South Carolina

There comes a point during vacation that you start dreading the drive back home. I am at that point now, and don’t want to spend 8 plus hours in the car to travel back to KY, I would be fine leaving all my belongings there and just staying put. I’m sitting in the hotel room right now while Abbyroo takes her nap thinking about maybe starting to pack up some of my stuff… I told Jason that I would love to live about 3-4 hours from the coast, far enough to stay out of the bad weather if it were to come, however close enough to make a day trip

and get my ocean fix. I would love to live in Ashville NC; I worked near there the summer after high school and feel in love with that area.

We set off for our first beach trip with Abby this past week for Isle of Palms, SC. I actually googled “closest beach to Lexington, KY” and Charleston SC area came up. Jason and I had been here before, and loved it, so what better place to go…

We had an absolutely wonderful time traveling down here. I had prepared myself for the “worst” car ride ever however Abby was a wonderful traveler, she took two naps in the car on the way down and stopping for meals allowed us to get out and stretch our legs. We watched so many episodes of Mickey Mouse Club House, I kept telling Abby, in 4 more episodes we will be there, 3 more episodes, etc etc…

I absolutely love being at the beach, Abby woke up on schedule at 6:30, so with the sun rising every morning between 6:50 – 7:05 we got to watch the sun rise every morning. It is so beautiful – I took some pictures of this, however my camera can’t capture the beauty of this. The pictures I took, doesn’t do it justice – sooooo beautiful!

We are so thankful we brought her jogging stroller with us. 1st off it folds up a lot smaller than her travel system stroller, and it goes so well on the sand. We were able to take a lot of walks while we were here. It went everywhere with us, and I would say we walked several miles a day and used it. There were times though that Abby wanted to walk so we would push an empty stroller while she walked along side.

Jason and I aren’t ones to get in the ocean, both of us love the beach, but we are beach walkers and poolside people. We will walk where the water goes up to our ankles, but we don’t get wet. Abbyroo is the same way, she is a beach walker! We put her down on the beach and she just walked with such “persistence” towards the pier, like she was on a mission to accomplish something. I am not sure why she felt the need just to walk while we were there. The problem we faced was that she only wanted to walk one direction. She wouldn’t walk back the other direction, which who could blame her I didn’t like walking towards the sun either.

Separation anxiety…

Well I couldn’t be more excited about going on vacation. It was so wonderful to change my voicemail message at work, my out of office auto reply to emails, and to write on my board beside my door that I would be returning to work on September 27. Yay...

I just checked the 10 day forecast and it looks like we are in store for clear sunny skies with 85 degree weather. We still haven’t decided which day we are leaving yet. Our hotel check in is 4:00 on Monday. We have debated on leaving Sunday after church about 3:00, travel a couple of hours, stop for dinner and get Abby in her pj’s, and hoping she would sleep the rest of the way there and get there by midnight, and stay an extra evening. Our other option is waking up early on Monday morning and traveling all day. So we still don’t know, and we honestly may not know until Sunday what were going to do.

I’ve started putting things on our guest bed to pack but I’m positive we will forget something. Jason keeps reminding me that they have grocery stores and Wal-Mart’s in South Carolina. Just have to remember the important things: Jason, Abby, contacts & glasses. Everything else we can get while we are there

I’ve decided to only take my point and shoot camera. I am absolutely in love with my DSLR Nikon, however it can become a distraction. Its big, I focus and set it all manually, and with a one year old it can be hard to use. I just want to enjoy every moment of being there, soak up the moments and use my baby Nikon point and shoot camera to capture the memories. I am positive that I will go through separation anxiety, and will probably be wishing I had it several times on the trip, however I will love the moments I capture on the baby Nikon. I think I keep going on about this, because I am still having to convenience myself not to take it… haha, we will see what happens.

I went to Wal-Mart today to pick up some of the things we would need, suntan lotion, disposable sippy cups, trail mix, and Mickey Mouse Club House DVD. I went down the clearance isle while I was there, as I always do and saw that they had some beach towels, originally 7.50 which didn’t have a reduced price marked on them. I put them in my buggy and when I checked out told her I wanted to know how much they were before she rang them up – they ran up $7.00, I told her never mind, that wasn’t much of a discount for September for beach towels in a clearance isle – the lady said, your right, I can give them to you for $3.00 a piece. I was so happy, so Abbyroo now has 2 additional beach towels, toy story & Disney princess. What a bargain.

