first family vacation

...with eden, that is.

this trip was full of fun, firsts, and learning moments.

nershi was not a fan of the fireworks...

he hung close by whoever seemed to be farthest away from them...

(we got down there around dinner on the 4th...

and according to nershi, armageddon was happening just after dark!)

he did, however, love watching kiekie! do yard work... from the inside.

eden was a DOLL the entire time we were there... extra long naps, never got off schedule, was fun to be around, was rarely fussy, and was such a show-off with her smiles and sweet personality... and a ham for the camera!

she had several visitors and we even ventured out to the mall...

on the way down, she enjoyed her first bottle of (extremely diluted) juice*!)

*technically, this wasn't her very first bottle of juice--

but this one wasn't for medical purposes! haha

she had her first night out of the house (as in sleeping somewhere else other than home!)

it was her first trip to pop & kiekie!'s

she enjoyed her first boat ride... and she even got to drive! she LOVED the boat ride...

...the life-vest?... notsomuch.

she had her first dip in the pool... the verdict is still out as to whether or not she liked it...

she enjoyed her first stroll in the bob facing forward (not in her carseat)... i'll let you decide if she liked it or not :)

we also had a close call. a VERY close call... with the dog. i won't go into each dramatic detail--because it was not my finest hour... or lee's... but i will say that lee and nershi went running on wednesday morning and nershi got too hot and almost had a heat stroke. luckily, mom googled the symptoms and we were running cold water over him then mom & lee took him to the vet and he was re-hydrated with fluids and was VERY WELL taken care of... he's since made a full recovery and we are SO THANKFUL for the Lord's mercy and for the quick response we got from the fine folks & dr. resnick at vca-wrightsville beach animal hospital. wow. a valuable lesson was learned. and if i thought i couldn't love that dog anymore than i already did... i do now. ...and while we're still "talking" about this--don't actually ask me about this in public. i will cry. i'll tell you about it if i feel like talking about it, but don't ask, k?

this vacation (minus our puppy excitement) was the perfect vacation...

lee and i had date night... we went to see "knight & day"--GREEEEEEAT movie!! LOVED IT! (and i am NOT a tom cruise fan...)

mom and i had some time to shop for youknowwho

and got some stuff on clearance for NEXT summer...

and my faaaaaaaaavorite part of a vacation? DOING NOTHING. there were days i slept till 10am then took a nap at 12:30... it was nice to stay up late and sleep late and take a nap... and heck, mom even did night duty for a couple of nights... YAHOOOOOOO!! :) (even though night duty is a bit of a gamble these days... she's waking up less and less each night)

(eden's classic "milk drunk" face!)

its so nice to go on a vacation and not come back more tired than you were when you left. oh, and its nice to come home to a clean house, too!! i had the time sunday before lee got off work to pack everything neatly in the back of lee's car and clean the house so we'd have nothing pressing when we got home (except for grocery shopping!)

oh, and how could you forget... the group shot!