July 25, 2011

Still Here!

We're still here! Still alive and better than ever! I've been a negligent blogger lately, because darnit, I'm on vacation. And yes, I know that I'm super super lucky to have a month long vacation, and that I should take a few minutes to post an update, especially with all that's been going on, but I haven't. But now I am!

I'll try to go in chronological order. I'll have to post pictures when I get home (and there are lots!).

So we started our adventure with driving across the country. It wasn't terrible, but I will never EVER do it again, unless there is no other possible option at all. It took us 36 hours to get here, with one small 200 mile detour, thanks to yours truely. We didn't stop to sleep at all, just switched and tried to sleep while the other was driving. It was kind of tricky though because the non-driver was also responsible for keeping Ollie and Ruby happy, and Ollie seemed to be awake and crying just about any time I had the opportunity to sleep. But we made it, and it's over, and it was totally worth it to be able to come out here, have our car, and bring our Ruby girl.

Ollie's birthday was on the day we got here, Saturday, so my mom made him a birthday dinner of Macaroni and Cheese and burgers. We had cupcakes, and of course took the requisite naked-cake-eating picture. It was great.

Monday was the fourth, and we had a little family party. The kids kept cool in the sprinkler and kiddie pools, and we had a ton of delicious food. Ollie had a good time playing with lots of cousins and his uncles and aunts. It really was a great time, and we were so glad to be able to share his birthday with so many special people.

Time flew by for the next two weeks. We were able to see Heidi and Zach's (Justin's sister and brother in law) apartment in Germantown, which was lovely. We had a picnic lunch at the park with Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Camron, JJ, Jaedon, and Kaylee, we went to Aunt Melinda's and saw her chickens, jumped on the trampoline, and played with cousins Sophie and Spencer, went shopping with Aunt Marge and her boyfriend AJ. We picked lots of flowers from Gran's garden, ate ice cream cones naked in the pool (just Ollie, haha), consumed our weight in melon, took long walks on the C&O canal and at Murphey farm, had lunch with Nanny and Dr. Bob.

The very best thing happened on Thursday, July 14th, when Justin got a call from his future employer to say that they wanted him to start the middle of this fall! We have been waiting for so long, and the timing could not be more perfect.

Our beach week was perfect to say the least! Ollie was kind of nervous about the sand. I think it kind of freaked him out a little that he couldn't brush it off once it was on his hands. He tried brushing it off on his face, his hair, his mouth, his eyes, but alas, it just spread. Just when we thought he was going to lose it in frustration, he decided that it would be better to just eat it, and enthusiastically shoveled handfulls into his mouth. At that point, we went up to the pool.

The week was great though, and so relaxing. It has been such a treat for me to have so much help with Ollie. He's really become attached to everyone, and it will be hard for me to go home and be back to sole care provider for most of the day. But it won't be for long right?!?

I'm pretty sure Ollie has grown at least an inch while we've been here. He is growing so much physically and mentally. He tells us no, and grunts and points us in the direction we should go whe we're holding him. He's been walking more, and when we're holding his hand, it's not uncommon for him to almost break into a run. He is busy busy busy, but all the activity has helped him be a much better napper than ever before. And he is still sleeping through the night, even with being in a different bed ad house, and then another house at the beach, he has been great. He still loves to sniff everything, and he's very ticklish. His hair is even whiter blonde, if that's possible, and he's gotten a little tan on his legs and arms. He still has those blueberry eyes, which I can't get over. He climbs like a crazy man. Just as I'm writing this, he climbed up on the couch and positioned himself in between me and the laptop. His favorite things to do are knock over block towers, play with the animals (although Rosie isn't as in love with Ollie as Ruby is), play "Little Bunny Foo Foo", and eat anything and everything that everyone else is eating.

Justin already drove home with Ruby and my two brothers who were going back to school. I'll be here another week, but when I get home, I'll post more updates, with pictures!

3 comments:

Vallen Family said...

Sounds like you have been having SO much fun! I'm very happy for you and Justin that you get to go back home! And soon! I'm sure you are over the moon excited. I hope we will get the chance to visit you when you get to Utah but even better I hope we get the chance to visit you in WV :)

Em said...

How fun! I am so excited for you guys. And yeah for Ollie turning one! That is crazy how fast he has grown. We will have to have a going away party when you guys go!

Jen, Jenny, Jennifer said...

Very excited to hear the news that you guys are moving back east. It's always nice to have family around for support. Good luck with all of the moving that you have ahead of you. If there's anything that we can do from this end to help, just let Doug and I know!