A few nights ago it came about with a fun game of “Pop the Bubbles”. The neighbor boy that likes to come down and play with Isaac and point out the weeds in my flower garden *ahem* *ahem* was over as well. He was playing the game with Isaac and Isaac just got a case of the giggles. So thankfully Ben reminded me to grab the camera!

Sorry the clip long. I was going to cut it but I just couldn’t figure out what to cut. It all makes me giggle myself.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Tessa & Jude:

 

Grace, Isaac, Jude & Tessa:

 

But nonetheless we are here, the weather has been beautiful and it is not home. So we are having fun. Here are a few pictures from the first part of the week.

 

There are jellyfish out there in the ocean, but here at the vacation house there are just jellyfaces. Oh my!

Isaac was introduced to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches about a week ago. He loves them. Ben made him one for lunch but the only problem was that we only had blackberry jam at that point. Yes, it is a ton more messy then grape or strawberry. He is not usually a messy eater so these are some rare pictures.

He made us laugh.

 

Daddy, come on! I'm thirsty!

We got a good laugh over Tessa trying to get a hold of Ben’s beer the first evening. Apparently she was thirsty! Well, or she thought the bottle looked like it belonged to her. (Don’t worry, we didn’t really give her any!)

See, I can do it!

We are vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week with Ben’s brother Jesse, Naomi, Grace and Jude. It was a bit cloudy and rainy and we were a bit sun spent from the day before so we ventured down to the aquarium for the afternoon. I have been so excited to take Isaac to an aquarium because he just LOVES anything that is in the water – fish, whales, dolphins, etc. It was a smaller aquarium but a perfect size for our little clan on this particular day. (Remember, clicking on the photos will bring up captions.)

 

Isaac and I have been taking swimming lessons. It has been a lot of fun and for the most part Isaac loves them. That is if we don’t bring Ben (he cried because he wanted Ben to join us). Sigh – the boy loves his daddy.

His favorite part of swim lessons are singing (and motioning) to “Wheels on the Bus” and jumping off the side of the pool. It  has been a great time of bonding between the two of us and I have been thankful for an activity that we can both do together.

 

One of the girls in our house church quad decided to organize a family adventure to the Cincinnati Zoo. To say it was a bit hectic and scattered would be an understatement. When you have 3 couples (actually 4 when a friend of mine’s family showed up) and 4 (+1) kids ranging in age from 4 months to 3.5 years, it is bound to be a bit crazy. It was so much fun though! We hadn’t taken Isaac since his first birthday so we enjoyed seeing how much he has grown since then.

His favorites were the alligator statue (we had to stop at it several times), the train (of course), and the monkeys. He just kept saying “whooot, whoot, whoot and beating his chest.” He also said his first complete sentence while we were there “One more monkey please!” He always sticks up his index finger when asking for one more. I simply melt. And he gets whatever it is that he is asking for because it is just. So. Darn. Cute.

Cincinnati Zoo Pictures:

 

Of course, the first year we did this we didn’t have a kid. We went with my parents for something to do on a nice fall afternoon. We happened to run into my brother, his wife and my nephew so that was a lot of fun.

Last year we went with a big entourage. It was FREEZING! Isaac was only 2 months old so he was bundled up pretty good. So were the rest of us!

This year we decided to go “last minute” because the weather was nice and we had a few moments. Both rare events in our life. Unfortunately, that meant that Aunt Janelle and Uncle Leon couldn’t join us but we had to seize the opportunity.

Isaac definitely enjoyed it. It was a bit tiring for 8 months pregnant me but fun all the same. (I should, however, mention that many of the pictures don’t “look” like he enjoyed it. He is just so SERIOUS when he is involved with new things. He wants to study everything and that does NOT allow time for smiling at the camera and mommy.) We took the hayride and picked pumpkins first because they were stopping hayrides soon after we arrived. Then we had fun in the corn maze and hay maze. Okay, daddy and grandma had fun in the corn maze while mommy napped waited at the end for a photo opportunity.

Very fun. Hope we can continue this tradition in years to come. (Goodness, hard to imagine we will have a 2 year old and a 10 month old at that time!)

See all the great photos from the day HERE!