Sunday, July 31, 2011

East Coast and back again...

Well, it has been about a month since I last posted.   To say we have been busy is putting it lightly.  After my mom's visit, Kyle's mom came to stay with us and then we left for the East Coast for two weeks.  Knox & I spent a week in Virginia hanging out with my family and then Kyle joined us and we all went to the North Carolina coast for week at the beach.  It was fun to spend a whole week with my brothers and parents and to get to take Knox to the beach for his first time.

A "vacation" with a baby is not always a "vacation" but that is the beauty of vacationing with family.  We had lots of extra hands to help out with Knox- so Kyle & I got to spend lots of time relaxing on the beach with a book. It was glorious!  Knox was quite a trooper with all of our travels, but he did start a liking for waking up at 4:30 each morning to start his day. So, Kyle & I got to take turns going for early morning walks on the beach with him.  Although it was not our wake up time of choice, I will definitely look back on those mornings we had together as special.  But, thank goodness that he is sleeping later now that we are back in Texas!

Knox & his Uncle Kibbo
Knox & Dad hangin on the beach 
Grandma & Grandpa
Toes in the sand
The entire family 
a little family time
a rare family shot of all of us! (I am ususally behind the camera)

our little sand monster
Knox loved the ocean! 

we were watching him :) 
the beach bottle
 
Grandpa & Knox on the beach

Going to the beach with my family will be an annual family tradition and we are excited that this is something that we will get to share with Knox each summer.  The week Knox & I spent in Virginia before the beach was really special too.  Knox got to spend time with his great-grandparents who loved getting a chance to see him again.  
Knox & Great-Grandma Charlotte

I also got to spend some extended time with my younger brother Justin. He is going to be a junior at JMU this year and it is always fun to get to hang out with him.  He's an awesome brother and a great uncle to Knox!
Fro-yo with Justin

Possibly the most special part of my trip though was getting to spend some uninterupted time with my best-friend Katie.  I always see her when I am in town, but usually it is just for a few hours and she is the mother to two young boys- so it is always a crazy time. But, this time she was in Richmond for a work conference so I got to see her for two whole days sans children! It was amazing! We went out for drinks (like adults) and were able to have complete conversations! We drove around all of our old haunts together and reminisced about our middle school and high school memories.  
Me, Knox & Katie 

We truly had an amazing visit but we are happy to be back in Texas and back in our routine again.  I'm learning that with a baby routine is key! 

Our summer excitment is not quite over just yet though.  Kyle's sister, Heather, had a baby girl last week and we are leaving on Saturday to head to Spokane to get to meet our new little neice!  We are very excited about the trip! I'll post again when we get back. 

-Stacie 

Friday, July 1, 2011

The Summer begins

Summer has officially started for the Sale family.  My mom finished her last day of school (she is an elementary special ed teacher) and hopped on a plane to come and visit us last week.  This is the start of our summer of visitors and travel.  We have both grandmothers coming to stay and then we are also traveling to Virginia, North Carolina and Washington State to visit them as well- it's going to be a crazy summer! 


We had a lot of fun with my mom in town.  Knox is starting to get to the age where he has friends with birthday parties.  So, we went to a really cute birthday party for his friend Avery while she was here.  We also did some exploring around town and spent a lot of time at the neighborhood pool.   It was a good mixture of relaxing and entertaining.  


I had heard about 'Mayfield Park' before but had never gone. So one morning we loaded up and headed down there.  It was a really beautiful park that has roaming peacocks- they are amazingly beautiful and surprising loud.  It was an interesting experience! 


-Stacie