Day 2: Hunting Island State Park

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Background Info: I may have written about this at some point, but it bears repeating. In March 2007 when I found out I was pregnant with Julia, I joined an online birth club. Joining that birth club eventually led to joining an exclusive online group of women from across the United States and Canada. At this point, there are 24 of us that keep in touch on a daily basis. Many gals have met over the last few years, and if you recall, last summer, Julia and I flew to California to meet two of the girls. In April this year, I went to St. Louis and met another group of them. Since we were going to be in SE Georgia, one of the gals knew we would be semi-close, so we decided to meet for the first time on our vacation. This day of our vacation was ours to meet with Laurie from South Carolina and her son Aidan.

We left early Tuesday morning to drive to Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina, which was about a 2.5 hour drive from my sister's house. It was already a gorgeous day in the low 70's and the drive was fun as we drove through a early-settled part of the United States (example, Beaufort was founded in 1711). Already we were introduced to the culture combined with the landscape and throughout the trip I marveled at how it all worked so beautifully together.

Entering Hunting Island was a sight to behold... neither Adam nor I had ever seen a forest of palm trees before... ever. It was amazing!

Our plan was to eat lunch and spend the day at the beach together, and it was so much fun! It was wonderful to meet Laurie... she is as sweet as can be and I am so happy for her as she is expecting a new baby boy this summer. Aidan was a lot of fun too and between Aidan and Julia, they kept Adam quite busy that day while Laurie and I chatted on the beach blanket with Raven. (Laurie and I also ventured down to the water occasionally and introduced Raven to the ocean too.)

In this picture you can somewhat see the palm "forest".


Adam and Julia look for shells.


Aidan investigates and helps dig up shells.


Adam and Julia run along the surf.


Aidan, Julia, and Adam build a sand castle.


Julia and I test out the water together. ("Mommy, yuck!"... she got a bit of sea water in her mouth!)


Aidan and Julia each take turns at walking around in Adam's flip flops.






Aidan and Julia take off a little ways away and find a fluffy sand spot where they roll around, chat, giggle...





... and pretty much are covered in sand from head to toe.


Raven had fun at the beach too... and Adam was even able to get her down for a nap with the help of a towel and his cap while Laurie and I played in the water with Aidan and Julia.


Laurie and I at the end of our day together... I'm SO glad I got to meet her! YAY!


A side note... on our way out to Hunting Island, Adam met a fellow Packer Fan in the parking lot of a grocery store in Richmond Hill. He mentioned that he owned a pizza place. On our way back to my sister's, we stopped in Richmond Hill for dinner at The Upper Crust. The guy had mentioned Packer memorabilia to Adam... he wasn't kidding! There were two walls of it! :)

erin

Day 1: Traveling to Jacksonville

Monday, May 10, 2010

Day 1 of our vacation included one activity -- traveling to Jacksonville.

We drove first to Knoxville, Iowa, to register the girls for ID cards... seems like a good idea to have them. Now we don't need to carry their birth certificates or social security cards when we go places and they were on $5.

Then we drove onto Kansas City, Missouri, which is the airport from which we'd chosen to fly. My. Goodness. The weather was very rainy and I had my doubts as to whether our flight would be on time... or delayed... or cancelled.

But, when arrived, we found that our flight was indeed on time, and after checking in and checking our luggage... making our way through security (which was much less hairy than I expected)... we found ourselves waiting at the gate for our plane.



Julia has a love of airplanes, so it was fascinating for her to watch planes move around beyond the glass. She also thinks rain is fun, so it was a win-win.

Our flight to Atlanta went swimmingly, and other than trying to figure out a way to get Julia to understand that she needed to be buckled in periodically ("STUCK! STUCK, Mama!!!!!! STUCK!!!"), she did great on the flight. Raven wasn't half bad either, but I'm sure the next passenger didn't exactly appreciate a half-eaten safety instruction card. Hee.



We AND our luggage arrived in Jacksonville without incident, and meeting up with my sister, Melissa, was a breeze. Both girls EVENTUALLY fell asleep on the way to Jesup, Georgia, where my sister lives with her husband, Ty.

Up next? Day 2!

erin

Fun Outside!

We enjoyed the beautiful weather outside tonight with a bit of swinging and playing in the grass.  Raven and Julia BOTH love to swing (so I take turns with them in the baby swing... Adam puts Julia on the big swing, but that makes me so nervous...!).  And... they BOTH love playing in the grass too.  Julia's fave thing to do in the grass is to pull it and throw it on Raven's head.  It makes Raven laugh like a loon (and Julia and Mommy too).

I confess that I taught Julia to do that.  Whoops!  Ha! 

Blog Title Change!

