Emerald Isle 2014-Part 1

After visiting Granny and Papaw, we headed over to Emerald Isle, North Carolina.  Every year, my mom's side of the family gets together.  We have been going to this beach ever since I was a baby!  I think I have only missed a couple of years. 

Since pictures say 1,000 words, I will let them do most of the talking!

I love comparing these two pictures!  The left is from last year when Adelyn was just over 3 months old.  The one on the right is from this year when she was 15 months old.   It is crazy how much babies change in a year!

 

This was taken on the first day.  Adelyn was unsure of the water at the beginning of the week and didn't even like me standing in it.  By the end of the week she loved it!

 

Her senses were on overload at first!  She is taking in the feeling of the sand on her feet, smell of the ocean, feeling of wind through her hair, sound of the seagulls, all the new sights and taste of shells!

 

I always talk about how Adelyn loves to gather tiny objects.  The beach was the perfect place for her with all the shells!

 

Most of the week, the boys spent time on this.  Nathan bought a kiteboard and kite last year.  Travis bought this mountain board the week before we left.  The whole week they spent time with their toys!

 

Travis zooming down the beach.

 

Adelyn getting in on the action!

Nathan teaching Brooklyn!  She even flew it by herself!

 This little girl was in heaven all week!  She wanted to spend every second outside!  Here are some random pictures of her from the week!
 

She was so happy all week!  I love her little smile!

 

 I love this face!  She does this anytime she is excited about something!  We saw her make this face all week with all the new and exciting things to see!

 

 

She finally left me take her in the water!

 Something else Adelyn loved was all the attention!  There was always someone there to play with her or get her whatever she wanted!  You could say that she was a little spoiled!

 

 

 

 

Like Mother, Like Daughter

First, I owe a HUGE thank you to Nathan for saving my computer.  The day that I always feared came last week as I went to turn on my computer and all that showed up was a blank screen.  I wanted to cry.  Luckily I recently invested in an external hard drive and had everything saved except pictures of my trip to Oregon.  He ended up being able to save everything though!  Thanks again!!

I have a billion things to catch up on!  For now I just have to write down this story so I don't forget and give you your daily dose of Adelyn!  This is taken at the house Travis grew up in! She was supposed to be sleeping, but I found her like this.  I couldn't resist!

 Lately Adelyn has really started communicating more and more.  She will grab my hand and lead me over to what she wants, she points to things, she signs please and more, etc.  I love that she is trying!

Well, yesterday Travis sat down with a piece of cheesecake.  Seriously, you can't sneak any sort of food by her without her wanting some.  Plus, she is like me and has a sweet tooth.  Naturally, she toddled over to Travis and held her arms up for him to pick her up.

After he picked her up, she started pointing to the cheescake and signing please.  Travis was hesitant because he hates giving her sweets.  He didn't react right away so she leaned over and kissed him!  Of course he couldn't say no after that!  It was seriously so funny!  She kept doing it over and over to get more and more!  I really was laughing so hard!

It is crazy how fast kids learn how to get their way!  I don't know where she learned it from!  :)

Granny and Papaw

The next stop on our trip was Goldsboro, North Carolina to see my grandparents on my dad's side.  Unfortunately now that we live further away, we only see them about once a year.  Last time we saw them, Adelyn was only a couple months old.  This time she was walking around every where like I used to do when I was a kid.  She loved all of Granny's little trinkets and especially her cat! We even put on her Braves cheer outfit because they are huge fans!

 Papaw's health has gone downhill recently, but he was extra strong and alert while we were there.  I think he was just excited to see us! I always remember him being so strong and taking us to the garden with him! 

 Granny and Adelyn have a special connection since she is the first Great-Granddaughter.  Granny wrote Adelyn a beautiful letter telling her how much she loves her and how she is glad Adelyn is part of our family.  It made me appreciate the relationship that I have with them.

 It was a quick trip, but it was great seeing them.  I love them and appreciate their example of love and sacrifice!

Georgia and Another Farewell

The next stop on our trip was Georgia.  We drove in just in time for Andrew's farewell.  Andrew, my youngest brother, has chosen to serve a mission for our church.  He has been assigned to the Panama City, Panama mission for the next 2 years.  Before heading down to Panama, he flew out to Utah  for 6 weeks of training at the Missionary Training Center (MTC).  There he will learn how to speak Spanish and how to teach about the gospel.   

The weekend before he left, we had a farewell for him at our house.  I was impressed because friends from all walks of life came to say bye and wish him luck.  There were over 150 people that came!  Crazy!  He must be a cool kid!

It was also crazy for me to realize that he is grown up.  There is a 10 year gap between us so I always remember him being little.  When I left for college, he was 8 years old, so I still think of him as that age!  He has grown up into a kind-hearted young man and I know that he will bless many lives.

After Andrew left, Adelyn and I decided to stay and hang out in Georgia for the week before heading to the beach.  Travis had to come back to Ohio to work for the week so he didn't get to join us.

I can't find many pictures from our visit to Georgia on my camera (they are all on my phone), but Adelyn loved it!  My parents also loved having a grandbaby in the house.  She was definitely spoiled! We went swimming, played at the park next door, climbed step stools, dug in mom's plants, played with my childhood toys and ate delicious food. 

