Chuck and Carol are married!!!

Chuck and Carol tied the knot on August 14! We took the trip up to State College to help them celebrate and spent 3 crazy nights hanging out at our Bellefonte KOA with the Thomas and Maines families. Bri and I spent Friday night downtown and doing a little bar hopping. Can you find the error (to be fair to the Darkhorse, this was before the students got back so it was just the townies working the bars)?

We headed back to the campground looking forward to a little shut-eye before Brian had to get up to golf at 6 am to find JT had arrived. At 4 am we finally went to bed! The guys golfed all day before the rehearsal and rehearsal BBQ and then Brian headed out with some of the guys and I (thankfully) went back to the campground with the others for a little time around the fire. We rested a bit on Sunday morning before the wedding festivities continued. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and a GREAT party! The ceremony was held on the green and officiated by 'double D' (an HP friend who got ordained on the internet).

This video is too funny! If you'll notice at the end Teddy begins unbuttoning his shirt!

Our new camper!!

We just went on Saturday to pick up our new camper...yeah!! We sold our old pop-up and bought a new, bigger camper! It's a Rockwood Roo which is a hybrid camper. It's a 23 foot travel trailer that has beds that fold out of each end. It also has a slide-out that houses the dinette so there is a TON of space. We have a great kitchen and a full bathroom with a shower and toilet. It came with an entertainment unit complete with a flat screen TV, AM/FM stereo, CD, and DVD player! There is even a back door!

Emilia has called the "bed by the couch" and there is plenty of room to set-up Nate's pack and play on the floor...hooray!! Brian is in the process of rewiring an outlet in the garage so that we can plug it in and "camp" in the backyard for a night to try everything out (just waiting for the new breaker for the panel). Our first real trip is going to be to State College in a couple of weeks for Chuck's wedding where we will be camping next door to the Thomas'-should be a pretty good time ;)!

 

Mimi decided that she would lunch in the camper today...just to try things out. 

 

LJ will even come in this one!

Princess Ballet

Mimi started her real dance classes last night. We haven't been able to make it to the previous classes of the summer session but hopefully we are good for most of them now. She will start in the fall in the weekly classes but for now we are giving it a little trial run (even though she's already enrolled and paid up). She did wonderfully despite being the youngest one in the class. It was better that the other girls were older and attentive because she just followed their lead and listened well to her instructor, Miss Arianna.

Mr. Big Guy

Nathan seems to think that he's much older than he is these days. It's not surprising with Mimi constantly running circles around him. He gets frustrated that he can't get up and run and play with her and all the other big kids that are around him. He's making huge strides each day though. He started belly crawling several weeks ago and he's getting quite proficient. He's now realized that he can come to me, which is pretty awesome! He'll come and get me in the kitchen instead of sitting in the living room and whining.

He's also getting quite good at finger feeding and he love when I put fruit in his mesh bag for him to chew on. His two bottom teeth just popped through last week, but he's pretty good at mashing the food with his gums!

Super-strong Nate and his mitts-for-hands likes to lift anything he can find...even a car!

So the other day Emilia said to me, "Look Mom, Natey-bug is standing all by himself." Sure enough when I looked over there he was! He had pulled himself up to standing on a box of diapers and just hung out there for a while...silly man you're too little to do that!

Here are a couple of Nate's new tricks. He's doing the belly crawl and is now super proficient at going from belly to sitting!

This a new one...he's learned to clap along with "If You're Happy and You Know It".

Not surprising that he's babbling like a pro. He's gotta raise his voice if he wants to be heard over his sister!

It has begun! Nate is starting to return the beatings that he gets from Mimi. She's not at all safe when she's on the floor...he's usually got a fistful of her hair.

Ocean City, MD beach and camping!

We had a WONDERFUL beach and camping trip to Ocean City, MD for a couple of nights following our Brewfest party. We spent three nights at a campground about 3 miles from the boardwalk in our lovely little pop-up camper (that has sinced moved to another family as of the beginning of July). After setting up the camper (and a brief thunderstorm) we headed to the boardwalk for some dinner - and another thunderstorm. Mimi was super psyched to be at the beach and couldn't wait to get out on the sand!

Tuesday morning we went right to the beach with all of our stuff! It seems like long ago that we were able to walk to the beach with nothing more than a towel and a book...those days are gone!!!

 

Emilia could hardly contain herself once we got to the beach. She was in charge of carrying her beach toys and once we hit the boardwalk she was ready to plop down and set-up shop! We convinced her to wait until we got on the sand - at which time she attempted to start digging immediately at the bottom of the stairs. It took a bit of coaxing, but we did get her a bit closer to the ocean before she completely unloaded her basket. She was well exfoliated at the end of the trip...she practically bathed in sand each day!

Nathan enjoyed his first beach trip! He was cranky because of the change in sleeping arrangements and schedule for several days but overall her did well!

Nate also enjoyed the sand - he ate it by the handful!!

Mimi got a new type of bubble wand from a boardwalk shop. She had an awesome time using up 2 entire bottles of bubble soap, but I'm not sure if she or Nathan had more fun with it!!

We parked ourselves next to the Kite Loft on the first day which was fun for Mimi...that was the biggest kite I had ever seen!

Such amazing family time! These are the times that you just can't get back and I tried (despite 2 cranky, non-napping kids) to remember to stop and appreciate their simple enjoyment of the sun, sand, and water!!

On a trip to the boardwalk Mimi and daddy found a food stand with a special lemonade offer. If you buy the cup you get refills for $1.25 for the rest of the summer. Mimi was bound and determined to single-handedly get our money's worth out of that deal!

By the second day without a decent nap Nate was spent. He was miserable and so overtired that he just couldn't settle. Mimi and daddy were enjoying their sand castle time in the surf so Nate and I took a nice long walk up and down the beach. He finally conked out...thank heaven! I realized that I've officially turned old as I was walking on the beach wearing a baby, a long-sleeved bathing suit cover-up, and a big floppy hat while singing lullabys - sure didn't see that one coming!

.

We finished our trip with breakfast on the boardwalk on Thursday morning. Mimi got pancakes...anyone surprised?!?! We also went to Wockenfuss chocolates to get some treats to bring home.

Sun and sand (and no nap) will make any little lady and gentleman super pooped! They each fell asleep on the way back to the campground both days, crashed out at night in a couple minutes flat, and as soon as we got in the car to go home on Thursday!