Vacation in Florida!

On Friday, May 14, we all piled in the car and headed to Florida for vacation! The boys did suprisingly great during the 10+ hour car ride. Landon was excited to return to Florida for the third time... the first two times he didn't have a very good view since he was curled up in the confines of my stomach! :)

We met Kelly, Louis and Hannah in Orlando, where we stayed for a few days. On Sunday, we went to Disney World for the day, which was a lot of fun, despite the fact that Grady seemed tired and a bit sluggish. We found out later that night that he actually had a fever... After going to an urgent care that night, we were told he had the flu AND strep throat (which we caught very early...I still have my doubts that it was actually the flu, but that's another story). Ugh. How's that for news on our first day of vacation! Luckily his fever was gone by the following day, so it didn't put too much of a damper on our trip.

I'm not sure who is enjoying getting his picture with Snow White more....the boys or Brandon?!!

We were actually quite surprised at how many rides Landon and Hannah could actually go on with us! Here we all are getting ready to ride It's a Small World. You kind of feel like you're going a bit crazy by the end of this ride (what seems like millions of doll figurines and high-pitched music), but it was at least nice and cool and a ride we could all go on together! :)

I like to call this one "Lion King." I can just hear the theme song now as Hannah is lifted up over Cinderella's castle. :)

The boys just couldn't resist napping! We were lucky that we had a double jogging stroller to bring with us. (Special thanks to Granny and Gramps for the great early birthday gift to Grady!)

Kelly and Louis were nice enough to babysit the next day (even with Grady being sick!) so that Brandon and I could go to Discovery Cove to swim with dolphins! This was a belated birthday present for Brandon since we couldn't really celebrate this past November (since I was about 40 weeks pregnant at the time). It was a lot of fun and we got to swim with our very own dolphin - Jenny! Cameras were not allowed during the actual swimming with dolphins (shocker!), but here is a picture of the beautiful scenery! We actually did buy a few pictures of us with the dolphin, but haven't scanned them in yet.


On the third day we ventured over to Sea World, which was also a lot of fun! We unfortunately missed the big Shamu show at the end of the day because some meltdowns ensued, but we still had a fun day!


You can see Grady riding on Brandon's shoulders....Poor Brandon had shoulder issues by the end of this trip because Grady always wanted a ride!

Here are some other pictures from our stay in Orlando...



Here is Hannah catching some rays after a long day!

Here is Landon enjoying a meal! :)

For the second half of the week, we headed to Vero Beach to visit with Kelly, Louis and Hannah, and of course hang out at the beach! Grady wasn't too interested in the ocean (we realized swim lessons are an absolute necessity asap!), but loved the sand. Landon really liked the water.... He didn't get much time to play in the sand because it would have inevitably ended up in his mouth!

Another highlight of the trip is that Hannah tried her first bite of table food - "a puff!" You can tell how much she loves it!

Going to work!

As we mentioned in an earlier post, Grady has lately been very into his "work" (aka the crossword puzzle). In addition to doing "work" at home, he has also been asking to go to work with Brandon. Well, Brandon finally decided to let him! He cleared off a couple of hours on his calendar and brought Grady to work with him last week. Grady was super excited... he dressed up in his tie, brought his crossword puzzle and lunch box and headed to UNC with Brandon. Oh - and the cute little tie was actually Brandon's when he was little! (When I asked Grady what he was going to do at work that day, he told me he might look at balloons on the computer. If only life was that simple!)

This past weekend we celebrated my cousin Michelle's graduation from pharmacy school at UNC. We had a great lunch at Top of the Hill and got to hang out with a lot of family, which was really nice! We also celebrated Mother's Day on Sunday and had a nice brunch at Carolina Brewery.

P.S. Not sure why it looks like I have a gold tooth in this picture! I assure you I don't! :)

Landon turned 6 months old on May 11 and now weights 18 lbs, 1 oz! He is scooting all over the floor and is even now getting up on all fours and rocking! We have a feeling he'll be crawling soon!

And finally, here is one of my favorite videos of Landon laughing. Grady can always make Landon giggle! :)

A Celebratory Day for Grady!

We are so proud to finally announce that Grady is completely potty trained! For those of you who don't have kids, potty training is one of the most exhausting things you go through as parents! You literally find yourself talking about bodily fluids to anyone who will listen! Sorry everyone! You might remember our post back in August (yes, 10 months ago!) about "potty bootcamp" with Grady and what a disaster it was! Despite potty training taking a little longer than expected, we are so thankful we are finally here, and we couldn't be prouder of Grady! Of course, thanks to Grady, we're pretty sure Landon's first word will be "poop," "butt" or something along those lines! Oh well!

There is just something so cute about seeing our little Grady lounging around the house in his boxer briefs! :) I can just picture him in 15-20 years looking exactly the same - just bigger! This is a picture from when he woke up one morning...all he needs is a cup of coffee! (All I have to say is he looks EXACTLY like his daddy here! Don't worry, I won't post a picture!) :)

You will notice in these pictures that he is carrying around a book of crossword puzzles. For some reason he has adopted this crossword book and calls it his "work." I guess after hearing Brandon and I talk about having to do work, etc., he decided he needs some work too. It is so cute to listen to him "working" - he basically points out tons of different letters in the crossword puzzle. He often tells us he has to do his work first before doing other things. :)

For months now we have told him that when he is finally wearing underwear we would take him to the "bouncy house" as he calls it. (It's this place called Monkey Joe's where there are tons of bouncy slides, etc.) So, this past weekend we finally went and kind of make the whole day special for him as a celebration for his potty success!

In addition to taking Grady to the "bouncy house," we also took him for ice cream and went strawberry picking at an organic farm, which was really fun! We had the whole strawberry patch to ourselves since we went later in the day...the strawberries were soooo good, and it was so nice knowing they were organic and chemical free. Grady absolutely loved it and wanted to eat strawberries all night! :