Beach Baby (8 months)

Hello! I'm sorry to all of my blog followers who have been patiently waiting for this week's entry. I wanted to tell all of you that I was going on vacation but Mommy and Daddy said it probably wasn't safe to announce to the internet world that we were going to be gone for 8 days so I had to keep it a secret! Very early Monday morning we headed to the airport to go to the Outer Banks, North Carolina for a family trip. We got a little nervous as the lines at the airport were crazy and we didn't have much time to get to our plane. Silly us! After all our rushing we got some disappointing news. We were all settled into our seats on the plane when the Captain announced that there were storms in Chicago and our plane wasn't going to take off for another 2 hours! So we all got off the plane and went back to the gate. Daddy stood in line to see if we could get another connecting flight from Chicago to Norfolk and Mommy sat down with me and I took a nap. We were not able to get on another flight so they recommended we just try to make our connecting flight as it was probably going to be delayed as well. When we got to Chicago we found out that we had PLENTY of time to make our flight as it was delayed by quite a bit. In fact, by the time we got to leave, our plane was 3 hours delayed. WHEW! We were sooooo glad when we finally made it to Virginia, got our rental car, and were on the road to the beach! By the time we got to the beach house it was dinner time. I got to meet all of my cousins and aunts and uncles finally! We didn't get to play much because it was pretty much bed time for everyone.

The next day it was time to hit the beach! I was sooo excited to see the ocean since I never got to see it when we were in Connecticut (remember I was sleeping and it was so foggy anyway?).

Here is Daddy putting my feet on the sand and the water came up and splashed me.

I did NOT like the water at all! Those ocean waves were soooooooo scary! No one told me it was going to be so scary!

After the unsuccessful trip to the water, Daddy set up my beach tent. I really didn't like this either.

After being outside we headed back in and I figured out I have a new trick...standing up! I was sitting with Mommy and all of a sudden I used this drum to get myself up. Now I like to try and stand up on anything.

After all that time outside and playing I needed a bath. This is my blow up duck tub. I love this tub! Even though I can sit up really well now, I slide around too much in the big tub so Mommy found this travel tub at Babies R Us. It is really fun and the duck even quacks!

Since I wasn't such a fan of the beach, Daddy thought I might have more fun in the pool. It turns out I'm more of a "Pool Girl" than "Beach Babe". I'm not surprised as Mommy doesn't really like swimming in the ocean either. It must be genetic. We both are a little hesitant about discovering little ocean creatures. In the pool, the worst thing you can find is an icky bug and those are easy to spot and get rid of!

This is me and my cousin Abby. Abby is 6 weeks younger than me and not quite as steady in her sitting up. She had to use me for support when she tipped over. I was happy to help her out since I remember those "tippy days" not so long ago!

Daddy thought I should give the ocean another chance. I was happy sitting with Mommy with the waves safely in the distance.

Again it was time for another tub bath to get all the sand and sunscreen off. I love this tub!

Grandma and Grandpa Vance wanted to get a picture of all of us girls in our matching dresses. It was pretty much impossible to get all of us to to look at the camera and be happy at the same time. From left to right: Cousin Ellie (2 1/2 yrs old), Grandpa Vance, Me (8 months), Cousin Lauren (23 months), Grandma, Cousin Abby (6 1/2 months), and Cousin Anna (4 years).

Abby and I were horsing around on the bed after the photo. Now we are all smiles!

On our last night all together (Abby, Ellie and Anna and their parents had to go home a day early), we went out to the boardwalk before bed for an impromptu photo shoot. I was a little embarrassed because I already had my ducky jammies on.

This photo shoot went a little better!

Luckily Hurricane Bill stayed away from our vacation but we did get big waves from the hurricane. The picture doesn't do it justice. They were scary big waves and no one was allowed to swim in the ocean.

This is me showing off my standing skills. I'm going to be walking in no time! Mommy and Daddy are SOOO excited about this (not really, that was me being sarcastic). We left the beach house on Sunday and took a LOOOOONNNNNNNGGGG drive to Richmond to see Daddy's friend from high school. It wasn't supposed to be that long of a drive but we had really bad traffic. We had fun with them and then headed to our hotel.

We visited Colonial Williamsburg. This is me and some oxen. I got to experience life prior to the Revolutionary War. I fit in well with all the British flags as my stroller was made in the UK and it has a British flag on it.

We also walked around the campus of The College of William and Mary, the 2nd oldest college in America. It was very pretty and I decided to add it to my list of possible colleges to attend. Mommy is a bit skeptical that I'll be able to attend school so far away from home since I cry when she leaves the room to use the restroom. Hmpf! She's right! Anyway, the walk was so peaceful I decided to take a snooze!

We finally came home on Tuesday. Our plane from Norfolk to Chicago was tiny so we got to exit the plane outside. Here is me waiting for our gate checked bags. Unfortunately our plane from Chicago to Minneapolis was cancelled so we ended up staying in Chicago for a few extra hours again. I really never expected to spend that much time in Chicago (I guess Mom and Dad didn't either!). Luckily I'm a VERY good traveler and I was on my best behavior. The only hiccup is when I had a bit of a diaper disaster 15 minutes before boarding our plane. Mommy had to get me and the stroller cleaned up in a hurry which wasn't easy. She kept saying she wished if I was going to do this that I had done it earlier as we had been sitting around the airport for hours. I told her that I didn't have that much control over these kind of things!

Here is me after we FINALLY landed in Minneapolis. I slept the entire flight from Chicago to Minneapolis so my parents were really happy with me. I had fun sitting in the middle seat while we were waiting to deplane. Now we are home and trying to get back to normal schedule. I forgot that we were back on Central Standard Time and woke up at 5 am thinking we were still on the east coast. Oops! I'll try to do better tomorrow! I'll leave you with a short clip of me swimming with Daddy. I'm sure I forgot lots of fun things from my vacation but that's all for now!