Drop Off in WV

Since Jon is going to be gone on his mission trip for 10 days and the partner that I work with a lot is going to be on vacation for a week (with 2 deals that need "running"), I decided that Hannah needed to do her week with Grandma & Grandpap Folger this week. Last summer during Jon's trip, his parents stayed at our house and watched Hannah during the day so I was able to have a "not empty" house (although I ended up working a ton that week, so it may not have mattered).....but this year they already got a week with Hannah at the beginning of the month, so to keep things fair, I'm going to have an empty house all week with Hannah in WV....but I am keeping Abby with me, so it won't be totally empty!

Last year when Hannah went to WV, my parents came and got her....this year, after dropping Jon at the airport, I drove Hannah (and Abby) myself. Due to recent potty training and the post-lunch naptime, I was trying to figure out how to do this trip with stops (because one of the long sections of road at the 1/2 way point has few places to stop and the rest area is closed). I decided to stop at Buckeye Lake and get McDonald's, and then take Hannah (and Abby) to the rest area down the road to eat. It was WAY too hot to even consider leaving the dog in the car. So, we ordered our lunch and then headed to the rest area.

At the rest area, the picnic tables were too far from the cars to feel comfortable taking either Hannah or Abby over and then going to get the other. So, I was trying to carry food for us, hold Hannah's hand, and Abby on her leash. Abby was excited to be out, so she was pulling....Hannah was trying to run. Needless to say, we had at least one adjustment on the (short) walk to the picnic tables and Hannah was "helping" by carrying some stuff. Three feet from the tables, Abby lunges, my drink falls to the ground and splashes Hannah. Hannah starts crying because she got wet....Abby received a beat down and was told to lay down. What a way to start lunch.....trust me, it didn't get better. Hannah didn't want her chicken nuggets, so we swapped for my cheeseburger (I always drive Jon crazy by getting the 95 cent regular cheeseburger and not the $1 double - he says it doesn't make any sense, but I don't want a double...). Then, she spilled her milk all over her shirt because those milk containers don't have foil underneath the lids so you can just poke a straw through. More tears. We were at lunch FOREVER. I used every single napkin we had cleaning up my drink and Hannah's milk and in the end was using the bag to sop up some more spilled milk. I got everyone back to the car and left Abby while I took Hannah in to the potty. I left Hannah's shorts on, but down at her ankles and she proceeded to pee on them by splashing out of the potty somehow. More tears. We washed our hands and I turned on the dryer -- MORE tears. Back to the car for a change of clothes and a baby wipe bath.... Great. Hopefully she'll nap, since it's nap time, right???? WRONG. No nap. She talked and talked the whole way there. By Marietta she was starting to get tired, but she wasn't about to "give it up." When she saw the bridge into St. Mary's, she said "we're almost to Grandma's" and got an extra dose of energy. By the time we got to my mom and dad's (HOURS after dropping off Jon), I was exhausted and she was ready to run and play with Grandma! How in the world did my mom regularly travel with the 3 of us (all born within 3 1/2 years of each other) by herself?!?!?!

I managed to enjoy getting spoiled by my parents until Saturday night (they watch Hannah, they feed me great meals), when I had to leave right after bathtime so I could be home to do a client meeting SUNDAY afternoon at my office (that was conveniently scheduled during my drive to WV). I hadn't planned on leaving until Sunday morning, but it would have been hard to get Abby home and me back to the office on time for the meeting (especially having to be dressed presentably), so I went ahead and did the evening drive. It wasn't bad, but I've been spoiled by having Jon chauffeur me everywhere since we've been married ; )

Here are some pictures I took on Saturday while Hannah was playing with Grandma:

Jon has always said he's going to be forced to watch years of low-scoring, no dunking girls' basketball....he may be right. Hannah loved playing ball with Grandma. Grandma got Hannah a tricycle to ride, but Hannah's legs aren't quite strong enough to make it go...(but you should see her hang from the monkey bars - that's where her muscles are!)
Hannah and Grandma in the creek...with Hannah leading the way!

