home again, home again, jiggity jig

We are all home! Jon and I flew home Friday night on the red eye and made it home Sat. about noon. A long night. Needless to say, Sat. was a blur... but everyone was happy to be home!

It's been celebration after celebration. Jon and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on Friday.

And we're already starting to celebrate Jon's 35th bday this Friday! Wow. Some days I think we feel like the same 23 and 25 yr olds that got married back then... then other days.... not so much.

I am slow to post pictures since our beach trip, but it's due to the high volume that I need to sort through! Yikes.

Happy Father's Day!

From the long lost Nystrom's
We had a really nice trip to Southern Shores. Charlie loves, loves, loves the beach, the water, playing in the sand, counting pelicans and searching for crabs. He started off asking Jon to get his feet wet and hold his hand. By the 2nd week, he was boogie boarding and loving the waves. He also really liked the pool and remembered his skills from last summer after a few days. Knock on wood, but we are 3 weeks into potty training with no accidents in 2? This is so exciting, because it means Charlie will get to go to the pool at school every day during the summer.

Charlie also thoroughly enjoyed his cousins Thor & Gavin. They fought off "monsters", dug holes and just had a blast whatever they were doing.

Matt & Will are apparently beach bums too - we were fortunate to have our nanny, Amy, come down for a few days (Sat, Sun & Mon) to help watch the babies and give us more time on the beach. But by the end of the week, Matt & Will were napping on the beach and seemed to enjoy the scenery.
Luckily, they are feeling better from the cold they started the trip with - but it goes from 1 thing to another. Matt's 1st tooth came in on Wed., June 17th and Will seems to be working on his! The big kids had fun too... Jon skim boarded, flew kites and we had a few adult only nights out too!

I am now at RIC waiting for my flight. Jon will be meeting me Tuesday in San Diego. Matt & Will are staying with the Wood Grandparents and Charlie is staying at the Kolkhorst Grandparents.

Meanwhile, Jon is celebrating Father's Day with the 3 boys and Greta. Hopefully, they will treat him well today :o)

woohoo!

We are at the beach. Here for 2 weeks. Already planning on coming down this coming Friday, but our house was open this week, so decided to go ahead and hit the road. I'll work Mon-Thurs while the boys entertain themselves. We won wireless internet in a raffle through our Rental Mgmt Company and are already set up!

Our drive was nuts, but we stopped at Bass Pro Shop in Hampton and thoroughly enjoyed the aquarium, walking around, etc. and then hit the Bo. So, the 2nd half of the trip went much better.

In our family, this is said... A LOT!

Top reasons I think the nuts don't fall from the tree:


- When I pick Charlie up from school, he is laying under the red wagon "working on his bus"

- The other night at dinner (Jason's Deli), Charlie says "I don't like this place. I want a quesadilla!" = yum, Mexican

- When Will's hungry, he's hungry as in N O W

- Matt, Mr Laid Back, go with the flow, when he has his toys don't bother him

- Ms. Carolyn, Charlie's teacher, didn't really know he could talk until snack-time one day... he clearly stated, "I want another cookie!" = sweet tooths

- I want to go to the beach mom. I want to go to the beach dad. I want to go to the beach = enough said.

- boys have their toys... fishing poles, cars, kites, remote control vehicles


This list doesn't even really capture a sampling, but just a start. What I didn't say is what tree these things come from... but I think it's pretty easy to piece together!

Our spring eatery

Spring and falls are the best when we can use our porch... the ceiling fan is wonderful. Charlie is at home from school this week. Between preschool ending and camp starting, there is a 3 week "intermission." Although they have childcare, decided to pull him out (save $) and we are also going to the beach during this time.

It's been great. Today I went up for lunch and we sat on the porch and had a picnic. He loves to lay out the blanket and sit on the floor and eat. It was a little humid - but nice to eat lunch together. He's getting to such a fun age - it's like talking to a mini-person sometimes.




And the big news! he is wearing underwear! He started on Friday and has been pretty good. He doesn't tell us necessarily when he has to go to the potty, but he goes pretty much all the time.
I'm not counting my chicks yet, but this has been a pretty good 7 days. The best news is if he's potty trained, he'll get to go to the pool every day during summer camp for play.

We have babies!

A little wren built her nest between the window and storm window (which is open 8 inches for some odd reason), in the window right next to my side of the bed. Well we woke up to little birdies chirping on Sat. Not sure when they were born exactly, but they are very vocal. Sat. night, Charlie, Jon and I were able to see a little movement through the next but she has it built so well that we can't actually see in it from our viewpoint. Well last night, we saw momma wren come back and feed the babies 4 or 5 times. SO COOL!
Charlie called Jon back upstairs so he could tell them good night.... again...

Otherwise, it has been a weekend of tissues here. Jon, Charlie and I all have sinus issues. Jon and Charlie are now on antibiotics and I'm hoping I can kick my cold without anything...