WINTER 2014

Winter is rolling right along...

We went to a pirate birthday party in January - Cooper's, who is affectionately referred to as Cooper-boy so as to not confuse him with our own Cooper-dog. It was lots of fun. Keely was there so that was great too.
We did Elmo Valentines for all the little friends and workers at daycare. We also made heart cookies to take in, and some to eat at home too.
We went to another birthday party in February - Braeden and Tripp's. There were three sets of twin boys born here in 2010. That class will be mostly boys from what I can tell. Hold on. Should be interesting.
Brady went to Ottawa for RCMP week through Encounters With Canada in February. He had a great time and made some really good friends out of the 180 kids there. He spent a day at a SWAT facility, rode a Musical Ride horse, did the PARE test and came in 2nd out of 17 other kids chosen to do it, and so much more. His days were packed with RCMP-related activities and he loved it. They had fun downtime too. He even got to skate the Rideau Canal with some of his friends.
We had so much snow in our driveway the week Brady was away that Sherman couldn't move it all and had to get a skid steer to come help. It got stuck. Something bigger came to pull it out and it got stuck. A loader came to pull them both out and couldn't move them so they got an excavator to come. By the time all was said and done, our boy was pretty excited. Bev (of Bev and Allan, his heroes who own the construction company here) took him for a ride in the loader, plowed a little, went to the store and bought him M&Ms and then brought him back home. He's still talking about it. It was THE BEST DAY EVER!
For March break we took a drive to Florida. We had great weather and lots of fun. We went with Keely's family (our two families rented a 4 bed, 3 1/2 bath house together at a resort we've stayed at before) and then another family who are also close friends came along with us too, and also stayed at the same resort. Our three families have done a lot together over the years. We all have big boys the same age, and now we all have littles the same age. It made for a wonderful vacation filled with good food, lots of swimming (even after dark which he thought was amazing), laughs and fun. He loved being with Keely and there was an abundance of cuteness going on. I have many pictures of them together that are just too sweet!
Brady turned 18 while we were there. We spent his birthday at Sea World, the one park that we've done every single time we've been to Florida but we thought the littles might like it so off we went again. It was a good day and we finished it off with pizza, birthday cake and a late-night swim at the resort pool for the big boys.
Now we're all trying to get back in the routine of work/school/daycare, waiting for some spring-like weather to perk things up a bit around here.

The first leg of trip - driving on the ferry.

Sleeping through Georgia.

Our first lizard - on  the way to the pool the first day there, many more lizards and trips to the pool to follow.

Waking up Brady with his birthday cards.

Walking up to the dolphin show.

 Loved the 3D show and glasses.

Cool penguins.

 Rode the train a few times.

 Our big and little.

 He was more interested in what Shamu was doing than in posing.

 Brothers.

 Getting a little tired by the time we got to the sharks.

GoKarts at Old Town.

Do you see me?

 So much traffic to look at and stuff to see.

Showing off at Outback.

He wanted his pic taken with his new digger shirt.

Really liked his new shirt from M&M World - and eating at Olive Garden.

We often relaxed on our back patio.

February 3rd marked our two year "first visit to Grand Manan" anniversary. We have come a long way. He is well-adjusted and secure and he's constantly learning and changing and accomplishing new things. Above all, he is a very happy little boy. The Early Intervention worker was here today and has decided to shift our visits to once a month because he's finally catching up enough to do this. Bless his heart!