Hello Summer

On Sunday we welcomed the summer to St. Louis.  We celebrated summer's entrance with swimming, friends, grilling and ice cream! Good times.

noah, lee and claire playing poolside.

this picture makes me laugh really hard.  noah clearly thought leaning on claire like this was hilarious. she didn't think it was quite as funny.

noah discovered he could straddle the side of the pool. he would bounce up and down and say, "horse, horse!" 

noah thought he needed to pick up olivia...she wasn't a fan of that idea.

noah and lee eating ice cream cones and teagan waiting for the drippings.

we (the parents) totally took advantage of our kids' addictions to veggie tales by letting them eat dinner while watching.  although we felt a little guilty about allowing this, it was so nice to have an adult dinner in peace!

Go Duke! Go Ben!

The last bit of our trip was spent in Durham, North Carolina where my brother Ben lives. He and Marsa` have spent three long years there so far, while Ben has been working on his Masters in Divinity. Finally, this tedious, but rewarding part of their lives is over, and we all went to celebrate with them.  We had a fabulous time and made some great memories.  A few of them include:

-Noah saying "Uncle Ben" and "Aunt Sa` Sa`"
-Noah eating and spitting ice into one of the drink buckets at the grad party
-Noah calling for "Grams" or "Pops" when he woke up in the mornings
-Noah sitting quietly through Ben's whole graduation ceremony (save the one time where he called for Aunt Sa` Sa` who was sitting several seats down)
-helping Marsa` decorate for the grad party
-Noah jumping into a pool without prodding (Matt was there to catch of course!)
-Me and Matt's date night at a Bull's game
-Noah learning to "drive" and then asking for it ALL the time

Warning: LOTS of pictures!

going to pick up daddy from the airport

playing frisbie with uncle ben at the duke gardens

noah playing around the gardens

marsa` and ben's house was ready for the graduation party...so pretty!

ben and marsa`, on their front steps, before the big shin dig...such a good looking couple.

miss karla jordan

hanging out with daddy at the party

 

noah played in this ice bucket for a really long time. he likes chewing ice like his dad. gives me chills!

 

party pictures

pops sign towards the top of the building...cute!

ben had just opened his big grad gift...a trip for two to nyc for the us open

noah with his "aunt sa` sa`"  (check out the hair style she gave him.)

time for the actual graduation/hooding ceremony. 

my mom and marsa`s mom, ellen, in the duke chapel

pops and noah in the chapel

our desperate attempt at keeping noah busy while waiting for the ceremony to start. why do i love old doors so much? especially with noah in front of them? so cute!

this is a man on a mission.

mommy and noah

 

karla and noah

mommy and noah....it's just about to start!

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! i love this picture!

ben walking down the aisle during the processional

ben getting hooded

on our way out!

family picture time

 

pops dropped us at the airport. noah is giving goodbye kisses.

Goodbye spring trip! You were good to us. Thanks to Pops and Grams for taking such good care of us while we were with them! We miss you both immensely. Thanks to Marsa` and Ben for getting us a rockin' loft to camp in...for free! It was fun to see Noah fall in love with both of you.  Thanks to my hubby for loving and supporting my family, and letting me spend tons of time with them!

Florida Trip, Part 5

Mother's Day was busy but fabulous!  We started it off with Bible study and service at my dad's new church, then he took us to Carraba's for our Mother's Day celebration.  Next on the agenda was Noah's nap and when he woke up, we exchanged Mom's Day gifts.  I got a sweet card from my Noah that Grams and Pops helped him make, and a lovely card filled with some shopping money from Mom and Dad.  Not to mention that earlier in the week, Matt sent my Mom and I flowers with sweet notes.  After the exchange, we went to the beach again, and Noah wandered around, went into the "WAH-TER" with Pops, stood on a random guy's skim board and watched some surfers do their thing.  Earlier in the day, we decided that it was a Coldstone kind of a day, so after the beach we picked some up...it was our dinner, and I could have that kind of dinner every night!  Although I missed Matt, it was a wonderful second Mother's Day for me, and I was so happy I got to actually celebrate it with my own Mom.

Post beach ice cream is the best!

Florida Trip, Part 4

Five minutes from their house, Grams and Pops have the Green Cay Wetlands.  We all visited and walked a mile and a half around together. Noah loved seeing the "quack-quacks (ducks)," the "tweet-tweets (birds)," and the "aarrrhhhs (alligators)."  He split his time walking, riding in the stroller and sitting on Pops shoulders.  Pops was running into the tree branches, and Noah was loving it. He kept saying "trees, trees!!"  A few days later, while I spent a little time at Ikea, Grams took him back for another round.  This time they walked around again, and then spent a lot of time in the museum, where Noah listened to bird sounds and watched the frogs, turtles and baby alligators.

On Monday, mom, Noah and I went to The Cheesecake Factory for a Mother's Day lunch since my dad refused to let me "take her out" on Sunday. (He treated us to lunch at Carraba's...more on this day later!) We had a delicious lunch and snapped a few shots before going in.