Pain in the mouth

My angel baby has been a crank the last week or so.  He was being extra fussy during the day and waking up all through out the night, consequently making me sleep deprived and grumpy.  When this happens, first I get frustrated with Liam (grumbling like a crotchety old man and putting more force into opening and shutting things than is really necessary), then I feel really bad because he is just a baby.   Once this realization hits me I go through the laundry list of ways I am potentially being a bad mom and not putting my baby first.  We have been living like gypsies since the end of July, so I am sure not having a consistent place to call home is somewhat jostling for a baby.  On top of that we have been dragging Liam all over the place whenever Adam has a day off, which he loves but it totally wipes out, depriving him of any good naps....which we all know leads to crank city.  Plus, a lot of my energy has been diverted from Liam into packing, so maybe he is feeling a little neglected.  Then I think maybe he is sick or has a stomach ache, but can't communicate it - and I can't even imagine how frustrated I would be if I were in that position.

Of course teething crossed my mind, but I have given up on Liam ever getting teeth.  He has been drooling and gnawing on things since he was four months old.  But Tuesday morning I felt them - the double whammy.  Both bottom teeth had cut through the skin.  I couldn't believe it!

 

They are very hard to see, even in person, so I had to be determined to get the following documentation.  Some might consider it cruel, but the best shot you get of them is while he is mad as a hornet and crying.  The most sure fire way to get him to this point is to hesitate for even a moment, while shoveling spoonful after spoonful of food into the boys mouth during meal time.  He is a pretty easy going baby overall, but he is focused when there is food involved!  We baited him with a little banana/mango medley.  Sure enough my pokyness on delivery made him lose it. You might have to blow the picture up to see his two bottom teeth, but they are there.  I am gonna miss that toothless grin.  It was the cutest!

Don't worry Liam got me back.  He was lounging in the nude and he promptly peed all over my picnic blanket.  Thanks Li!

 

Other things that have been a pain in the mouth (No! Of course not my dear mother! I know- it is misleading that I make that comment directly under a picture her)....MOVING!  I hate moving!  But I love saving that dolla!  Adam read the Complete Money Makeover and this is us going at it with gazelle intensity.  We are moving into our neighbor/best friends one-bedroom garage apartment, a whopping two doors down from our old house.  Half the square footage (bleh), half the rent (woo woo)!  As far as moving goes you can't get much better....minimal packing, walking over most things....unless of course the "building" of the apartment is delayed and you have to pack all of your belongings anyway, put them in storage, and live like gypsies for a month.

 

Okay, I am being dramatic.  We are so blessed to have a home to live in for the month of August - rent free!  Praise the Lord.  I really am so thankful for that!  I think we have mainly felt like gypsies because all of our friends went out of town last week.  These people have all watched Jamie at some point and all of them called in their favors to yours truly. Of course, I was happy to watch three houses, two dogs, four cats, one hamster, and two fish for my friends, but it was a little sad bouncing around from house to house with no sign of life (human life - there was plenty of animal life).  My neighborhood felt like a ghost town. 

On top of that, two of my animals required my hospice pet sitting abilities (mostly giving lots of TLC, including rub downs and too many treats).  It's a little strange when someone tells you, they wouldn't be surprised if their pet passed before they got back.  But as long as we make it through the night tonight, I will consider myself successful at keeping everyone alive.

Back to the moving.  Far from a pain in the mouth, was the fact that we were so lucky to have three of the Cassidy gals in Vermont at once. My mom, Kelly, and Kat were able to be here most of the month of July.  Not only was it a ton of fun, but there is absolutely no way we could have moved out of our house on time if they were not here to play with Liam and help me pack.

Liam wore that huge grin (pictured above) almost though whole month!  He had so much fun!  No one can make him giggle like his cousin Kat...except maybe his dad.  I tried not to use them exclusively for their baby minding labor.  We did squeeze in some hikes (on and off the AT), a daily river dip (the Florida girls came during our hottest stretch) and many trips to the ice cream stand (this is dairy country after all).  After we took Kat on her first hike, every time we drove somewhere, she would ask, "why aren't we hiking there?"  That's my girl.

