Oak Island

The Beach House was a great time, but all great things have to come to an end. However, we have all decided we will be making it an annual occurrence. We spent the week at Oak Island, NC with our close friends, Katie and Jay. Holden had a blast, he sang the Beach Song "going to the beach, going to the beach" every morning running circles around the living room. It was truly a vacation for Holden, he got to watch movies all the time (The Incredibles were watched daily), had a menu of hot dogs, mac & cheese and PB&J pretty much every day and endless bike rides.

Holden loved the beach, its still amazing how much he likes the water compared to last year. He's a bit fearless so we had to go and buy a life jacket after the first day as he wanted go in deeper water with Dad. Jeremy took him into deeper water the first day (before we had the life jacket) and I freaked out. Not that Jeremy wasn't holding onto him tightly, or that I didn't trust him but I could just see a wave take out Jeremy and he lose his grip. Its been a while since I had a moment like that but that is why we now have a life jacket, and surprisingly Holden didn't mind wearing it to go out and swim with Dad. Good thing we are in swim lessons.

Holden would get to our spot on the beach, immediately take off his sandals and run towards the water. Fearless I tell you. I can envision visits to the ER in my future.

Jeremy burying Holden in the sand

We took a road trip one day to Fort Fisher, the NC Aquarium and the USS North Carolina Battleship. Holden took his first ferry ride and loved it. Jeremy obviously loved the battleship (see the photo with him shooting the guns). Katie and I also got to spend a day shopping in Southport and have a nice relaxing lunch.

Southport to Fort Fisher Ferry, being cool like Dad.

NC Aquarium, we currently really like Alligators

USS North Carolina deck

Our childhood friend, Nick, showed up on the last couple of days to join in the fun. It was his first time hanging out at the beach as he has only lived in the Charlotte area for little over a year. Needless to say, he made the classic rookie mistake and got really sun burnt. Although, the rest of us seemed to make the same mistake on the last day also, funny how that happened. I'm just glad the sunburns didn't occur on Day 1.
I had to add this last photo, which classically shows how cooperative Holden is for photos lately. We can't wait to do it all again next year.

Beach Week

This is where I am for the rest of the week. Its awesome. Been wanting to rent a house at the beach for the 6 years we have lived here, don't know why we waited so long. Holden and I went on a bike ride last night and I took a turn a bit too slow and toppled the bike. The end of the bike ride went a little like this
Me: "Holden you have a good time?"
Holden: "Yes, Mommy fall down"
Me: "Lets keep that our little secret and not tell daddy"
We come inside and Holden runs to Jeremy
Jeremy: "Holden, did you have a good time"
Holden: "Yea, Mommy fall down"

Just the beginning I suspect of my son tattling on me.

Great Smoky Mountains-Crocker Reunion

Photo montage of the family reunion in the Smoky Mountains.Cabin we all stayed in. Slept 54. Great accomodations but for some reason the management company thought 2 regular sized trash bins were big enough for 40 peoples trash over 3 days.

4 generations of Crockers (and the significant others)

Holden and Great Grandma resting at the bottom of the lookout tower. 1/2 mile hike but at a 30 degree angle all the way up.

Making sure we remembered that we made it to the top of the hill

Bush's Baked Bean factory, we stumbled upon the place on our way to Pigeon Forge, TN. In true family vacation style, we stopped, went to the gift shop and got our photo taken.

Pre-Vacation

Its been a while since I've updated everyone, because we have been having so much fun that I haven't taken a minute to write up a post. My sister came to visit a week before vacation to be my nanny for a week while daycare was closed. It was awesome, let me tell you. She and Holden had a great time and I came home to a clean dishwasher and vacuumed floors. Did I mention it was awesome. I also got to spend some much needed quality time with my baby sister, who is almost a college graduate.We had a great time, made a pilgrimage to the local Ikea and got Holden a new table and rug to play on. We got him some crayons and paper and let him have a great time. Only took about 2 hours for crayon to get all over the table and chairs, supposedly its washable.Holden has become the little imitator lately always wanting to help unless its putting toys away. He likes to sweep, mop, throw things in the trash. I might need to remind him of this time when he's 16.
We made some cookies the day before heading to Tennessee for a big family reunion, Holden was having a blast helping.He has picked up a few more signs "more" and "bath" and his favorite words seem to be "mama" and "no". Cute but gets old fast when he wanders all around the house wining "mama".

