Mimi's

On Saturday, August 30th, Pat, Alex and I went to Mimi's for a family get together. Uncle Johnny and Aunt Michele were down to visit from NYC and brought their wedding pictures.

It was great to see everyone and Alex had a blast playing fireman with everyone who would hold the vacuum hose. Thankfully there were a lot of takers but cousin Kate McAssey seemed to be a favorite :)

Becca's Wedding

A little late to post but on Saturday August 23rd, Becca and Pat got married. It was a beautiful day and wedding. Everyone was very happy and had a great time. Best wishes to the new couple!

More pictures from a "pro" http://web.mac.com/troydeandesign/iWeb/Wedding/wedding.html

updated

So I grabbed my parents camera and downloaded some pictures from the beach and the latest events (when my batteries died). Hope you enjoy them :)

Corn

With Alex potty training, he spends a lot of time naked (much to the astonishment of his abuelos). He has discovered the "joy" of peeing in the woods and seems to make it to the potty more often than with training pants.

So this picture is of our boy naked and his Daddy dumping corn husks after he and Abuela husked 87 ears of corn for this winter.

Teamwork

This past Sunday, Mammaw had an impromptu picnic that allowed 2nd cousins Alex and Will Patterson play together. The boys seemed to enjoy chasing each other and pushing around a cart. It was a nice picnic and a pleasure to spend time with family!

Back to School Party

On Saturday, August 16th, we went to Uncle Steve's and Aunt Laurie's for the back to school party

It was a nice time for family and Alex had a blast walking on the train tracks, drive the bus, play with ringus (a dog), play with other kids, AND roast marshmallows :)

The Move

As many of you know, I have been at work since August 4th and have been in Fairfield/Maryland area. Last week, we moved Alex and Pat out to my parents. When moving Alex's bed, everyone was involved...Pat, Dad and Alex all had their tools out and were working diligently putting things together.

Today, Pat and Alex are going back to Aston for a Dupont ear appointment and packing up a few more things.

The next family visit to the Philly area will be for Labor Day weekend.

Potty Training

What happens when you are potty training a boy? He discovers himself and wants to play while he pees... so after 4 days of exploratory peeing... I came up and we started cleaning up the bathroom. Thankfully, Alex is starting to get into the habit of cleaning up :)

Saturday

Saturday, August 2nd, was move out day. We loaded up the cars, said goodbyes and thanks to Abuelos, and were on the road by 9:30am. It was a dark morning with rain and sad faces. The car ride home was close to 3 hours and we are all a little cranky. The good pictures were updated in the web album.

Now we start the new stage....Post-Law School...

Friday

Friday, we were back at the beach, for the last time. Pat took Alex out in the waves which worked well until a big wave almost wiped them out. They then headed to the sand to build. Alex actually left Daddy's castles alone and spent most of his time dumping water on the sand and ordering Mommy to fill up the bucket. Overall, he did really well at the beach.

After naps, Abuelo and Abuela went out to eat and then watched Alex for the evening. They went down to the pier to ride more rides. Meanwhile, Pat and I went out to eat at a seafood buffet and then to see "The Dark Knight". We enjoyed the movie and the time together!

Thursday

1:30am....fire bell goes off....twice...why....we have no clue. There was a strong storm overhead but everyone survived. Alex slept with me....rather he fell asleep at 2am, 4:30am I woke up to feet in my face and 6:30 (another siren alarm) his smiling face. An interesting morning.

We were again at the beach. Only this morning, on one of Alex's independence walks (he would run away and tell me to go the other way), we met another 2 year old, Kyle. Alex and Kyle played ball and tractors. They enoyed talking to each other and had to be carried away to be seperated.

During nap, Daddy joined us after a morning with a FBI agent. Alex was very excited to see his Daddy and Daddy was excited to be able to de-stress. That evening, we all tried to play mini-golf but Alex put an end to that on the 3rd hole. So we left and went back to condo. Alex, Pat and I then went to the neighborhood park and played on the equipment.

Wednesday

Wednesday, we went back down to the beach in the morning but it was loosing its appeal with Alex. He had a short attention span for all activities and when we tried to lay down for a nap, he fought it tooth and nail. Hence my sleeping son picture above.

That evening, after dinner, we all headed to the OC community center and played at the park. Alex went EVERYWHERE and played on all the equipment. My highlight was seeing Alex climb a HUGE tower and go down an enclosed slide. He was very proud of himself and kept going back :)

Bar exam

During all this fun and excitement, Pat stayed in Aston and studied for the PA Bar exam. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he traveled into the Philadelphia Convention Center and spent both days taking the test. Tuesday was essay day and Wednesday was multiple choice. Pat was very nervous but after the fact, feels confident in what he did. However, he will not hear the results until mid-October.

Tuesday

Tuesday we were back at the beach but with a surprise. Apparently, the week crowd wakes up a lot early, moves their stuff to the beach (before 7am), stakes out the prime real estate along the ocean, and then goes back to bed until 11am-12pm. So we were a little farther back. However, that did not keep us from the beach! We played in the water and built in the sand. Alex had a habit of destroying my sand castles 15 seconds after I made it. So the sand part was short. Then I remember an activity, Liz and I did when we were little... we dug for sand crabs! After many Indiana Jones holes, we found crabs! Alex enjoyed holding them in his hand and watching them swim in the bucket. He also enjoyed throwing sand on top of them which led mommy to release the poor creatures before they died of fright!

Monday

Sunday night, there were storms in Ocean City. Monday, looked like the picture to the right... there was a dense fog Monday and Wednesday. The lifeguard said it was due to the air being too hot and the water being too cold (low 60s). The fog was very thick from out 22nd story window. You could not see the beach (and we were oceanfront) and walking on the ground, fog with seep out between the buildings. Alex called it "spooky".

So to get Alex out, we went to the pier. There he rode many rides (fire truck, airplane, car, and a mini roller coaster, the Catepillar), but his favorite was the fire truck which he rode twice.

Sunday

Our first day on the beach was Sunday. The beach was not crowded and we were able to spread out around 8am. At the beach, we (abuela, abuelo, alex and I) dug in the sand, played in the water, took walks, watched dolphins, and many other fun tasks :)

The drive

On Saturday, July 26th, Abuelo and Abuela came to visit us, in Aston. We loaded up their Kia Sportage and headed down US 95, 495, DE 1, 113, MD 90 and 589 to Ocean City, MD. However, we were not the only ones and had a drive of close to 4 hours (with stops). Alex played with Abuelo and watched George most of the way. He finally konked out 15 minutes outside of Ocean City. Not a bad drive :)