Something else I wouldn't have been able to accomplish without the help of my mom and sister, is planning Adam's surprise party.  My man turned 30 this year and I had to pull out all the stops.  Those of you who know me, may recognize that I am neither sly nor good at lying.  So, needless to say, Adam might have been on to me.  Either way, fun was had by all!

 

One of things that did totally surprise Adam was our west coast representative, Nick Vu.  That man flew from Seattle to show Hammer some love on his thirtieth!  What a  friend?!  Several other friends made the trek across New England to come party with us.  It felt like mini-Octoberfest!

The only person who might have gotten more attention than Adam that weekend was Liam.  It was a big weekend for him too.  That Sunday at church we dedicated him to the Lord.  It was so fun to have his grandparents, godparents (minus Andy), and so many friends there for the big day.  So special!

It's hard to refrain from sinking into an "I miss everyone!" depression when you are surrounded by so many friends and family for so long and then they are all gone.  To top it off we had to be out of our house that week and I always get sentimental leaving a home, especially the home you bring your first baby home to.

So to pull ourselves out of it we put on Loretta Lynn's "if this old house could talk," did a little good bye dance, packed our car, and headed to Rhode Island (mine and Liam's first time).  

Why Rhode Island you may ask??  For the Newport Folk Festival of course!  It will go down in the baby book as Liam's first concert and it was awesome.  First of all, Newport is beautiful, and apparently a sailing mecca, but more importantly, the line up was amazing. 

We hung with some old friends, Gillian, Emmylou, and Earl and we found so many new loves on the folk seen.  We will definitely be in attendance at the Newport Folk Festival every year for the rest of our tenure in New England (and maybe beyond).

Other new developments - Liam can drink through a straw.  This was his second successful straw encounter.

On one of Adam's days off this month we finally made our way over to the Franconia Notch area.  We will definitely be going back.  There were so many breath taking hikes in one place.

We did a short little jaunt up to Lonesome Lake.  I only wish we would have brought our suits.  There was too much traffic to embrace the skinny dip.  So instead we hung up our hammock and took an hour long family nap, lakeside with mountains jutting up all around us.  The picture of relaxation!

Work, work, work.  Adam's next reprieve from work happened to align with Sarah Sharkey's conference in Stowe, VT.  So Michelle drove up from Boston, then we headed west.  Stowe is a tiny little ski town about an hour from us.  It was a great place to hike.  We re-inacted our engagement photo with the product of our love on my back on the Stowe Pinnacle trail.

We hit up the Cabot Cheese Annex and slowed our bowels with tons of free samples.  All the dairy was followed up with a visit to the neighboring Lake Champlains Chocolates.  After cheezy-chocolate appetizer, we ate sushi at a pizza place (weird, I know), and wrapped up our evening with a trip over to the Alchemist, a favorite brewery of Adam's.

That night was our first time, three deep as a family, in our tiny hiking tent.  I can't say it was the most restful night of sleep or my best camping experience, but we will definitely give it another go.  Liam had his roughest night of sleep in a long time.  So we got out of there fast and early then next morning before getting egged by our neighboring campers.

We brought Sarah home with us for the weekend, but it was not long enough!  We miss her already! Silly Aunt Sibby and crazy Aunt Shelly both got to witness Liam' first clap while we were all together.  The only thing that would have made it better was if batty Aunt Addy was there.

Besides the teeth, the straw-drinking, and the clapping....Liam did his first official crawl on his nine month birthday.  He has been able to cover some ground for about six weeks now, but I can classify the mechanics of his Saturday shenanigans as crawling.  Adam missed it by about an hour, but Liam made up for that by kicking it in gear and crawling across the room, several times for his dad on Sunday.  I missed that, but Adam has some video footage which is posted on facebook.  I will try retrieve it for my blog.  Until then you will have to visit his facebook page.  

Oh!  Liam also cruised for the first time after his crawling spree.  This all happened after I gave him his first five hour energy drink;)

Stay tuned.  Things are happening at lightening speed around here.  Wednesday, the three of us our headed down to the sunshine state to meet our newest niece, Hannah!  We can't wait!

I kissed intern year good bye

My husband is no longer an intern and I am no longer an intern's wife. Praise the Lord! I am not one who likes to wish my life away, but that was a tough year. I am looking forward to seeing much more of my husband's handsome face. True to form, he worked up until almost 11:00pm on the last day of intern year (which happened to be a Saturday), after leaving that morning in the 5 o'clock hour. That is what you call going out with a bang, not a whimper. The end matched the feel of the whole year.

