St. Augustine, Florida

Well, we had an amazing opportunity to go on a Winter Vacation to St. Augustine, FL this last week. Grandma Kathryn was able to get some inexpensive tickets from SkyBus last Summer and we've been waiting for months to use them. We spent four days together, just Grandma, Mommy, and kids in a much needed respite from Ohio winter.



Rain or Shine- Here we are proving to the Florida natives that we Ohioans are indeed a nutty bunch. On our first day it was raining pretty heavily when we woke up. We hadn't had our first glimpse of the ocean yet, so we put on some rain gear and ventured out to the shore for what we had intended to be a short walk up the coast. The kids had other ideas. After getting that first image of the ocean, instinct won and they ran out into the tide. We were all a damp bunch from the rain above and sea below. A little sheepishly we sogged on back into the hotel and through the halls to our room to get dry again. Luckily, we only had a little rain that first day, and enjoyed sunshine for the next three.

Beach babe- Here is my favorite little beach babe. She took a few trips to wade into the very cold water but opted most of the time to run along the beach and play in the sand. Multiple attempts at sun block and hats couldn't stop those chubby cheeks from getting burned.


Boy at Play - Here is a boy at constant play. He loved to run out into the ocean and even completely submersed himself on a couple of occasions. He drew pictures in the sand, climbed trees, and generally had a great time.

Ways to Go- One of the fun aspects of the trip for the kids was the chance to try out different modes of transportation: the red rental car, a ferry, the airplane, the red train tour bus, swings, shopping carts, and even Grandma's shoulder.

Among the trees- We also enjoyed the beautiful trees in St. Augustine. We got to take a hike in a Maritime forest and climb big trees with amazing shapes. We saw trees that were permanently swept to one side from the sea side winds and passed under an enormous canopy of oak trees in the center of town.

Light house- Here we are at the gorgeous lighthouse at St. Augustine. Mom and I took turns braving the 12 story climb to the top. I know that once I got out there I was a little unsteady from that long climb. That coupled with the strong winds made me more than a little nervous about toppling over the side. It was a beautiful view, but I didn't stay up there long.

St. Augustine was an amazing place for us to visit. We are so lucky that we got to go. What I didn't really take many pictures of were the many historical sites around the area. St. Augustine is actually the oldest continuous European settlement on U.S. soil. It has over 500 years of history from the time the Spanish first settled there. Going through town actually reminded of being in Europe because some of the buildings were so old, the streets were narrow, and it was so rich in culture. I'd love to go back and get a closer look at everything. We also saw where Ponce De Leon thought he discovered the fountain of youth, but didn't actually get to the Spring for a taste! What a fun place to visit and a much needed vacation.

Siblings collage

Just practicing making and posting a collage, which I just now figured out how to do. Thanks Faith!

Anniversary Addendum...

Since Charles and I have been married for seven years now, I thought I would share seven things that I love about him.


1. He is hilarious! Sometimes if he is in the right mood he can make me laugh until I choke. Seriously, you don't know funny until you see Charles get silly at about 1 am. I feel privileged because I don't think anyone else sees him at his absolute most hilarious.

2. He absolutely loves Christmas decorations and is willing to put them up with much more painstaking detail then I would ever be willing to apply.

3. He really lets my absolute worst qualities pass by without pointing out and making me feel worse about them. He is must easier on me than I am on him.

4. He's a good Father, and he actually seems to get a kick out of some of Juliet's two-year-old antics that make me crazy.

5. He will go out and get me a bag of M&Ms when I beg him to, even when I expressly told him the day before never to let me eat M&Ms again. Ah, gotta love a man who can put up with a fickle woman.

6. He will tell people to go check out this blog and praise it in such a way that it seems like I was the one who invented the entire idea of family blogs. He is always praising me to other people like that.

7. He agrees with me on certain issues of vital importance such as which movies are cool. We can have long detailed conversations about movies and books, and just analyze them to death.

These are just a few of the reasons I love you Charles. Thanks again for seven awesome years and two beautiful children.

My Princess

Okay, so maybe I take too many pictures. I can't help it!

The terrible/terrific twos

Well, Juliet is of course two now. She has been acting two for quite some time, but now she has kicked it up a notch and decided that she will be the best darn two year old ever.

Not only has she mastered the classic two year old "no" she is now working on variations of no so she can use it as the situation demands. For instance, she has in her repertoire "I can't or I can't do it." Usually this is used in a situation where I say "Juliet, you're not allowed to play with that, put it down." "I can't do it." She also says, "I don't like it." Usually used while I am dressing her or brushing her hair. Today she came up with a new one while I was wiping her face off (which she hates), she said "You wiping my face. NO THANK YOU!!!" So, at least she was being polite. On an opposite note, she has started saying "I LOVE it" very dramatically while doing routine daily activities like watching a DVD or eating breakfast.

I guess Juliet also heard somewhere that two year olds were supposed to do it themselves, because she increasingly wants to do it herself. This Christmas while she was helping wrap gifts she even wanted to write out the gift labels herself, which involved scribbling on them. She became very indignant when I would try to step in, saying, "I do it."

Juliet is watching what Mom and Dad do so that she can do it too. She likes to help me take care of Cole and even tried to wipe his bottom while he was on the potty yesterday (much to Cole's irritation). We have a ritual after bath time where when I get Juliet out, I wrap her up in a towel and "hold her like a baby." I usually sit by the bathtub with a towel on my lap and grab her out. Well, a couple of weeks ago after Juliet had gotten out of the bath and been dried off, she climbed onto the closed toilet and spread a towel over her lap. She held her arms out and said "Hold Cole like a baby." I had a hard time explaining to her that Cole was too big for her to hold. I have also seen her pretending out the post-bath ritual with a big bear getting a little bear out of a play bath and wrapping it up. I'm glad she's mostly picking up my good moment to imitate. My amazing two year old!

Our lucky 7 anniversary

December 30 marked a big seventh marriage anniversary for Charles and me. Having our anniversary so close to Christmas and New Years has always been a challenge for us. We've done so much celebrating and running around already that we usually do a quick meal out and call it a day. This year was a greater challenge because it was also on a Sunday. We decided to have a low-key romantic evening at home. After we put the kids to bed we turned on some romantic music and cooked a special dinner together. We set the table with candles and listened to the CD that we mixed for our wedding reception while we enjoyed a special meal with a lot of the delicacies we don't usually have like thick steaks , bacon-wrapped scallops, and chocolate mousse pie. It was actually one of the most relaxed and special anniversaries that we've had. The dinner went perfectly, and was only marred when after blowing out the candles I picked one up to smell it and managed to dump hot wax down my front. Yes, I do know how to make an evening special. You can see my reaction to the candle wax in the last picture on this post.

Family times are the best times

We were fortunate to spend a lot of time seeing family this season. We have a lot of family here in town, including two sets of the kids grandparents. We were also fortunate to have a visit from
my brother Michael his wife Kensie and their children Lyna and Noah, as well as my beautiful Grandmother, Marian. Some of these family members are featured playing here with the kids. If you are not in the pictures, it was just a matter of when I happened to have my camera out. As you can see from these pictures we really enjoy our times with family.

Christmas! Christmas!