She had all the love and attention imaginable!  I thought it was interesting to see how fast she picked up on things.  She quickly learned that if she wanted a toy or someone to hold her, she just needed to go to my mom.  If she wanted food or something we had, she would go to my dad.  She hardly came to me for anything because she knew that I would make her do it herself!

I was looking forward to taking her swimming in my parents' pool.  When we went to Gatlinburg a few months ago, she did not love the water.  This time she did!  She was so funny!  She loved throwing the pool toys in the water and floating around with me.  I was impressed with how brave she was!

She had this goofy smile with her tongue hanging out pretty much all week!  That's what she does when she is super excited about something.

Everyday it seemed like she learned something new! Travis kept saying how she was a different baby when he saw her again.  She is soaking things up like a sponge right now and it was more apparent to me when we were in a different place.  We had a blast in Georgia even though it was a crazy week with sending Andrew off and getting things ready for the beach!

4th of July

I have so much blogging and catching up to do.  These past 3 weeks have been crazy and it isn't slowing down any time soon!  I love summer and I love being busy so I am not complaining!

For the Fourth of July, we drove down to South Carolina for a quick visit to see Travis' mom.  She is serving a mission in Columbia.  She works in the mission office and does secretarial type work.  She will be going back home in a couple months so we wanted to get one last visit in while she is in driving distance!

We left after Travis got home from work on Thursday.  Like planned, Adelyn slept most of the way!  She has really been a good traveler considering she is locked up in a car seat for so long!  Since she lives pretty close, Travis' sister and her family also came to South Carolina the same weekend.  It was so fun seeing everyone!

On Friday, we were able to go to the annual Peach Festival.  It was much like the street fairs here in Ohio.  There were lots of vendors set up.  They also had live music and lots of food! The peach ice cream was a big hit!

That evening we went to the base for activities and fireworks.  Jeremy, my brother in law, did his basic training at that base and was there one other time so he showed us around.  I was really impressed with the festivities!  They had all sorts of games, rides and activities all for free!  The kids loved it and got their fair share of prizes!
Lucy loves art!  She decorated this visor and is doing a coloring page.

This picture of Willy is my favorite!  He liked the rides better than the crafts!

 

Adelyn climbing on the tank!  She wanted to be one of the big kids! 

They had a live band playing leading up to the firework show.  I loved that they played the songs for each branch of the military.  It was neat to watch as the crowd stood up and sang along with their branch.  I really do love our country and I am grateful for all the men and women that have served to keep us free!

The firework show was great!  We were far enough away that Adelyn didn't cry because of the noise.  It was a hit all around!  Thanks for taking us Jeremy!

On Saturday we went to a park.  I honestly don't remember the name of it, but it was perfect!  I wanted Adelyn to have a chance to run around before we got back on the road again.  There were different boardwalks to go on so it was perfect for the kids!

We learned all sorts of neat facts about the vegetation and animal life.  The kids were so excited to find animals.  We saw giant spiders, dragon flies and snakes.  We were bummed not to see any deer, bears or other animals.  We did find out later that the snake Travis found was a rattle snake!  We had no idea because it's rattle wasn't really visible and he wasn't shaking it.  It's a good thing nothing happened because the kids faces were about 12 inches from it and at one point one of the girls poked it with a stick!  The rangers went out and put a danger sign after we showed them.
 You can see the snake here.  It was a lot closer than it looks in the picture!

 

This munchkin was so happy the whole time!  Being outside is one of her favorites! She was so excited about everything!  She walked most of the mile long trail!  I was impressed!

 

This is a classic Adelyn face!  She is just so excited about life that it can't help but make you smile!

We also celebrated Grandma Barlow's 70th birthday!  What a perfect way to celebrate with the ones you love!  Thanks for the great trip!
Grandma Barlow with 5 of her 33 grandkids!

Travis, Adelyn and Amber

Jeremy, Courtney, Willy, Lucy, Hallie and Ivy

Goodbye

One of my very best friends here is moving to Japan on Sunday!  She loves parties so we are sending her out with a bang by partying everyday!

This past weekend we had a cookout at her house. We all just hung out and talked.  The kids even got to open a photobook of all their friends to take with them.  They had this awesome blow-up water slide for the kids to play on.  Adelyn was too small, but she loved watching the kids go down!

 Out exploring and looking for rocks! My plump strawberry!!

 Adelyn is one of the youngest out of her friends, but the bigger girls do a good job watching out for her as she tries to keep up! 

We left waaaay after bedtime, but I really wanted Adelyn to see a sparkler!  She was mesmerized!  Travis even helped her hold one!  She loves being a big kid!

 

This was from last night at the cheesecake factory.  This was officially the last girls night out with her!  You can tell how loved she is by how many people were there!  

  

I am not going to get all sappy because I don't want to cry, but we will miss you Leisy!!  It won't be the same without your loud mouth (for better or worse)!!  You are one of the kindest, most outgoing, friendly people that I know.  Thank you for your great example!  I will try to keep the party going after you leave!  Good luck in Japan!!