And now I am praying that the start of residency is indicative of how our upcoming year will go. We had five free days to dispose of how we like, otherwise known as vacation. Woo hoo! Adam was supposed to start back on Friday, July 1, but the physician he is with said "Why don't we plan to meet 8:00am on Tuesday?" To which Adam replied "hell yeah!" (in his heart, of course). An extra day off, plus the weekend, plus a holiday, throw in a reasonable start time...I think this the beginning of something beautiful. And on top of all that, my man got home by dinner time on his first day. Hallelujaher (as Madea would say)!

So what did we do with our time off you may be wondering? We left the country and went to the big city...two of them. Well, actually..... first we made another stop in the country to visit our friends, the Mirandas, in Southern New Hampshire.  We chatted with our friends, saw some baby farm animals, and ate way too much bacon.  Then we headed to the big city, where we saw our New England family- the BosNalls. I indulged in several overpriced, caffeinated beverages from the Bucks, because they don't exist anywhere near our town. Several of our favorite Boston activities were squeezed into our three day stay with the Nalls: brunch, shopping, drinking coffee, walking, being lazy, napping in the Commons, checking out the gardens, doing photo shoots in the gardens, laughing until we cry...the list goes on. We also experienced the World's End (not as scary as it sounds). After being turned over for the UN headquarters and a nuclear power plant sight, the area remains a public park with a picturesque view of Boston from across the water.

Adam also squeezed in his favorite past time - taking in the sights on a couch in Urban Outfitters. And after months and months of looking, I finally bought a BOB stroller! I am so excited. Thank you Boston craigslist! If you have ever run with a crappy running stroller and then tried a BOB, you will see why people go bananas over them. That is why you will see the old ones posted online for ridiculous prices. I have been running with my neighbor's double BOB recently, occupied by Liam and his BFF, Mattie. I am already up to an impressive 2 1/2 miles. Half marathon, here I come! Or maybe I will just start with a 5K...baby steps.

Next was New York City. We traveled there late in the evening and we still got stuck in traffic! Adam was madder than a wet hen. We made it to Brooklyn sometime after midnight, where we crashed a bachelor pad with our baby. We stayed with our friend Mike, who so graciously took us to get a very late supper, warm sandwiches from a jiffy. They were actually pretty good. And at daybreak the next day he accompanied us to a very touristy event - the Today Show!

We stood outside for hours and drank coffee, while trying to sweet talk the camera men. Eventually our patience paid off. Our little bear got in some camera shots (I think my mom taped it, we haven't checked the play back yet) and then he met some of the stars. Al Roker shook Liam's hand and then Ann Curry lost her sh*t over our little man! "Whose baby is this? Did everybody see this cute baby?! Where's the mother?" She continued to fuss for a few minutes and then told Adam and I we need to make more babies because they are so cute. I was walking tall after our encounter. I am still waiting for baby GAP to call though.

We met up with the newest city slickers, the McKinney's, and bumped into an old roomie, Bethany Schert. It was so fun getting to see old friends. Then we did many of the same events you do in the big city when you our vacationing on a dime. We walked, we tried to spot famous people, we window shopped, and we hit up a few ice cream trucks (including the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck:). We walked a few famous streets and wandered around some notable landmarks, Macy's, Time's Square, the High Line and Chelsea market. We had our fill of coffee, cupcakes, and ethnic food.

One thing I haven't figured out yet is what the heck city mama's do when they need to change a diaper. It's hard enough to find a place for an adult to use the bathroom in the city, but I did not once come across a baby changing station in any of the dives we entered. I had to change Liam's diaper in the middle of an Indian restaurant in which you could not turn around or even stand fully erect, due to the abundance of Christmas lights overhead. While the Bollywood music blared, Adam and I successfully changed Li's diaper and not so successfully tried to put him to bed (yes, in the most stimulating place our baby has ever been). He made it through dinner, but then our little man lost it like he never has before in his life. We pushed him to his limit. I stood out on the street with my demon-possessed baby while Adam waited for the check with our friends, and I think a few less people made bad decisions that night thanks to Liam.

