July 2012

The month of July 2012 started out with another beach trip to Emerald Isle, NC! The day before we left for the beach, Jude injured himself at school. He was playing on the playground with a stick and somehow fell, hurting his nose and forehead. I took pictures of it when we got home from school that day, but it didn't really start to show until the following day, when it scabbed over. Here's a picture of Jude's face the day that it happened:

The next day we headed to the beach for our July 2012 beach trip and Jude and Channing's Grandma Bonnie (Ian's mom) met us down there for a few days! On the 4th of July we spent some time on the waterfront in Morehead City, NC.

We at dinner on the 4th of July at The Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead City, NC. Channing hit another milestone that day, as it was her first time sitting in a highchair at a restaurant! Here's a picture of our 7 month old Channing in all of her high chair glory:

After the babies went to bed on the 4th of July, Ian, Bonnie, and I stood on the porch and watched the fireworks being set off on the beach. On another evening during our July 2012 beach trip, after eating dinner at The Crab Shack in Pine Knoll Shores, we went out to the marina to look at all of the boats. Jude loved looking at and talking about all of the different boats he saw. Here is a picture of Ian and I at the marina:

Thank you, Grandma Bonnie, for coming to the beach with us! We are all so very blessed to have you in our lives. Another highlight of our July 2012 is that Jude hit another milestone! We turned his car seat around to forward facing instead of rear facing at 26 months old! I had hoped to keep him rear facing even longer than this, but Jude had other plans (again!)! Jude had started figuring out how to climb out of his car seat when it was rear facing (which about gave me a heart attack!) and after we turned his seat around, he settled down and has been more content riding since then. Here's a picture of Jude's first car ride in a forward facing car seat:

Another highlight of July 2012 was that we made a trip to Monroe, NC to help celebrate my good friend, Amanda's little girl's 2nd birthday. Amanda and I have been friends since college and she was a bridesmaid in our wedding. Yanalyn is such a sweet and pretty little girl and Jude had fun helping her celebrate her big day.

My other good friend, Julie, who is also one of my college friends and was my Maid of Honor in our wedding also came to celebrate Yanalyn's big day. It was so nice to reconnect with these ladies and with Amanda's family, who took me in during my college years and included me in their weekly Sunday dinners. I will always cherrish those days as some of the best ones of my life because of the dear friendships I made during that time. Here's a picture of me with Amanda and Julie (and Jude, Channing, and Yanalyn):

Following Yanalyn's birthday party, we explored all of the changes that have occured at Wingate University, my alma mater, and then we ate a quick dinner at what used to be one of my favorite restaurants, Monterrey's in Monroe, NC. We spent that night at a hotel in Charlotte, NC. The next day we enjoyed a visit with our good friends, Libby and Jason Hooker, who live in Charlotte, NC. Libby and I have been friends since we were two years old and Libby was my Matron of Honor in our wedding. I had a great time getting to see Libby and Jason's house that they had recently purchased and we ate lunch at a mexican restaurant that served Jalipeno Margaritas, which were delicious! Here's a picture of The Hookers with Jude and Channing:

Later that day we met back up with Amanda and Yanalyn at Discovery Place Kids in Huntersville, NC for an afternoon of fun! Jude and Yanalyn were all over the place exploring and having a great time and sweet Channing, who was not quite 8 months old, had her own fun exploring at her own pace. The following are a few picture of our adventure at Discovery Place Kids in July 2012:

Even Mommy got in on the fun!

It's always delightful to visit with old friends and in looking back at our month of July 2012, we were filled with copious amounts of love from both family and friends.