to better ice a cupcake and with 24 of them! yum. mark, leon and grayson appriciated it.

beach buddies

hanging out at the beach with grayson is lots of fun, but hanging out at the beach with grayson and his best buddy is even more fun! it took an army to get all of the stuff these two small people needed to the beach but it kept us prepared for an entire day at the beach without any meltdowns. 

these two had an absolute ball and i loved the company. 

notice how it's the dads are hanging out with the babies? that's because the moms were sitting and relaxing in the sun for once! how nice. 

they love each other, but sometimes sharing can be an issue. notice the face grayson gives her when she tried to take his shovel. they will learn. 

i love all these photos! next time though i will bring the good camera, there is only so much you can do with a cell phone. we are hoping for lots more days like this. i have learned that a wagon and beach umbrella are a girls' best friend at the beach. (and that babies can eat a ridiculous amount of sand)

grandpa's boat

i've been riding on boats since...forever. last year grayson was way too tiny to take a ride but this year is a totally different story. i couldn't wait to get him out there and see what he thought of it. taking a nice cruise along the water has to be on my top 10 list of favorite things in the world. the winds, the rocking, what's not to love? 


the boat he thought was fantastic. he was fairly certain he was the captain. my dad showed him the wheel and in no time he thought it was king of the sea. making vroom vroom noises and all. i don't think he could be any more boyish if he tried. 


his life jacket, well that was another story. like any kid, he hated it. i don't blame him, they are so horribly uncomfortable. obviously though there is no way i am letting him take a ride without one though. he got over it. 

the noise of the boat and the motion of the waves made him sleepy every time. i am 100% okay with that. it's one of the few times i ever get snuggles anymore. 

he loved the water. all he wanted was to be dropped in. he splashed his legs and screamed with excitement every time. more more more he says. 

sunbathing in the "lake"

the smooth rocking of the boat was too much for them. they headed below and took a nap. bums. 

a preview of things to come

we spent the long weekend baking in the sun and swimming in the ocean down the shore. it was pretty much perfect. the weather could not have been better and the company was just as great. 

i took a million pictures, lounged around, and got a glorious tan. i think this was a little preview of the summer to come. 

grayson met the ocean

and loved it!

seriously. i do not think there is another child out there who loves the water more. it's all he wanted. more more more. waves would take him down and he would pop right back up and demand another round. i think in his eyes it was the best day of his life!

that is his best bud Landyn. they are exactly a week apart and total opposites. i think his energy exhausts her but they totally enjoy each others company. 

they had a fabulous day at the beach. i am quite certain their diapers will be loaded with sand for the next week though. more went into their mouths then into their buckets. 

the weekend was truly one of the best. i enjoy watching grayson have so much fun exploring the world. the beach was always one of my favorite places growing up, the memories i have there are endless. i can't wait to share all of that with him as the summers go on. 

me. stone harbor, nj. circa 1986?

to the zoo!

grayson took his second trip to the zoo. he was still pretty small on his first trip and he actually slept most of of. this time though he was awake and fully alert of everything going on around him. 

he is super lucky that his aunt is a zookeeper at the cape may zoo (an excellent- and free -zoo if you are ever in the area). she took us back to see the giraffes. 

pretty awesome right!?

they are really friendly, but they were even more so when we brought out the treats. grayson was pretty unsure about the whole thing. when they first came over he looked at it and refused to look at it again. maybe he thought if he ignored them they would go away. 

he even got slimed in the head. the giraffe came over and licked his hair. eventually though he sort of warmed up to them. when the treats ran out and they walked away all the sudden he wanted them to come back. the second round of treats went better. he was feeling more comfortable about the encounter. 

the unk and gradmom & gpa were there for the fun too. it's a darn good day when you get to pet the animals in the zoo. 

in with the giraffes live the ostriches. they are a bit less friendly. looking through the fence at them is fine, but they will bite. of course grayson didn't find them in the least bit threatening. they were behind the fence so they didn't make him nervous. 

but back to the giraffes. 

check out that tongue! 

this was the first stop on our trip. it probably should have been the last though because grayson felt he was entitled to get in with all the animals after that. he threw a fit that he couldn't get into the flamingo pen. 

he absolutley loved looking at all the animals. we weren't sure if he would enjoy it or not but he definitely did. i was really impressed with how he was able to spot the animals in the exhibits. i didn't think he would know to look for them. 

it was a fun day and fortunately we spend lots of time down the shore in the summer so i am sure we will  make lots of trips to see the animals. especially since they have awesome playgrounds there too. thanks again to grayson's aunt kim for taking us back to see the giraffes! it was the best.