Counting the Days

About a week ago, my parents came up for the day so we could all celebrate my birthday.  They brought a little something for Quinn and Jacob, and we put Quinn in charge of it, seeing as how he is the older brother.

 

I'm sure you are saying, "What's the big deal? It's just a calendar."

Well, to Quinn (and Jacob if he understood), it's a very big deal.  This calendar counts down the days until the boys go to SC for their week of "Camp Grandma and Grandpa"!! 

This tradition started the summer Quinn was 18 months old, the summer of 2009. (You can re-read the fun here.  And here.  And here.)  What I remember the most is he got sick and I had to pick him up early. He had a double ear infection, which was the last one before the doctors FINALLY decided to put tubes in.  He also went in the summer of 2010, and the summer of 2011.  He did not go down last summer because Mom used her two big breaks from work to come stay with Quinn while I was in the hospital having Jacob, and then again when I had to go back to work.

So it's been two years since Quinn has gone for his stay at his grandparents. Needless to say he is really excited about going to their house for "the big sleepover" as he calls it.

So we are counting the days and marking them off.

Only 17 more days!!

A Snowy Vacation

Christmas break was just what we needed. Being a teacher, I had 2 weeks off, of course, but Buddy usually has to schedule vacation days at this time. However, due to a lot of out-of-town work this fall, he had not been able to use his days, so he took a week and a half off at Christmas! Just what we all needed...some overdue family time!

We spent Christmas Eve and the day before with my family. We left on Christmas Day and chased a snow storm halfway to Buddy's parents' house. The snow caught up with us on the 26th, and dumped 8-10 inches of snow on eastern NC.



Quinn is always amazed to see the snow fall. He always holds out his hands and exclaims "Yook Mommy...it snow-in!"



My attempt at nature photography. But notice how much snow is already on the tree limbs...and there was still hours and hours of snow that fell after I took this picture!

Patriotic Snow!

Self portrait fun! Amazingly, at this point, the snow wasn't sticking to the roads yet!

Quinn shares his name with his dad and his papa. They all have a family name, with Papa being the Third, Buddy being the Fourth, and Quinn being the Fifth. (Quinn = Five!) If you don't know what their real name is, ask me sometime. It's quite the mouthful!

A snowy walk is fun until you face-plant in the snow. Quinn didn't want to walk in it too much after this.

(And there is sweet little Charlie dog....remember him?)



My little family in the snow. We had SNOW much fun on our Christmas break!

Our Beach Vacation

Last weekend the three of us took a trip to North Myrtle Beach for our family vacation. My parents also came, which was unbelievably helpful, as Quinn is at that in-to-everything stage. We definitely couldn't have done this trip without some help.

This was a long-awaited trip, as I have mentioned before. I haven't been to the beach in 12 years. Also, Buddy and I have not been on a vacation since our honeymoon. So trust me, we needed this trip in a bad way!

Here we are, finally standing in the ocean. This was taken literally 20 minutes after we got checked into our room! Seriously....we checked in, unloaded the car, got into swimsuits. Quinn may look like he is smiling, but closer inspection of this picture will show that Quinn is actually crying. He wasn't as impressed with the ocean as I thought he would be. (He perked up the next day though!)



We were in such a hurry to get to the beach that we forgot to grab Quinn's sand toys. While Buddy and I were in the ocean, my mom and Quinn were walking on the shore. Quinn found a group of older boys who were trying to dig a hole or make a sand castle or something, and he stopped to watch them. The boys saw Quinn and let him borrow a shovel. He knew just what to do.



The first night we went for a walk on the beach.



Friday morning Buddy got up early to surf-fish. After Quinn woke up, the three of us went back out for an early-morning walk on the beach.


Quinn enjoyed running through the sand and since there was hardly anyone on the beach at this hour, we let him have fun.


I love this picture. Buddy took it after Quinn and I walked away from him.


