Catch Up Part 2: 4th of July

Last year for the 4th of July we visited our good friends, the Rondeaus in South Carolina. We had so much fun we decided to do it again this year and start a little tradition. My parents also come out to South Carolina for a family reunion so we get to see them as well. Of course we had great fun and the Josie got to play with Noah again! When we told her we were going to see Noah she kept saying, "Greg... Noah...Greg...Ca." Of course "Ca" is Alicia. She eventually put another syllable in and she now says Lisa. It was fun to watch the two play together. Josie followed Noah everywhere and wanted to be right next to him. Poor Noah was a trooper and handled it well. She is definitely a social butterfly.

This picture cracks me up. Josie is playing with his emergency ride on truck. Noah sees her and immediately crawls over there. He wants to play with it and squeezes his way through. Josie is so excited to see him that she shouts, "Noah!" She puts her arm around him as she would greet a friend then continues to play with the toy over him.

Their matching shirts this year were homemade complete with their own hand prints and pipecleaner fireworks! Even the Dads helped with these. All the hands were necessary in pulling this off!

Matching monkey pajamas are so fun! We can only get away with this for so long! Be sure to watch the videos in the "more videos" section of our blog. I am having problems loading them onto the blog. For some background I love how Josie just followed Noah everywhere and wanted to be with him. I had to literally pull her off of him at one point. He was standing leaning on the coffee table and she was sitting leaned up against him. He goes along with it sometimes, ignores her at others, and just flat out crawls away from her after a while. Josie doesn't quite get the hint and there is one video where Noah is trying to push her away for some space. Still our little Josie is oblivious to his unsubtle cue and thinks its a game. They did have fun playing together.

Grandma and Pop

She had a fun but short visit with Grandma and Pop. Josie also got to see her first movie in the theater, Eclipse. How will I explain to her in the future that it was a movie about a girl caught in a love triangle between a vampire and werewolf? Grandma went with us and it was fun. It was our first movie since Josie was born and she actually did really well. Grandma brought some graham goldfish and that kept her happy most of the time. She liked the action parts but not the slow talking scenes. I knew it was time to take her out when she is leaning far forward then far backwards over and over and talking bored out of her mind. I miss the last 30 minutes or so but I went the next day by myself to see it again. We only got to see my parents for the day but it was well worth it! It was time to head back to see Greg, Alicia and Noah.

Grant finally got to play a round of golf after unsuccessfully finding an affordable public one near home. He and Greg enjoyed some of male bonding time. Thanks to growing up with my dad who is from South Carolina, we knew we had to have boiled peanuts and some peaches. They never disappoint!

Josie's 18 Month Pictures

Ok, I can't get the video of Josie's 18 month pictures posted so I will put it in the "more videos" part of our blog. Sorry!

Playing Catch UP

June

Summer is flying by and I need to play catch up. After our wonderful Memorial Day weekend with dear friends we prepared for a trip to Philadelphia a week later. Grant went to a conference and me and Josie tagged along! We stayed in downtown Philadelphia and once the conference was over we enjoyed some of the historical attractions. We went and saw the liberty bell and took pictures outside of Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. We wanted to go inside but we didn't have much time and I think you have to reserve tickets or get there early if you walk up to get them. Josie was such a trooper in her little splint. It never slowed her down. She wanted to be a part of whatever we were doing and let her do! The trip was a short one but a fun little getaway for all of us!

Independence Hall


The Liberty Bell

We got back on a Tuesday and Grant was off for his first Green Friday. He gets every other Friday off in the summer and we decided to set those aside for fun things to do. So we decided to go to the National Zoo. It was fun to actually show Josie the animals that she sees in her books. Her favorite were the elephants.

And what happened next? On Friday June 25th Miss Josie got her splint off! She was so cute in the doctor's office. As I was explaining to her that the nurse was taking her splint off she kept repeating it. She was so excited to have it off. She kept rubbing her leg and when we asked her where her splint was she would reply with both arms in the air, "Its gone!" She had a little atrophy but the doctor said that her strength and movement looked very good and to let her stand and do whatever at her own pace. Yikes now to start trying to get her to walk. She is a little nervous but she will do it!