I'm ready to smell the ocean, to feel the sand between my toes, to take walks on the beach, see the sunrise, feel the breeze, and collect seashells with Abby.  We plan on going to the aquarium while were there, take a boat ride to Fort Sumter, see the Yorktown, visit the market, and hopefully see some dolphins!  So were off, either Sunday or Monday with a car load of beach chairs, sand buckets, bathing suits, beach towels, Tylenol, teething tablets, lots of giggles, smiles, and wonderful road trip moments. I can’t wait for Abbyroo to see the ocean.

Fairies and Pixie Dust

When do we lose that since of awe and wonder? When did we stop believing in the tooth fairies, pixie dust, and that we could be anything we wanted to when we grew up. I wish that I could be more like Abigail. Everything that we do is exciting to her. Everything seems to have that “wow factor”. About everything we do she thinks deserves applause and saying yay! Not just one yay though, a long “yaaaaaaaayy”.

Its bath time Roo – “yyaaaayyy”, it’s time to eat your sup sup baby girl – “yyaaayyy” , its diaper changing time – “yyaayyy”. No matter what we do, it is yay and claps! She is so excited about life, just being alive, and being Abigail. She truly is such a happy girl and has added so much joy to our lives. You can only imagine what she does when we pull out the bubbles – she acts so goofy and laughs so hard she can’t hardly sit up straight.

I can’t wait to see what she does when she sees the ocean for the 1st time next week! I always stand in amazement at the beauty of God’s creation at the beach. I always manage to see the sunrise and the sunset and praise God for who he is and this beautiful Earth he has given us to live on. I can live in more of this awe and wonder when were not living our normal daily life full of work, laundry and cooking dinner. Something about eating every meal out, having housecleaning straighten up your room everyday makes things a lot easier.

Well Abigail is going to have a lot more 1sts next week – 1st long car ride, 1st sand castle, 1st seeing the ocean, 1st time at the aquarium, and 1st time in a hotel, the list goes on…

I pray I can be more like her and see the awe and wonder in everything. I learn something new from her most every day. I hope she continues to still believe in fairies and pixie dust for a long time.

Pitter Patter

I have learned very quickly that being a mommy means that all privacy goes out the window. Now since Abby is walking, even running at times, she follows me or Jason wherever we go. If one of us gets up to go in the kitchen, her room, bedroom, outside, bathroom, it really doesn’t matter where, she follows us. I love hearing the sounds of the pitter patter of her little feet. We recently got her a pair of Nikes, and needless to say she looks ridiculously cute in them. Thump thump thump, I hear her coming. I said that there is no more privacy because I can’t remember the last time I have gone to the bathroom by myself when she was awake. I love her so much, I know one day I am going to look back and treasure this time, and wish I could have it back. Nothing more special in this world than being a mommy.

Feeding the Elephants

I had today off of work, and a friend of mine told me the day before that they were going to be feeding the elephants in triangle park at 11:00 - so Abbyroo and I had to make our way downtown.  We parked at 5th 3rd bank and took us a nice stroll.  We made it there about 5 minutes before the elephants.  There was such a huge crowd.  We met a friend of mine from work, and I was so happy her mom was there because there was no way I would have just left my stroller and battled the crowd so my little princes could get a better look.  She watched our stuff and we faced the crowds.  Trish has a daughter the same age as Abby, there is one week difference between them.  Paige and Abby played so well together.  They pushed there way through the crowds to get a front view of the elephants.  Abby would reach out her arms towards them and say pup pup.  I guess she thought that they were really big dogs!

We got to watch them feed the elephants lettuce, apples, bananas, and of course their favorites watermelon.  They said the elephants consider watermelon a dessert.  They told us that Elephants get 6 sets of teeth in their lifetime and I feel sorry for them!  If  they have 1/2 as much trouble as Abby has getting her 1st set!  Well Abbyroo had so much fun we had to take her back that evening to the circus - she loved it!

Riding along in my automobile.

This little girl loves to be outside!  We got her this car for her birthday, and she loves it.  Her daddy will push her up and down the road.  Last night when we were using this, he would go really fast for a few feet and she just laughed...  She is such a sweet girl and everyday helps me just to live in the moment.  Love her!