Another of my favorite pictures. This looks like a classic picture of the beach. This was right outside our room! We had a great view.


Once Quinn got used to the water, he seemed to enjoy himself. We decided that he doesn't like the feeling of the sand going out from under your feet when the waves go back out into the ocean. We let him wear his Crocs and he was ready to play in the water. (We made him wear a t-shirt, on top of wearing 50+ sunscreen. I just didn't want him to get sunburned. And he just won't have a tan this year. If he's like me, he won't tan very well anyway.)


One great thing about having my parents with us was that Buddy and I got to have "date night". We went to a seafood buffet restaurant. It was a little pricey but there was such a great selection of food. On Saturday, because no beach trip is complete without it, we played a round of putt-putt. Buddy won, but it's ok, because I got Starbucks afterward!

We had a great time on our trip but I'm thinking next year will go better. Quinn is so into everything and climbs and is just so on-the-go. I'm hoping that by next year he will enjoy the water and playing in the ocean. I want this to be the first of many trips to the beach. I have so many wonderful memories of going to the beach as a child. I want Quinn to have those memories too.

Had to go all the way to the beach to find out cool family trivia!!

We went to the beach last weekend for a few days, Thursday - Sunday. We had a wonderful time, and I will share pictures as soon as I get some from my mom. While we were there, we stayed at a motel that is owned by some of my family members. My great-aunt and great-uncle own a small motel in North Myrtle Beach. It was always fun to go to "the motel" when I was little because it is right on the ocean. Even if we went down in the fall or winter, we could still look out and see the water. I can remember us going and sitting around the office visiting with family members almost every time we were there.

While we were driving around town with my cousin, we saw this sign.



Apparently, a new bypass road is being built in North Myrtle, and the city is naming the road after my great-uncle, who passed away several years ago. I asked my cousin why he was getting a highway, because all I knew is that he owned the motel, and they used to have a restaurant too. My cousin shocked me when he said, "You didn't know that Uncle Robert was the first mayor of North Myrtle Beach??"

What? I had never EVER heard that piece of family trivia! He was not only the first mayor of North Myrtle, he also was on a committee that helped name the different sections of beach (Cherry Grove, North Myrtle, Atlantic, etc). He started the police program in NMB as well. His children followed in his successful footsteps. One son is a SC State representative, another is the Horry County Coroner, the third son is a Horry County policeman, and his daughter is a retired principal.

So here is where his road will be. If you are sitting at Ocean Drive/Main Street, and facing Hwy 17, his road will be directly in front of you.



Here is the on-going construction on this stretch of road. According to the paper, the road should be open soon, sometime in August.


And, in case you want to read more about my great-uncle, just click here. This is a link to an article in the NMB newspaper about the construction of his road. I'm sure he would have been very proud to know the city would honor him in this way. From talking with the family this weekend, I know they are proud too!

Going to Kid's Planet

Hi there, it's Quinn, writing my last post about my vacation.

Grandma and Grandpa took me to a park called Kid's Planet. It was built after Mommy was too big to play on slides and swings, so Grandma and Grandpa had never been there before. There was a lot of fun things to do, but I am too little to do a lot of the stuff they have there. Maybe next summer I can do more.

One thing that was cool to play with was this sand table. I played on a sand table at Claire's house when we went for the Easter Egg Hunt, so I knew what to do. Grandpa and I had fun playing with the sand sifter and getting our hands dirty!

Of course I had to play on the slide. Mommy has mentioned before how much I love slides, so of course I had to take a few turns. Grandma was proud that I could slide down without help. She was at the bottom to catch me, though!

This musical pipe tower was fun. Do you see all the numbers? Each number represents a musical note. Each pipe is a different length, so when you raise the gold ball and let it bang on the pipe, it sounds like a music note. On the top of the tower, it tells you which notes to play in which order to play different songs. In this picture Grandpa is trying to play one of the songs, and I am helping.

Finally, I had fun driving this wooden train.