Hannah waving at Mommy (I'm up on the bridge)

Hannah loved throwing rocks - especially the big ones that made a splash!

This is my parents' chow chow, Bear.

I've always grown up with big outdoor dogs (my dad used to famously say that he had 3 kids and didn't need any other pets in the house). When I was little we had german shepherds and some sort of lab mix (that we had for over 15 years - my parents got him before they had me). We also had a beagle and an assortment of mutts, as well as farm cats, rabbits, horses, cows, pigs, and a chicken or two. Needless to say, my parents have downsized in the animal department and Bear is the only dog right now. Bear's getting pretty old, so Mom was careful to make sure she was in between Hannah and Bear at all times....because Hannah wanted to hug and pet Bear like she does Abby. Although Bear may have enjoyed that a few years ago, these days (he's at least 12, I think) it is better to play it safe since he isn't around kids and is getting to be a grumpy old man. Most of the summer he is hiding out underground in an old canning cellar (which Hannah always wanted to go investigate) because he is so hot, so at least it's not a constant battle to keep Hannah away from him.

All Done!

As Hannah would say, "all done"....no more speech therapy needed.

Following her therapy session today, her speech therapist determined that she was no longer showing any delays that "warrant[ed] eligibility in communication" for the free services. It is amazing the progress that she has made. When we first went to the mega-therapy session back in November of last year, she was delayed between 6 and 9 months from where she should have been. Today during her testing she scored as well as a 3-year old, and she is only 2 1/2! She not only caught up, but zoomed ahead.

Hannah is now speaking in sentences, she asks questions non-stop..."what's this, Mommy?", and she has an amazing vocabulary for someone so little. She pulls out words that we didn't even know she learned, like "ta-da" in the bathtub the other night as she was making mounds out of the bubbles and telling her dad that "it's not convenient". Watching a child grow and develop and learn new things is just so amazing.

Of course, watching your child become more and more independent is so much fun too. Hannah is definitely her own little person and while she loves hugs and cuddles, she'll let you know when she wants to go off and do her own thing. This morning, for the first time, she said she wanted Daddy and not Mommy when she was getting dressed -- Daddy was of course thrilled, as he is often the "runner-up" choice when given the option between the two of us...but Mommy was realizing that her little munchkin isn't so little anymore.

30 Month Checkup

We took Hannah to her 30-month checkup and all is well with our gal. Our peanut is now a long and lean little girl -- 25lbs (5th-10th percentile) and 38.5 inches (75th-90th percentile). Our doctor thinks she's doing great and has been pleased that we've taken advantage of the "Help Me Grow" services offered by the county to help bring her up to speed developmentally because it is working! Our pediatrician is also amazed that Jon has Hannah all potty-trained and wanted to know his secrets, as her 3rd child is the same age as Hannah and he's not taking to it as easily!

We're going to keep Hannah on whole milk a little longer (most kids go off of it at age 2, but Hannah is going to stay on it since "the extra calories certainly won't hurt"). Otherwise, Hannah is drinking from open cups ("sippys are for babies, Mommy") and using regular silverware at the table (other than with cereal - we have this bendable rubber spoon that is a lot easier to get the Cheerios and milk on the spoon together and keep them there!). When we can get her to sit in her booster seat, it makes meals easier since she is contained and can't hop down to hug Abby, go over to Abby's mat and tell her to sit, or run to get a toy or book to show me. However, there are times she insists on a "big girl" chair and we let her do that every now and then. She is just growing up so fast and is definitely a little girl and not a baby.

We have meltdowns every now and then (that typically Jon deals with in the afternoons while I'm at work). I think they're primarily when she's tired, but they can be caused by anything....from not getting the snack she wanted to dropping something on the floor (or spilling water on her shirt or leg). Ah, the drama of being 2. Hannah has also learned to dress and undress herself, so she likes to pick out her own clothes and put her dirty clothes in the hamper....she also likes to take off her clothes downstairs and dance around naked : )

Hannah loves the time that she's spending with her Daddy this summer and is getting to do all kinds of fun stuff with him. I also continue to try to do fun activities with her on my Fridays off, and she's enjoying the rec center pool (she can even put her face in the water and blow bubbles....something I think I was 5 and in swimming lessons at my Grandma's house before I could do!), and being outside as much as possible. She is an explorer and doesn't hesitate to go off and examine bugs, leaves, etc. She also plays well by herself and will frequently run off to her playroom and play with her kitchen or read books while we're somewhere else in the house (of course, if it gets too quiet, that's when we go looking for her!).

