Bird Shoal Island

On Saturday, Mom, Dad, Carissa and me took a ferry out to one of the barrier islands and had lots of fun!

Me and Aunt Carissa getting ready to go swimming.

The girls,

And the guys.

Me and Dad had fun swimming together,

And I'm pretty brave in the water so I did some swimming on my own too.

We all took a break to look for shells...

And guess what we found?! Mom, Dad, and Carissa each found a whole sand dollar! I was actually the first to find a sand dollar, but mine was still alive so we had to put it back. (Mom and Dad didn't want me breaking the law at such a young age). Me and Dad actually found a few live sand dollars, but we put them all back. Here's the ones that we did get to bring home.

2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2!

Can you believe that I'm 2 already?! Well, sometimes I say I'm three, but for now, being two is pretty cool. I had a fun birthday with lots of cool surprises.

I woke up to find tons of balloons that Mom and Dad blew up while I was still sleeping. They're so sneaky!

I love my balloons! (Which are still covering our living room :)

Posing with my balloons

I even took some of my birthday balloons for a ride in my new Gator!

And my balloons came to bed with me at naptime (atleast until I fell asleep and Mom snuck them out).

Since I'm two, I even got two birthday cakes! Mom and Dad made cool basketball and baseball cakes. My baseball cake even survived a tumble off the counter when I was being sneaky in the kitchen!

I loved all my fun birthday suprises. Do you know what the best surprise was? Well.... I went for a ride to the airport and got to bring back...

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Aunt Carissa!!

Yep, Aunt Carissa came to visit me until she has to go back to school. I'll be sure to post some pictures of me and Carissa having fun!!

Summer Was Fun, But We Wish Fall Would Come

If you ask anyone who grew up in North Carolina about the weather down here they'll tell you the same thing; you have to suffer through July and August before you can enjoy the rest of the months. This summer was even worse than usual. We haven't gone a full week without at least a couple of heat advisories since May. We've enjoyed the nice summer days that we've had here and there, but we're all ready for it to cool down just a bit. Maybe Aunt Carissa will bring cooler temps. with her next week :)

A few new pictures:

Last week, I got to watch Dad play softball every night in his week-long tournament. Dad's team did good so he even got to bring home a medal for me. I am really proud of my medal and have shown it off to people at the post office, the park, the mall, and the grocery store.

I went to an antique store one day and didn't even mess with any of the very tempting breakable items, but did find this fun Ryan-sized bench that I think is pretty cool.

(Hopefully I never have to use it for its intended purpose)

I am a man of many caps. I grab a cap no matter where I'm going, which now includes the bathtub too.

Besides baseball caps, I also like to wear bandannas on my head, and last week I was silly and even tried out one of Mom's headbands.

And a picture of us all before a barbeque at our friends' house.

Baby Update

Today, I got to go to the doctor with Mom to listen to my baby's heartbeat for the first time. My baby and me are already trying our best to give Mom a hard time together. When the doctor was trying to find the baby, I wanted to sit with Mom on the table, then of course I wanted to get back down. So, Mom was trying to hold on to me and then the doctor said the baby squirmed away when Mom had flexed her muscles trying to hold me. So, I had set a good example for the baby and stand and wait patiently so that the baby could scoot back up for Mom to hear his or her heartbeat. My baby is about 12 1/2 weeks old now and everything is going good.

Summer Fun

I thought I'd share pictures of some fun things I've done the past couple of weeks.

First, Mom loves gardens so she decided to take me to visit the gardens at the Tryon Palace. And guess what? It wasn't even half-bad looking at flowers for a couple of hours. It's true. I had fun exploring all the fun paths throughout the gardens, and Mom still got her fill of looking at flowers.

Do I look like I'm up to something? Mom thought this was a cute picture until I decided I'd had enough of the gardens and thought there were some flowers that needed a good smashing. So, that was it for our morning at the gardens. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job.
I've tried out a couple of new activities that I think are pretty fun. I love collecting pine cones, and so now we've been turning my pinecones into bird feeders. This was my first pine cone bird feeder and I was awfully proud of it. Also, do you like my outfit? I've been working on getting myself dressed and I think I look wonderful in my Happy Camper t-shirt and Lightning McQueen pajama pants that I picked out :)

I've also discovered that making sidewalk paint is pretty cool.

I actually enjoy making the paint just as much as painting with it.

I find Dad's morning routine before he goes to work to be one of the most interesting times of the day. I especially like watching him shave. So, now I've been practicing. (Don't worry, the razor isn't on the handle. I didn't notice Mom sneak it off).

After I get my fill of fun stuff in the morning, I am always ready for a good nap for the afternoon. Yesterday, I was so sleepy I climbed up in bed with my tractor and tried my best to play with it, but I was just too sleepy.

4th of July Weekend

We had a nice 4th of July weekend. The weather was great so one of our first stops for the weekend was the BEACH!

Since I had so much fun playing in my trench at the Outer Banks, Dad built me another one at Emerald Isle! My trench was fun for splashing,

Climbing,

Sliding,

And watching for cool shells that the waves brought in. I can't wait to bring Aunt Carissa to the beach next month and show her how much fun sand trenches are!

Mom and me all dressed up for a night out on the town.

Checking out some of the New Bern Air Show before the fireworks.

Working on the Babe to pass some time before the fireworks started.

I had a nice fun and relaxing 4th of July, hope you all did as well :)

Fun In Minnesota

We had a nice trip back to Minnesota and were happy we got to see so many family and friends while we were there. I spent many of the days hanging out with family at Grandpa John and Grandma Ellen's, and at Grandma Robin and Tony's houses, so that's pretty much the only places Mom and Dad got many pictures of me. It was kind of rainy while we were back, but lucky for me I remembered my handy-dandy rainboots so I was still able to go explore all kind of fun places.

I had lots of fun chasing my puppies around the big yard.

I still love collecting rocks and had fun digging through all of Grandma Robin's gardens in search of the coolest rocks.

Relaxing on my vacation.

I loved sitting in Grandpa John's tractors. (Mom said Uncle Tyler would've been upset if he knew I was riding in green tractors and not red ones, but I kept it a secret.)

I checked on the calves each day we were at Grandpa John and Grandma Ellen's.


I was also sure to show off my ball skills to Aunt Kelly while we visited.

And one of my favorite things was the trampoline. Now I've just got to talk Mom and Dad into buying me one.

When my little legs finally tired from all the exloring, Dad was sure to give me hand.