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!

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

There isn't a bathtub at the camp in Maine, so the kitchen sink has been the sight for many Jones kids' baths. What history!

Parker loving the bath

Cute Chubbs

This was Nolan in that sink at 9 months oldNolan nowThank you to everyone there for making our trip memorable. We loved every minute! We can't wait to come back again.

Around the 4th

Just a few random pictures I meant to post before our trip, but of course didn't.

Lovin' each other

Nolan dressed up as a knight

(face mask, helmet, sword and shield)

Pretty creative little mind

Best Buddies in their fort

What we do instead of napping
Heartbreaker

Loving the new exersaucer

4th of July Celebrations

Perfect Lemon Cake

At the Parade
Josie on her Float

Great seats!

First Bites

Parker had his first bites of cereal yesterday. He has been "sitting" at the table with the rest of us during meals, and he finally got to actively participate. Although it was so brand new yesterday, he actually did quite well this morning with eating. He opened his mouth for the spoon and swallowed a good amount, too.

Somehow I can't get the video up, but I can try later.

Nolan was very interested

First of many messy faces

Messy faces run in the family

I also got to have an adventure yesterday! I had my hair cut in April '09, December '09, and then nothing. You can imagine the disaster that was my hair. It was easy to put it in a ponytail everyday and forget about it. But, really, you can only feel so blah and unattractive for just so long. So, on a whim, I called our nearby salon and got an appointment at 8:00 last night. What a blast! The lady tood and hour and 45 minutes to massage, wash, cut and style my hair. It ended up shorter than I had planned, but hair always grows back. What do you think?

It is a high of 95 today, and at 10:00 it is already 90. We are headed to the pool to cool down. Have a great day!

4 Months

My how big we've grown! Parker was 4 months old yesterday! We went to the doctor for his check-up today. What a perfect, healthy little boy. His weight is 16lbs. 4oz. (75%) and is 26 inches long (86%). He has grown 4 inches and nearly doubled his birthweight! We will be starting cereal tomorrow! What a great guy!

He is really starting to be a fun little guy. He rolled for the first time today, loves holding toys and snuggling with his giraffe, laughs, talks, and smiles all day long. He is such a joy to have in our family.

Happy 4 months!

Blessings Galore

We had a wonderful weekend. My brother Nate and his wife Alli came to visit! They were the first in my family besides my parents to get to meet Parker. We had a fabulous time. They arrived late Friday night and had to leave early Monday morning, but we packed in the good times.

Nate meeting Parker

The weather was really hot this weekend, so we tried to make the most of it. Saturday morning we went downtown. We visit City Garden again, and everyone had a blast. I think Nolan enjoyed it the most, though.

Then we went down to the river. The Mississippi was really high from all the rain we've been getting.

For the afternoon we stayed home and watched US vs. England in the World Cup. I think we all had a nap except, of course, Nolan.

Parker-like the outfit? Go Gophers!

Nate loves barbeque food. Seeing that St. Louis is known for barbeque, we decided to indulge Saturday night. Funny enough, Ted and I weren't sure where to go. After some good emailing and facebook suggestions, we heard that Pappy's Smokehouse is the only place to eat. But they were already sold out of chicken. So we went to The Plush Pig instead. Nate was satisified, the food was good, and they had a guy playing old-fashioned piano music that made Nolan dance. It wasn't Pappy's, but it was still good.

Sunday was Parker's baby blessing at church. That was the reason Nate and Alli came down to be with us and so Nate could do the blessing. Ted's entire family and his Grandmother were able to join us at church and for a brunch afterwards. It was a beautiful blessing and we are so glad to have had so much family with us for Parker's special day. My talented Mom made Parker's blessing outfit. Thanks Mom!

Nate and Alli with the boys

Wada and Nonna

Four generations

The Joneses

Janny, Josie, Steve, Jody, Parker, Hope, Ted, Nolan, Kristina and Jody

The Downings

We had a great weekend. Nate and Alli kicked our butts in Smear (a Minnesota card game), but we let them do that so they would want to come back and visit! We are sad it went too fast, but so grateful for the wonderful families we are a part of. Thanks everyone for thinking of us or being with us.