I continue to be amazed by this little girl that we brought home from the hospital at 5 weeks old weighing about 5 pounds. She has such a fun, independent personality, and keeps us laughing all (most) of the time. She is very affectionate and we love getting hugs and kisses from her (although I'm not sure that Abby enjoys it like Jon & I do). It is so much fun to watch her grow up and learn to do new things! I definitely love this stage of her life.

Chilldog Weekend

Just a mere week after getting home from vacation, we hosted Jon's college friends for their annual get-together. Getting a 4-bedroom house ready to host 23 people is a challenge in and of itself, but hosting right after coming home from vacation (and working WAY more than I'm scheduled to work on multiple deals) is downright challenging. Fortunately, Jon helped out a bunch (as did our WONDERFUL cleaning lady, who made a special trip to help out). Ultimately, we set up the house with each family getting a bedroom and one family getting our (unfinished) basement (they're really good sports). Every family is a family of five, except our little family of three -- which made our small nursery actually work for our family's sleeping arrangements. Everyone was really good about having a family crowded together in one bedroom.

This year in a break from prior tradition, we decided that each family would be responsible for a meal instead of the host providing all of them. As hosts, we ended up doing a couple of meals, but it was nothing like last time when we fed 18 people all weekend (yes, the group has grown a bit from the last time we hosted!). This year we also asked families to bring their own towels and some of their own sheets, which really cut down on the post-weekend laundry! These changes definitely made things easier for the sole working mom of the group.

It's hard to believe that they've been having these annual gatherings since 2000. This year, to celebrate their "10th anniversary" I had a cake made for them.....in the shape of a dog bone! We were hoping to cut into it Friday night after dinner when everyone arrived, but a few families got off to a late start....and the 4th family didn't arrive until about 9:30pm (with the 5th not able to arrive until about 11:30pm!). The kids were certainly crazy when we cut into a cake that late at night and gave everyone a snack before sending the kids to bed!

The Chilldogs

(Brad, Paul, Elliott, Jim and Jon) The Childog Families

10 adults

13 children (ages 7 and under)

On Saturday morning, we took everyone to the splash park at the end of our street. The kids loved it. Hannah was a little unsure of the water at first, but eventually got up the nerve to get wet. We played for quite a while and had a picnic lunch -- some kids climbed the rocks and Jon took some of the boys fishing for a little while too. Of course, some of us moms had to take the littlest kids home for afternoon naps -- thank goodness the splash park is right down the street (and free!).

After our afternoon at the splash park while the little kids took naps, Emily did a craft with the older kids. Thank goodness we have a kitchen table with lots of leaves (and a tablecloth). Emily had all of the kids make magnetic boards with their names on them. They were really neat and I'm so thankful that Emily is creative and has all of these really neat craft supplies to be able to lead a craft like that.

Saturday evening we headed over to the Gilham's new house for our annual pinata (well, we had dinner too). The Mooney family makes a pinata every year, and this year they made it to look like a goat. We had the kids take turns - youngest to oldest - trying to break it. After at least two times through the lineup, we still hadn't broken the thing, so the moms took a turn....and after none of us could do it, the dads had to take a turn too! Here are a few pictures from our pinata evening.

Kids all ready to go!

