Fun at Granny and Hapa's

Last stop on our whirlwind tour of the US.....Florida!

We went to the beach every single day!!!!!  We had to soak in as much vitamin D as we possibly could before heading back to Belgium.

The girls had so much fun at the beach.  It is definitely all of our happy place.  Even if we only go for about an 1 1/2 at a time. 

Here they look like sweet sisters, but only for a split second.  They were busy burying two horseshoe crabs that had washed ashore.  Always something to do and see at the beach!

Enjoying a tractor ride with Hapa. 

Click on this pic....you can see Audrey waving with her purple princess gloves on!

We had such a wonderful time in Florida!  Thank you Granny, Hapa and Beau!

Our 2012 visit to Fernandina Beach

On Friday the 20th (of July) we left the hot, hot, hot mid-west and headed to warm and humid Florida.

Our trip to Florida was also full of family, friends, and shopping....but also the beach!!


The girls loved the beach!

I don't think they could get enough.  And it was especially nice to share the beach with their cousins, Megan and Josh, who just moved to Atlanta, and came down to spend a few days with us.

Doesn't this just scream FUN!

We also took a cruise to view Cumberland Island, GA, which is visible from the north end of Amelia Island.  Cumberland Island is a National Park today, but was once the vacation 'island' of the Carnegie family.  But it has a few inhabitants; the most popular are the wild horses.

It's such a beautiful place. It's also where John F. Kennedy, Jr. married Caroline Bessette.

We had a wonderful visit, albeit hot, to Florida.  Here is an album of all of our pictures:  FB 2012

Grandkids!

Visit to Florida

I was a brave (crazy) girl and drove down to Florida with the girls last Thursday. What is normally a 6 hour drive took us 8 hours on the way down between potty and feeding stops. But both girls were really good, so it wasn't completely miserable.

Grace and Audrey's Maryland cousins were also in town - they are staying with Granny and Grandpa for THREE weeks.

We went to the beach every day for about an hour and a half. Just enough time. Although the first day, I literally had to drag Grace home kicking and screaming..... but she really enjoyed playing in the sand and sitting at the water's edge. Got washed over by one wave while trying to boogie board with Quinn, and decided she wasn't the sporting girl type!





We also feasted on crabs - my favorite thing when we're in Florida!



(You can really hear the true Audrey Caspermeyer in this video!)




Hmmm, how do I use these things?



Passing out the claws....



Another night, the kids all made pizza for dinner.



Future Food Network Stars.



And of course, we went to see the fireworks for the 4th!



It was a great visit. Grace loved hanging out with her big cousins and her Granny and Hapa.

The drive home was going even better then the ride down, in terms of length of time. But had an incident south of Atlanta where I had to slam on my brakes, and it caused my traction control system to kick in and do crazy things with my speedometer....... I got home safely, and took the car to the dealer this morning, and it turns out my transmission had overheated, so the incident was almost like a blessing in disguise. At least that's what I'm telling myself now....

Coloring Easter Eggs

Suited up in a very stylish trash bag



Decorating with Granny



The finished product

Happy Birthday Grace!

It's so hard to believe Grace is two!

Hoppa and Omah (are these names going to stick?!), and Aunt Katie and Uncle Terry were here to celebrate.

We had a dog dog theme this year......

Ta Da!

....with a Mexican twist. Grace's favorite foods seems to be black beans and guacamole.



I can NOT figure out how to flip this picture for the life of me.

We had a dog dog cake made out of cookies and cupcakes, that Mommy with help from Aunt Katie made.



Singing Happy Birthday



And I couldn't believe she knew how to blow out her candles!!!

Grace practically inhaled her cupcake, and a dog bone cookie, too. Or at least the icing!



And then on to pressies.....

With Christmas just being a few weeks ago, Grace has had a lot of recent experience opening presents. She got so many great presents! Thank you to EVERYONE!



And the Grand Finale........



a tricycle!

Happy Easter!

