Whew....

What a week! And what a bad blogger I am!  I have seriously been slacking in my blogging lately, partly due to my being busy and partly due to Blogger having some 'issues'.  In any case, I'm back and hopefully will be regularly.

So way back a week ago I started my Spring Break. We took Gage to the circus last Saturday which was a great way to spend a rainy day. He enjoyed it for the most part and did really well, lasting just about 2 hours before he was completely done with it. The trapeze artists were his favorite and he liked the elephants and music. Of course, he spotted EVERY American flag in there and pointed and jovially yelled 'guys' each time. (Have I told you about my child's unnatural attraction to American flags? hmm...no? Another post, then?)

We were disappointed- Gage was overall uninterested in the kitties



My personal favorite.



Following our trip to the circus, Sunday morning we packed up and headed down to Wilmington, North Carolina.  We had been looking forward to this for a while and were only dreading the car ride.  Gage did wonderfully on the way down and slept for 2.5 hours.  We decided to drive as far as we could and made it all the way to Carolina before we had to stop for lunch. Stopping for lunch in a little town called Roanoke Rapids, almost elicits a post of its own, but I won't bore or disgust you.  In any case, we arrived in Wilmington around dinner time and Gage did pretty awesome the whole way there, thanks, in part to a new car toy Grandma purchased him.

Arriving so late Sunday night we didn't do much.  Gage, however, ate a wonderful dinner of mac and cheese at McAllister's Deli and was as happy as a clam. 

Monday morning we started at the Fort Fisher aquarium. Gage has always been a big fan of the aquarium in Nags Head so we thought it would be a hit. Mommy was silly and left the camera in the car, so we didn't get any pictures. Although, Daddy did buy Gage a gift that he has been eyeing even before Gage was born. AND he LOVED it. We'll have to try and catch him on video playing the clams!

Gage wasn't overly impressed with the aquarium and we took him home for a nice LONG nap.  He decided that while we were on vacation he would nap an hour early and not eat lunch until around 230pm...silly boy.  Monday evening we took a stroll in Downtown Wilmington as I tried to sneak a peek at Dawson and Joey:).  Gage also discovered his favorite part about our house in Wilmington.

check out the mid-drool shot.

Tuesday morning we visited Wilmington's Children's Museum.  We hadn't yet taken Gage to one and although it was probably geared a little towards older kids, he had a pretty great time.

He was especially fond of the train table.

...and the spinning boat.

Gage is pretty obssessed with numbers/letters these days, too.

Finally, Tuesday afternoon, what we had all been waiting for- the beach! The beach in Wilmington was amazing compared to the one we're used to, it felt like it was miles to the water. This was Gage's 1st time walking on the beach so he was definitely a little clumsy! The weather was perfect though and he enjoyed digging in the sand and making new friends but his favorite activity was collecting seashells, Grandma, you'd be proud!

I love this one!

Wednesday morning meant it was time to go home and I wish we could've had one more day there just to do a few more things.  I begged Luke, but unfortunately, the answer was no.  He did offer to rent a car and come home alone so that we could stay an extra day, but that seemed pretty silly to me.  Before we left on Wednesday though, we got to check out Wilmington's Railroad Museum, which  might have been Gage's favorite part of the whole trip.  He LOVED the model trains and kept signing 'more, more' after the trains would cut off.  He loved to push the buttons to watch them 'go'.  Unforunately, there's not any kind of model train displays around where we live, because he sure did love it.  There was also a lot of history to the museum, but Gage and I skipped that part over and checked out the real caboose and locomotives you could climb in.

Gage is now in love with trains and always wants to see 'choo-choos'.  Now that we have room in our basement (pool table sold) we might consider getting a train table.  Mommy and Daddy thought they were pretty cool, too!

As you can see, we had a great time in Wilmington and would love to visit again sometime.  A big thank you to Grandma and Granddiddy's friends who let us borrow their house for a few days!  The ride home was not as fun as the ride there (they never are) and I think we stopped close to 8 times!  Ah well, we're home safe and that's all that matters.