Hannah was a little more interested in riding a tricycle than getting candy after the pinata finally broke. In fact, I think she would have only picked up the first piece of candy she saw if Daddy hadn't helped her grab a few more. Of course, the guys then got silly with the pinata....Brad is shown below showing off his Lebron "Quitness" tee-shirt.Trying to get 13 kids lined up for a group picture is quite an adventure.....Here are a few candid shots of the kids (with Abby) for a "chillpup" picture. Notice the foam axes that some of the boys have...they keep things interesting!
On Sunday morning when we got home from church we noticed a "bug" in our tree...... You see, last year one of the guys brought his kids' little motorized car with them to Illinois and the guys added another battery to make it go even faster than normal. This year, Brad showed up with his girls' Barbie Beetle tied to the top of his minivan so it could get "souped up"....the guys made a midnight trip to Walmart for supplies and hot-wired the battery. The kids ended up using it SPEEDING up and down the street for a while on Saturday....but it eventually burned out the motor. As a result, some of the guys found a way to rig it up into our front tree as a departing "gift" to us. As you can see, the car is up pretty high in a big tree... It was raining when everyone left Sunday evening, so the car stayed until Monday when Jon managed to get it down -- we were wondering what the city's tree-trimming crew thought as they worked on the street trees in our neighborhood on Monday morning. (Jon is convinced that they didn't notice it, since he didn't initially notice it either.)
Ultimately, a good time was had by all. We'll be at 24 people next year with the addition of the newest Baby Woolley. Amazing how the group keeps growing - of course, there were already 6 kids in the mix before I joined the group! These days the kids look forward to it as much as the adults and for us it is certainly a time of staying up late, white elephant gift exchanges, and kids being way off schedule and consuming loads of food.

Vacation - St. John's

Sorry in advance for the long post....this is the recap of our entire week's vacation....instead of doing separate posts for the various activities that we did throughout the week. Grab a beverage and enjoy!

Jon and I took our 2nd kid-free vacation in as many years..... (well, I guess we weren't entirely kid-free, since I'm 5 months pregnant).... We went with two other couples to St. John in the US Virgin Islands. Josh & Danila were one of the couples....the other was John & Sarah Gauger -- they are really good friends of Josh & Danila, but we didn't know them very well prior to vacation. Fortunately, we all got along really well and had a great time.

We were cleared to leave town by my doctor the day before vacation - just to be safe we had everything checked out before we headed out. I didn't have any restrictions placed on me other than to take it easy and to avoid the tap water when out in town. Otherwise, I was free to do anything I wanted, which was great.

Here are a sampling of pictures from our trip.....Since we were at beaches snorkeling a lot, we didn't take a camera every day, or only one couple would take their camera. I haven't gotten pictures from everyone yet, so these are just pictures from our camera.

Our condo....it was really nice, found on http://www.vrbo.com/!

The owners left a lot of information for us on places to see and things to do. Unfortunately, on our first day we read that we could take a 5 minute walk to Honeymoon Beach....well, it was actually a 5 minute walk to the trailhead where we could then hike .8 miles to Honeymoon Beach. None of us were really prepared for the hike, but we did have water. Thank goodness we didn't bring much else. I didn't bring fins to snorkel that day, and after the hike, I didn't last long snorkeling in reef shoes. I was just too tired. When it came time for lunch, we walked to a resort that wasn't too far away. We had some sandwiches and $120 later we were paying and heading out....yep, that was one expensive lunch, but we later discovered, it wasn't too out of the ordinary for the island. The guys decided that due to chaffing they were going to swim back to our beach spot. It was FAR. I can't believe they made it, but they did. They were exhausted when they finished, but still found the energy to snorkel more! When we were done for the day, we all decided there was no way we could hike back, so we walked back to the resort and took a cab. Definitely a fun day, but we had 6 people who were ready to go to bed early that night!

The condo had a pool and workout facility. Some dedicated people in our group actually used the workout facility, but the rest of us just used the pool!

