ABC's and weekend with Aunt Manda

Forgive my banging around in the kitchen during this!! This is the best ABC video I've seen of Claire yet, and she skips Y and Z! Usually when I grab my camera, she forgets about performing. Amanda must inspire that in her!

My sister Amanda and her dog Lucy spent a night with us last weekend, which Claire and I both thoroughly enjoyed! We jumped on the trampoline, went to the park and did some shopping at Bliss Boutique. I was right; that store is so Amanda. Her one repeating comment was only a tad offensive to my beloved hometown: "This is so not like a Durant store." We also watched girly movies (Ella Enchanted when Claire was awake; Confessions of Shopaholic after she went to sleep--Hugh Dancy-a-thon!! That's okay with me!). Lucy kept wanting to explore our house, so Claire kept having to tell her, "Come back here, Ucy!"



I also started school yesterday. I'm teaching two sections of Comp 1 at 8 and 9 a.m. YIKES! That's a shock to the system after Claire and I have been waking up in the 7:30-8 range most of the summer! Plus, Claire and I both had terrible nights' sleep Sunday night, so we both had long naps on Monday afternoon. But my classes went well. I'm apparently a pretty long-winded teacher, as I kept both my classes for at least 40 minutes, whereas my office mates both made it back within 25 minutes. Last semester, my schedule was opposite those of my office mates, so we communicated only through Post-Its, but this semester, we teach on the same days, their classes right after mine. They're both girls close to my age and have or are about to have young children. So that's fun.

Claire starts Thursday School at 7th and Beech Church of Christ on Thursday--her first Mother's Day Out program!! Her cousin Katelyn goes to the program, too, and Katelyn's mom Kim is a volunteer, so that makes me feel so much better about it!! It's from 9 to 12:15, I think. There's a parent meeting tonight. She's picked out a lunch box and Dora yogurts for her lunch (why she gravitates toward Dora products, I don't know; she barely watches the show). I think we'll make cookies tomorrow for her lunch, too.

Big ultrasound in T-minus 30 minutes!!

Trampoline!

We got a trampoline a few weeks ago, and Claire loves it. We didn't go for the net around the outside, so she's already flipped off of it once. That was only because Tyler was here and she was acting like a nut; she was so excited. She just put her head down on the blue mat and flipped right off onto the ground! But then she wanted to get back on after she cried for a minute.

Taking a break!

Huck likes to "jump" with Claire. Every time she gets on, he hops up and hangs out with her.

Beach pics (finally!)

Well, we had a great trip, but I've been in get-ready-for-school mode since we got back! Sorry for the delay; it's probably not so exciting to hear about at this point, but just for posterity's sake, here goes...

We were on the beach three days and one evening, and had a great time boogie-boarding, snorkeling, and playing in the sand. We went with our friends from church, Seth and Kara, and Jay's cousin Matt, his wife, Kim (also Kim Mauck!), and their little girl Katelyn, who is six months younger than Claire. Outside of our immediate families, these are some of Claire's (and our) favorite people to hang out with, so Claire had lots of playmates. We drove the 15ish hours (with the all the stops we ended up making!) in our two loaded-down SUVs.

We all shared a three-bedroom house that was in a private neighborhood near a public beach, so we walked a few blocks every morning to the beach. After three or so hours at the beach, we would walk back, eat lunch, shower, and then have a nice rest time, where the girls took naps, and some of us did, too. The guys went and played golf one afternoon, while the girls went shopping.

Claire and Daddy play in the sand.

Daddy buried Claire in the sand between our beach chairs.

Our first night at the beach, we were in our clothes b/c we were about to eat dinner, and Claire got soaked by a wave that caught us by surprise. We had to strip her down and let it dry for the rest of the time!

Kim entertains the girls during our SECOND dinner at Dewey Destin Harborside!
Daddy and Claire lounging. Our last day, we drove to another public beach that paid snorkeling trips boat to, so we could snorkel. There was a super-calm inlet (pictured above), where all the snorkelers were, one empty one, and one super-wavy one, so we got a little bit of both. Jay, Kim and I had what felt like a near-death experience when we got caught in a current in what I dubbed Jellyfish Cove (the empty one--probably for good reason)! It's all fun and games snorkeling until you realize you're out of breath, caught in a current, surrounded by fish, and right next to a rocky jetty!! We had to climb up on the rocky jetty and pick our way along there until we got to water where we could touch. BUT by then, I had cut my toe on a rock, and was bleeding!! Matt, the fishery biologist, assured me that a shark would NOT come into that little cove and get me, so I hopped back in and walked back to shore on shaky legs. Good times...

Claire and Katelyn had a great time one night at a fun park we went to that had a little kiddie ride area and a putt-putt course. We had a hard-core couples tournament--Jay would probably not like it if I told how Team JK did.