Unfortunately our camera died early in our NYC trip, but we still captured several great moments on our iPhone, like our encounter with Ann Curry and this sweet moment of me breastfeeding on a couch with two pre-teen boys who joined me before they realized what was going on under my cape. After it dawned on them, they started awkwardly grinning and their body language became stiff and robot-like. Adam found this hilarious and stole a few undercover pictures with his iPhone. Then the father of the boys snapped a few pictures, but assured me I was not in them - right! We wrapped up our trip with a 2 1/2 hour drive through Manhattan. Blurg! And met up with the closest Cassidy's to us, my dad's cousins Arthur and Patty. I was introduced to all their friends as "my cousin, Vinny's daughter." We crashed their daughter Allison's graduation party. There were several teenage girls and they turned all their attention on Liam. It was like having ten baby sitters at once. This freed Adam and I up to enjoy the pool, hot tub, and putting green in the Cassidy's back yard (the other end of the spectrum from our friend's studio apartments in Brooklyn). Arthur makes his living on dealing with the furry residents of NYC i.e pest control. I think the rats on the subway platform knew my family roots and that is why one charged me and Li when we got off one of the trains. Don't worry, I protected my baby.
Now we are home again and Myra is here! Liam is loving his Grandmommy time. Adam and I plan on taking full advantage of our free time, by trying to pack up our entire house...and maybe try to squeeze in a date night or two. Those have been a little lacking since the Li came along. I think I am going to make Adam take me to see Bridesmaids;)

Important update: Liam thinks everything his dad does is hilarious. And...our boy is on the verge of crawling. For the past month or so he has been laying on his tummy and swimming like a little frog (not moving at all) and then pushing up on his hands, but today he pushed up into a plank and then pushed up on his hands and knees. I am really about to have a movie-moverton on my hands. Now we are about to head out to a play group. This is the one that has a lot of older women at it (2-3 years old) and they love to plant kisses all over Liam. He is too young to let it go to his head yet.
Can't you see what Liam is going to look like as a little boy here?! So cute! And I will leave you of this shot of Liam and a baby bunny:)

Full of Cuteness

I am in love with this picture. We answered an add for a third baby needed for a multicultural playgroup, preferably of Native American descent - and since Liam is 1/32nd Cherokee (according to Mammaw) we fit the bill. Actually, these are our friends from church, Iyore and Ian. If I read baby body language correctly, I think Iyore is madly in love with Liam. I would consider her his first girlfriend. Ian has some of the cutest baby cheeks I have ever seen. I want him to get a puppy named Kevin, because I think he looks like the Korean version of the little boy from Up.

Another contender for the cuteness contest....exhibit B: this mouse. I love him! Thanks aunt Kelly! Some people put on their velour suits to lounge about when there is a bit of a nip in the air, Liam puts on his mouse suit. And we are still breaking it out in June. I can't complain though, I am actually loving the cool nights and warm days Vermont has to offer. Don't be too jealous, we earned this weather - six months of indentured servitude in arctic conditions to the white witch.

And lastly, what's cuter than a baby?

A baby with a puppy! This is Liam with May our friend's new pup. They were best buds while we puppy sat.

This is the new girl on the block (on the far right). Matty is Liam's best friend and two weeks ago he brought home his precious little sister Nora. We love her. Here everyone is hanging out beside our new community kiddie pool, because even the water coming out of the hose feels like melted ice. Cuddling beside the pool is almost as fun as playing in it. And at the after party everyone got to take off their diaper and feel the cool spring breeze on their nether regions. So the afternoon wasn't lost even though the pool was a bust.

Yesterday we celebrated Adam's first father's day. Well, actually we celebrated on Saturday because he worked on his first father's day, but I was still sweet to him yesterday too. Liam gave him a basketball and I gave him a scrapbook, partially filled out (on purpose). Each year we will put pictures and a little note about what we did that mother's and father's day. I had each of our parents do a little intro with some pictures of them with us as babies and a little note with some parenting advice/words of wisdom. Just when I thought I had hardened up again from all those postpartum hormones and emotions, I sprung a leak. We cried.

