San Diego Weekend

Last weekend, we packed up and headed to San Diego for the weekend to welcome Matt home.  We could not wait to see him!!!  The last time we flew with Charlie was last summer and he was around 6 months old.  He did great then- but he was so small and not at all mobile! We were both wondering how our active little 16 month old would do on this flight, but on the way there he did pretty good and even slept a little bit!! We had a stop in ABQ and got off the plane- which was awesome!!!! The flight home was a different story and kicked our parenting butts- but we would do it again in a heartbeat!!!  Gotta teach Charlie early our love for traveling!!! 

The DVD player was a hit- thank you Uncle Adam and Elmo!!!

I think we might get this look a lot in the future!

After watching many DVD's and eating a ton of food- he probably gained about 5 pounds on this flight- he was out.  Too bad we were about to land! :)

Once we landed in San Diego, I received this sweet picture text from one of the Mom's in my class.  My class had dressed like this for field day in honor of Matt coming home! I was shocked and so touched that they would do this- it took some organization to get 24 2nd graders to look like this.  How sweet and we loved it!!!!

Welcome to beautiful San Diego!!!! Oh, how I love this city!!!

Once everyone arrive we went on a family walk together- it was awesome to see Matt and have the family together again!!!

When then headed back to the hotel and the boys had some play time before dinner.  They had not been together since Christmas and it was great to have them together again! Charlie especially loved all the snacks- thanks Aunt Dawn!

The next day we woke up early and headed to the San Diego Zoo.  This was Charlie's first trip to the zoo and we were so excited!!!!

The boys excited about their first zoo adventure!

With Papa

Charlie was a little overwhelmed at first with all the animals and really didn't know what to think

But, by the time he got to the flamingos he was LOVING it! This was his favorite animal he saw by far and he got so excited seeing them!

Miles was having a fun time too!!!

Maw-Maw and Charlie

Charlie enjoyed being on Dad's shoulders

He loved the bears!

Walking with Dad

Hanging out with Papa

All smiles with Nana

The tiger he was also fascinated with

With Dad

Our family of 3

Matt, Miles, and Dawn enjoying lunch

After lunch it was Charlie's turn to nap- he was wiped out and slept for a good hour.  Thank you Charlie! :)

While Charlie was napping, we headed to the petting zoo.  Miles LOVED this and he was so sweet to the animals.  He was pretty excited!!! 

What a fun day we had and we only saw about half of the zoo.  It was awesome!!!!

That night we headed to Hodad's for a yummy burger! It was delicious- Charlie even enjoyed his first mini cheeseburger! 

After dinner we headed back to the hotel for the boys to play.  They had been in their stroller or sitting at dinner all day and they were ready to play.  They were funny and pretty excited!!!

Miles showing us his muscles! :)

For Mother's Day, Matt and Justin went for a morning run with mom.  They did awesome and I was so impressed with Mom for keeping up with them! I hope I'm in that good of shape when I am her age!!! Happy Mother's Day to the best Mom/Nana ever!!! 

After breakfast we headed to the beach for more fun!! 

The loved the slide!

Nana loved swinging with the boys!

Love you Charlie.....

....and Miles!

Matt and Miles

Dad and Charlie

Charlie's first time playing in the sand!!!

Smile!!! 

Who would have thought we would have boys born 13 days apart from each other!

What a wonderful weekend we had together.  We are so glad Matt is home safe and we are so proud of him!!!! 

Bye beautiful San Diego- we hope we visit again soon!!!

Sweet 16!

Happy sweet 16 months Charlie! 

It's hard to believe that you are already 16 months!! This was another exciting month filled with growing, teething, eating, saying new words, and understanding rules. :)  The big milestone was that he is fully walking now- I don't even remember those crawling days anymore!!! He really enjoys walking with anything on his head! :) Funny kid!

He loves his evenings with Dad! 

Bath time is still a favorite- walking around the house with his hooded towel on after the bath has become a new favorite this month too! He has quite the personality and we love it!!!

Loves his evening walks....

Still enjoying all foods- here he is demanding his food from us! I'm hungry!!!

We celebrated his Uncle Matt coming home from Afghanistan with dinner at Tillmans- it was wonderful night of celebrating! Check back soon for pictures from our San Diego trip to visit Matt!

He is fascinated with closing doors- he always thinks it's funny when he locks himself in a room. 

Happy 16 months- what a fun month it was!

Special Visitor!!

We had a special visitor in room 113 last Friday- Charlie Austin! I had told my kids all year that I would bring Charlie up to school for them to meet him. I was running out of time and only had a few days left of the year.  So, Justin brought him up last Friday and we had such a fun afternoon.  My class was mesmerized with Charlie and I think he was a bit overwhelmed as well.  He has never had 24 kids looking at him at once!!! :)

 He mainly just stood there and stared at them- but he did walk and move around the room.  When he did everyone just followed him to where he went and huddled around him watching his every move.

 They then grabbed a book and started reading to him- Charlie loved it!!!! I think this was my favorite part of his visit.  Seeing my sweet kids reading to him all on their own- it was awesome!

 He started warming up to everyone towards the end of his visit and was laughing at a few of my girls making silly faces at him.

What a fun afternoon we had! I'm so glad this sweet bunch of kids finally got to meet sweet Charlie!!!

Week of the Young Child

About a week ago was 'The Week of the Young Child' at Charlie's school.  It was a week of fun activities and ended with a parent/child lunch on Friday.  I had a blast and it was so much fun seeing what Charlie's day is like.  

When I first arrived, they were playing with the blocks- actually Charlie was knocking down everyone's blocks!

It was then lunch time- Charlie loved it!

We then headed outside and he had a fun time with his buddy Ethan!

What a fun afternoon it was!! I'm so glad I was able to attend this fun event with Charlie and look forward to many, many more!!