Alayna's First Nap in the Sand

hey gang.

you know, you'd think with the whole 'not working at all' thing kris and i have going on down here, we'd be able to post pictures and updates a little more frequently than we have been. i mean, its not like we're leading ridiculously insane social lives or anything at the moment. the highlight of a typical day around here, seriously, generally entails running errands at target. i was totally going to do this update yesterday, but then got side-tracked (which is commonplace for me) downloading over a hundred old school hip-hop and r & b jams from the early 90s. u can't touch this.

so... getting back to the point of this post. beaches. let's talk about 'em. kris has been gung-ho about showing off the kid in a bathing suit since the thing was the size of a peanut deep within her uterus (or wherever babies are stored down there... i don't know how the plumbing works, exactly).

now that alayna fits in the bathing suit kris found for her, and now that we have some friends out on the coast who have a house a couple hundred yards from the beach, we figured it was a good time to take the kid out in order for her to nap somewhere exotic for a change.

hurricane bertha passed by us, and most of you, i'm sure, are well aware of this.

the effects of this storm, however, still wash up on shore and cause fun things like choppy water, rip tides, crashing waves, and, of course, severe thunder storms. it wasn't quite the sunniest day on the beach we've ever had down here in florida, but we were lucky enough to be rain-free until just as we were getting ready to leave.

so yeah... that was the cannonball's first outing at the beach. for those of you who can't get enough pictures of the kid in a bathing suit, fret not: we'll be heading home to michigan in about a week for a seven-day stint with my dad's side of the family on eight point lake. stay tuned for a report on that later. i'm sure we'll be checking in prior to our departure home, but, then again, the way i've been keeping on top of this thing recently you never know. sorry for the lameness.

hope you're enjoying work this summer (suckers).

- brian

2 Weeks of Grandmas

Since you last heard from us, we've had a couple weeks of entertaining both sides of the family. My mom, Marcy, started out the first week and we ended our visits with Brian's mom, Renee for the second week. Thanks to them, we had a few extra hours of sleep a day and a clean place to live in. The help was much needed and appreciated. Now it's back on our own.

During my mom's stay, we were unfortunately stuck with Florida's lovely thunderstorms on a daily basis. So, the outings were minimal. We did manage to hit up a little Downtown Disney and get Alayna's first portraits taken; along with a few shots of the family. For those of you who haven't seen them yet, you can check them out at http://www.smilesbywire.com by entering in the following information: Customer Name: KRISTINA HOUGH, Access Code: LTPP0459101723JCP. Renee was a bit more lucky with the weather and was able to enjoy getting out and basking in the sun almost every day. Most of our outings with her were still limited to errands since the baby can't quite take the heat yet. We did, however, manage another Downtown Disney venture and a little gift shopping.

Now that things have settled a little here, we have 2 weeks to unspoil our bundle of joy. We will soon be traveling up to Michigan for the rest of the Grandparents and immediate family to spoil her again and send us packing with a child that cannot be put down. Nonetheless, we're looking forward to a chance at being at home during the summer and seeing the remainder of those we're closest to.

We'll check in again upon our return.

-Kristina