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