Bahamas WE MISS YOU!

Justin and I left the little man at home and went on a cruise just the two of us to the Bahamas. It felt like a second honeymoon. No chasing after a chubby toddler, pulling his hands out of the toilet for the 5th time that day, picking up the food that he chucks on the floor, or changing horrific diapers. In a word... paradise. Don't get me wrong, we missed our Camden dearly. I think my mom must have been rolling her eyes when we called no less then ten times the first day to see what he was doing now, or now, or what about now?! But in the end I'm so glad we went. We stopped at the Florida KeysCoco CayAnd Atlantis!!! This was our favorite day. It was the coolest water park I've ever been to. We turned into little kids running all over the park doing every water slide multiple times. The one in the picture above is a steep drop that then takes you in a tube through a shark tank. It was so cool to see the sharks swiming all around you as you go through.

The ship had rock climbing! So fun to climb to the top and look out to see ocean all around you. The water was the most beautiful crystal turquoise! I was amazed when we went snorkeling at how clear it was. We got to see a plane and shipwreck. It was a little creepy to dive down into the cockpit. Oh yes, and we also saw jelly fish! Lots of jelly fish!! By some miracle neither one of us got stung. This was Justin on our last day. Needless to say we were both a little bummed it was all over- swimming in the warm blue ocean, white sand beaches, entertaining shows, eating all the ice cream you can handle, dancing till 2am, falling asleep in the sun. Our trip had come to an end.But when we came out of the airport and saw this little boy waiting for us, I think Justin and I couldn't stop smiling all afternoon. And luckily neither could he.

Gulcub

This is part two of "I swear my husband must sneak into our son's room at night to whisper subliminal messages such as 'YOU LOVE GOLF' because really this kid loves golf." He has his very own little set of golfclubs, courtesy of his Grandpa Neumann. "Gulcub," as Camden calls them, was one of his first words.
He loved driving the golf cart just as much as running around on the course...maybe even more.

For the sake of a fun comparison picture....

This is Camden at 3 weeks on his first golf outing.

This is him on the same hole at 15 months. Just a slight change:)

First Kiss

Your first kiss is something to be remembered. I remember the ugly blue carpet under the library stairs and the way all the girls giggled when Beau (who, now that I think back on it was a VERY confident little 4th grader) walked up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder and planted one on my lips the second I turned around. Yes, something to be remembered that is unless your first kiss happens when your 15 months!!!
We shuffled into the last row at church on Sunday and sat next to our really good FRIENDS who just moved out to DC from California. Jake and Lynn have an absolutely adorable 2 year old girl Annabelle. Right when we sat down Camden leaned across Justin to get a better look at this little cutie, sitting between Justin and her dad Jake. After a few times of leaning forward to see her and saying "HI", Camden got down from the pew and made his way down to where she was sitting. He starred at her for a minute and then leaned in on tip toe with his lips puckered making a loud "mmmmmmm" sound. He went 90, she went 10. First kiss.
I should mention here that getting Camden to snuggle much less give us, you know, HIS OWN PARENTS a kiss is very far and few between. And yet, after that first kiss he now tries to smooch any little girl within a ten foot radius- whether that be at the grocery store, play groups, or the mall. We are in big trouble with this kid!

CO/TX Trip

I'm still playing catch up trying to update our blog! There are A LOT of pictures because we were gone for more than two weeks. There is much to document! We went out to Colorado for a week to visit my parents, two brothers, and other family and friends. Oh how we both love it out West!!! This picture is taken right behind my parents house. It is so beautiful to hike around the canyon they live on. BUT.... watch out for snakes. We almost stepped on one. Ehhh!

We went up to the mountains to watch my brother do a triathlon. Camden was sporting his fireman pjs because my brother is a firefighter. That and we woke him up EARLY to get to the race. Iron Man coming up in September!! Go Sean!
After the race we did some other fun things in Estes. First, Camden and I smoked Justin on the slides.Next up, I beat Justin in go carts. While we drove these cars...Camden drove this car!We also spent some time in down town Denver.Best of all we spent time with FAMILY! Camden loves his great grandparents.He was in heaven with all the kids to play with. He has 27 nieces and nephews. That's right, 27! They were all so cute with him and wanted to take care of him.
After about a week in Colorado we all hoped on a plane and flew down to Austin to meet up with the rest of the Searle crew. My brothers picked us up from the airport and we drove straight to Galveston to stay on the beach. It was Camden's first time in the ocean. We had a blast playing in the waves. Justin and I got to ride a stand up jetski out in the ocean for the first time. SOO fun!!Before leaving Galveston to head to Austin we went to Rainforest Cafe, one of my favorite places in the world and officially one of Camden's!

Back in Austin we played just as hard!

We went parasailing

Bull riding
If you're wondering about my awesome boots, those belong to my brother. It's always an adventure with my family and I didn't know that we were going to go ride bulls so I was wearing work out clothes, not jeans and no boots. I actually tripped walking up the ramp to get on the bull and the cowboys laughed and asked if I was sure about this. To which I replied, no! But I did it anyway, and happy to say I made it 8 seconds. I'm not posting the video because while in my mind I was Lane on the movie 8 seconds watching it might look more like a little girl on a merry go round.
Swam in rivers and clearly got too much sun!
This is Justin going down one the "shoots".
Played beach volleyball while the kiddos played in the sand

Swam in my brother's pool

I LOVE my family and miss them like crazy!!!!!!!!

Girl's Trip!

I have the best girlfriends in the world. We lived together all through college and made some of the very best memories I have. Unfortunately, we are now spread out all over the U.S. LJ lives in San Diego, Britt is in Utah and I'm here in DC so we often have to do a girl's trip to reunite. I'm so lucky because they have come out to DC now many times! This time we decided to make a little trip out of a trip and head up to the Big Apple. We were only there two days but we definitely made the most of it by squeezing in as much as possible!
Right when we got there we got tickets to see Mamma Mia. Then headed to Central Park to have lunch on the rocks. I had never even seen the movie Mamma Mia. What a lucky choice because it was the perfect show for three girls!
The story (for anyone else who hasn't seen it) involves a mom and her two best friends doing a whole lot of singing in a whole lot of glitter. That's not the main idea of the show but you can see why I'm saying it was perfect for three girls. The disco outfits that the three girls wear in the play are hilarious. LJ, our little clothes designer and seamstress promised to make the outfits for Halloween this year if we promised to wear them. Guess you'll be seeing me sporting one of these beautiful ensemble in the near future...

Next we went to the famous Serendipity for dinner and of course the frozen hot chocolate.

We had a blast walking all over. There is something so electrifying about NY at night. I love all the lights and TONS of people. This is people watching at it's finest.

Along the way back to our hotel LJ somehow lost her shoe in this fountain. Maybe that's why you aren't supposed to climb/in her case "ride" the statues. Hmmmm

The next morning we attempted to go to the Today Show to be out on the plaza. However, I'm embarrassed to say we slept through it! Only a half a block from our hotel and we missed it. Sad but also really lovely.

We took the subway down to the financial district and walked and shopped our hearts out.

What would a girl's trip be without a little chocolate?!Of course our last stop before heading back to DC was some ice cream on the street.

After our NY adventure the girls stayed with us in DC for another week. I LOVED having them here!!!!

And so did this little man

See? He was pretty excited to be surrounded by ladies!