Happy Birthday Granny

We want to wish Granny a very special Happy Birthday! We were so lucky to have been able to spend time with Granny over the weekend, it was a very good surprise to hear she would be coming to town. Her great grandchildren were so glad to be able to spend some time with her (as well as her grandchildren and children!) Savannah and Torie were also visiting from Atlanta (Robert's sister Tonya's girls) Our only wish would be that we could see her more often and hope to be making a trip to Lumberton to visit soon.

Granny Alice and Baby Alice checking each other out!

Happy Father's Day

I wanted to wish all the Dad's out there a happy Father's Day! Robert and I were glad to spend the weekend with family. Robert spent his day working on the boat with my Dad, his Dad and our brother-in-law Michael and then we went over to Dad and Leigh's to grill out and swim in the pool. I hope Robert had a very happy Father's Day! Alice is so blessed to have such a caring Daddy and I am ever grateful for my wonderful husband!

Alice is 9 months old

Alice was 9 months old on Sunday!

We went to the pediatrician on Tuesday for her check up...which confirmed what we already know...that Alice is a "string bean", albeit a healthy string bean. She is 15lbs 6 oz which puts her under the 5th percentile for weight and 27 3/4 inches...over 50th percentile in length!

Alice is commando crawling quickly now, and on June 1st was found sitting up in her crib. She finally figured out how to do it...and now she does it all the time! She has broken ground on tooth #2 (I felt it for the first time on May 29th, and now you can just barely see it) and by the newest photos you can see #1 very prominently now.

She is tentative about pulling to stand and prefers to do so only when she can hold onto a person at the same time, but has been cruising a bit along the ottoman and the back of the couch. She is eating meats now...very ground up meats, but still meats. Her absolute favorite is plain yogurt and anything that she is allowed to feed herself.

Alice has learned how to roar like a tiger (like every good Clemson fan should). She still says "mama" mostly when she is upset, and otherwise is just a babbling. She definately knows what she wants although she isn't always able to convey it to us yet...And my does she have a temper!

Boat Excitement

While we were on our sail last Saturday we had a bit of excitement. We were cruising around the Charleston Harbor heading out toward Sullivan's island when Captain Alan got a phone call on his cell phone...a distress call from another captain who was also out sailing and had managed to run aground on a small sandbar out toward the jetties that protect the harbor. We sailed over and spotted them and brought down our sails, sent out Alan's son Nick in the dinghy to attatch a tow line to try to pull the smaller sailboat off the sandbar. After 2-3 hours of attempts trying to manuever a 60 plus foot sailboat against a strong tidal current in shallow waters and ferrying the passengers from the listing sailboat to the Yemaya in the dinghy...Alan was finally able to free the troubled sailboat from the sandbar!
In this photo you can see the sailboat on the left, Nick standing in the middle and the dinghy on the right

More Boat Excitement...

On the next day, Sunday, Robert was so excited to be putting the finishing touches on repairs to the Marathon (Robert's Dad's boat that has been sitting idle in our driveway for 2 years) newly upholstered seats, freshly repaired alternator, bilge, etc...He was planning to take it on a test run and then pick up Alice and I.

And then this happened as he was pulling it out of the driveway...

The axle on the trailer broke as he was coming out...Maybe one day we can enjoy putting our boat in the water!!! Poor Daddy! Last night he picked up a new axle and I am sure that will be the first order of business this weekend!

"Bathing Beauty"

I caught a little video of Alice while she was in the "hot-tub" on the Yemaya, she had a great time alternately splashing and then rubbing her eyes. She is sitting on cousin Jenn's lap who is now expecting her first baby in December! She announced the news to family this past weekend...(I have had to keep the secret from Uncle Mike, Jane and Max AND my Mom and Dad...Jenn-you are lucky you are cute!) We are so excited for Jenn and Greg and we know they will be fabulous parents!

Visiting with fam

We have had a very busy week with out of town family visiting...Uncle Mike, cousins Jane and Max visited from Atlanta on Tuesday. And cousin Jenn flew in from DC on Thursday. We went to the beach on Wednesday, the Aquarium on Friday and sailing on the Yemaya on Saturday. The fam also made several side trips to King St shopping as well as the Farmer's Market. Alice has also been making progress on her 2nd tooth!

Beach trip 6/4/08

Alice's 2nd time out to the beach...Out to Folly

Aquarium 6/6/08

In front of the 400,000 gallon deep water tank at the aquarium

Cousin shot while at the aquarium with the Ravenel Bridge in the background

Sailing 6/7/08

Alice hopped into the jaccuzi with cousins Jenn and Jane while on Yemaya, she had a great time splashing and laughing. She is definately a Taylor...she loves the water! Check out that tooth!

She was such a trooper...we ended up on the boat from 3 till 9, wow-no nap while on deck...too much to see and do.

A little shot of the out of towners as we got underway on our harbor cruise. Jane is recovery from knee surgery and was able to keep up with us all on crutches this week and hopped around the boat on 1 foot!

The 'Hawk returns!

We just can't help ourselves! That is all I have to say about that!

Bon Voyage!

For Fanny's final evening with us before returning to France we went sailing on Robert's cousin Alan's boat the Yemaya. We did a harbor cruise at sunset and Alan grilled steaks and boiled shrimp. And of course we had cake! This was Alice's first trip out on the water although we have been on the Yemaya several times at dock before now. We saw dolphin and Alice enjoyed playing with princess Bailey (Bailey and her folks just got back from a 6 month sail in the Bahamas). We will miss Fanny dearly...we have loved having her so close for the past 9 months while she was studying at Davidson. We hope she comes back soon!

On Memorial Day we cooked out over at my parents' home where Alice's Aunt Ashley, Cousin Holly and honorary Aunt Fanny were visiting. Mom and Dad roasted everything out on the grill...chicken, potatoes, corn...yum! We had to leave a little early as Alice had some kind of allerigc reaction while we were there. She had a rash on her chest and one eye got really inflamed and itchy. Robert got her a little Benadryl and we washed out her eye...she was better quickly. Hopefully its just an unusual occurance.