Visiting Susan in Cincinnati

Andrew and I went to visit my BFF in Cincinnati last weekend. It was a quick trip and a long drive, but well worth it to get to spend some time with her. Unfortunately, Andrew developed a very high fever late Friday night and he was pretty much out of commission the rest of the weekend. I told him that was OK and he could stay in bed all day, I mainly just invited him up for the weekend so he could drive me to Ohio (just kidding babe- love you!). Here's a recap...

Us at a Cincinnati Reds game.

Yes, we typically buy our shirts when we get there.

I figured I'd abstain this time since I didn't think a shirt would fit over my preggers belly.

We had great seats down the first baseline.

Thanks Sus!

While Andrew was sick in bed on Saturday, Susan and I took a Duck Tour of the city. For those of you not familiar with this, the duck mobile is an amphibian vehicle that goes both on land and in water. So we toured the city from all angles! Here's what it looks like in the water.

Entry into the water from the launch site!

Reds ballpark view from the water

Watching another Duck Mobile make its entry into the water

Famous Cincinnati statue

Cincinnati Brew-Ha-Ha (beer tasting and comedy show) with Susan and her boyfriend, Ross. Andrew loaded up on Advil and made an appearance as well.

Overall, we had a fabulous time. We wish we could've stayed longer. I hate that she lives so far away. As always, Sus was the bestest hostess-- even with a sick Andrew and a pregnant Leslie to deal with. We had to hurry home on Sunday to make sure we could pick up both our boys- Connor from the kennel and Tyler from Grandmama and Grandaddy's.

What's a post without a picture of Tyler-head? Here's a picture of Tyler getting ready for bed. I'm not sure how he fits in his bed with all the extra things he requires to go to sleep. In case you can't tell, he's got multiple firetrucks, police cars, and motorcycles, books lined up around the edges, puppy dog, stuffed moose, firetruck helmet, and bike helmet (hidden from view in this picture).

Summer Fun Day

This past weekend, we stopped by a family fun day hosted by one of our local shopping centers. Everything has been either firetrucks or police cars for Tyler lately, and the flyer for this event promised both- how could we miss it? Tyler mainly just started at the firetruck and police cars (even the police dogs!), but the mondo-slide- now that was a different story. He saw several older kids and just made his way up the ramp like it was no big deal whatsoever. Here's a photo montage of one of his last trips down-- including the tumble towards the end.

Here I am psyching myself up.... and go! Yee Haw!

Uh-oh, beginning to lose it... woooo-aaaaahhh!

Whew, that was close, let me get my hat

Here comes Daddy to the rescue

Tyler holding up his police car to the real police car

Tyler and Daddy sitting in the firetruck

Oak Island 2011

Andrew and I were trying to decide how many years we've been going down to Oak Island with my family to stay at my Paw-Paw and Uncle Ronnie's beach place. He thinks it's been about 7 years and I tend to agree with him, but I think we missed at least one year somewhere along the line. We had been preparing Tyler for the beach for weeks before- reading books, talking about it, etc. For example,

Tyler: 'Mommy and Daddy and Nana and Poppa- beach. No Michael, no Ka-Ka (Connor the dog).'

Mommy: 'No Ka-Ka is going to the beach with us.'

Tyler: 'Ka-Ka?!?!? Eeeeewwwwwwwww!!!!'

Here goes that Crazy Connor snowplowing in the sand after swimming in the ocean. Here goes Poppa taking cover as Connor attempts to shake off water and sand afterwards.

Tyler was very timid of the ocean when he first arrived, but just after a few minutes of putting his toes in the water with Nana, that attitude changed pretty quickly.

Ready to head out deeper with Daddy.

Connor tagging along as always-- eager to protect!

Andrew posing on Oak Island pier with a beached whale.

Oh wait, that's just me-- 25 weeks pregnant.

Jump with me Poppa!

'I go FAST!!!!!'

(and he really does- he's hard to catch up with!)

Nana and Poppa in their annual pier pose

We took the ferry over to Fort Fisher to go to the Aquarium. Tyler talked and talked about going on a boat- then said nothing the whole time we were on the ferry and just was taking it all in.

Not too many seagulls to feed this year.

Where were they all? Fatdaddy's?

Typical- Poppa enjoying the ferry ride from the car. Ha Ha!

Daddy, look at that snake!

Mesmerizing Jellyfish

Of course Tyler's favorite thing at the Aquarium was practicing jumping! We could've done that for free back at our playground.

Our new fave lunch place- a gazebo by the sea.

2nd annual picnic here

Nana and Poppa took the Mister home with them to give me and Andrew some time to explore downtown Wilmington. We went to an ice cream shop, a few bars, and took a tour of a brewery. I know, what good times for a pregnant lady! No, all kidding aside, we had a good time- we're good at making our own fun.

Posing by the NC Battleship. It looks like Andrew is holding it in the palm of his hand, doesn't it. Must be the magic of our new camera.

Ever the competitors (think Andrew here more than Leslie), we spent a good chunk of time playing bar games. I lost in skeeball, airhockey (which I'm usually pretty good at- I blame the pregnancy belly), and darts. Oh well.

Victorious Andrew

We had yet another wonderful vacation at Oak Island. Andrew said he wanted to take a turn at the mountains next year. But as we were pulling away, he said we'll see you again next year beach. I think I've convinced him to take 2 trips and hit up the mountains in the Spring and the beach in Summer.

One last parting pic-

'I LIKE the beach!'

Summer Randoms

For you avid readers of this blog, you must have realized that the last few entries have been post-dated to make it seem like I didn't take an almost 2 month hiatus from blogging. In an effort to play more catch-up, here's a few snap shots of the Sir 'Ster throughout the summer.

Andrew so aptly named this picture 'Multitasking'

This was my attempt to get a picture of the UNC basketball players sitting behind us at this baseball game. Of course I used Tyler as a ploy.

The Gymboree seems to the be the place for 2 year olds to have their birthday parties. We've been to 3 parties there since January. All the kids definitely love it.

1... 2... 3... Go!!

Shake those moroccos Mommy and Tyler!

I think I previously posted about all the different hats Tyler likes to wear. Well, his new thing is wearing his 'motorcycle' helmet. He wears it out shopping, to the grocery store, to the playground- you get the idea. Just like when he wears his blue hat, he gets so many compliments and people ooohh-ing and aaahhhh-ing over him, why would he want to take it off?