Journey: more beach

Our days at Blue Mountain were spent relaxing at the beach and pool and fun family times together! The beach was so beautiful and our time was spent playing in the sand and enjoying the waves. Having a pool at the house was very fun too! David enjoyed making a float into his own little boat. He liked the steps and pouring water into and out of pails and buckets.
On Tuesday the boys (minus David) went deep sea fishing. They had pretty good luck catching fish and had a lot of fun. While the boys were out fishing the girls went shopping, of course!! We enjoyed finding some good deals and David enjoyed riding the little train at one of the shops.

Ready to catch some fish!

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Journey: Family Vacation 2013

He loves his books!

For the past few years my parents have taken my sister's family and us on a family vacation. We've had amazing trips to Walt Disney World, Hawaii, Family Camp in Colorado, Branson, and Washington D.C. We've also been on a cruise. This year was supposed to be a cruise year but with our recent addition we decided to stick to something a little closer to home.

A stop at the Florida visitors center.

Last year Steve and I traveled through Florida after our family trip to Branson. We enjoyed visiting many parts of the state including Destin. When we found out that we were being blessed with David we suggested that going to Destin might be a fun alternative to the cruise. My parents got busy looking for a place for the 10 of us to stay. With help from my friend, whose family visits the area every summer, they found a great house in a great location. Blue Mountain Beach, Florida is east of Destin and between Grayton Beach and Santa Rosa Beach. It has the sugary white sand of the Florida panhandle and the emerald water of the "Emerald Coast". It was a beautiful setting for our family vacation and David's first birthday in our family!!

A stop at Cracker Barrel

We decided it would be best to break the drive into 2 days for David's sake. I got some ideas on how to keep him occupied and had a basket of ideas. He did GREAT!! Though the trip was long he found the activities enjoyable and we didn't even use the dvd player on the way there.

My parents rented a fabulous house and we all really enjoyed it. There was a lot of room for all of us and we really enjoyed the pool. David loved having everyone under the same roof! He really enjoyed some great cousin time and family dinners each night!

Each day (except one rainy one) we headed down to the beach during the morning. David was a bit unsure of the sand and salty water the first day. It took him a little while to like playing in the sand but by the end of the week he was loving it.

Precious baby!!

Our house for the week- loved all the porches!!

The backyard- we spent a lot of time at the pool!

Having fun with family!



Blue Mountain Beach

David's first time in the ocean!

We did professional pictures our first evening.
We hope they turn out great. The setting was awesome at Grayton State Park.

David is starting to like ice cream.
We loved the creamery that was right down the street!

Journey: upcoming post

We've just returned from an AMAZING week at the beach. A post is in the works so here's a preview:

Journey: 3 months Gotcha!

Our first picture together!

3 Months!

It is amazing how your life can change in an instant! Three months ago our precious little boy was placed in our arms for the first time. The moment we had dreamed about and planned for years was happening!! Our first three months has gone by so quickly- too quickly!! We've had many, many ups and such incredible blessings! I'm anxious to head back to the doctor to see how much he has grown!

The past couple of weeks he has really started using a lot of words and many that he is picking up from conversations as opposed to me labeling things. His new words are "home, thank you, duck, pull, and more". When asked how old he is he'll respond "two" (most times)- I started working on that one early so he'd be ready for his birthday :)

As I type this he is in his room chatting away! We put him to bed at a good time but sometimes he'll chat to himself for an hour or more! It's mostly just babbling at night and I love listening to it! His favorite word is still "no" and we're working on saying "yes" more often!
He is a boy and we've had some bumps and bruises. Last week he had a tumble down the stairs which scared me so much but he was okay. He still loves the water and has gotten a lot more brave and likes to float on his tummy in the tub now too.
We leave on Friday for our annual family vacation with my family. We can't wait though I've got a lot to get done in the next few days!!

At the zoo social- my little tiger!!

The zoo splash pad- a happy boy!!

Journey: a summer week

He loves to look and listen to books at bedtime!