I can't wait to go back to Kid's Planet because there was a bunch of fun things to do but I need to be bigger.

Grandma and Grandpa, I had so much fun at your house. I hope I can come back every summer! (And next time, Grandpa needs to take pictures so Grandma can be in the pictures!!) Thanks for letting me come to stay. I love you! Love, Quinn

In Grandpa's Garden

Hi everyone. It's Quinn again, here to tell you more about my trip to SC.

My grandpa has a big garden. In fact, he has two gardens. One is big, and the other one is even bigger! He grows all kinds of vegetables in this garden, and he also grows grapes called Muscadines. While I was at his house, he showed me his gardens.

Here we are in the small garden. This is where all the green beans are planted.

This is another shot of the small garden, and the green beans. The two rows where we are standing already have green beans big enough to pick. The two rows behind us are more green beans. Grandpa grew them at different times so they wouldn't all come in at once. Pretty smart, huh? The big bushes on the right side of the picture are the tomatoes. Do you see the grassy area near the tomatoes? On the other side of the grass is the bigger garden. And behind that are the grape vines.

Now we are in the bigger garden. This is where the squash are planted. I got to eat some squash one night for supper. It sure tasted fresh! We even found some squash to pick while we took the pictures. Grandpa even tucked one into his shirt pocket!

Here are the cucumber plants. I didn't get to try any of these, but Grandma said they were good. Do you see the tomato in my hand? That also came from the garden too. I was so proud of this tomato that I carried it in my hand the whole time. Grandma is just glad I didn't squeeze it and make a mess!!

(Do you see the dog in the picture? That is Mommy's dog. She is a poodle and her name is Desi. Mommy got her for her 16th birthday. Desi turned 14 last week! She's an old dog.)

Well, that's the end of the tour of Grandpa's garden. We took a bunch of pictures, but some didn't turn out like we hoped. Oh well, Mommy says that happens sometimes.

This last picture is of me swinging on the big swing. Do you see the white house behind me? That's the house that Mommy grew up in. She moved there when she was 5 or 6 years old. That house belonged to my Great-Great-Grandparents! Do you see the big tree in front of the house? Mommy remembers when her dad planted that tree!

That's all for now. I still have to tell you about the park we went to. Thanks for reading! Love, Quinn

Please Welcome a Special Guest....

Hi everyone. This is Quinn. Mommy let me take over her blog today so I could tell you about my trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Last week, Grandma and Grandpa came to our house. After lunch I got in their car and went for a long ride to their house in South Carolina. The ride down was pretty boring, so I took a nap in the car. When we finally got to their house, I got right down to having fun.

First I had to unpack my toys. I brought some of my favorites...my Clemson Football, my Pooh Bear telephone, my big monster fire truck, and my magnet farm for the fridge.

This is my Great-Grandma. Mommy told me how she used to read stories to her when she was little, so I brought some books and hoped she would read them to me. It was funny because she didn't know that when I back up to your lap, it means I want to sit in your lap and hear a story. Finally she figured out what I meant and picked me up and read some stories to me. She is a good reader, just like Mommy said!!

Later I showed Grandpa my magnetic farm, only we played with it on the floor. I showed him how you could match up the animals. The barn part plays music and tells you if you made a match or not. I like this toy a lot.

One morning, when I got up, Grandpa went out to his garden and picked green beans. I watched Great-Grandma break the beans.

I decided it looked like fun, so I helped.

One day I even went to see where Grandma works. Mommy worked there too when she was in college, so everybody there knew who Mommy was too. But they had never met me before. Everyone said I was soooo cute. There were other things we wanted to do, but some days it was too hot. It was a lot of fun just being in a new place. I missed Mommy and Daddy, but they called me on the phone sometimes to check on me.

It was a lot of fun to go on vacation. I have more to tell you, but I am going to play for a little while. Later I will tell you about my Grandpa's garden, and also about a trip to a park.