We had to take a ferry to get to St. John from St. Thomas (where we flew in). Unfortunately, on our first day we took a $15 cab ride to our condo...despite it being about a 5 minute walk from the port. We asked a guy at the dock (shown above from the condo's balcony) how to get to Grande Bay and we were ushered to a cab...taken to the Westin in the middle of the island, and then taken pretty much back to the port : ) LOVELY. Meanwhile, Josh & Danila ran down to meet us, but we were already in the cab and likely couldn't see them while we were waiting for another couple to load up their stuff. They assumed they'd missed us and didn't walk up the line of cabs up the street.... important lesson learned about having an idea of where you're going when you arrive! Condo balcony view at sunset We celebrated John Gauger's 30th birthday while we were on vacation. We went to Rhumb Lines, which John declared to have the best key lime pie on the island. (This became a running joke after he had another key lime at another place that he declared too cold/frozen, which he brought up a number of times!)

Danila & SarahHappy Birthday John!!

On Sunday, we took a ferry to the British Virgin Islands. We'd heard that "The Baths" on Virgin Gorda were something that we had to see. It was absolutely wonderful there, but since I don't have any pictures, you'll have to click the link to get an idea of what it looked like. It was a long ferry ride from the USVI, but we had a wonderful lunch overlooking the Baths and then headed down the path to the beach. The rock formations were truly amazing and we had some great snorkeling. I think everyone except the pregnant lady did some cliff jumping too. It was a fun way to spend the day, but we were certainly exhausted when we were done. I'm very glad we took the side trip.

On Monday, the girls went to St. Thomas to go shopping. I tagged along even though I'm not much of a shopper. I'm so "not" a shopper that I was the only one whose husband gave her an entirely unlimited budget of "if you see something you want, just get it" when we went to this jewelry shopping haven. I was also the only one who purchased absolutely nothing (other than lunch and a snack) while over there. Go figure. (I think Jon knows me well!)

After we finished shopping, we planned to take the ferry from Charlotte Amalie so we could get back to watch the St. John Carnival parade, but when we went up to the dock the guys there told us that they were only running them from Red Hook (a 20-minute cab ride to the other side of the island). I'm sure it was for efficiency to get more people over to St. John faster (b/c that ferry ride was shorter), but there were ABSOLUTELY NO signs posted anywhere saying there were no ferries from Charlotte Amalie - otherwise we would have planned differently.... So, after running in the rain to get the "ferry" that wasn't, the guy told us we could either take a cab for $30 or a "safari" for $6. We were totally confused and not following him until he finally got us to understand that the safari was the local cab. It would take us to the same place (just not via the scenic tourist highway) in about the same amount of time. So, all of us girls walked to the safari stop and got aboard the next one that stopped. We ended up being the only white people on the safari.....and at every stop the "bus" made, people stared at us like crazy. The picture below is our view from the last row -- basically an open-air "bus" of sorts.

Unfortunately, it started to downpour (again) while we were making our way to Red Hook....so we got drenched while riding! Sarah made the best of it! Danila not only got wet, but ended up sitting in a puddle as well. Our ride was our special adventure of the trip!
We made it back to St. John to watch the end of the Carnival Parade. Carnival on St. John is a huge party - it runs for almost a week, celebrating their Emancipation Day as well as the 4th of July, and culminating in a parade. It is probably a little like a Mardi Gras parade. As a parent, there were plenty of "floats" or groups that I wouldn't want my kids to see. But, it was fun to watch a little. Carnival was going on the first few days of our trip and ended every night with concerts in this town square (formerly a parking lot). They had little booths around the perimeter for food and drink, and a big stage for bands to play....which meant a lot of VERY LOUD music until about 3am every night. Fortunately for me, I can sleep through anything, but I think some of the other people were really happy to see the parade mark the end of Carnival!
After the Carnival was over, we were actually able to rent a car (since during Carnival there were none available on the island), and get out and see the island a little more. It is so beautiful there!! About 2/3 of the park is a national forest, so once the Carnival "party" was over, the pace really slowed down. Maho Bay

