Sunset Beach

The week of the 4th of July we took our annual Johns family trip to Sunset Beach, NC.  It was Gabriel's first trip to the island and the Atlantic coast, and he loved it!  He had a blast playing (and eating) in the sand and the waves.  It was so much fun to take Gabriel to the beach where I have been going for the last 21 years and start memories & traditions of our own.

 Tide pool - Sunset Beach has the best tide pools, Gabriel loved sitting and playing in them and so do we.

 Cousins!  MM, Justin, Brooks and Hatcher joined us the second half of the week (even with CB#3's impending arrival) and Gabriel had so much fun with them.

                                                 WAVES!

Chillin' with mommy after a long day of fun

                       Happy 4th of July!

                                   My favorite pictures of the trip

                    Getting a ride with daddy back from the beach

Gabriel's 1st Birthday!

It's hard to believe our little buddy boo boo is a year old, and what an amazing year it has been!  We celebrated with friends and family, Gabriel was a little under the weather and little warn out from a long night of teething, but he had fun none-the-less.  We started out the day with a yummy pancake breakfast and it just got better from there!            

                                           It's my party and I'll cry if I want too

 He wasn't much on the cake, just touched the icing a little....We got 1 quick picture with the birthday hat on, he wasn't having any of that!

We did a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and it turned out really cute!  It was lots of fun to put everything together and Gabe did an awesome job on the balloon caterpillar - I liked it so much we left it up for days afterwards:-)

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

We had a big road trip to Virginia over Memorial Day weekend.  We went to visit Gabriel's great grandpa for the first time and Gabriel had SO much fun!  Grandpa taught him how to high-five and he got a very special treat for the first time.  We figured no better place than Pa's to try ice cream for the first time and Gabriel loved it!                                                         Yummy!

 After a great visit with Grandpa & Dot we headed to the Lake where Gabriel got to meet all of his Johns family cousins for the first time.  1st cousins, 2nd cousins, all kinds of cousins!

                                                    We make cute kids in our family:-)

                                                          Cool guy in his sunglasses.

 Gabriel swam in the lake for the first time and he loved it!  He drank a bunch of lake water, but that didn't seem to bother him:)

                                                                   Afternoon playtime

Gabriel, Martha Lucy and Caroline are the newest additions to the crop of cousins.

I'm 11 months!

Just before our big Memorial Day Trip, on 5/23 Gabriel turned 11 months!

It's Official.....

Gabriel is mobile!

Yum, this sand tastes good

Gabriel's second beach trip was a success!  He loved the sand and the ocean!  He especially liked the way the salty sand tasted.  We played in the sand, sat on the edge of the water and let waves roll up on us and he even liked going into the ocean.  

10 months!

Gabriel turned 10 months on April 23rd, while we were in FL visiting his Papa & Nina.