July...well, June

I should probably rename my blog to "Sorry it's been a while." My blog has dwindled to one or two measly posts a month. And each post's theme is "Sorry it's been a while" or some variation. As always you have my apologies. I'm not sure I have a good excuse for my absence this month. I'm sure I can come up with something:

* had two clients due to have babies this month (that sounds like a good excuse, right?)
* it's too hot outside (never mind the cooler temperatures from the unheard-of daily rain)
* I'm tired (always a good, honest, useable excuse - applicable to many things)
* I've had visitors (this one is legitimate)
* I'm addicted to Instagram (this one may be the most genuine of all these excuses)
* uploading and editing photos is not my favorite thing (another genuine one)

So you can pick which one you like best. After all, according to my boss in college, I am an excuse muffin. I should live up to a stellar title like that one.

Anywho, at least you're in for a whirlwind of photos today. I won't post them all from the entire month, so that I have some to use for several posts (and I will post, I will post, I will post...)

Rewind the calendar to June for a bit.

Since Kevin's been gone, we've been doing our daily removing of a link on our deployment chain. I'd say we actually do the activity on the link about 1 out of every 20 that we remove. And the ones I do usually involve something like "watch a movie" or "eat ice cream for dinner." Go figure.

So one night we pulled a link that said "movie night with popcorn." So into our jammies we jumped, onto the couch we hopped, and popcorn started flying while Thomas the Tank Engine entertained us.




Eden loved this activity. Winnie loved the popcorn. I loved the amount of effort it required from me.

One of the chain links said to go to the zoo, and luckily that same day someone from church invited us to go along and we had a blast. My favorite part: the 3-hour nap Eden took and the 4-hour nap Winnie took after we got home. That alone is worth the $85 family annual membership fee.




There were 10 kids and 4 adults (3 moms and a grandma). It really was a lot of fun. Despite Montgomery being a pretty lame place to live (though Panama City still holds the "Lamest Place to Live" title), its zoo isn't half bad. It's small, but most of the walkways are shaded (big plus in this psycho heat) and there are a lot of different exhibits. Even one where you can feed a giraffe (Eden was terrified of this but Winnie had a blast).

Eden! Stand like a flamingo!


There is also a great big park at the zoo that is sort of shaded.




The zoo AND a park in one day? Bestill their little beating hearts.



The following may be my favorite photo from our trip.




I think I'll leave it at that. That's a great photo to end on.

More later (I promise...no really, I do.).

Still here...checking in

Sorry I've been slack about posting lately. Same excuse as last time: I keep avoiding uploading and editing all the 600 photos on my camera (to be fair, 400 of those are from our travels, but I haven't deleted them yet).

Plus, I'm addicted to uploading photos to Instagram, so if you don't follow me but can't stand missing all the excitement that goes on with us (*cough, cough*), my username is @eclawracy. And don't forget to give me your username as well. I can always use another excuse to be absorbed in my phone. (I've been told on more than one occasion: "Put your phone down, Mommy." Enter massive feelings of guilt.)

Either way, here are some snippets into our life this summer.

For 4th of July, I made the girls festive skirts. Eden was way excited about her skirt. Makes me think she should have more skirts to wear, instead of shorts.


Also keeping with our 4th festivities, I made patriotic layered jello. Fun! I must say, though, I failed on this goodie, thinking this was an awesome dessert, which it is, but for kids. Not adults. Not babies. While adults think, "Oh, cool," they do not think "Oh, boy, let me sink my teeth in that bad boy." Kids do. Adults do not. Neither do babies. I'm thinking I made this about 3 years prematurely. When Eden and Winnie are older, then this will be a winner. Not yet.

Oh well. At least it looked cool.


We have been enjoying lots of rain here. Many people here are upset by all the rain. I. am. NOT. Let's repeat, Alabama citizens: Rain. Good. Heat. Bad. Rain Good. Heat. Bad.
So despite making it a bit harder to play outside, I say it's not impossible, as proven by Eden:

Nothing better than playing in the rain. A little singin' never hurt nobody neither.

And finally, because my life wouldn't be complete unless I have something bad for me sitting around my kitchen, I made some Belgian waffles.


