Early August

Nana and Papa came to visit in early August to celebrate Papa's 60th birthday. While they were here we were able to do a bit of decorating in the new house, which included our very first trip to an Ikea store. That place really was huge. We found exactly what we needed to put up some window treatments since all of the windows on the main floor were bare. We had a nice lunch in their cafeteria too.
Thanks for all of the help mom and dad, the place looks so much better!





We also took a day trip to Lake Lanier and visited the water park. Luke had a good time, I wasn't sure if he would take to the water or not, he hasn't been a big fan of pools yet. After a few minutes warming up to the kiddie section, he had a great time and Nana, Papa, and me had fun watching him.







My Dad went on this slide.



Baby Bop and I stayed away, but it was so hot outside that it was nice to relax in the pool water. We tried to do the big wave pool and it was fine with Luke when the waves were off, but as soon as they came on he wanted out immediately! The lake itself was right near the kiddie section so we took out the sand toys and let Luke loose in the sand. He had a blast! The sun tired us all out and Luke fell asleep on the way home.

A day in the life...

On a Saturday afternoon in July....

Luke helping mommy make brownies



Noah doing what Noah does best!

Jekyll Island

In mid-July we had the pleasure of going to Jekyll Island for our friend Matt's wedding to Erin. Josh and Matt went to med school together and lived together for a year when Josh lived on Davis Island. Matt also did his residency at UAB and a year's fellowship at Emory so we have all made the same moves these last several years. He and Erin live in Birmingham and we are so happy for them. The wedding was beautiful!

Med school friends: Jeremy, Troy, Josh



Josh, Matt (the groom), Troy



Josh's parents were able to meet us for the weekend and watched Luke for us at the hotel while we attended the wedding. The next day we headed over to St. Simon's Island for the morning. It was hot, but really beautiful. It would be fun to take a long weekend vacation there. There were lots of cute shops and a fun playground which Luke enjoyed. We ate lunch on the island and I had the best grouper sandwich ever!
Here are some pictures from the day:
On the pier (I am around 25 weeks pregnant here I suppose, starting to show)



Josh and his dad



Boardwalk and the lighthouse



And since I know what you all really want to see are pictures of Luke, here he is having a grand old time on that playground:











little guy next to a big whale



by the lighthouse





swinging!





We had a great (though too quick) trip! It was nice to get away for the weekend.

New yard, new pool

One of the things we like most about our new house is the ability to actually play outside. We had nowhere at the apartment that we could do that and although several of the parks/playgrounds nearby are nice, it is much nicer to be able to walk out your front door and play. Our backyard is pretty much unusable, it is fairly sloped and full of ivy and pine straw but the front yard makes a nice outdoors space for us. We set up Luke's new wading pool to use and he had a great time!

July trip to NC

We took a quick weekend trip to NC to visit Josh's grandparents and our friends who were vacationing nearby. We wish we could have stayed longer but I had a busy week and work that next week and Josh had to be at work on Monday so there wasn't a way to arrange for a longer visit. We are glad it isn't too far for a weekend getaway!
I forgot our camera so no pictures from this trip other than a couple Josh's grandma sent us. Luke loves to feed the squirrels with GG (great-grandma) and he also loves to play with a remote controlled car that they have. Here he decided to combine his two interests!



We had a great time visiting with our friends at the camp they were staying at. This was the second year in a row that Luke and I visited there. We made progress from last year as this year Luke actually put his feet in the lake! He didn't want to go further in than that though, so maybe next year!

It was great to get away for the weekend. We need to do it more often!

4th of July

To celebrate fourth of July, we made it out to see a morning parade on July 5th! Late night fireworks are still probably a couple of years away for us, but it was nice to be able to do some kind of celebrating this year. We met up with Luke's best buddy's family and some of their friends who had a great spot near the end of the parade route with a couple of tents to shield us from the intense sun.

Here are some pictures from that day:

Luke before the parade starts



Luke and his best buddy laughing at something :)



Sitting on the curb waiting for floats to come by



Enjoying some fresh fruit!



The heroes





Luke waving. The marchers threw tons of candy out to the kids. Luke was stuffing it in his pockets. Luckily, the tootsie roll pop he is eating in this picture was the first piece of candy he caught and it took him the whole parade to eat it so he didn't actually get to eat all the candy he had since we emptied his pockets before nap time!



Josh trying to shield some of the sun off of Luke



Some of the floats we liked:
Always like a gator!



Elmo! A favorite of the kids



I thought I was seeing Johnny Depp!

Luke's first movie in the theater

On the 4th of July, Josh and I took Luke to see his first ever movie in the theater. We had been planning to take him to see Shrek the Third, but I guess we waited too long because it wasn't playing around here anymore. Luckily, Toy Story 3 had also come out and Luke was sort of familiar with Woody and Buzz from watching Toy Story for about one week prior to our outing.
We talked it up a bit to him, got him his own little tray of popcorn and fruit snacks and a lemonade. We weren't sure what to expect since he never really sits through more than 10-15 minutes of a movie at home, but figured since his ticket was free it was worth a try!
Here he is before the show starts:



And after the movie in front of the theater whose doors were decorated for Toy Story 3.



Luke did pretty well. He was interested in it for about an hour and then said he wanted to go potty (which at that time he was not doing, it was just an excuse to leave and he knew we had been encouraging any interest in using the potty!) I think it may have been to a scary part for him. For those who have seen it, they were in the darkened preschool classroom at the time and maybe it was a little too dark for him. Anyway, I took him out to the bathroom where he wanted to wash his hands and then we went back in and stood off to the side for about 10 minutes. After that little bit he was ready to go sit back down and did so for the rest of the movie!
We haven't been to another movie yet, but based on that experience, I'd take him again!