At the beginning of October we celebrated Kathy’s birthday with a small celebration at our house. Gotta love the low key COVID birthdays. The weather was beautiful so we ate outside and I made chocolate peanut butter brownies. I was a lovely family evening.
Our planned August vacation this year was supposed to be Alaska, but since that couldn’t happen, we decided to do another week on the boat on the Chesapeake. We didn’t travel quite as far as we did the first go round, but did stay in a new spot each night. This time we also met up with our friends the Townsends, who were supposed to be in St. Maarten the same week, but obviously couldn’t go. They chartered a boat out of Rock Hall and we met up 4 of our 7 nights out. At one point we also met up with a family we had met down in Tangier the last time we were on the boat. A dad and twin 7 year olds who have been on their boat nonstop since the spring.
We spent a few days with the Sharps in Rock Hall before heading out.
We always travel with sea kayaks, which are the best way to get around into little coves and shallow rivers. The Townsends up the game with inflatable standing paddle boards, which were pretty cool. Sophie in particular loved them and was really good getting around on it.
The Townsends also brought along a huge pink blowup unicorn, which was of course a hit with all the girls.
It was another amazing week on the boat!
While we were spending the week in Argentina, the girls went with each set of grandparents for a week of fun. Lauren headed to New Jersey to spend time with Mom Mom and Pop Pop. Here’s the happy girl…
Three days after Christmas we celebrated Lauren’s first birthday. My parents came up from Virginia and the Sharps came in from New Jersey. It was a small family get together, which was perfect right after the big holiday. It also prompted us to un-decorate Christmas and decorate for a birthday party.
We spent Christmas this year with the Sharps in New Jersey. It was a relaxing few days, with a lot of family on Christmas afternoon. Christmas morning was quiet with just Mom Mom, Pop Pop, me, Dave and the girls (and the dogs too of course). Sophie is very into Hello Kitty right now and got a matching pair of gloves and a hat from Lauren (what good taste at such an early age…)
We are thrilled to introduce Lauren Isabelle, born on December 28th at 5:50am. She weighed 6lbs 15ozs and was 19 inches long. The delivery was such a good experience, and both her and I did so well we got to come home from the hospital a day early! Big sister Sophie has been loving on her all week, just like everyone else who meets her.
This year we spent Christmas Eve at our house with Mom Mom and Pop Pop. Dave made a fabulous dinner (2 fishes, as opposed to 7) and then we opened a few presents. I got a new camera, and so did Sophie! She did a lot of practicing…
On Saturday we went and visited Dave’s Mom Mom – Sophie’s great grandmother – for her 90th birthday. We brought some Tony Luke’s from Philly and enjoyed lunch with the birthday girl. 
Four Generations