I am convenience that I have the sweetest little girl in the world. I am sure that every new mother says this to themselves, but of course I truly think Abigail is. I will probably look back at this when she is in her terrible 2 and just laugh while I read it and say, what was I thinking?

Abigail is walking all over the house. We are having to shut doors, and continually keep up with her. She will also follow me when I leave the room, which I absolutely love. We were back in the bedroom and we have a full length mirror on the bathroom door and she was walking by and caught a glimpse of herself and just started kissing herself over and over. After she kissed herself she would say yum.. which I thought was so sweet. She did it about 20 times before I realized I needed to get my camera. Sometimes things that would make a wonderful picture I don’t want to ruin the moment by grabbing my camera. I just want to enjoy what she was doing.

Later that evening I got my camera and wanted to see if she would do it again. I put her down in the bathroom and she started to walk towards me crying, reaching for me, but when she walked by that mirror and saw that sweet little girl, how could she not stop and give her some kisses! She went from crying to yum. I love this little girl more than words can express.

Our 1st outdoor piano concert

Abigail gave her first outdoor piano concert this evening. We got her this little piano for her birthday, and she has absolutely fallen in love with it. Doesn’t surprise me though, she is around music a lot with Jason playing guitar, and myself playing the piano. She treats her little piano very delicately. I would expect her as a 1 year old to pound on it, climb on it, hit it, etc… when she plays her piano she will use little fingers one at a time, and hit keys one at a time. She will push her little finger to hit a key and look at me, as for approval. After she hits a few keys we always stop to clap and say yea…

We have been clapping a lot lately. Everything is so exciting for Abigail, bath time = yay and claps, lunch time = yea and claps, even diaper changes = yay and claps. I love that she loves life, which how would she know any different being a little 12 month old. Notice I didn’t say 1 year old, I would rather stay in months right now, it makes me feel like she is younger :-)

National Watermelon Day!

National Watermelon Day! As a new mommy we are always looking for holiday’s to celebrate! Our first year was so fun trying to take creative pictures for the different holidays. Were going to make a calendar in December to give to family for Christmas. I can’t believe we missed this holiday last year…haha I heard it on the radio that today was national watermelon day, and it just so happened that we had a huge watermelon in the fridge and Abbyroo loves her watermelon!

Our church had a sweet tooth auction the Sunday before, and we had so much left over cupcakes and sweets from her birthday, the watermelon seemed like the only reasonable thing we could bid on.

I put the watermelon in the front yard and Abbyroo got right down there with hit. She hadn’t ever seen a watermelon this big before, she tried to roll it, she played pat-a-cake with it, and just enjoyed trying to move it. But what she most enjoyed was when I cut it up and gave her a piece, she went to town! She loves her watermelon; I hope she continues to eat whatever I give her for a while. I know that eventually she won’t want all these fruits and veggies though so I am loading her up now!

Nothing cuter than a little girl on her birthday in a tutu...

I still can’t believe that my little girl is one years old. I feel like I was just prego with her the other day. I still feel like I should be able to sit on the couch and hold her for hours and cuddle with her anytime I want. I still feel like she should wear a newborn size, and little booties. This past year has flown by, it has by far been the best year I have had. She makes everyday wonderful, exciting and new.

She is so independent now. She is walking alone; she will go exploring through the house and leave the room that we are in. She is walking very well, getting up without the assistance of furniture, and even starting to walk faster, not quite running, but definitely walking faster.

Her birthday party was full of laughter fun and needless to say, cupcakes! We had a wonderful turnout to her party. Her little friends loved watching her open her presents and running around the room. We had her party at the Bull Golf course, because we thought our house was too small to accommodate all the people, and I didn’t want the pressure of making everything perfect for her big day! She had so much fun and only one melt down during present’s time.

I have seen several weeks prior to the party preparing, we did all homemade decorations, and balloons, table clothes and paper ware from the dollar store. We didn’t want to spend a whole lot, considering she won’t’ remember this anyway. We did cupcakes from Kroger, gold fish, Capri suns, and some homemade 1st birthday chocolate suckers. For party favors we had silly bands on the tables, Bible activity books and crayons. It worked out perfectly that her birthday is during the back to school extravaganza.