We have really been enjoying our summer so far!! The anticipation of our family beach trip and David's 2nd birthday party are great too! I've been trying to do some planning so we'll have everything we need for our trip to Florida. I'm so anxious to see David playing on the beach!! The birthday party plans are coming along as well. His actual birthday will be while we are in Florida and we'll celebrate there and with a party when we get back.
Last week we had a special visit from a long time friend. Amy and I met in 8th grade when I moved to Waco. Cari, Amy, and I went to school and church together and had many, many memorable and fun times together! They helped make my move to Waco a little more bearable :) So, Amy now lives in Georgia. Each summer her family makes the trek to Texas to see family. Lucky for us they took time out to make it to Waco for the day. We met at the Mayborn for the kids to play and then enjoyed play time at Cari's house. Amy has 2 boys, plus her nephew and mom came too. With Cari we had 5 active little boys and a precious little girl to enjoy. David enjoyed the museum again and enjoyed following the older boys around. I'm so glad Amy was able to make the trip south. It was so wonderful to see her and her family!

Enjoying the water park!

We've spent some time at the pool this week too. The temperature was over 100 several days so the water was a welcome refresher. Our a/c started leaking upstairs this weekend, yuck! We turned it off and moved David downstairs. Luckily my parents have a pack-n-play and he has been sleeping in the study. Hopefully someone will be coming today to get it fixed. We've been blessed with some wet and cooler weather the last two days which has been awesome. I never thought I'd be celebrating Waco weather in July!

 

Cari, Amy, and me~ friends for 20+ years!

cooking up something great at the museum

He likes to dress-up

"get on the bus"!

playing with the water

a drum session with Christopher

Building a masterpiece!

My Love!

Thanks to Andrew for making a BIG bubble!

5 terrific kids~1 great picture!

Journey: a visit to the farm

"Hello" Mama Pig!

One of my good friends lives out in the country. She loves country living and in the past couple of years has started raising pigs. She started with 2 and now has 4 adults plus new additions with 8 piglets. We took David out to meet the pigs on Saturday. He wasn't quite sure what to think at first. The piglets were running around looking so cute and mama pig was wanting to get out of the gated area.
There was one runt which has to be hand fed. After being fed David got to pet the little one and he seemed to like it. We let mama go to her 'spa' area (mud hole) and he thought that was fun. Mama pig rolled around and got all sorts of muddy which was funny to watch! We also saw the other 3 adult pigs who were resting in the shade. We enjoyed an awesome brunch and David entertained us with some dancing!
David has been using a lot of new words lately and has started to intentionally listen and try to sound out new words. By the time we left the farm he was saying "pig". We brought his stuffed pig with us which he enjoyed playing with on the trip home. We also got a good supply of fresh tomatoes which David absolutely loves. It was a fun day!!

Cute little piggy!

Mama in her 'spa'

Trying out some work boots!

He loves to dance and sing!

Journey: Family, Fun, Food and Fireworks!

It's past 9am now and our little one is still asleep! This is because we kept him up late last night so he could experience his first 4th of July fireworks show. Although the show had some technical difficulties and was cut short, we all still had a wonderful time!! I love watching David's face as he experiences new things. He would point to the firework and light up!! He also enjoyed hearing and seeing the crowd and their reaction. At one point a BU student had everyone do a "sic 'em bears" and David absolutely loved it!! After that he kept doing the arm motion and saying bear. I see a strong presence of green and gold in his future!!!
That was the end of our night and we had a full day at my parents annual cookout. The cookout tradition started back in North Carolina at my grandparents farm. Growing up my mom, sister and I would spend the month of July at my grandparents farm in NC. On the 4th my granddad would fire up the grill and we'd have a cookout with neighbors and family. It was always a highlight of our trip! My god parents would make the most delicious peach ice cream and we'd have all the traditional cookout foods-hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, hot dog chili (an NC tradition), chips, etc. I was very excited to introduce David to our family tradition!

Lucky for us Waco has had a bit of a cool down so it was under 100 for our picnic which was great! We had friends and neighbors join us and my parents Baylor student- Nana from China. It was her first July 4th celebration just like David! We enjoyed eating outside under the trees and enjoying each others company. David ate and ate and ate! He really, really like tomatoes and blueberries. He also enjoyed the bread served with humus. By the time actual lunch rolled around he wasn't too hungry since he had snacked all morning!!
Since he loves being outside the picnic was great for him. My parents have a little table and chairs just his size. He loved moving the chairs around and sitting in different places around the backyard. He explored with Hannah and enjoyed playing with the dogs as well.
David's first 4th of July as an American citizen was lots of fun. I look forward to sharing this holiday with him and building our family traditions. I am so thankful that my parents and sister are all in one place so we can spend great family time together!! I am also thankful to the many men and women who so bravely serve our country each and every day so that we can celebrate and Independence Day!! Happy 4th!!


The Gochis Family
They were missing Drew who is at FCA camp this week