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. 

beer, burgers & babies

for the last year mark has been pursuing his masters degree. he loaded up semesters and took classes non stop till he graduated. to celebrate we invited all of our favorite people over for a barbeque. 

when you have a baby your life changes drastically. priorities shift, free-time activities change (lets be serious- free-time disappears), and life is just never what it was before. i actually asked mark the other day what it was we did with all our time before grayson. i truly cannot remember. for some maybe they miss their pre-baby lives. for me i wouldn't got back to it for anything in the world. 

we may be getting less sleep and making less money. we don't always get to do the things we use to but we get so much more. kisses and laughs and smiles and pure joy (cheesy? absolutely. but it's also the total truth). it can be hard at times, no doubt about that, but at the end of the day when i go in and look over g's crib before i go to bed i cannot remember any of that. i just feel love, and lots of it. 

even more, we are so lucky to have such wonderful friends. we are the first in the group to have a child. no one can possibly know how different things are now then before but somehow they get it. they accommodate. they understand. they still make us part of their lives. best of all, they love grayson, and for that i love them all even more. 

i think grayson is the best thing in the whole world but it warms my heart so much to see how much he is loved by others as well. i think it's impossible not to love him. 

but back to the barbeque. 

grayson's new bib, meant for catching food, has proven to be the best waterice cup holder ever

 

a few new friends were made. although i am not sure they were wanted in some cases. 

  

i love these people

as for my dogs- lazy and enjoying all the extra food hanging around. not to mention the belly rubs. i love them too. 

grayson helped himself to the plate of brownies in-front of him. somehow when is auntie is around he gets very spoiled. 

thank you to all of our friends who came. lots of them somehow dodged the camera but we love them just the same. and please come back soon because we still have a fridge full of beer that needs drinking!

oh! and let's not forget the most important part of the evening. chris got a lesson in poop checking. a necessary life skill. 

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)

the mexican train

off the grid

we have a really great group of friends. we are however the only ones with children currently. 

the last couple years we've packed up a ton of very unhealthy food, booze, games and snow-gear and headed to the lodge. it's a timeshare our friend kelly's family bought into. total manland. its up on a mountain in the appellations surrounded by nothing but woods! i am not an outdoor person, but it is one heck of a good time! removed from all civilization (and cell service!) among the woodspeople. 

when the topic of the trip came up in the fall i really debated if we were going to be able to go. grayson would be six months and it would be almost five days away from him. i had spent the night away more then once but it never was more then 24 hours. i wasn't sure if i could do it. 

after lots of back and forth we decided that grayson would be fine. he was a little older and slept better during the night. he would he in excellent hands while we were gone. the only thing holding us back was me and we did really want to go so i sucked it up (and i am really glad i did because it was a blast). 

We ate a lot. Took awesome drives through the trails of the mountain. Pretty much just sat on our butts. It was fantastic. 

I slept like a rock the first two nights. Better then i had slept in a very very long time. I did miss grayson but being up there felt like me again. The me that gets to just have fun and worry about nothing more then should i bother to get dressed today or not. Grayson was always in the back of my mind but being up at the lodge was the first time since he was born that i was truly relaxed. I had not just a few hours but three and half days (we left early, five days was just too long for me) to have fun and forget for a minute that i am someone's mom. And honestly, who wouldn't have fun with this crew...

It was just what i needed. 

ringing in the new year

last year i was pregnant, the roads were icy, i was tired, so we just stayed put. unfortunately i spent the next couple days in bed, then the hospital because i caught a horrible case of something that left me puking non stop fro nine hours straight. 

this year was a little better! my parents watched grayson and the dogs and mark and i headed to west chester to ring in the new year with some great friends. 

happy new year! here's to 2011 trumping all the wonderful things 2010 brought.