7 pounds

We are in Denver visiting my brother-in-law and in-laws this weekend. I went into the Denver office this afternoon to work and this is what my husband and brother-in-law did in the meantime.

Big Margarita prior to the Big Burrito
7 Pound Burrito at Jack and Grill in Denver, CO (as seen on Man vs. Food)What is left of the 7 lb burrito

Holden has his first ear infection. Also a nasty cold, bronchial virus, that has him beat. We have been home from work and daycare all week because he can't seem to consistently keep a bottle down. And I think all of the coughing is starting to hurt. So we have a whiney, wimpery little boy. He is sleeping all the time and hopefully by tomorrow the antibiotics will have given him some relief and he will start to keep some liquids down.

Why is tomorrow so important. We leave for a trip to Denver at 6 am on Thursday. Jeremy is flying United and Holden and I are flying solo with Delta. Frequent flyer miles my mom gave us to use helped us take the trip but now I'm second guessing the separate flights. I'm gearing up for all of the evil looks and comments when boarding the plane with a sick kid.

We are going to visit my brother-in-law and my in-laws are driving up from Omaha to spoil Holden for 4 days. Or spoil us since we will be able to hit the town.

Any advise is welcome for traveling with a sick baby.

Lake Lure

Last weekend we went to the mountains of NC with a few friends. We rented a cabin, had some great conversations, great food and maybe a bit too much to drink after the baby went to sleep. Here are some photos for your enjoyment.

Our accommodations for the weekendHolden being spoiled by his aunts Diane, Melissa and DanaeView from our cabin
Chimney Rock Park, elevator was being worked on so we walked to the top. Lots of Stairs!
At the top
View of the valley from the top of Chimney Rock

Vacation Photos

Photos from our trip to Wenatchee

Hanging out with Grandma Hassler

Watching football with Joe

Date night in style with the Mustang

Laughing at silly Aunt Michelle

Boat ride on Lake Chelan

View of Wenatchee Valley

One of the winery visits

A few of the photos taken by a family friend

Apples, Boats and Wine

We just got back from a trip to Wenatchee, WA to see family. My mom and Joe live in Wenatchee and my baby sister, Michelle, came home for the weekend from WSU. Its been 2 years since we have been in Washington. It was Holden's' first plane ride and he was a trooper. If you haven't taken a cross country flight its a bear, it took us from 9 am EST to 8 pm EST (5 PST) to get to Wenatchee and that is with only an hour layover in Dallas. Holden had a bit of a hard time adjusting to the 3 hour time change the first night but did pretty well the day after.

We spent 4 full days at my mom's. Holden and Grandma got lots of bonding time in. Wenatchee is the Apple Capital of the World and it was harvest season for apples and pears. We visited a great local fruit stand and there were more varieties of apples and pears than I have ever seen. We tried so many varieties it was hard to pick which to buy. Mom made delicious homemade apple and pear pies while we were there. Not to mention all the other awesome food she made us.

Jeremy and I got a date night Friday night, we went to Leavenworth a small Bavarian town to do some walking around in the quaint little shops and enjoyed some German beer at the beer garden before having dinner.

Saturday we went up to Lake Chelan for a boat ride. Grandma got Holden a life jacket that he took a while to get use to. The lake was nice and calm on the way down the lake but on the way back it was quite choppy. We laid Holden in the cuddy on the boat during the trip back up to the dock, every time we went over a really rough wave and the boat lurched Holden would let out this big belly laugh. I think we might have a risk taker on our hands.

Sunday we traveled a small section of Washington wine country. 4 wineries + free tastings = happy Amanda. I got some great bottles of wine to share at my ladies happy hour.

On our last day we had family photos taken with a quite uncooperative little man. But some of them turned out great.

We had an awesome time and hopefully it won't take us as long to get back next time. Photos of the trip will be posted next.