Summer Fun

Wow! This summer has been so awesome! I am writing this on the eve of the first day back to school and reflecting on how much fun we've had this summer. I have loved every minute of being home, being a mommy and truly being present with Tim and Hannah. It has been a great time of rejuvination as well as making memories of Hannah's first summer of her lifetime (she is seriously changing all the time!). I really do think of my job as my ministry that God has called me too, but I also praise Him for blessing me with the job of a mommy! I cherish every minute I have with Hannah and I know that will be even more important with school starting tomorrow. I pray that God will help me balance these parts of my life...that of a wife, mother and teacher.

I want to share some of my favorite pictures from our summer. Thank you, God for gifts that you have given us the last three months!

Vacation!

At the end of July, we headed to North Carolina for our first "family of three" vacation! This year we decided to go to Raleigh, North Carolina area to visit some of our very dear friends from college, Erin and Mical. They got to meet Hannah for the first time and experience her first beach trip as well we got to visit with them just a few months before they are expecting their first daughter! It was a fantastic trip!

We knew it would take a day and a half to get there so we left right after Tim got done with work on a Thursday and made it to the Kentucky/West Virginia border that evening. After getting some much needed rest, we left early the next morning and made it to Raliegh by that afternoon. We started our trip with a wonderful dinner at Bahama Breeze.

Our lunch stop on our first full day of driving...Hannah loves to eat, but she also loves to be nosy and look around. The result: a very messy face!

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Surf City beach which was 2 1/2 hours away. Sadly, Hannah was not super fond of her first trip to the beach. It was pretty much par for course with the other experiences we had this summer with water. It probably didn't help that she accidentily got tackled by a wave, and not once but twice! Oops! Even though that part was not so much fun, we loved being on the beach for the day! Tim even enjoyed it for probably the first time in his life!

Family photo at the beach! We hope for some better beach trips as Hannah gets bigger!

Sunday we had a nice morning at church and afternoon at home before heading toward the Durham area. First we went to Duke University to walk the campus a little and visit the Duke Gardens. It was very hot, but a fun afternoon. I really enjoyed playing "photographer" with the scenery. We finished our day by going to a Durham Bulls Triple A Minor League baseball game. It doesn't take much convincing for either of us to watch some sort of baseball when we take trips.

The chapel at Duke University - absolutely gorgeous!
At the Durham Bulls game - very fun, but definitely the end of a very long, hot day!

Monday morning, Tim went to play golf (at a really sweet course) and Erin and I spent some time shopping and just enjoying each other's company. That evening we stayed in, enjoyed dinner and some quality time together. Our visit with Mical and Erin was fantastic!

Tuesday morning we left early to head to Louisville, Kentucky. Before leaving NC, we found the UNC campus and drove around for a few minutes. Then we spent the rest of a really long day in the car to make to Louisville by Hannah's bedtime. This was sort of a last minute decision to extend our trip, but it was a lot of fun!

We spent Wednesday exploring Louisville including taking a tour of the bat factory, walking around downtown and seeing Churchill Downs. We did a little shopping in the afternoon and finished our vacation with a fantastic dinner with a view of Louisville across the river (we were in Jeffersonville, IN).

Outside the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum - a perfect tour for this baseball family!

I am so glad that we were able to take this trip this summer! It was (hopefully) the first of many family vacations! Thank you Mical and Erin for being such gracious hosts and making our first family vacation so memorable!

Seven Month Sweetie

I really don't know how it is even possible to be writing about Hannah's seventh month! Sadly that means summer is dwindling down and the school year is about to gear up. But enough about that and onto Miss Hannah. We returned from our first family vacation (which I will post more about later) just in time to celebrate Hannah's "month" birthday. I know I've said it before, but I love watching Hannah's personality develop throughout the month. Just recently she developed her "cheesy" smile which makes her look like an old lady who forgot to put her teeth in, but it is so cute! (It is even cuter when she has a little drool coming out of her mouth!) Besides her blossoming new personality she is also developing physically. She can completly sit up by herself (just in case you can't tell in the picture) and loves to explore her world from this new angle. She is also starting to stand up holding on our hands and maybe when holding onto something. She still does not want to roll from her front to the back, but I really think she is close! Because she loves being on her back she is not making much of an effort to crawl yet. From what I've been told, I should cherish this time because once they figure out how to get mobile, it doesn't stop! The most important thing is that she is a healthy and very happy little girl! Thank you, Hannah for bringing joy to our lives every day!

All-Star Fan Fest

It's always fun being a Cardinal fan, but it has been especially fun this year. St. Louis is the host city for this years MLB All-Star game and the city has been hopping all this past week. It is an All-Star tradition to have an interactive Fan-Fest with booths about baseball history and tons of fun games for the kids to particpate in. My mom and dad had tickets with their Cardinal package but they were on vacation, so we were able to use them. It was a very fun day! We decided to avoid traffic and parking prices and take the MetroLink from the Shiloh station. This was Hannah's first trip on the Metro and she did very good! We then headed to America's Center for the festivities. We knew we wouldn't be doing much or any of the interactive part, but we loved seeing the exhibits of both the Cardinal's history as well as MLB history as well. It's even more fun for a Cardinal fan with three players in the All-Star Game, including our family favorite, Albert Pujols! Since it was also home run derby day, we decided to walk down to Busch Stadium to take in the sights and sounds of this historic event. We even hung around for a few minutes while batting practice started. Here are some pictures of us enjoying our "Monday Excursion" downtown! Hannah and Daddy waiting for the Metro Link train on our way to Fan Fest.This was a really cool picture - an employee for the Pujols Foundation saw that Hannah had her Pujols shirt on and asked if we wanted to get her picture with one of Albert's game worn batting gloves! How awesome is that?!?! Hannah and Mommy before Hannah took a little snooze during Fan Fest.

Timmy watching batting practice, and wishing we were inside for the Home Run Derby.
Hannah and her new sippy cup - we are slowly starting to learn how to drink from a sippy cup.

Just Hanging Out

When we are not out and about, we love to just hang out at home. Some of Hannah's favorite activities include learning to sit up, reading, playing with her toys, watching TV (especially Cardinal games) and most importantly looking cute. Here are some fun shots of Hannah just hanging out.

Happy Birthday, America!

Hannah celebrated her first Fourth of July with rain. Bummer! We had planned on going down to St. Louis to watch the annual VP Parade with my mom and dad, but the rainy day kept us away. Instead, we headed to the mall for a Macy's one-day sale. Later that evening, our neighbors John and Kelli (who are due with the first little one any day now) came over for dinner and fireworks. However, the rain shut down all of Mascoutah's festivities. So we did eat dinner and hang out but had to wait until Sunday evening to watch the fireworks. They were not too exciting for Hannah because she was already in bed. But she did prove to us that she sure does love to sleep -- she didn't make a peep even with the fireworks going off right outside her window! I hope next year she will enjoy the traditions that make this holiday fun!

Friday Excursion

Tim and I were so excited to spend Friday's together this summer doing fun things around St. Louis. Well, June was so busy that our first Friday Excursion was today, the beginning of July. That is okay though, we had a lot of fun! We went to Kimmswick, MO which is about 25 miles south of St. Louis. It is a small town with a historic section that dates back to around 1859 or so. They had cute little shops with antiques and other items. They also have this amazing homestyle breakfast/lunch restaurant called the Blue Owl. It was so yummy, especially the desserts. It was a very fun day and a great way to kick off our Summer Friday Excursions! Here is a picture of Hannah and I waiting to eat lunch.