The Beach

Last week the Brown and Haenni families spent the week at the beach (separate houses but in the same tiny neighborhood). It was our second year celebrating the 4th at the beach together and it was s.o m.u.c.h f.u.n. I have no idea when I'll make it through my pictures and videos and actually post about our trip. Until then, here are a few highlights:

We spent 90% of our time hanging out at the water.  Most days our schedule was beach, pool, beach.  Boogie boards, wave jumping, sand digging, and water gun fights were top activities each day.   In years past it always seemed like 1-2 boys wanted to be at the beach and 1-2 boys didn't.  It was constant entertainment to keep them happy.  This year, they just loved it and would just take off to play as soon as we got settled in - which made Mike and I love it even more.  I would actually describe our days as fun and relaxing.  Wow. 

It was our first vacation with all three boys as nap-free and diaper-free.  Our family has entered a new realm of existence and believe me, Mike and I are appreciating every moment of it.   In fact, things seemed so much easier that Mike fed the boys lunch and brought them to the pool a couple of days while I sat on the beach.  by myself.  and read a book.   I read an entire book in three days (haven't done that in at least 7 years).  Ahhh...

We had so much fun with these great friends (Beth and Scott were our companions to London-Dublin-Oban last fall and our kids have been hanging out since they were babes).   Not only did we hang out at the ocean and pool together, but as a bonus this year Mike and Scott went bike riding one morning and Beth and I took a swim lesson together (improving strokes for an upcoming triathlon we're both doing).

As a huge treat, Mike's mom came to stay with us for a couple of nights (which we loved!) and she watched the boys so we adults could have a date night.   So sweet of her and it was much fun.  


And to address the photos, Beth noticed early on that we all had at least one blue swimsuit, so she organized a sunset photo shoot.  I know, we're ridiculous - but we had fun taking them (though for the record, I hated all of the sprinting I had to do in my bathing suit back-and-forth from the tripod to the group - should have recruited someone else to do that :).   
  

More photos and a movie of our trip to come!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great time celebrating the 4th of July at the beach. Hope you and your families had fun too!

Uptown

I took Miles and Griffin to Discovery Place today.  The museum was recently renovated/reopened and it was fun to check out the new exhibits.  On the way back to car, I snapped a few pictures.

Feel like I need to learn how to use photoshop, so I can soften up the shadows under Griffin's eyes, maybe make his eyes stand out more - but oh well.  One thing at a time, I guess.  I still think he's cute. 


I swear, Miles has an addiction to squeezing and picking up Griffin.  Neither one of them is looking at me, but who cares.  This is so them. 

And, just a few random stops on the way to our car. 




On our way to the car, Miles asked me why I don't work.  I told him that I've decided to stay home with he and his brothers instead (this question is always tricky for me, as I love being able to model being a loving stay-at-home mother right now but I also want the boys to know that many strong, amazing women and mothers work outside of the home too and I want them to feel confident and comfortable, supportive and proud no matter which paths their futures wives/daughters take).  Anyway, he said, "no mom, I mean you take so many pictures, you should just go ahead and be a photographer."  :)  What a sweet, supportive guy already -- or could he just be tired of the lens always pointed in his direction?  Who knows....who really knows.... :)

Miles' buds

After Miles returned from New Bern I asked him what he wanted to do, who he wanted to hang out.  He immediately asked for some of his favorite friends from school.

Since his friend Reid was signed up for a full-day basketball camp, we decided to pick him up on Monday night and take the boys out for dinner and ice cream. I figured the time together would be too short, but at least they'd get to hang out for a little while.  These peas in a pod had a ball.  And got messy.  I really love watching my boys with their friends - especially the friends that seem to bring out the silly,  zany, crazy side that only one of your best friends can.   Reid is definitely one of these guys in Miles' life.


Ice cream and sprinkles...total summer treat...


