Beach Days

Trip to Chicago

The following 3 entries are about our wonderful time visiting Grandma and Grandpa Weber who just delight in our little boy. What lucky parents we are!

Slip, slip, slip n slide ... with our friends and Daddy

Battery operated fishing. Fish even fights when it's being reeled in

One of Grandma's many fabulous garage sale finds

Aah, taking relaxing cues from Grandpa

A morning with Aunt Maria

Camping with Grandma and Grandpa

We knew Mathieu would love camping .... and Mathieu absolutely did.

Grandma and Grandpa made it even easier by bringing their camper. Although Dave and I slept in the tent, we sheepishly admit that it sure was nice having access to a refrigerator and microwave, and tent camping with an extension cord and fan aided our sleeping in Illinois's 90+ degree heat wave.

Playing ball with Grandma

Playing in the rain. Of course, I packed Mathieu's raincoat in our suitcase, but failed to bring it along on our camping trip.

Happy sandwich eating

Perfect height window.

Setting up tent

Taking a bath

Grandma

"Grandma, let's play cars."
"Grandma, come play with Mathieu?"
"I want to play with Grandma."
"I love you, Grandma."

Grandma was Mathieu's top choice on this summer trip to Chicago, and Grandma earned every bit of Mathieu's adoration. Each morning, when Mathieu arose at his usual EST of 7:00am, Dave and I groaned because we were on Central, 6:00 am time. Not to worry. Grandma was up and would play cars with Mathieu for 2 hours until his parents rolled out of bed at 8. What a vacation!

Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of Mathieu playing his elaborate car game with Grandma, but we do have other sweet ones.

Making one of Mathieu's favorite food: Pancakes!

Little Tybee Island

We took a kayaking trip out to Little Tybee this morning, and Mathieu was a great passenger. He kept me busy answering a string of "what" and "why" questions. "What do egrets like to eat? What do dolphins like to eat? Why are those oysters over there? Where does the dolphin live? Why are there so many kayaks? Where does Little Tybee live?" I received a reprieve from all the questioning when we saw a pod of dolphins splashing in the water.

Little Tybee Island is an undeveloped barrier island just south of Tybee, and it's beach, especially at low tide, is EXPANSIVE, but you can still see all the beautiful trees in the background. What a pleasant morning we had!

Painting body in marsh mud

Painting Daddy in marsh mud

Dancing
Drawing in sand (censored due to graphic content)
Playing in water

Water Wings

Last summer at 18 months: "Mathieu, lets swim in a pool," suggests Mommy.
"No, No, No!" Mathieu vehemently replies.

This summer at 2 1/2 years: "Mathieu, lets swim in a pool," suggests Mommy.
"I bring water wings. Make big splash. Mathieu kick, kick," answers Mathieu. (He interchanges third person and first person when speaking of himself.)After seeing the success of water wings on our 4 year old friend, we decided that Mathieu might really benefit from these particular floaties. A trip to Wal-Mart and one dollar later, Mathieu and his oversized shoulder pads hit the water and a little swimmer was born.