Grace's Florida Grandparents were here to celebrate Easter this year. We went to the zoo on Saturday for the Annual Gorilla Easter Egg hunt. Grace had the best seat in the house on Grandpa's shoulders and enjoyed watching the gorilla's search for eggs, making monkey noises and gestures to cheer them on.

And now the main event.....

Finding her Easter basket (in her Christmas jammies)!


Posing in her Easter dress and bunny ears!


Check out those shoes!


And a close up of those beautiful baby blues and CURLS!

Grace's First Thanksgiving

We celebrated Grace's first Thanksgiving with Granny and Grandpa Alley. It was just the 4.5 of us, so we didn't really overdo the food too much. In fact, we are already completely done with leftovers!

Grace enjoyed everything! Before dinner she snacked with the rest of us on carrots and celery....


...and then dined with us for the main course of Turkey, Dressing, Cranberries, Sweet Potatoes, and Green Beans.
Recipes (with pictures) to be posted over on The Georgia Caspermeyer's Cook blog!

Sadly, I didn't get very many pictures from the weekend. Ok, actually NONE, other then the ones above. But Grace had the best time with her grandparents and her dog Beauregard. Beau is a chocolate lab and is about 2 weeks younger then Grace. Notice how he's referred to as HER dog, although he LIVES in Florida, thankfully. She loved him and we think she was actually saying dog all weekend. It was "dug dug" sound with a very hard vowel. A very different word then her constant chatter of "da da da da da". She loves her Da-Da.

We went to the Christmas festival at Stone Mountain and enjoyed several shows and braved the chilly air. Wait till you see Grace's hat. Too much cuteness for this post, so stay tuned. We also went to a short 4-D movie of the Polar Express. It's one of those things where they spray you with water, jiggle your seat, and blow air on you while you watch the movie in 3D. Grace was mesmerized.

We had a great weekend! And exhausting. Grace took 2 hour and a half naps yesterday and was a bear to wake up this morning for school. Much like the rest of us.

Back from the beach!

Grace had a wonderful trip to Amelia Island for Labor Day. On the way down, we made a quick stop in Savannah for the big Reveal and for the BFF's to visit.

Grace also got to meet her puppy, Beauregard (that lives at Granny's house), go to the beach, eat lots of new foods, meet her cousin Louie, and visit with her Granny and Grandpa.

Grace LOVED the beach. We set her down for a minute to set up her little cabana (thanks Don and Jen) and next thing we know, she's digging happily in the sand. We had fears that she would be THAT baby who hates sand.

[Short video edited because I really didn't want to be in the video!]



We spent a lot of time sitting at the edge of the water and she really enjoyed the waves coming in and playing with the sand and shells. And she really didn't try to eat it - another thing we feared.

Day two at the beach, Grace actually took a nap. We were shocked!

Great Granny Alley DeAngelis - Do you recognize the hat? I think you (or a friend made this hat for me!) Worked perfect on Grace to keep her little bald head from burning!

Here's a link to all of the pictures from the weekend - unfortunately, I forgot to charge my battery before we went, so I didn't get very many: Beach Trip 2009

Week Two

I am 2 weeks old today! Time is flying by.

This week, my Alley grandparents from Florida were visiting. We had a lot of fun, but my favorite thing was tummy time with Grandpa.

Much different kind of tummy time then the torture my parents inflict on me.

Miss Lori came over on Saturday for my first official professional photo shoot. Here's a link to the sneak peek: Sneak Peek Can't wait to see the final set of pictures. Lori is so talented and the pictures made my Mommy cry, but we had so much fun... I didn't want to sleep and miss any of the action. Thank you so much, Lori!

Tomorrow I go for my 2 week check-up. Mommy is praying I'm back at my birth weight so the doctor will let me sleep longer at night. Granny says she can tell I've gained weight, so hopefully I have.

Here is a link to some random pictures from this week. Week Two Pictures
Mommy & Daddy didn't take as many pictures this week... you can only take so many pictures of me sleeping, or so they say....