Reid was so sweet (though it was probably wrapped up in a silly gesture), he even shared his ice cream with Griffin (who knows why, thinking back - Griffin had plenty of his own.  What a little rascal.  :)


The next day Miles wanted to have a sleep-over with his friend Zach. Miles slept over at Zach's house on the last day of school (Miles' first sleepover with a school friend) and he really wanted to reciprocate. They boys had a great time. The didn't fall asleep until almost 11pm - and only then because I slept in Miles' bunk bed to keep them from talking (Zach was on Miles' couch and Miles was positioned on the floor RIGHT next to Zach). Mom, I totally felt like you during my middle school sleep overs. :)


While I'm on the topic of Miles' first sleep-over, have to document this funny story from the night at Zach's house:
Zach fell asleep first and then Miles kept hearing a funny noice so he went downstairs to ask Zach's mom about it. Apparently there is a loud bullfrog that hangs out by their pool and his mom explained this to Miles. He said he thought it was Zach snoring at first (haha). Then she said, "no, the frog is out by the pool, do you want me to open the door so that you can hear him?" He looked at her and very matter-of-factly said, "no, I can hear him from in here." hahaha That's my Miles. Oh, how I love him.

New Bern Getaway: Miles

Mike's parents have a tradition of hosting the boys at their house each summer.  For the past few years, Miles has visited them for a week (the first year, his cousin Mason joined him; the last two years, he's visited solo).  Last summer and this summer Noah has done the same (Griffin isn't old enough yet).    The boys LOVE their solo time with Bob and Peggy and really look forward to it.  Time to just hang out, relax, soak up lots of one-on-one time and play with their grandparent's toys (without having to share - WOW!) .

Miles went last week and had a really good time.  They played at the pool one day, went to the ocean one day, and spent a couple of days driving/walking around/following a map to locate many of the New Bern bears that are currently on display as a part of New Bern's 300 year anniversary.  They also visited the Cow Cafe for ice cream a couple of days, rode bikes and played countless hours of card games.  Here is a picture of the three of them taken in Apex on Saturday (at Mike's sister Shannon's house). We met there to pick up Miles after his visit and drop of Noah for his turn.


Here is photo of Miles talking to Noah on the phone. One really sweet part of the New Bern visits has been hearing the boys talk about how much they miss each other. The two boys at home really miss the one that's away. They chatter about what the other one must be doing and they love to talk on the phone to exchange stories about the day. Its so sweet to watch. I really should have videod some of the conversations. The first time Griffin got on the phone with Miles, he was so excited and shouted out in a huge run-on sentence, "hi miles how you doing i'm good." It was hilarious.


I honestly feel like I'm missing an arm while they are gone. My heart aches for them to be home, so I can hug them, tell them I love them, laugh with them. Yet, I know this time is priceless and irreplaceable, so for them, I am happy.   So very happy.

Three Musketeers

Last week, Miles was in New Bern with his grandparents and Mike was in Arizona. For five whole days, Noah, Griffin and I were the three musketeers.

Noah spent his mornings at vacation bible school with Jack.  We spent every afternoon and some evenings at the pool.  We really missed our other two guys; but, had much fun during our hours and hours of swimming, jumping and sliding...swimming, jumping and sliding.  



PS Griffin and I worked really hard this week and he is officially (daytime) potty trained! No more pull-ups, no more swimmy diapers. Wahoo!

Anne Springs Greenway

Trish and I have grand plans to take the kids on zillions of adventures this summer to spots that will be fun for the kids AND fun for us (= spots where the kids can run around and we can practice taking cute photos of them).  We started out last week at Anne Springs Greenway.  You can see Trish's great post about it here.


(trish and i started out extra sweaty since we hit this adventure after working out.  photo by noah.)

To describe it as a HOT day would be an understatement.  I think Miles was sans shirt within 3 minutes of arrival.  He seems to be the most affected by the heat of all my boys (read: intense heat makes miles intensely crabby).  Everything shifted though when I passed my camera off to him.  He LOVED taking pictures and videos of the group.  He had so much fun that I ran and got my old camera out of the car so that Noah and Griffin could snap pictures too.  They took a ton of  the pictures in the post and they turned out pretty good I think (I set my cameras on aperture-priority and told them that the most important thing to them must be covered by the black bracket in the viewfinder).  Wouldn't it be such fun to share a hobby like photography with my boys (much more appealing to me than star wars, lego batman, mario brothers)?!




(don't worry mom....i got us covered)

We found a frog right away.  How can a jumping frog not make you smile?


There were trees to climb (Noah took this picture of Jack)


Old houses to jump off of...


Water to play with (we weren't positive this was a good idea - but the kids were sure it was a fun idea)


Something about this of Ella and Noah is so sweet to me


Griffin took this picture of Ella. Its one of my favorites of the day.