After we pulled it together, we had a lazy morning of eating french toast and drinking our weight in coffee. Then we headed off to do something manly and fatherly. We hiked Mt. Ascutney. We were expecting a leisurely, semi-challenging hike, but I think it was the toughest trek we have done in a long while. It was pretty technical too. Good thing we brought a baby with us. This was Liam's first trip in the Kelty kid carrier. I tried not to be too much of nervous Nancy as Adam climbed up slippery rocks with our baby. It is also a good thing I know there are no poisonous snakes in this area because I almost stepped on one. I might have panicked a little. I am Myra's daughter. A couple miles in we started to hear distant thunder, but there are almost never thunderstorms in Vermont so we pushed onward. Then as we got closer to the top, it started to rain and thunder clapped loudly all around us - possibly a poor parenting decision on our part. Luckily, we were below treeline. And we live in New England, where Adam likes to say in his best Bean town accent "if you don't like the weather in NE, wait five minutes." It's true. Ten minutes later it was sunny and cool.

We made it down safely. It was a beautiful hike, that we definitely plan on doing again (maybe with the Nalls:), but just not in Chacos. The rest of the day was spent lounging.

Other news...We are moving! Adam read The Complete Money Makeover and we are taking it to heart. The biggest way for us to save money is to downsize. We have loved living in our home on Summer Street, but we are both so excited to not be biting our fingernails at the end of each month. We have a few possible leads, but it looks like the Hammonds will be back in a one-bedroom apartment, re-living the Alumni Village years. Our biggest fret over this move was that it might deter visitors, but we hope not. We still would love to put anyone up that would make the journey to come see us. And now we can just spend time together in a more intimate fashion when you guys come to Vermont.

Don't even stress about Octoberfest! With the money we are saving in rent and heating, we can fork over the dough to do a weekend rental for Hammond Drop in Day. This year it will be the first or second weekend in October (depending on rental availabilities) and I will be sending out an official facebook invite as soon as the lodging is hammered down.

Two ways I almost killed my baby in the last month - gosh being a mom is stressful! 1. I was getting some things together in our van and I left the air on because this was one of the hot summer days in Vermont. After I gathered everything up and put on my kid carrier, I decided I better take the keys out of the ignition before I grab my babe (so I don't forget them). I don't know what happened....but the car started rolling backwards down our super steep driveway. I almost had a heart attack! But I managed to jump in and hit the breaks before it rolled into the street and then onto our neighbors house. Scary! 2) I worry much less about finding a blue baby these days. I had constant visions (you can't really call them nightmares if you are not sleeping) that Liam would stop breathing and so I would obsessively check on him. I hear these are fairly normal. But now that he is seven months old, I have been feeling that he is pretty hearty and have observed that his drive to breath is adequate. However, I was totally unnerved the other night. I let Liam sleep with a blanket because he loves to cuddle it and flop it around as he drifts off to sleep. After waking up to a very muffled baby cry, I ran down the hall to find feet where a head should be and a tightly wrapped blanket around my babies head. Stressful! I guess that is why they invented sleep sacks.

Here is a cute video of the possible precursor giggle that might develop into the full fledged scream-laugh later in life.

Florida Vacation

...was amazing and exhausting! We just got back from Florida a week ago, but it feels as though it has been an eternity since we were soaking up the sun and spending every minute together as a family. I miss it! Two weeks sounds like a long time, but we neither saw everyone we wanted to see nor do everything we wanted to do - which makes sense because we are the king and queen of trying to cram way to many things in....or maybe that is just me.

We spent Friday the 13th taking a bus to Boston and then flying to Florida, after Adam worked all night. Any other Friday the 13th I would have been nervous about flying or doing any other dangerous activity that would make it into a good horror flick, but I was distracted by the fact that it was mine and my honey's five year anniversary! And although most people typically don't think of burritos in an airport as the picture of romance...it was so wonderful just to be with the man I love after a year of way too much separation. Of course, I am I girl and I love super romantic things, but you know you have a good partner when you feel giddy and in love even if your evening doesn't look like a solo date from "the Bachelor" - taking a sunset elephant ride, in India, while drinking champagne and eating fresh fruit, after a $5,000 shopping spree, and just prior to a couples massage, elegant dinner, and a nude hot tube experience overlooking the sea (who wouldn't feel in love). There is no one else I would rather have by my side for the every day things of life - running errands, garage saling (if that is a term), cooking dinner, getting our tires changed... Adam makes life fun and marriage fun. These past five years have been the sweetest of my life and I look forward to many more! Anyways (sorry to everyone but Adam for that gush), we did do some more celebrating once we got to Florida - Two weeks worth in fact!