I see now, this post could have easily been broken down into a few since it has such a large quantity of pictures, but nevertheless there was our trip.  I have tons of other things to blog about if I ever get the chance.  Will be making a list this time since I always seem to forget.  Wow, tomorrow is already Saturday and only 2 more days 'til I have to head back to work. 

We are Back...

from our wonderful, relaxing trip.  So relaxing, that blogging wasn't part of it, not to mention my Blackberry won't allow me to post anything anyway.  It was fun and relaxing, but also tiring, so I'll be back tomorrow to post pictures and tell you all about it.  Happy Wednesday! 

(I know, I know, I missed another WW!)

Spring Break 2011...

is finally here and hopefully my computer will cooperate long enough to get through this post. 

It's time like these that I am oh so thankful to be a teacher.  Just when the weather is getting nice and your job is getting frustrating, you get a nice week long break to spend with your family.  Our break starts tomorrow with the circus!  I loved the circus when I was little and I hope Gage does too.  It's at a nearby venue tomorrow less than a half hour away, so we thought it would be perfect....he's going to have to sit for 2 hours while we're there so no sense in making the trip to a faraway venue, like DC, if we can help it. 

On Sunday, our break continues with a trip to Wilmington, North Carolina.  As many years of my life as I have spent in NC, I have never been to Wilmington, but have always wanted to go.  Thanks to some family friends, we get to stay in a real house and not a hotel, and the weather's supposed to be beautiful, so we are pretty stoked!  The 6 hr. car trip will be the only thing we might end up regretting, we'll let you know how that goes.  We'll be there 'til Wednesday, so more than likely I'll be MIA until then and then we'll be back in town in time for Easter.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

(The computer definitely shut down twice during the writing of this post...awesome.)

Wordless Wednesday- Animal Edition

I am a little annoyed that not only did I miss another Wordless Wednesday, but my computer seems to be on the fritz.  Did Blogger shut down anyone else's computer numerous times yesterday?  This is not a completed post, but the downloading of pictures seemed to be too much for my computer to handle.  Until then...

Another week....

has passed me by.  I swear, I don't know where the time goes.  Gage will be 17 months old on Thursday and we have been busy busy.  Or maybe, I've just been busy.  This is the time of year that, as teachers, we start to lose our minds.  It's getting crunch time and kids are worried they might not graduate.  I feel like I'm putting 50+ hours at school a week, even though it's not quite that much.  Rather I'm trying to do 50 hours worth of work in 45. 

In addition to being busy with my job, Gage is the busiest little bee himself these days.  He absoutely cannot stand to be in the house playing with his toys for more than a half hour.  He wants to be 'outsigh' ALL the time.  He pitches full on fits every morning when I put him in the car and every afternoon when we get out of the car, because he wants to get down and play.  He LOVES his wagon rides and his sidewalk chalk and to feel the wind blow through his hair.  I don't even think he'd mind being outside when it was 40 degrees.

Unfortunately the wind has been pretty crazy this week to the point we couldn't even go outside for three days.  We managed to play inside a few days, with the help of DJ Lance and then one day we went on a few errands.  Today was rainy and gloomy and NOT at all a day to be outside and I'm sorry to say it exhausts me!  I cannot wait until the weather is nice enough to go outside every day and to give Gage lots of new experiences.  There's about 10 week until I can send every day with my sweet little man and I thank God every day that I have that opportunity.

As for the weekend, I have a few plans to catch up with friends, and we're going to try to hit up the zoo Sunday morning.  We have SO much we need to do around the house and it seems impossible some days with a toddler.  But we're counting down 'til the 16th when Spring Break officially starts and we are Wilmington bound!

Have a great weekend!

An Adoption..

I realize I have been a delinquent blogger this week and I apologize.  More on that later.

However, now on to much more exciting news!  One of my very old and dear friends that I have known since Kindergarten is about to start her family by adopting a baby from Russia!  Wendy and her husband, Scott have been in this process for almost a year and a half, I believe and from what I understand it's a very LONG, arduous one with many ups and downs and uncertainties.  It has been an emotional rollercoaster for them with many prayers along the way.  Finally, last week their prayers were answered and they got the call that they are able to travel to Russia to meet their baby this Easter!  I could not be more thrilled for them.  They deserve this more than anyone and OMG, that baby is about to have the greatest miracle ever happen to him/her and have the best parents and life that any child could ask for.  Wendy and Scott are two of the kindest, most caring people in the world and I am so so happy that this moment is happening for them! 

