Celebrating Sarah's Birthday

A few weeks ago we celebrated Sarah's second birthday with Greg's family. It was a fun day as everyone came to the house. It was the first time in a year and a half that all of Greg's family could be together. His sister and her family were stationed in Hawaii (her husband is in the Marine Corps) for over three years and they just returned in June. They are currently living just over an hour north of us near DC. We are excited to have them back in the area and look forward to many more family gatherings. Greg's sister, Susan has three children, Alex (8), Noah (6) and Lauren (10 months).


Greg's brother, Eric, helped out and drove their parents up from Fayetteville, so we had a full house. For the first time, we had a kids table and I wasn't sitting at it! I guess that means we've grown up. Eric took wonderful pictures of the day with his new 35mm digital camera. (I think I know what I'd like for a future birthday or Christmas gift now.)


Alex, Noah, and Sarah eat their favorite -seaweed and rice!


Sarah opens presents with Apa (Dad) and the help of her cousins Alex and Noah


Sarah let's us dress her up with her new hair clip


How do I look?


We finally get to meet cousin Lauren......


....unfortunately, Lauren gets sad when mommy isn't close by :(


Noah is very happy when Uncle Greg offers to help him build a birdhouse


Noah shows off his new birdhouse to Harabouji (Grandpa)


Sarah hangs out with Harmoni and Harabouji


All the kids hanging out with Harabouji and Aunt Susan


Alex and Noah wrestle with Dad (Kelly)

Summer Trip to the Cape

Over the fourth of July week we took a family trip up to the Cape to visit family and enjoy the cooler New England weather. The drive up (10-12 hours) is always an adventure. We tried driving through the night to make things easier. Greg was still on his working night schedule, so we thought it would help us avoid traffic. Unfortunately it didn't, we were stuck in traffice for over an hour at 1am, which made everyone in the car a bit cranky.

We drove straight to my friend Elina's house-arriving at 7am for an early breakfast. Elina had twin boys earlier in the year, so they were up and ready to go at that hour. Her son Zak and Sarah are only two weeks apart in age. We saw them last summer at this time, so it was good to see the kids together again. I am not sure if they recognized each other, but they looked cute together posing for their annual picture.

After visiting Elina, we drove to my parent's house to spend time at the beach, eat Cape food, read books, and relax. It was a nice week. My brother came from Rochester, NY with his wife and new baby (Abigail) and my cousin came down with his wife and two children (Rohan and Vrinda) on the fourth of July. We enjoyed a fun parade on the fourth in Orleans. It is small town and they throw candy from the floats (see my brother's blog to the right for more info). The kids seemed to enjoy it.

We enjoyed the nice weather. Ate good ice cream (It's hard to find homemade icecream in Richmond) and relaxed. The week always goes by too quick, but it seems all vacations end too soon.


Sarah at the beach.


Sarah watches Nanny make sandcastles.


Greg helping Sarah and cousin Rohan out of the water.


Sarah and cousin Vrinda play on the front lawn.

Sarah Waters the Plants

OK, so this isn't the best video. I used the one on my camera and not the video recorder. In Greg's wonderful wisdom to buy an HD video recorder, we still haven't figured out how to make plain old videos. If anyone reading this has suggestions, feel free to post a comment.

Anyway, I've attached this one of Sarah helping me water the plants. She's at the point in her life where she loves to imitate everything we are doing. It was helpful today since she wanted to imitate me washing the car. I thought it would be good to post at least a small video for those who haven't seen her in a while. Pictures can only say so much.

I've got some other photos to post from our trip to the Cape over the fourth of July. It was an adventure. Sarah had a great time going to the beach, seeing her cousins, and watching the parade. More to come in another post...