Speaking of garage sales...we kicked off Saturday morning with a little neighborhood wide garage sale. This junk purge took place in a nicer, gated community so we were thinking we might find some high class items. We were hoping for a mint condition orange B.O.B. stroller for under $100. We had no such luck (a girl can dream can't she?). Aside from the lack of used jogging strollers, several sweet finds were made, but these residents were attempting to charge department store prices for old items that they did not want or need. "I don't care how much you paid for it ten years ago! I am not paying $300 dollars for it!" Rich people do not know how garage sales operate.

Things swung our way at the end of the day though. Turns out there wasn't a huge crowd at the gated garage sale. Who knew? So there was a lot of junk set out by the road about mid afternoon when the heat weeded out the weak from the Floridians. A few people shamed us for digging through there discarded items, but it was a small price to pay for our loot. Those people didn't have anything good anyway. Kat scored a scooter and a new wardrobe (which included a Minnie Mouse swim suit and bath robe, which she sported the rest of the day). Liam came out with stacking cups and a responsibility chart. You can obviously see who came out on top. Don't worry Liam you will only get better at rummaging through junk as you get older.

We made it to the barn a couple of days over our vacation to visit Gun, Lynda's horse. This was Liam's first experience meeting a horse. As far as we can tell, he does not have Adam's horse allergy. Whew! During one of these trips to the barn I had my third horse riding experience. Merlin was his name, supposedly a real gentleman who did noble things like participating in the Special Olympics with children. However, when I met him the day before my ride, he gnashed his teeth at me and gave a strong back kick to his stable door. Umm... maybe this isn't such a good idea.

I didn't realize how nervous I was until I was on top of the giant horse signing a health release form with shaky, sweaty hands. This could go bad 100 different ways. What if Adam had to walk away from his dream to care for his infant son and invalid wife who was paralyzed in a horse accident?! My mind runs with things sometimes. Merlin's owner was very talented at verbally coaching very tense and petrified non-horse people. After about ten minutes of warm up exercises on my steed, I was loosey goosey. I advanced from a simple walk to a full on trot. It made me feel like a teenage girl in a coming of age movie. Only I couldn't let my hair flow wildly behind me in the wind, because I had to wear a helmet. I am a mom! And no catching the eye of any cowboys. Mainly because I am married, but also because it was an all lady barn. I am bummed that Adam is allergic to horses though, because the scene would have been perfect if he was out there in his skinny jeans and a cowboy hat, leaning on fence post watching me ride.

We did a lot of swimming in Florida. It is so nice to get in water that doesn't make your extremities go numb. Liam may be a Yankee baby, but he has the Florida water baby gene. He loves swimming! He kicks and splashes like a little frog and he goes underwater, no problem. And if felt amazing to be out in the sun! Yes, we wore a lot of sunscreen and Liam even had on his sweet tourist hat most of the time (unfortunately, we lost this and his matching swim diaper on our trip - it's not a vacation unless you lose something, right?). I do wish that extreme sun exposure caused you to look more youthful and prevented cancer, because it just feels so right sometimes.

Most of our vacation was spent hanging out with and enjoying our families. We love a lot of things about Vermont, but we really miss being close to family. Liam was able to spend time with several important men in his life, including all of his namesakes...the Williams....none of home go by William. Below we have Mac, Adam, Liam, and Mac. Liam is, in fact, the only one who goes by some variation of William and not his middle name. Although, maybe he will have to start going by Grayson if I keep hearing of little boys named Liam. I feel like I meet a new Liam every day! Is it just up here or are there a million Liams cropping up in Florida too?

Liam definitely has his grandads blue eyes! And I can't wait to see all the other character traits he shares with these men as he grows into a handsome and kind young buck, but I am quite sure he will have the engineering brain like all of them. We will see.