Please say prayers for them as they travel to Russia in a week and that everything will go as planned and they will add a new member to their family come August.  Visit their blog by clicking on the link above if you'd like to share w/ them your thoughts and prayers!

PS:  I'm very sad I missed Wordless Wednesday this week:(  That's how busy I have been.

Intro Class at...

As you all know, the further your child gets into toddlerhood, the more they are on the go-go-go.  It took Gage quite a long time to get there compared to some others, but just in time for the Spring (thank God) we are there!  Gage constantly wants to be 'outsigh' and lucky for him, gets to go there twice a day at school.  Anyway, in looking for things to do with him for this summer, I definitley wanted to get him into some kind of gym class or movement class or something to enhance his coordination (since he was lacking a little.)  I had heard good things about The Little Gym but also knew that it was quite pricey.  I began looking into The Little Gym, as well as Gymboree, and other classes in the area.  Unfortunately, the nearest Gymboree location that offered classes was almost a half hour away, so I kinda figured if I was gonna do it, it would have to be The Little Gym.  However, after looking into their schedule, I was pretty surprised.  They only offer 1 Saturday class and NO evening classes the WHOLE week.  Who is it that can afford $20+ a pop on one income??  (If you are saying, "me, me I can", then I envy you.)  Anyway, I really couldn't believe that there were only morning classes that were designed for noone but SAHM's.  Lucky for me, being a teacher clears up the summer and they do have a summer semester.  Again NO evening classes for the working moms, now it just caters to teachers.  Nevertheless, I signed up for an intro class this morning to see what it was all about, before I decided whether or not to sign Gage up for the summer session.

OMG, he had a blast!  He was hilarious and I really wish I had brought my camera.  He walked in and greeted everyone with a big smile and wave and literally went up to 10 of the 17 or so families and said 'Hi'.  He also could not get enough of running around the HUGE gym and climbing up and down mats, stairs and ramps.  It really was alot of fun to see him exploring so much.  The class wasn't quite as structured as I had hoped but it really does give a good venue for kids his age to run around and try new skills with other kids.  Today's class that we tried out is for ages 10-18mos.  It was the perfect class for him (not b/c of his age) but b/c of his size.  I would say that a majority of the kids in the class were probably younger than him but were about his size, since as you know, he's a munchkin.  In June when we start our class, he moves up a level and not only will be the youngest kid in the class, I have no doubt, will be the smallest as well!  I saw some of the kids in the class after his and they are HUGE.  Oh well, I guess he'll have to get used to it....it seems to be like that everywhere.  Maybe he'll grow some in the next 2 months. 

After seeing how much he enjoyed it, I decided for sure to enroll him in one of the summer classes, knowing that we're going to need as much activity as possible this summer and that some days it's gonna be too hot to even get outside.  Not sure it's completely worth the $250, but such is life.  I signed up for a Tues. am class this summer, hoping it would be a small one.  I was pretty surprised how many kids were signed up for one class and that Mom and Dad came for just about EVERY one of the kids.  There were like over 50 people in that room.  However, I was also surprised there were no major collisions, etc. w/ so many people.

So I will let you know how it goes once we start in June- alot can change in 2 months and I'm sure he'll have even more fun than he did today.  I will also snag some pictures once he gets used to the place.  I have to say I would've been embrassed if I had brought my camera today anyway, being that not ONE person out of the EIGHT or so that brought their camera had a measly point and shoot.  It's all about the DSLR's these days.  So not only do these people only have one income, pay an arm and a leg for gym class, but they also have money to buy a $600+ camera!  hah....I think I live in the wrong area.

Alright, that's all I got.  This came off like a review, but it wasn't supposed to be.  Maybe if I'm super impressed after the summer and write up another one, I'll see if I can get a discount or something...ha. 

Any of your kids ever go to The Little Gym?  What was your experience like?