I had some time to daydream on the plane on Saturday while Raven dozed on my lap, and I had a thought to change the title of my blog.  I liked the idea that my blog was basically our family newsletter, BUT there are so many Draegers that it could be ANY Draeger family newsletter, so I thought it would be cute and fun to throw a little Dutch spice into it... so, here I am presenting "Draeger Familie Nieuws".  Yay!

(Adam, yes, I considered naming it "Van Draeger Familie Nieuws", but I opted not to offend any of our Dutch friends that might not *get* the joke.)

Now... if anyone wants to make a banner for me... please?  I still haven't taken the time to learn how to do it and my title block is bare!!!

erin

A Little Report

I was informed this last weekend that maybe I am not doing such a good job keeping up on the girls' baby books... but hey, I do okay here, right?  ;)

So, I thought I best post a little report of the happenings here in our house. 

Raven...

Tulip Time was recent (see Tulip Time posts) and over Tulip Time, Raven cut her first tooth!  (YAY!)  She cut it on May 8th, her Grandma Sue's birthday.  While we were on vacation visiting my sister Melissa in Georgia (posts with pictures come soon!), Raven cut her second tooth. 

AND.......... she decided she wanted to eat real food!  YAY!  She won't have anything to do with baby food, but she has a new found interest in big people food and that is lots of fun. 

She is obviously beginning to understand that she should be moving so she bounces and jiggles a lot and hopefully that means crawling soon for her.

Let's not forget that Separation Anxiety has entered the picture as well, and every time mom leaves the room, wailing ensues.  (Followed by hearing Julia trying to soothe her sister... so cute!)

Adam was able to get Raven to pee on the potty (totally a well-timed and thought-out fluke) before her bath on Sunday... I thought I should blog it for him.  :)

She is still super happy and laid-back and she can always bring a smile to my face!

Julia...

She seems to have had a mini-vocab explosion.  This is following along with her understanding things more.  It is hard to express all of the things she can say and do... I wonder sometimes if I am repeating myself but then I suppose that is okay!  So... a few of her "newer" things...

... Most people are "at work".  She will ask where Daddy is and before you can answer, she will inform you that he is "at work".  Then she proceeds to say that "Mommy go work", "Ravie go work", "Mees go work!"  Too cute!

... After our GA vacation, she *gets* that water is for swimming and having a generally good time and is always asking for her "suit" (swimsuit).  Yesterday she managed to get all of her clothes off and put her suit on while I was in the shower... we had a lot of compromising to do yesterday when we went out and about.  Time to pull out the kiddie pool!

... She calls Raven "Ravie" and it is the Cutest. Thing. Ever.  "Baby Ravie"  "Hi, Ravie!"  "Mommy, Ravie cry!"  You have to listen for it, because it *can* sound like "Baby", but it quickly becomes obvious that it is "Ravie" after talking with her for a bit.  I've even heard that "Ravie" is catching on at daycare... our youngest has a nickname!

... She loves to "walkie".  With the purchase of our new Joovy stroller (LOVE IT!), Julia has had more freedom and loves ot "walkie".  "Mommy, I go walkie?" 

Julia has finally shown interest in peeing and whatnot on the potty, so we will be starting hard-core training again in a couple of weeks.  We have a few transitions going on soon that we want to get through, and then after that... Panties, here we come!

Other Life Stuff...

Soon we will be transitioning to a new daycare.  For various reasons (but none of which involve any problems/issues with our current daycare provider), we have decided to move the girls to a new gal in town beginning in June.  Amy is our age and has a daughter a few weeks younger than Julia.  The whole family is wonderful and we are looking forward to this opportunity for our girls.  While we will miss our current gal dearly and of course we do love her, I also feel like this is the *right* thing to do at this point in time.  I suppose only time will tell!  Please be praying that the transition goes well and smoothly.

That's all for now... at some point this week I hope to post about our trip... it was so much fun!

Love,

Erin

Tulip Time 2010: The Whole Dutch Family

Once again this year the girls were part of our daycare family's Whole Dutch Family in the Friday afternoon parade of Tulip Time.  It was wicked windy and quite cold and the girls have layers of clothes on underneath their Dutch finery.  Adam cuddled Raven in a blanket just minutes before the group started on the parade route and Julia... well, she bounced around and acted like the cold was no big thing!  :)  It was fun to watch them in the parade... and probably just as fun to walk back into the house to warm up.  :)

More Little Gifties

I am having fun making little Tag-Along Blankies for my friends' babies... I made three the other night for the three newest ones... two girls and a little boy.  So much fun!  My girls love these little things and I hope the new babies do too!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday and we were able to get Julia to sing a little ditty for her...

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Break. My. Heart. She is so cute, there are days I can hardly stand it. Watching this...? Yah, it was one of those days.

One of Her Favorite Things