Liam also go to hang out a lot with his Poppie, who shares a striking baby resemblance with. I will try and put a picture of my dad as a baby on here, so you can see. The have the same little Gerber baby screensaver (face you make when you are not really thinking about anything in particular). He also has his Poppie's scream-laugh. If you know my dad at all, you have probably been shocked at some point by his very characteristic scream-laugh. It is show stopping! When Liam is in a giggle fit, he does this funny scream in between bursts of laughter, which sound similar to a baby dinosaur. I wonder if that will fully develop into the scream-laugh that we know and love.
Endeavor's last shuttle launch was taking place while we were in Florida, so we pulled ourselves out of bed really early to get over to Mims, FL (I think that's where we went), which is just across the water from the space station and not as crowded as being right up on it. It is so sad NASA won't be doing any more shuttle launches, so we had to give it one last hoorah. I'm not sure if that means no more space camp either, but if so fourth grade hearts all over America will hang a little heavier. Oh, to taste astronaut ice cream again!

We did a little photoshoot to pass the time. It was a cloudy day as you can see. And then it was launch time. We saw a flash and then nothing...Endeavor was behind the clouds. What the what?!? We woke up at 6 a.m. to just be present at the launch!? Anticlimactic! But then Lynda, with her good eye, spotted the shuttle emerge from the clouds. So thank goodness, we were able to see something from our early morning efforts.

After lazing in Sanford for most of our first week and getting our vacation legs back, we started our northward journey for the Gray/Vihlen wedding festivities. So far, for his longest car ride, Liam has done a 2 1/2 trip. This one was seven hours. For this leg of the travel, we got up early. And as I now know, at least for my son, always choose getting up ridiculously early as opposed to leaving late! Always! The trip was great. Liam slept more than half of the way there (because we got up ridiculously early) and was in a good mood the rest of the time. We arrived in Piedmont, SC in the early afternoon and we all got to meet Rylyn for the first time. Rylyn is Betsey and Greg's daughter, who they just brought home from Taiwan in April. She is four months older than Liam. For their first play date, we snuck into a nearby neighborhood pool and went swimming.

Afterward, Rylyn introduced Liam to her unusual pet. Pog the pig was Liam's first pig encounter. While we were there, Betsey and Greg taught us yet another fun game...Nurtz. I think I might need a few refreshers on the rules, so I can teach it to some people here. That way I can get better and spank the Darely's next time we play. Adam and I could barley put up a fight against them this time. The Darley's have changed our gaming life in so many ways. One of the most pivotal moments for Adam and I, was when they introduced us to Catan. That's all that needs to be said about that. Many of you know our obsession. It was hard to leave after such a short time, but I felt so lucky to see them at such a special time - as a sweet little family! I definitely want to hold Rylyn next time:)

We finished our road trip to the beautiful and hippie Asheville, NC for the wedding of one of my very best friends! It was picture perfect. The rehearsal dinner was at the Barn, not to be confused with the Farm, where the wedding was located. We road in a school bus from the barn to the farm and back again. I don't think it is legal to have that much fun in a vehicle normally used to torture children, but it was awesome! We may all be pushing 30, but we definitely felt and acted like kids:) Adam acted as the stand in husband/boyfriend for all the bridesmaids while there men were either busy or en route. He was so sweet fetching drinks and telling us all how pretty we looked. I have such an amazing hubby!

It felt like two weddings rolled into one, because there was awesome food and dancing with live music both nights. Friday night was a blue grass band and BBQ that supposedly the Obama's love. Saturday was more 70's funk, bonfire, and s'mores. I had to to ditch my 4 1/2 inch heels to properly cut a rug (I know! I had to wear 4 1/2 inch heels through the dirt and gravel of the farm to stand by my friend on her big day. I did not look like a lady! Adrienne may have put us in pretty dresses, but she had another sinister plan all together to make sure she shined brightest on her wedding day...making all the bridesmaid walk like knock-kneed baby deer. We may have looked silly, but none of us fell:). Liam did not attend his first wedding yet, but he did get his first cuddle moment with a bride on the crazy school bus. It was his first time on a school bus. Adam asked me if I could picture him on a bus in about four years riding to school. No! Not my baby! Plus, I hope he takes a more earthy form of transportation, like his bike. Don't worry, I won't make him ride if we live more than five miles from his school.