Do not confuse these with the pancake-ified versions most people think of. Oh no, my friends, these almost belong in the dessert category. These babies are rich, buttery, crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and filled with little balls of crackly sugar that scream "Party in your mouth!" Or maybe they sigh "Lay down and die because you've found heaven." Either way, these are awesome. They taste like the ones I gorged on - I mean, ate in Belgium in December.

So that's life lately. More later, when I'm motivated to upload more photos. Toodles!

Our travel adventures...finally

Okay, time to share how our travels to SC and Michigan went.

The first thing we did when we got to my mom's house in SC is to have a belated birthday party for Eden and Winnie. We left on our travels on Eden's birthday, so it wasn't much of a fun day for her. However, we had celebrated early already before Kevin left, so it's not like she went without.

My dad and his wife Kathy came over and we party-ed it up Sesame Street style.



Unfortunately I did not have my glasses on when I took these photos, and I didn't realize that NONE of them were in focus (that's what happens when you adjust a manual focus lens using less than perfect eyesight). Sorry for the blurriness.









My dad and Kathy got Eden this wooden food set in which the food pieces stick together with Velcro and there's a wooden knife that Eden can use to "cut" them apart. It's pretty awesome. I just have to show you: the adults were even more intrigued by this than Eden was (and she was super into this toy).








All three of the above photos are of the grandparents playing with this wooden food set. Hilarious.

We were able to get a nice family photo in, too. Too bad Kevin wasn't there to make it complete.



Then we went on a boat ride with my dad and Kathy and her four kids out on Lake Murray.



Eden and Winnie both went tubing for the first time. Eden wasn't a huge fan, but Winnie seemed to enjoy it. Eden's favorite activity was watching other people tube and yelling and waving at them.





The ride back to the docks was really relaxing.



 I wish I could fall asleep like this.


Then I left for Michigan! Woo-hoo! Child free for 5 days! Yee-haa!

I stayed with my college roommate's mom (Hey Lizzie!) for a night and got to visit Michigan State's campus and relive the glory days (*cough, cough, cough*).



Then I got to visit Lizzie in Grand Rapids and marvel at how much better Michigan is than Alabama (sorry, there is just no way to sugar blatant truths in life).



This is Dave, Lizzie's husband. In this photo, he embodies my idea of what a vacation should feel like.



Looking good there, Dave! (This is Lizzie and Dave's deck off their awesome condo in downtown Grand Rapids. I had a great time pretending I was a suave cosmopolitan grown-up who never had to worry about peanut butter stains on her clothes and which butt cream to use on diaper rash.)

The weather was perfect while I was there, and we were able to go to this awesome farmers' market in downtown Grand Rapids, where they sold these mini donuts called Go Nuts (does anyone else have the urge to say "gonads" when they hear Go Nuts? No? Just me? Oh.). To die for. Really. These were awesome.



Then I went to Detroit for Andy's roommate's wedding. Oddly, I did not get any photos of the bride or groom (delinquent photographer - that's me), but I did get one of Paul, Kevin's other roommate in college.



Then I flew back to Myrtle Beach and hung out with my friend Amy and her two kids, Noah and little Eden.

Boy, let me tell ya. Being in a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom beach house with four children under 3-years-old, two of whom were scared of the beach, and a Tropical Storm sending rain our way for a day or so: that's a recipe for adventure. It wasn't a relaxing trip, but I had a lot of fun. It was happy chaos for 5 days.



So this was our most favorite activity: riding on the golf cart. All 6 of us piled into the front seat and went everywhere in that thing. I'm sure people who saw us thought we were crazy.





Before our kids decided the wind and waves were evil, they played on the beach one day (while I stayed home with Winnie while she napped).



Winnie loved the water. She was just a little fish.

While the kids played, little Eden hung out in our make-shift baby holder.



Luckily the baby holder is also doubles as a useful kid hauler (don't mind the apple jammed into Winnie's mouth).



They spent a lot time playing on the porch. Chalk, bubbles, swing, sand, you name it, they did it on the porch.



Inspecting the drain:


Then we came back home. After sleeping in 6 different places in 2 weeks, I was very happy to come back home. I had a great time, and it was so nice to see all of our friends and family.

Our next travels will be to a resort some place in Massachusetts to see Kevin for a week in September. I have a feeling I'll need to rest till then to prepare myself for traveling with my girls again.

Till then, toodles!

Ready for the beach?

Can't bring myself to go through 400 photos yet of all our travels. But here's another sneak peek.