Miles took these pictures of me and Griffin and Noah.  I love them.





He took pictures of me and one of my best girls, too.



And it wouldn't be a photo shoot of me unless I was jumping around with my mouth wide open, would it?  (Seriously, what is wrong with me.  Will I still be making this face as a great grandmother??)  Photo by Noah.


Miles and Ella. Too cute.




Here is a little video of the fun.  If you know Trish, you MUST watch for a few minutes to catch her rockstar ball handling skills.   Yet another reason why she is one of my favorite friends.   I just love her.   She's stuck with me. 

Anne Springs Greenway, June 2010 from Brooke Brown on Vimeo.

PS Really bummed about how the video ended.  For some reason, the last clip uploaded without sound.  Here is a clip with sound.  I laughed when was watching all of Miles' video and heard him sing a little made-up ditty (esp since he was pretty miserable/hot for much of our time there).  I would have redone that part of the video, but for some reason the entire video is gone from my computer (I'm having serious computer issues over here).

Big Birthday

My BIG birthday arrived.  Thirty-eight: wowza.  I've never really minded birthdays, but this year I'd really like to start counting backwards.  Thirty-six just has such a nice ring to it, doesn't it? 

I started the day at a 6am kick-boxing class.  It was a great workout and when it was over, a 70-year old man (who wasn't really doing the class) ran up behind me, starting pointing at me with both hands over my head, yelling "first timer!  first timer!"  Guess I barged in on a close-knit class, eh?  His excitement prompted  the ginormous instructor to run over to me, pick me up and plant a huge smooch on my cheek.  A birthday kiss right off the bat -- sounds like automatic good luck for the year, right?

After my workout, my can't-live-without-her friend Beth treated me to breakfast before she left town for the weekend. She sacrificed sleep so that she could meet me e.a.r.l.y since that's all that would work for my schedule. Love her.   


The boys and I joined some of Griffin's friends at a morning play date (too relaxing/too much fun to take any pictures) and then while the boys were at an afternoon art camp, Tracy, Dana, and I treated ourselves to a mani/pedi. Ah....need I say more?


After that, appetizers and margarita's with some of my dinner club girls.


And then a fun dinner/late night out at the Village Tavern! June's a busy travel month for Mike, so I enjoyed every minute of the evening with my hub!


Dana and Brad joined us (glad to see I'm not the only Clerico girl that sports a wide/huge smile every time a camera comes out).


Its always fun to hang with dana (lindsey, totally wish you, Jason, and Addy could have been there).

(this was really funny....and there's that huge smile again)


Our neighbors came too --  Thad (being silly) and Allison (being sweet)


And these two....Brad and Thad turned out to be two hyper/silly/crazy peas in a pod. It was hilariously entertaining.  I loved that my birthday sparked such a love connection for them.  


All-in-all, it was a day FULL of celebration. Loved every minute of it and was so thankful for the time spent with each special friend as well as every phone call, card and email.  I just know that 38 has much fun in store!

Dinner Club

I spent my last night as a 37-year-old with my dinner club girls. I hosted at my house and had so much fun.  LOVE my time with these girls.   LOVE how everyone just assumes a role in my kitchen and pitches in though the night (Tracy started mixing drinks immediately). LOVE how I can sit in my dining room wooden chairs for hours, as long as these girls are sitting around the table with me. LOVE how much they make me laugh. LOVE to officially know that Tracy LOVES turkey bacon (I know, inside joke - but it was really funny and I have to write it here so I never forget it).

I served fruit/veggies/hummus/olive spread for appetizers, along with Pioneer Woman's bbq jalapeno poppers (from her new cookbook).  I served a shrimp dish and salad/bread for dinner and key lime cheesecake bars and chocolate chip cookies for dessert (yum - my favorite part). 

Tracy managed to get her hands on her hub's friend's convertible.  After riding in it, we all agreed that its a total roadster and is super fun.  Tracy blared sNickelback's Rockstar, while cruising us around -- it all felt very John Cougar Mellencamp to me.  I couldn't resist breaking out the tripod and forcing everyone to pose with our pucker-up martinis.  (And yes, Tracy now has "convertible" on her gift wish list.)

Cheers to girlfriends, summer and convertibles!