Jon & me overlooking Maho Bay

We went to Maho Bay one day when we weren't able to find parking at "Trunk Bay," one of the "must see" places on St. John. Maho Bay ended up being a great place to go! We first went up near these old sugar plantation ruins and started down this "Jeep only" path. Unfortunately, we didn't realize when the "Jeep only" path ended and we were on the "walking only" path to a snorkeling spot. By the time we realized that the Jeep wouldn't make it around to where we had to go, the guys had to get out and direct John as he backed the Jeep back to a "parking area".....we were inches from a small drop-off into the water on one side and the hill on the other...made for an interesting way to start the day! We had to walk a little under a mile to get to were we were going to snorkel and there were LOTS of mosquitoes out. I had to take a water break about 1/2 way to our snorkel spot, but everyone was good about it. Once we started snorkeling (I was wearing fins to keep from tiring - the others just wore reef shoes) it was amazing. There was a giant field of starfish where the starfish were literally 12+ inches across. I think some may have been 18 inches. They were huge and we saw some great fish and coral. After about 30-45 minutes I was tired and spent some time resting on a beachy area, but the others snorkeled until it looked like it might rain.

After lunch, we went to the Maho Bay beach and got to see TONS of sea turtles. The guys snorkeled for what seemed like forever, and Josh even saw a small shark. The guys found a baby octopus and brought it back for us girls to see....although it suctioned to John Gauger, which he declared to hurt! It was a great day, even though not as planned.

On another day we took the Jeep to the other side of the island to Skinny Legs - a burger joint the owner of our condo told us to check out. We were low on gas when we headed over, but all of the brochures said there were two gas stations on the island - one where we were, and the other over near Skinny Legs. Well.....when we pulled up, the gas station was boarded up and a local told us that it had been closed for over 3 months because the tanker that brought the gas over was declared "not seaworthy" recently. She told the guys to go back and get gas immediately and then come back. So, John & Josh went to get gas, while Jon stayed with the girls at the restaurant/shop area. We did have some great burgers and John & Josh actually made it to get gas without running out of gas in the mountains!

Trunk BayThe view as you enter the Trunk Bay beach.....

Trunk Bay is part of a national park, so you have to pay to visit it. It was our last big beach day, and it was really nice. They have an underwater snorkel trail there describing some of the things you see. I lasted the longest snorkeling here because there was so much to see!

The women were really the photographers for the entire trip! Josh & Jon getting ready to head out

The view from the beach at Trunk Bay

We got there early enough in the morning that we practically had the beach to ourselves!

We left around lunchtime in another case of "there were no signs"....We all put in orders at the little beach burger shop - having seen a credit card reader at the cash register with the green light on and no "cash only" (which are very common) signs. However, after all 6 of us put in orders, John & Sarah went up to pay for theirs and were told "cash only." We didn't have NEARLY enough cash for all of us to eat, so we had to tell them we couldn't take any of the food. The lady working wasn't happy and said we were trying to make trouble....we were trying to figure out why there were no signs....and ultimately, some people who showed up in line behind us saw what was happening and ordered up most of our food after we told them what we'd ordered.

St. John was notorious for "cash only" signs, but they were usually out. Of course, some "cash only" places had people who couldn't make change with cash -- like Thomas the smoothie guy. I once gave him a $20 for two smoothies that were $10 and he gave me the $20 back....another time John Gauger gave him $15 and got $23 back in change.....(my numbers may be off a bit, but needless to say, you get the idea). We were also amazed at how expensive groceries were in St. John. We paid $6 for a box of cheerios (and those were for the plain ones - the Honey Nut ones were $7!). A gallon of milk was $5, a 1/2 gallon of OJ - also $5.....etc. We bought groceries for our breakfast foods, but didn't make many other meals at "home." However, just being able to eat breakfast (and snacks) in really helped to keep costs down - even at the high grocery prices!

Can you tell I have a "baby bump"? It's there! I'm 20 weeks pregnant!!
Last day....getting ready to head home...

Although Jon & I were enjoying our vacation. We were also excited to head home to our Hannah!!! She spent the week with Grandma & Grandpa Woolley. We heard she had tons of fun and even got to go to Chuck E Cheese for the first time while we were away. Our flight home from Charlotte, NC got delayed because of weather, so instead of getting in at midnight, we got in about 3am...which made Hannah's 7am wake-up call really rough! But, this is the smiling face we saw when she ran into our room:

All smiles!!

And this is the face we got when we asked her to smile.