Holy Travels!

Okay, so the month of July was spent traveling up and down the East Coast as well as the East to the West Coasts with family time in between. We started Fourth of July in Savannah, which I have already blogged about. Then had Chase's 2nd birthday party here at the house with family. We continued from there to spend almost a week at Topsail Island (on the coast of North Carolina) with Jason's Dad, stepmom, brother and sister-in-law, step-sister and 2 nieces. We came home long enough to unpack, do laundry and repack for our trip to California to visit my Grandmother, Aunt, Uncle, Cousins, their spouses and their kids. Oh, and did I mention that while we were there, we went to Disneyland! Needless to say, we are ready for August to be less chaotic. If I tried to write down all the fun and all the memories, this would be a never-ending blog entry so I will simply add a few pictures instead. I will try to add them in order, birthday, beach and then California. Enjoy! Before we could even sing, Chase sampled the frosting. His birthday theme this year was obviously "Elmo". Because of his fun birthday celebration, he is now obsessed with saying Happy Birthday at any time, especially when he sees something that he thinks is a candle. He saw toothpicks in a sandwich of mine and said Happy Birthday and wanted to blow out the candle. It was the cutest thing!

With 3 kids running around, there is one simple way to keep them all in check....put them in one place! Chase, Olivia and Addison enjoying some down time at the beach. They would spend hours in the morning playing in the sand and water, have lunch and down time, then more beach time in the afternoon. They were all amazing and had so much fun.

The back of our 'beach trip memory t-shirts' designed by Aunt Lindsey. Addison, Chase and Olivia made their footprints on the back, Uncle Marc added the writing later. Chase had a handprint fish on the front and the girls had mermaids with hand and foot prints. They LOVED making the shirts and even loved watching each other make them too!

The West Coast cousins, Chase (2), Bise (4 1/2), Meredith (10 months), Ethan (5) , Samantha (almost 10) and Finn (18 months) . Not often that Nana Lee gets to have all 6 of her great-grandkids in the same spot at the same time for a photo op like this.


The whole reason that we went to Disneyland while we were in California. In addition to being obsessed with Elmo right now, Chase is ALL about Mickey. He went crazy when we walked into the park and he kept seeing "Mickey" everywhere. It has been 3 days since we left and he is still talking about it. I know he won't remember the trip or the rides or even the park but I have the memories for him and I will show him pictures as often as he wants to see them. I will never forget the excitement in his voice, the all-day smile that he wore or how much fun we all had that day. This is what being a mom is all about...making memories for and with your kids.