Move over Don Ho

Thanks Aunt Becky, Uncle Jim and cousins Alan and Teresa for the awesome aloha outfit for Nicholas (and the coffee and chocolates, too!). You can see by Nicholas's smile that he loves it!

We hope things go smooth as you settle into your new hometown! Thanks again for all the blogging of your vacation - how awesome!

Vacation

Nicholas made the big road trip with us to to visit with some of Tony's side of the family. We headed south in our rental (Chevy Trailblazer that was JUST big enough for all we needed to pack for Nicholas) and passed through North and South Carolina. We overnighted in Georgia and then went on to our first Florida stop, Jacksonville. We picked up big brother Matt and headed for an all too quick visit in Orlando with Grandma Linda and Grandpa George as well as Aunt Maria and cousins Ryan and Kierra. We visited with them at the Port Orleans Riverside resort at Disney. It was a great spot to be because the resort itself is so nice but also because there was enough space for us to spread out and enjoy a family lunch while the kids got to play at the big lego table. (Kids both big and small, that is!)

Afterward, we headed further south to New Port Richey to visit with Uncle Paul, Aunt Pattie and cousins Cameron, Christian, Jacob and Jeremy. We had a blast playing Nintendo Wii, going mini-golfing and bowling and eating lots of good food. I think that we are now officially hooked on the Wii - and also Guitar Hero. As shown in an above photo, Matt made good use of the air mattress, sleeping in like a true teenager!

On the way back from Florida, we stopped in for an overnight visit with Rob and Terry at their very nice house in North Carolina. It was a great break from the mundane task of driving up 95. Unfortunately, we didn't take the camera out of the car to document the occassion. We did enjoy a nice dinner, good conversation and playing with Loki and Niko (the great danes).

We arrived back in Virginia Beach at about 4pm on Sunday. Oma and Opa Clark were waiting for us and even had prepared a great dinner. They took over the care of Nicholas while we unpacked and got settled. We enjoyed a social evening before the reality of Monday morning hit and Ellen headed back to work . Tony has another 2 days of break - but has some homework to do for his college course...so, I guess it's not really "vacation" for him either.

Our only regret on the vacation is that it had to come to an end.

More pics will be posted to snapfish shortly, but here are some highlights.

Firsts and Seconds

Some firsts for Nicholas this weekend:

He got and sat in his first highchair and he took his first "big boy shower" with daddy (and, although it is g-rated, I am sure you'll understand why there is no photo!). He also sat in the front part of his shopping cart for the first time. We didn't have the camera with us for that but Tony did capture it on his cell phone. We just aren't sure how we can download it. Hopefully we'll figure it out.

Some seconds:

He got his second car seat (which looks like a big, comfy recliner compared to his current bucket car seat).

And, a result of rolling around on the bed, he got his second mowhawk. (The first was compliments of Emily when she was playing with his hair after the baptism).

We're looking forward to a big travel week to Florida. We'll be posting pics when we get back! We can't wait to see so many of our family on this trip.

21 pounds, 28 inches

Our little man has never exactly been "little!" He is still in the 90th percentile for weight and 95th for height as of his latest checkup on Wednesday afternoon.

He's happy and healthy and starting to get into EVERYthing. He seems like he is ready to crawl at any second. He's gotten into position, doing a lot of rocking. He has mastered a 360 turn on his belly and he's gotten pretty good at all the rolling over. Sometimes, he still amazes himself when he does it though.

Tooth becomes teeth

Nicholas now has 2 teeth! Or, as Tony says, 1.5 teeth. They are both on the bottom and Nicholas just doesn't cooperate when trying to get a picture of them. Sometimes it seems like he is growing up so fast!

The attached photos are his July 8th photo (in an outfit from Beth) and one from his first week of life.

Birthday Hat

Well, Nicholas didn't much like the hat, but we managed to get it on him for long enough to get a photo out of him. We ended up not giving him the blueberries because he hasn't yet been introduced to fruit. We thought, if he is going to have a reaction, we don't want it to be in the middle of the night! So, we settled for a big hat, slightly modified to note the occasion.

It's been a great and very fast 6 months!

ps. Some of you may remember that same birthday hat from Tony's 40th birthday party. I am CERTAIN it will be seen again! I think it has unintentionally become part of a tradition.

Birthdays

Happy Birthday PAM! And...happy 6-month birthday Nicholas! Hopefully tonight I will get some shots of Nicholas trying his cereal and blueberries (blueberries for the first time)! We'll let him try to eat it with his own hands...that ought to be fun!

Thanks for a great weekend visit Mike, Allison, Oma, Opa, Anne, Rex and Pam!