Keeping Up With the Joneses: July 2010

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Friends and Swimming

We were so lucky to have my amazing friend Lisa and her family come visit us for a night from St. Paul, Minnesota. Lisa and I taught together at Murray Jr. High in St. Paul for 3 years. We even team taught a math-English class for 2 of those years. She is an inspiring person, and I am so grateful to count her as one of my closest friends.

Although they were only with us for 22 hours, we packed in the good times. The kids played wonderfully together. Lisa has 2 children; Max is 6 1/2 and Elly is 4 1/2. They had fun with Nolan's toys and LOVED cuddling Parker. I wish I had taken more pictures, but we were just having too much fun. Then we all went swimming at our neighborhood pool.

That night, Lisa and I were able to go to the Muny to see The Sound of Music. It was so great to have them here and I hope to see them in August when we go up to Minnesota.

Talking about swimming, we have been doing A LOT of that around here lately. Nolan thinks he is the expert swimmer. He can jump in and swim Ted's parent's entire pool with his arm floaties, swim in lakes with his life jacket, and splash like crazy in the Kirkwood pool. His favorite may be Ted's Grandmother's pool. It is about 2 1/2 feet deep and 8 feet across. Perfect for him! He puts his head underwater and actually swims a little bit. Way to go Nolan!

Nolan and Parker have been "playing" much more lately, too. This morning they were rolling around in unison. Parker can flip any which way and Nolan loves keeping up with him. Synchronized rolling? Maybe the new olympic sport!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Maine 2010

Last week we took a great vacation to the beautiful state of Maine. Ted's mom was born and raised outside of Augusta. She still has all her family living there. We left Thursday, July 8th and drove through the night and got to camp 25 hours later on Friday. What a haul! The boys did wonderfully.

Most of the time was spent on the boat, in the water, or lounging around. I ate 2 whole lobsters, lobster bisque, and a lobster roll. Fresh Maine lobster is so delicious! But the best time was when we were with the many relatives in Maine. I of course didn't get as many pictures as I'd have liked. I need one of my many talented photographer friends to follow me around to document for me. I had my hands too full (of lobster?) is my excuse!

Parker meeting his Great Nana

4 generations

Nolan's best buddy, Abbie

We snuggled together as often as possible

A great nap on the lake

View from the dock

The Joneses' Camp

One day, Ted and I took the boys down to the ocean. To get to open ocean is at least a 2 hour drive each way, so we went to an inlet that had ocean water. We called it the ocean. Nolan was happy.

Cold water

Digging in the sand

A great nap

(on his 5 month birthday!)

My boys

As I mentioned earlier, Ted has a ton of family that live in Maine or Massachusets. What wonderful, kind, loving, fun people they are! I didn't get good pictures of everyone, but I can offer a small sampling. Just so you know, there are 2 grandparents, 4 aunts, 4 uncles, and 14 cousins. That excludes Ted's family of 2 parents, 3 sisters, Ted, me, Nolan and Parker. What a great bunch!

Maggie and Addison (in order) with Parker

(Identical twins!)

Abbie, Livie, Riley and Whitney

Nolan and his buddy Nickolas at Nickolas'

3rd birthday party!

Ted caught his first fish in Maine on a river by their camp. Ted and his dad took Nolan to that same spot where he proceeded to catch his first fish as well!

Look how big