Visit to Miami

One of my dear friends, Rachel, moved to Miami a couple years ago.  Lucky for me, ticket prices from Maryland to Miami are dirt cheap at the moment, so I booked myself a flight to visit her last week.  Her son, Averie, is 10 months old, and this was the first time I got to meet him.  He is the cutest thing I've ever seen.

 I mean, really, is this not a gorgeous baby?

Of course, Rachel is beautiful, too, so its only natural!

We headed over to Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, which I had wanted see. Wow, this place is amazing. Hard to imagine this was once someone's home.

Do you see this picture? The tongue? This boy is too precious!

Can you find the lizard?

Beautiful Spanish Moss

After our visit, we headed to Coconut Grove, where we walked down to the marina.

While looking down in the water, we saw a baby shark swim by!  So cool!

Happy boy!

It ended up raining and storming most of the time I was in Miami, but it was a blessing in disguise. I was battling a sinus infection and got lots of rest.  And lots of downtime meant Rachel and I got a chance to really reconnect.  And, of course, I got lots of good bonding time with sweet Averie!

Sunday morning we had a small break from the rain, so Rach and I went for a morning walk on the beach - across the street!

Gorgeous beach (Sunny Isles Beach)!

Rach and I - love her! We've been friends nearly 20 years.

Wrenford (Rachel's wonderful husband), Averie and Rachel. Cutest family!

Love these smiles!

Loved getting to snuggle this sweetie pie!

Can't wait to see them again in November!

Recent Days...

A hodge podge of pictures from the last few weeks...

Dinner with Nannie and Great Grandpap before they head back to Florida.
Miranda, Pacey and Addie joined us - lots of fun!

Feeding ducks with new buddies - Aiden and Ashton

Soccer practice with Gramma Debbie

Matching outfits with Daddy

Silly faces - out to lunch with Daddy

Everyone stayed home sick with Mommy - even Optimus Prime!

Ahoy Me Harties!

A few weeks ago, Jen and I took the kids on a special trip to Annapolis to ride a pirate ship! Chesapeake Pirate Adventures does an amazing job making this boat ride extra special for the kids. They start out by dressing them up and painting "tattoos" (or beards or moustaches) on the kids to turn them into "real" pirates. Then its off to the sailboat where the kids are engaged the whole time - looking for a treasure map, reading it, finding a key, using water cannons to battle a rogue pirate, drinking pirate grog (aka Sprite), picking their treasure from the treasure box, etc. The whole thing was ridiculously fun (even for adults).

My handsome pirate!

Marino and Sydney

Jen and her pirate, Noah

Logistics of a treasure hunt

Fighting off the evil pirate trying to steal our treasure...

The kids loved that part!

Early morning in Annapolis

Showing their "guns"

Me and my boy

Our scurvy crew

Eating ice cream - Marino has brain freeze!

Such a fun day!

At the Playground (Part 4)

These kids have so much fun together...not looking forward to it getting dark at 5:30PM!

5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I am loving my boy this week:

5. The other day we were sitting at the table. Marino was eating a popsicle. I was surfing the Internet. "How's your popsicle?" I asked him.
"Good," he said, "How's your tasty computer?"

4. The next day we were sitting at the table again when Marino said to the flowers on the table "Flower, can you get me a popsicle?" "No, sorry, I don't have hands," he had the flower reply.

3. Last Sunday we went to Evan's cousin's house to watch the game. Some other friends were there with their kids, and the older girls were nice enough to give the boys (the other boy was also 4) horseback rides. At one point, I saw them arguing about something, so I went over to find out what the problem was. Marino told me "He's not sharing the girls with me. I want to ride on them." I tried to explain we don't share people...hopefully that lesson sank in!

2. Speaking of girls, Marino tells me of girls he likes "I just want to pick them up and hug them." When he shows me how he wants to "pick them up" it looks like he's carrying firewood!

1. The other day, Marino was talking about staying in the hotel with Gramma and I in Dallas. "Did you like the hotel?" I asked him. "Yeah, it was so cozy!" he said.

A Good Sunday

Sunday we took Marino hiking at Sugarloaf Mountain for the first time. We did two miles (down and up the blue trail). He walked the whole time...he was definately tired at the end, but so were we! I was proud of him for doing it.

We may have sung the Dora the Explorer "We Did It" song once we got back to our car...

Then we headed over to Monique and Dexter's (aka our only family that are Saints fans) to watch the game with them and other friends and the REDSKINS WON!! HURRAY!!!

Soccer Star

Marino has been playing soccer since June and he LOVES it! 

He is an incredibly fast runner and has gotten quite good at dribbling with his feet while running. 

At the end of the session, they gave all the kids medals. Marino was so proud of his medal - he was grinning ear to ear!

New session starts this weekend!