It was sad to leave everyone after the wedding, but we did have more of the "baby tour" to look forward to. We headed over to Winston-Salem, NC to see Ethan and Valerie for the afternoon. We had the pleasure of meeting their new little one, Roan Stonerook, who was only a week old. It was supposed to add 30 minutes to our total trip time...let's just say the math did not work out in our favor.
We spent the afternoon on their front porch, doing what friends do best, being lazy together and shooting the breeze. We also did our friendly duty and helped them eat one of their "new baby" meals someone so kindly dropped by. I know...we are horrible! It was so cute to see all the boys together and it made us realize how much we miss the Stonerooks.

Once Liam's bed time rolled around we planned to head out. We figured it would be faster and easier to drive while Liam was sleeping. We were wrong! And we overestimated our ability to stay awake and alert after the hour of ten 0'clock. On top of all this I figured, we might as well drive to Tallahassee (thinking it was the same distance from Winston-Salem as Jax....I was also wrong here. Let's just say I never looked at a map, nor did anyone else in my party - Liam, Vinny, or Adam). We needed to check on our house and renters there sometime this week, so we mine as well make our lives easier and cut out some driving time if we can. Ha!

A few hours into our first leg, I am fighting to keep my eyes open at the wheel. Liam is waking up every 20 minutes and doing the most pitiful cry. Adam, who was assigned the last and most brutal leg of the trip was trying to sleep in the overcrowded back seat to no avail. We also kept seeing signs for Asheville and Greenville, for what feels like an inappropriate length of time. Vinny agreed to switch drivers with me (after repeatedly making fun of my driving), because I am weak and on the verge of losing it. And I ask him "how many hours we have left?" to which he replies "7 1/2." But it was only supposed to be an eight hour trip and we have already driven 3 1/2! How? Why? Turns out Vinny did look at the map and figured we were just up for a much longer drive. As soon as Vinny and I switched, he proceeded to stall out across three lanes of traffic, and then drive over a median he didn't see. We never made it to Tallahassee that night. All of our driving skills were impaired and we ended up stopping a hotel somewhere in Georgia, after several more hours of seeing signs for Asheville and Greenville. We were quite sure the rapture must have taken place (this was May 22, and we also saw more abandoned cars on the side of the road than I ever have) and we were in hell.

Our road trip started again the next morning at 6 a.m. and after several hours of driving towards Tallahassee, we realize we are going to have to turn around and leave immediately because we had to be somewhere Monday night. We changed course yet again and finally made it home to Orange Park by about 5 p.m. on Monday, nearly 24 hours after starting our road trip. That was by far the most painful trip of my life. I can laugh about it now though. But I will never again drive aimlessly to a destination without first looking at a map (lesson most adults have learned), nor will I take a baby on a night car trip or plane trip if at all avoidable!

Back in Jacksonville, we did some more of the same - hanging out with friends and family. We also headed over to St. Augustine and had our first beach day as a family. It was awesome! Liam went to the beach once in March, but we only dipped our toes in because it was so cold. We actually did some swimming this time. Liam loved the beach, until Adam let a giant wave smash him in the face and even then he only hated it for a few minutes... after that, then back to playing and splashing.

We got to hang out with the LaPrees' and the Jones' while we were there. Liam is helping Moses out with the boy to girl ratio. It is so crazy to see your baby together with your friends kids, so of course we took a ton of pictures. And we snapped this sweet group photo to remember the occasion - it's not a good family photo unless someone is crying:)

And before we knew it we were headed back to Orlando to catch our flight home. Vacation was drawing to a close...but not before celebrating my golden birthday! Woo woo! We spent my birthday and our last day in Florida exactly as I dreamed we would - poolside all day in the Florida sun, chatting, listening to good music, and grilling out. It was super relaxing after all that running around.

You can see we were zonked! Our bones needed to relax. Now we are home and recovering from being ill. It was beautiful when we first returned to Vermont, but now it is a cold, gray, rainy day in June! I am offended. I have a lot of big news to share now that we are home, but it is my honey's day off today and I want to go spend some time with him, even if it is doing stuff around the house. Plus, this blog has taken me way to many days to finish. It is hard when you free time comes in unexpected spurts. Oh, the life of a mom! But I love it! We miss you all. And we hope to see you again soon!