Carolyn's Seashell Project

Carolyn and I were reading one of her beach books from Nana and she noticed this picture on one of the pages.

She announced that we needed to make one of these. I told her when daddy came home she could ask him to help her. She was very excited about it and after dinner she picked out some of her shells from the beach and set to work with daddy.

Carolyn helped to get all the holes drilled and the string cut. They started to string them all, but when it got to be bedtime Carolyn took a break and Zach finished it for her.
She was quite pleased with the final product and decided it should be hung in her room! :)

Some Day Trips

From our vacation in the Adirondacks, we took 2 little day trips. One to Lake Placid, where we did a few things we weren't able to do while we were up there earlier this year and the other to the Wild Museum in Tupper Lake.

We drove the 8 miles up Whiteface Mountain and took the elevator in the mountain to the top, despite the overcast day! It was so funny being in the cloud! But, after a bit, the sun peeked through and we were able to have some pretty good views!

Carolyn was really into being on the mountain and said that she was a "mountain climber." She really enjoyed being on the rocks at the top of the mountain and climbing around!

The Wild Museum had a really neat outdoor trail with "playground equipment" made from trees. There was a balance beam and lots of things to climb.

Here's Carolyn measuring herself against a snake.

Carolyn is using a magnifying glass to look at frogs in one of the exhibits.

Adirondacks!

Whew it's been a long time since I last posted!!!

We enjoyed a great week in the Adirondacks with family. We stayed in a cabin, on a small lake called "Little Wolf Pond," near Tupper Lake. We all had a really nice time and enjoyed a lot of playing and relaxing. Carolyn LOVED my cousins and had a wonderful time following (or leading!) them around and being part of the fun. :)

Zach relaxing on the lake!

The girls jumping at the beach!

Some bike riding!

The girls caught 4 little toads for Carolyn in her "bug house."

The lake from our cabins

Our family in the canoe!

A fun game of Phase 10!

Carolyn the crab!!!

Big jump for Carolyn!

The girls are into geo-caching, and after a few "wrong turns," we finally found this geo-cache. They let Carolyn pick the prize and Abbey left a note in the log book.

The family :)

Getting Dressed

This is how Carolyn gets dressed each morning. She very carefully selects her outfit by herself (which this week has each day been all one solid color down to the underwear and socks...) and then lays it out on the floor. She looks at it, very pleased, and says "That looks just like Carolyn!" and then gets herself dressed.

Carolyn the Bike Rider

Carolyn LOVES to ride her bike!!

Ocean City, NJ

We spent a wonderful week enjoying the beach at Ocean City NJ with Zach's side of the family. Carolyn and I flew down ahead so we could be there the whole week, and Zach joined us at the end of the week. Carolyn really enjoyed her first time at the beach - she loves sand and water, so it was a pretty great combination for her!! Enjoy the pictures:

This is the 4th time Carolyn's flown, but the first time she was really aware of all that was going on - she really enjoyed looking out the window!

Playing in the sand - she was so funny - every time one of us would use a mold to make a fancy castle, she would knock it over immediately. She liked to just use her hands to mound up sand for a castle.

This is one of my favorites - I'd like to blow it up to an 8x10 for somewhere in the house.

Another one I love...

Carolyn enjoyed an "ice cream drink" several nights!

Carolyn loved this piece of playground equipment. She spent most of her time at the playground on it and would say "over and under and under and over" as she climber around different ways.

Our family of 3!

Diane and Zach

Carolyn LOVED seeing all the sand crabs. One morning, Uncle Ben caught a big bucket full of them and Carolyn used her orange scoop to dump them back in one at a time. She liked to watch them crawl back to their home by burying in the sand.

Carolyn loved the carousel at one of the amusement places on the boardwalk!

Lake Placid Weekend

We had a really fun time as a family in Lake Placid. It's the only time we've been away as a family without visiting extended family, so it was a special time for us to be together!! We tried to plan things that were fun for Zach and I and for Carolyn and I think we picked well!

On our way up Saturday, we stopped for a picnic lunch before we checked into the hotel. Carolyn really enjoyed eating near the lake, and afterwards she played a bit and threw some rocks into the water. She also really enjoyed climbing on and jumping off some big rocks!




After checking into our hotel and getting a bit settled, we met Sara, a good friend from college, who happened to also be visiting Lake Placid the same weekend! We took a boat ride around Lake Placid with her and some of her friends.





Sunday afternoon, when I was recovered from the run, we took a train ride on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. It was quite the deal - Zach was free for Father's Day and Carolyn was free since she's 2, so only Diane had to pay!







Monday morning we checked out of our hotel and drove to Ausable Chasm where we did a hike and boat ride.






Carolyn did a pretty good job being away from home, and slept decently at the hotel. She liked the little crib they had for her and enjoyed making it into a little house with her blankets in the morning.