Presents Galore

Nathan got a lot of birthday presents from adoring family members, and he opened most of them when we got back from Puerto Rico.  He loved them all!

Nathan is a huge Elmo fan so he was super excited about his new furry friend!

He has loved wheels since forever and has been captivated by bikes recently.  He was so excited to get one!

He hasn't really figured out the petals yet, but it'll come, and he has a ton of fun scooting around!

Easter Sunday

Happy (belated) Easter everyone!  We had a lovely Easter Sunday this year.  We started the morning with an Easter egg hunt at home.  Nathan quickly got the hang of it and had a ton of fun.

Look at this little guy and his loot!

We had a lot of people at our Easter services at church, which was good to see.  They even set up a photo booth and took this cute family picture.

We got together with a couple friends from church for dinner, and the kids especially had a blast!  

Puerto Rico Part Two

We spent most of our Puerto Rico vacation hanging around our beach house on Sandy Beach and enjoying time with family.  The big waves in Rincon led to a lot of surfing, and Jesse was able to get into the water a few times.

Nathan was trilled about seeing a real-life lighthouse (light-how)!

We also had a lot of fun in the pool,

and Nathan showed off his swimming skills to his Nana and Papa Thomas.

We went to Steps Beach during our last day in Rincon.  

The waves were too big for us to be able to do any snorkeling, but there were tidepools that allowed Nathan to play in relatively calm shallow water.  We spent the entire morning there and really loved this beach! 

We walked around Old San Juan before we left Puerto Rico, and Jesse toured the Castillo San Cristóbal.  

We spent our last evening in Isla Verde, had a relaxing scroll along the beach, and enjoyed virgin and non-virgin blended drinks.  Puerto Rico was lovely!

Puerto Rico!

Last week we were in Puerto Rico celebrating Matt and Merida's wedding! For this trip, Nathan graduated from riding in his carseat on the plane to this harness. He liked the freedom it gave him to move around, and he did really well on the trip.  It did not hurt that we let him watch some in-flight entertainment!

Nathan was so excited to get back to the beach and loved playing in the waves just as much as he did in Hawaii!

Look at this cute three generation Thomas beach picture!

The waves were pretty strong at Sandy Beach, and Nathan thought it was pretty fun when a big one got him!  

Nathan also had some beach yoga time with his Aunt Becca (Bet-ta) and, as you can see, he is pretty great at it!

One really unique adventure that we had during our trip was to visit a bioluminescent bay.  We went to the one in La Parguera, which was fairly close to where we were staying.  Nathan was instantly sold on the trip, which involved a biiiiiig boat (as Nathan saw it anyway).  It was really cool to be able to get into the water and see the dinoflagellates in the water sparkle and glow green. 

Nathan also loved playing with his sand toys, making creations with his Nana and exclaiming "tada!"

"Mitt and Mare" were the reason we went to Puerto Rico, and we are so trilled for this lovely couple and their marriage!

Nathan is 2!

Nathan turned two last Thursday -- the day that we flew to Puerto Rico to celebrate Matt and Merida's wedding (more on that soon).  We threw Nathan a birthday party while we were there, and chose a Thomas the Train theme -- he loved it!

The wind blew out Nathan's candle for him, but he didn't mind.   

His favorite part was the ice cream (ie tweem) anyway!

The beautiful ocean was the backdrop of his birthday party.

 Nathan loved opening presents,

and playing with them.

His favorite part of all, however, was the balloons.  He was so excited about those balloons!

Silliness Galore

Nathan is quite a hoot.  Jesse adds to the silliness too, in this case convincing me that I shouldn't buy Nathan mittens next winter because sockhands are so much more effective (and stay on so much longer).

Nathan likes to "help" me with laundry and loves to be pulled around in a laundry basket.  This week Nathan decided to give his "amels" a treat and push them around too. 

Nathan also likes to color -- kind of.  When he does, he usually spends 5% of the time coloring and the rest of the time doing something else, like peeling the paper off his crayons or taking the lids off his markers and sticking them on the back.  He recently discovered that when he does that he can stick his finger in the cap and wave the marker around.  This guy is too much!