Audrey and I spent last week on the North Carolina Outerbanks with my dad, Arlene, and Grandpa Deans. Audrey had a great time with her grandparents and great-grandfather and reveled in all the attention. It was about a six hour drive each way. Eric, sadly, had to stay home and work.

Audrey favorite part was time at the beach.

She likes to wear sand as an extra layer of sunscreen.

East coast beaches look so different with grass and dunes.
I learned these gates help build up the dunes.

People on the Outerbanks are serious fishermen.
I saw many trucks with these built on gear rigs for all your fishing supplies.

We visited the Wright Brother Memorial.

The hat swap.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

The beaches were beautiful.

We also visited the NC Aquarium which my zoo pass got us into free.
Audrey was proud to pet (touch) a baby alligator.

We had a great time beaching and exploring. I am still fascinated at all the places to visit on the east coast.

Baltimore Zoo

Today, we became members of the Baltimore Zoo. Audrey loves animals, so I think we will be make many trips to the zoo.

The highlight (other than the lion, giraffe and elephants) were the goats.
Audrey got to talk to the goats, brush and pet them and even hug them (with daddy's help). She made always had a fear of petting zoos. She loves the idea of animals, but not as much up close. She made some good headway today though.

Don't forgot to stop and smell the flowers.
Here are some Black-Eyed Susans, the Maryland state flower.

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day weekend, we headed down to Hampton, VA for some time at the beach. We stayed with my Uncle Scott and Aunt Laura for our relaxing weekend. Audrey enjoyed making drip castles and riding on my uncle's catamaran. She also got to play with lots of puppies. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed the warm water (lucky for us it was late enough in the season that there were no jellyfish). A bunch of people in their neighborhood celebrate the holiday weekends sailing. Saturday night they had a moonlight sail (since there was a full moon) and dinner on the beach. Sunday, they had three different races with 14 Sunfish sailboats. My uncle got second place of the day and season! Good Sailing! We had a great weekend and are so thankful for the generous hospitality!

Federal Hill Park

I recently went to the Federal Hill park that overlooks the city. It was a amazing view and we had some beautiful weather, something you don't take for granted in Baltimore. The girls loved the cannon more than the view.

Photoshoot gone bad!

Sometimes photographing kids does not work out the way you intended. Recently I wanted to take some pictures of Audrey in this dress my mom bought and loves. I was going to give them to her for her birthday. Audrey was not feeling it and expressed that so evidently as you can see...
This is the "best" I got- a cheesy smile.

Dancing girls..

These girls love to dance. Here's a little My Sharona/Ring Around the Rosie (if that's possible). This is from the Delaware beach house.

Rocking and Slapping

Audrey loves to be outside. This summer the mosquitoes (and humidity) made it difficult. She loves rocking in the rocking chairs and slapping mosquitoes.

Carolina's Wedding

We kicked off our family reunion with a beautiful and elegant Peruvian wedding. Congrats to Matt and Carolina on your wedding! We had a great celebration. Peruvians know how to eat and party. We had a delicious Peruvian cake (with caramel they make from sweetened condensed milk) and Pisco Sours.

The Sanchez/Lapointe/Hopkins/Gardner Family

Luis and Cedulie Sanchez

Hopkins

Lapointes

Gardner newlyweds

The big kids (the girls went to a babysitter).

So, I am kind of fascinated with bugs and Maryland has lots of bugs. Every summer cicadas (huge gross bugs) fill the trees and serenade us with a constant chirping. This one decide to land at our table during to reception. Our unwelcomed guest was shortly escorted out.

Family Reunion '09

This year for the 8th Annual Family Reunion we had a Staycation at Eric's mom (Cedulie) and step-dad's (Luis) house. Eric's step-sister, Susan and her (new) husband Tom flew out from San Francisco to join the rest of the family, since the rest of us are in Maryland now. The reunions started when Eric and I were dating. His sister, Stefanie, made a "crazy" move to Baltimore and the family, especially Cedulie, wanted to be more intentional about getting together. It has evolved from camping at different areas in SoCal, then camping at the farm to time-shares and this year, just a time to hang out, eat and play games (pool, board and lawn- yes we are a game family!)

The girls started each morning dancing.

They danced all day long.

Audrey danced with Ducky, as shown here with this great lift.

They love eating together...
and relaxing together.

We swam..went to the park...
played bocce ball...

and croquet.

Here's are comparison pictures from last year...

We had a great time together and are so thankful for our family.