Beach Bums

One of our primary goals when Florida is to get to the beach as often as possible.  Both kids love it, so it is a great way to entertain them for a couple of hours.  Ike is sometimes a bit of a wanderer (he especially likes to walk up to strangers and inform them that they are wearing a hat), but Dave will sit and dig a hole for hours on end.

Our first beach visit didn't go very well...it was about 70 when we left the house, but soon clouds passed over and the wind picked up, and by the time we got to the beach it was 60 and windy.  Brrrr.  Ike was still not feeling great at this point and the wind was bother him, so we flew the kite for about 2 minutes and called it a day.







 
 Notice the beach is almost completely deserted.

Check out those waves!  It was a red flag day for sure.










Thankfully, it warmed up a lot later in the week and the wind died down, which left us with some beautiful days to enjoy.

Ike enjoying playing in the sand.

Until he was distracted by some random birds.













Every time Ike saw a bird he went crazy and proceeded to follow it down the beach.  For whatever reason, the birds seemed to stay just out of reach but didn't fly away, so Ike was in pursuit for quite some time usually.  Here's a video of him checking out some birds.

Knocking down sand castles is serious business.

They were both very intense looking when working.

Ike and grandpa Dave made their way up into the lifeguard stand!

Dave really liked having his legs buried in the sand.












Another video...Dave and Ike digging in the sand.  We had a blast playing at the beach, and it's somewhat relaxing for Josh and I since the kids are usually pretty occupied so we can kick back a little (which does not happen often right now!!).

Dave keeps asking me when we're going back to the beach.  When I told him we can't get back to Florida for a while he said, "well don't we have a beach here at home?".  Of course, there is a beach nearby, but Dave is not understanding that since we still have snow at our house, the beach probably does too.  Ready for spring :)

Missing Sunny Florida!

Well, it was sure nice to soak up some rays last week!  Hopefully we got us enough vitamin d to last us until spring  :)   We had such a nice trip and it was awesome to relax and enjoy some time outdoors.  I have several pictures that I want to share, so this post is just an overview.

Our flights went great, Josh and the kids did wonderfully.  Dave was super entertained by some new transformers kre-o toys that he and Josh put together.  Ike was a little squirmy, but was overall pretty good.

Ike hanging out on the plane.




















The boys crashed as soon as we got into our rental car (well van actually, living large!)





Unfortunately this good sleeping didn't last very long for Ike.  I am not sure if it was a reaction to the flying or a weird bug, but he developed a fever the first night we were there and then proceeded not to sleep for two nights.  Ugh.  But, he powered through and did much better after that.  Both boys got up pretty early every day...guess they wanted us to enjoy every single minute of vacation  :)






The kids and I at the grove...gotta get my fix of lime-chocolate ice cream.

Dave practicing for the big golf outing by hitting pinecones in the backyard.











Josh, Dave, and grandpa Dave all went golfing one afternoon and had a great time.  Worked out perfect for me since Ike went down for a nap and I got to sit in the sun!

Ike picked up Dave's favorite activity of washing the golf clubs.
















Ike also enjoyed playing in the van.  He could tell it was much nicer than what we've got at home!















Dancing with grandpa Dave.

Dave had a blast playing in the pool.  He has officially overcome his fear of jumping in/being thrown in the pool.  













Group picture before we left.














The boys watching our luggage being loaded on the plane...time to go home!












I have a couple more posts to catch up on from vacation...will get to them eventually!  A big thank you to grandma Mary and grandpa Dave for being excellent hosts and putting up with our craziness!!  We miss your delicious breakfast sandwiches and dinners almost as much as we miss Florida...

Ike is 16 Months!

Sitting so big on the ledge.

I think he was surprised I was allowing this!








 We just had Ike's 15 month appointment, and his stats are as follows:  24.6 lbs (70%), and 32.25 in (70%).  The doctor was really impressed with Ike's vocabulary (he says about 10 words most people can understand and probably 5-10 more that I can figure out).  He's still only rocking the 6 teeth, hoping he gets a few more soon :) 

Here is what our big guy has been up to over the past month!

Ike has really gotten into books lately.  He says "book" really clearly and will sit and read by himself or with somebody else for a pretty long time (15-30 minutes).  

Looks like he is making a bunny face.













He loves to be chased around the house and is getting decent about hiding from us (this is probably not a good thing!).  Yesterday I caught him standing on the washing machine.  Not really sure how he got up there.  He is fantastic at peekaboo and will play it forever.

Where's Ike?














Gets him every time.










He is super into any kind of arts and crafts (mostly just whatever Dave happens to be doing).  He only occasionally eats the paints, playdoh, etc. so I feel like we are improving in that regard!

Trying out the pasta that they play with.  Was not as tasty as he hoped it would be.

Notice his blue mouth.   Wonder how that happened?












Ike and Dave have really started playing well together (most of the time), so Ike has been wanting to do everything that Dave does.  







He put on the helmet then pointed and grunted at the bike until I put him up on it.

He loves seeing himself in the camera. 










As I mentioned above, his vocabulary is really growing lately, and he has finally started showing his skills with animal sounds.  Here's a video.  All of a sudden he knows 10 or so after refusing to do them for so long.  Stubborn kid!

So that's Ike.  He is such a fun kid!  I am off to finish packing for Florida (woohoo!).  No post for a while, but I will update when we get back late next week.

Recent Happenings

This past week we have had some actual stuff going on, which is a welcome change from being stuck in the house!  My mom came up to visit for the weekend (while Josh was on duty) and we went down to Indy to visit with the new baby in the family.  And lots of other activities thrown in the middle.  

Ike and Dave both really love to read, so I was not surprised to find them in Ike's room for story time.







Dave was reading Ike's favorite book, Little Blue Truck.












Bennett came over for a playdate and when I didn't hear much noise for a while I grew concerned.  Imagine my surprise when I opened Ike's room to find this:

Love how concentrated they both are.

Not really thrilled to be interrupted!










Here's a video of them chatting with one another/playing the guitar.

Dave pretending to be Hawkeye.

The boys posing with Gamma.  

The garage has been a little wet from all the snow, but the boys still enjoy playing out there!







On Friday, the boys and I went down to Indy to meet Liam, my stepbrother Rob and his wife Molly's new baby.  He is so stinking adorable and so little compared with Ike.  My baby is growing up way too fast!

Best of the group shots.  Dave was not pumped about taking a picture!







Well that wraps up our past week or so.  We are hunkering down for yet another snowstorm, here's hoping everyone's wrong and we get nothing!  :)  Oh well, I suppose winter has to end at some point.