Beach, Almost Not A Baby, and Then Some

We've had a change of pace (cue the laughter) and things have been busy around here. We spent a week at the Biloxi beach with the Ruth fam, came home to some time with the Schweizer grandparents, and had friends in town this last week. Oh - and Ryan turned double 3's in there and Sophia turned 11 months old.

So the quick rundown on all of that - vacation was wonderful. We got off to a rough start - jellyfish stings, followed by an allergic reaction to oysters, followed by more jellyfishes stings. (Mallory and I were trading off days/issues - she took all the stings, I went for the allergic reaction.) By Tuesday we decided to stop playing that game and settled in to a more enjoyable time. We walked the pier, went to the lighthouse, visited Jefferson Davis' last home, went on a shrimping tour where the dolphins swam right next to the boat (awesome!). Read a few books, spent time at the pool/beach (really just playing in the sand because it ended up being jellyfish season....hence the stings), dusted off my old tennis skills with Ryan (you can chuckle again). Enjoyed lots of time with lots of family - loved on the kiddos, had a "big kids" night out, and hung out with the parental units. Oh - and enjoyed lots of amazing food. Mmm, mmm!

Grandma and Grandpa Schweizer closed on their Texas property while we were out of town (yay for them moving to TX in the coming years) so they were waiting for us when we got back. We had birthday dinner/pumpkin bar cake for Ryan and celebrated Sophia's early birthday as well (which was way harder for me to do than it was when we did it with Aiden, on almost the exact same timeline).

Ryan's birthday was also Sophia's last "monthly birthday", as she turned 11 months. Big girl is tipping the scales around 17lbs. Mimi and Aunt Brooke thought they should help teach Sophia is walk on vacation, but I might have had slight opposition to that plan. The poor girl is going to have to figure it all out on her own. Hah. We would hold Aiden by the fingers and walk him around, when he was Sophia's age. Little Miss might have taken a handful of strolls like that, which generally end with me taking her from Ryan and putting her back on the ground. Do I want her to walk? I guess....Am I completely okay with it taking longer than the 13.5 month mark that it took Aiden? Absolutely.

Here's to hoping for the longest September on record (to keep Soph little just a tad longer)!

Stopped to meet Buc-ee the Beaver on our
drive to the beach. 

Auntie M rode down to the beach with us. She
sat in the back with the kiddos....and was
an amazing, incredible aunt/sister...so helpful!
 She let Aiden do the "decorating" in this picture.

Tallest high chair ever at Shaggy's!

View of the pier from the lighthouse.

Sis pic, atop the lighthouse.

This is what Soph did during the lighthouse tour.
The main reason I posted this is because we
sometimes refer to Sophia as Trumpster....since
her hair she was born with never fell out and it's
so thin, she looks like she has a toupee these days...

Outside of Hard Rock Biloxi - he excitedly pointed
out every display item once we got inside.

Selfie stick pic!

Ryan's parents bought a chainsaw to help cut trees
on their new property....and they also got Aiden
one. He really loves it and "cuts" everything. 

At daycare they were studying ants so they had
ants on a log as a snack and this is the face Aiden
made for them. It pretty much perfectly captures
his devotion to food. 

Slow down September, slow down!

She finally has two more little bitty teeth on top
trying to join those bottom two.