Busy two days....

Fitz's parents made the trek down from NY to visit with us Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We tried to cram as much into the time as we could, from the aquarium, to a trip to New Bern, to beach trip. And actually, that was all in one day. On Monday, we grilled out, making bbq ribs, and corn on the cob on the grill. All delicious, my compliments to the chef (Fitz-ie)!! Then on Tuesday we made a mass-exoduses to the Aquarium for some fish watching and to see what Lilly would do now that she can actually see and watch. She really liked the alcove part of the shipwreck exhibit, it is almost like you are inside the water and she had a ball watching the big fish swim around. Then is was home to get ready for a lunch date in New Bern, my good friend Leslie was home from CA for a visit and her Dad was kind enough to drive her to New Bern to meet me and Lilly for lunch. Fitz and his folks rode along up and ate at a different place so Lilly, Leslie and I could have our girl time. I sure do miss her!! Then is was back in the car and home for a feeding and then get ready for a trip to the beach. It was a bit windy to stay for too long but we managed to get a ton of photos. Lilly did much better with getting her feet wet, hopefully we can find a calm day and actually sit her in the water. As for now, it is back to the regular schedule....laundry, cleaning, and Lilly time.

In other new, my folks left today for Grand Cache, Alberta, Canada so my dad can compete in the Canadian Death Race on Saturday. It's a 75 mile foot race up and down mountains that must be completed in 24 hours or less. So if you remember send him some good vibes Saturday to Sunday. Here's to those silly Hoover's and their silly races.....Go Death Racer, Go!!!

Getting some shut eye!!

I am full aware that by writing this, I will jinx myself and not get any sleep for a week, but I have to brag anyway. Because what else do parent do, but brag about how wonderful their kids are...

For the past two nights Lilly has slept from 9pm-6am without waking up. This means that I have been getting potentially 7 hours straight of sleep....wonderful!! Today, we have to do some shopping due to a recent growth spurt upwards....Lilly needs some sleepers in bigger then 3-6 month sizes. She's growing up so fast, they all do, and time flies...so go spend time with someone you love.

First road race at 15 weeks

Lilly and Fitz did the 29th Annual Historic Beaufort Road Race on Saturday and ended up getting 3rd in the baby jogger division. Not to shabby, considering Fitz has only tried the baby jogger 1x prior to the race. Our good buddy Dustin made the trek down for a visit and to try his hand and the....FAST, HOT, and FLAT course. And boy was it hot....no wind, and 90% humidity....YUCK!!! Then the boys headed out for some surfing, and Mr. D had a grand ole time on the purple monster (my board), Lilly and I took a great nap instead of hitting the beach. The photos above are as follows pre-race nap for Lilly, then a quick bite to eat on the starting line in photo two, and the final photo is post race of the family. Everyone has to start racing sometime, why not now?!

Big Bertha and the Fat Lip...a short story by me.

Ok, I do not claim to be a super surfer or anything even close to that; just a girl who grew up at the beach and surfed every summer growing up (as a "fair weather surfer). I only go when the waves are just right for me . . . not too big and not too powerful; just right-like goldie locks. So this weekend the surf was up thanks to the hurricane that churned up some swell. Fitz got up bright and early and checked the online surf reports and when there are no reports listed then the surf is great because everyone is out surfing. He headed out and got a good hour and a half before he came home to spend come quality time with Lilly. Then we headed out again in the afternoon, while my Mom got her Lilly fix in. Having had fun on Saturday, we decided to head out again Sunday morning; although the wave were not as big as Saturday they were a bit more powerful. So with Lilly once again in great hands with my Mom; we commenced surfing. On ride number 2 for me, I was a bit to far forward on the board and over the front I went. Now as a seasoned wiper-outer, I went straight to the bottom to avoid the surf board hitting me, but forgot that with low tide I was only in 18 or less inches of water. And before I knew what had happened some part of my board had.....whamo...in the face. I stand up quickly and I'm seeing stars....thinking that's no good...touch my face and think I hope I did not break my jaw. Fitz heads in to check on me and I start spitting blood. So we head into shore and I keep spitting blood. We go through all of the check...open/close mouth-check, no loose teeth-check, small cut requiring no stitches-check, check, and check. Ok, clean it with some salt water, and head back out...but I had lost my nerve and we just headed home instead. Then we had a nice visit with our good friends..EP and J. Kane from Raleigh. And I found my nerve again, and we headed back out for some afternoon surfing with my Dad. We all caught some nice rides, and I even impressed myself and fun was had by all. Some people chose to get tattoos on the inside of their lip....I prefer self-inflicted marks. Here's to losing one's nerve and finding again in time to have a BLAST!! (I know the photos are now very impressive, but today I look like I had collagen injected into my bottom lip. And I could not post photos without adding a photo of Lilly.)

Camera ready....if only the operator was good!
So I have continued on my quest to take good photos of Lilly, as to save us money on having to get professional photos. So here are some of my latest tries; Lilly has started to smile and occasionally we can catch it on camera-note photo one, the rest are over two days where I think I still need to work on the background, but hopefully time will help that!

Family and the 4th of July!!

We had the largest gathering of my Mom's family outside of PA since I got married 5 years ago, at the end of June/beginning of July. My Aunt Elise and cousin Kit, my Uncle Matt and cousins Andrew and Issac, my Uncle John, Aunt Jan, and cousins Rachel, Janine and Stevie all made the trek down for a visit, time at the beach and to meet Lilly. We did some shopping, tea drinking, regular drinking (well not me, but the ones old enough did), beach time, bike rides, Bochee ball, hanging out and more hanging out. It was so great to see everyone and have everyone meet Lilly. And she did not disappoint!!

We then got a short break while everyone headed home, before we started our weekend that was the 4th of July. We started it on Friday with a kids parade in PKS with two family's from our birthing class. Then Fitz did some fishing with one of the Dad's; they caught a hammer head shark, a black tip shark and a ray...so much for living off of the land. Then we did a nice cook-out with the Furtner Family in PKS. On Saturday we hung out with my friend Cristin and her girlfriend Camella for breakfast in Beaufort followed by a trip to the Coral Bay Club for some sun time. Then home again to bake a cake and get ready for Carole's b-day party/cookout. Fitz and I knew she was going to get engaged that night so we made sure we were present for the surprise. Then it was home at a late...9:30pm for bed!!

We recovered on Sunday and spent the day together, before Fitz flew out on Monday. Oh, well super-fun times....just wish we were always on vacation. Don't you?!

Look how far I've come!!

My Mom suggested that we start taking photos of Lilly in her car seat each week so we could track her growth. And what a great idea it was (still is)! Here are two very dramatic photos....in photo one Lilly is 1 week old and in photo two Lilly is 13 weeks only (3 months on 4th of July). We have had a flurry of activity recently and all those photos will be posted later on. Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July!!