Pop Pop

March 21, 2021

Happy 70th Birthday, Dave!

We’re leaving for vacation on Dave/Pop pop’s actual birthday, so we celebrated a week early with a nice dinner and wine pairing down in Rock Hall. If it was non-COVID times we probably would have thrown a big party, but this was the second best option. Dave cooked the whole dinner and I made a cake. It was another beautiful early spring weekend, so we got to spend a lot of time outside.

On Sunday morning we walked to the beach where the Bay was like glass. Petunia loves to run around on the beach and will dip into the water, but won’t go in past her chest.

It was a really great, relaxing and celebratory weekend. It made me very excited for this coming summer and warm weather! This has been a long, cold winter and these glimpses of spring have been wonderful.

Happy 70th Birthday, Dave!

August 21, 2020

Chesapeake Vacation, Part II

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.

The girls with Mom Mom and Pop Pop on a beautiful night in Rock Hall

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.

5 girls getting ready to set sail on their pink flying unicorn

Bella with an ice cream face in Havre de Grace. Ice cream was a destination in each place we stopped and this place was by far the best.

It was another amazing week on the boat!

June 25, 2014

Father’s Day 2014

We spent Father’s Day this year down in Maryland with the Sharps. It was a beautiful weekend, just perfect weather, and we got to spend some good time at the beach.

The girls enjoyed time on the swing set… here they are with popsicles. What more could you want?

Pop Pop and Lauren

Lauren’s gift to Dave (with assistance from Michelle)

And another highlight of the weekend, for Dave especially, was getting his summer car back from the dealership, complete with a beautiful new paint job. The girls also enjoyed it.

March 19, 2014

Disney

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…

And Sophie went to Disney World with Nana Nana and Pappap, where she was in princess heaven. Here she is with Princess Jasmine (I like the attitude)…

And Snow White.

And she celebrated her birthday (again) with a Cinderella cake during her lunch with all of the princesses. I’m not sure we’ll be able to top this birthday!

December 30, 2013

Happy First Birthday Lauren!

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.

Here’s the birthday girl in her special birthday hat

This bouncer was a Christmas present, but she was still enjoying the heck out of it on her birthday.

Let her eat cake! Chocolate cake to be precise. She liked it too.

The birthday crew

December 30, 2013

Merry Christmas

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…)

Sophie’s big present was a bike (without pedals, the “new” training wheels). She struggled with it a bit, so we’ll need to keep practicing.

My attempt to get a good picture of the girls together…

Lauren in her new outfit from Nana

Sophie’s favorite present was a box of dress-up clothes from the Boyles. She’s a girl through and through. Here she is sporting one of the dresses, complete with gloves and clip-on earrings.

January 4, 2013

Welcome Lauren Isabelle!

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.

About 5 minutes after arriving in the world. We were lucky enough to get to spend about an hour with her before the staff took her. She was wide awake the whole time, and both Dave and I got in some good baby gazing time.

Sophie wanted to inspect every part of her right away. Her belly button and umbilical cord were particularly interesting to her. She also loved her little fingers and toes.

Two very happy grandmas.

Pop Pop

December 26, 2012

Christmas!

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…