Trip to Charleston

A little overdue post, but it was so much fun that a little lateness will just have to be overlooked.  We went up to see my  folks (to Adeline and Essie – Sassy and Grandpa).  Actually Essie calls Gradpa, Epapa… it is sooo cute.  We had fun going downtown.  Though my Dad had to skip out as he is still recovering from that knee replacement. We ate at Wild Wings, checked out the public bathrooms (nice I must say), and went on a carriage tour.  I probably shouldn’t mention the bathroom visit, but really I could probably do a south eastern review of public bathrooms, rest-stops, visitor centers and the like.  Back to Charleston: We had so much fun waiting for the tour and after the tour seeing their animals.  The guy we bought the tickets from was named Calhoun.  I kind of closed my eyes and prepared for the worst, but nope neither Adeline nor Essie let out that our dog was named Calhoun.  One reason they didn’t was he had a deep southern accent and it definitely sounded a bit different than when we yell out the door for the dog to come back in.  Yep we did the tourist thing and it was wonderful.  We even got to go over to a friend of my moms and go swimming.  We did that all in one day actually.  The day prior we were battling those pesky lice.  It is over a month – so thank goodness those bugs are behind us.  I will say one funny thought I had was when we went to Walmart to buy our delousing treatment.  I was looking at organic options and pesticides.  It was just so gross to see 6 or so bugs in my child’s hair I only pondered this a minute before I chose the full out out pesticides.  I wanted them GONE and fast.

Us downtown (still feels like home):

We loved the animals/horses at the Carriage barn:

UPDATED: How tall will my kid be?

We made a little calculator so that you can get an estimate on your child's height when he/she is fully grown. Research shows that this simple estimate is accurate to about 2-4 inches (lower for kids closer to medium height). Check it out and let me know what you think!

UPDATED: I am using a new form for entering info, hopefully it will work a little better!

Height Estimator

Imagine 1-2-3 with Elmo and Friends

We went to see Elmo!!!!

can you say mesmerized:

Dancing with Elmo and some friends:

Painted nails

Adeline and Esther both painted their own nails today:

Tied up?!

Adeline’s first time tying her shoe all by herself.  She isn’t able to duplicate this every time or maybe even often, but she can do it.  She was so proud and so are we!

Art work

This is Adeline’s more recent art work.  In this she drew some people.  Do you notice their “side braids with bows in them”?:

Here is one of the first papers Adeline brought home (before the above pic) with her name on it.  Only a few weeks ago.  Now she writes her name on just about all her work:

Here is Esther’s recent artwork.  Though just the past couple days while at restaurants she seems to be into writing with her left hand and very small lines/zig-zags.  I will try to capture one of those drawings soon.

Road Trip

So guess who went on a most AWEsome adventure.  Me and my girls.  We went over 1000miles in a little over 48 hours.  The trip begins we are suppose to stay with our dear friend Katie, but she had a GI bug so we stayed at a hotel.  So sad for Katie.  There also was the possibility little Sarah might be joining us that day, but she held on until her due date.  A little added drama because I got of work really late (grr to myself because I have issues in passing work off.  Is that a pride issue? double grr).  We had plans to skip Macon and head for Atlanta and stay with some other friends, but they were leaving at like 5am for a flight and I didn’t know if I could stay awake until midnight driving to get there. (4hrs of sleep the night before because packing wasn’t as ready as I thought…triple grr now).  So my concierge (dear hubby) got us a hotel in Macon.  Esther in the gas station parking lot (next to the hotel) gets choked on water from a water bottle.  Why did I give the 2yr old a water bottle?) She vomits and I can’t get the door open fast enough because after driving 5 feet the doors locked and I had to run to the other side (quad grr).  She was and is fine.  Almost there without any incidents.  The next day I went to Walmart and got Febreeze to get the vomit smell out of her car seat. UGH! (cinco grr… though maybe not, because I really enjoy the febreeze smell now).

End of grrs!

After the trip to Walmart to get he Febreeze and yes a cheap bathing suit we played at the hotel pool. (okay one more grrr… I left my phone charger at the hotel)  Then we headed to Rossie and Daddy T’s.  Along the way I called my concierge again and he hooked us up with some Chick-fil-A that didn’t even have a sign on the interstate.  Love google!!!Thanks dear (and I love you more than google)!!!!  It saved the day!!!  The plan all along was to catch up with Rossie and T, my brother with his fiancé, and Uncle Eston, Sue and their 2 grown up cuties Jesse and Abby(Ross’ from New Hampshire).  We had a cute and awesome little hotel there in Easley.  Eston, Sue, Abby, and Jesse picked me up/car pooled over to Rossie and T’s.  On the way we hit a Radio Shack for a cell phone charger.  Sue stayed in the car with the girls (thank you!!!).  Guess what… on sale.  Praise God for some relief to the grrs.  Back up, so it was so awesome to see FAMILY we hadn’t seen in years.  Did I mention Sue and Eston haven’t changed a bit.  Abby went in my mind from 18months when I stayed up there for a week (my first trip by myself) to now a Senior.  Amazing and so so so sweet.  Jesse went from 2 (the next time I stayed there when Bryan and I were dating), he is the younger sibling…. I would have it in my mind all jumbled, it IS the Suzanne way) to High School Quarterback.  Ugh, I am getting or just AM Old. Ha ha!  Adeline automatically does this turtle sort of maneuver.  She shrinks into me.  I guess I am the shell.  She smiles HUGE, but can’t open her eyes or talk.  Esther on the other hand is all smiles and eating up the attention. 

Next we head to Rossie and Daddy' T’s.  Out comes Andy and Sandy!  So good to see them.  So sad that we didn’t get more time to chit chat, but it was a quick trip.  Is it okay to say it is sad to see your grandparents?  It was and it wasn’t.  Daddy T loves his grandkids.  He had videos all dialed up to show that had us grandkids as youngsters in them when we had visited decades ago.  All visits Rossie and T would have something fun for us to do, somewhere to go, and always an adventure.  Sometime in the back yard, sometimes in the work-shed, sometimes in the kitchen.  Always an adventure.  For me the adventure this time was keeping little hands off of breakables, not too rowdy, and cute.  Okay the cute part was easy.  I know they loved the visit, but it was just different.  They are really getting old.  The twinkle in the eye is still there though.  I got to love on them and that was neat.  I took a lot of pictures, but none show what I saw.  All the memories are hard to capture sometimes in a picture.  All the expectations of what my kids would get to do with them.  What was I expecting… some miracle of aging.  It was really good though.  From all Daddy T has been through the past couple months we are blessed to have him.  His mind was very sharp compared to what it is some days.  He knew us by name.  Daddy T even wanted to hold Essie.  I didn’t want her to break him and she was not in a sit still mode after traveling for significant times for 2 days.  That was sad.  He seemed okay with it and realized it wasn’t going to work.  Rossie was busy making sure all were comfortable.  She rested between.  I am sure we wore them both out.  We stayed with them for a couple hours.  Then were off to dinner with the Ross fam from New Hampshire, Andy and Sandy.  Jesse and Adeline hit it off.  He made a play dough Mickey Mouse and the deal was sealed.

The next day we had breakfast with the Ross’s and then headed over with Eston to see Rossie and T for a couple hours.  Great great visit.  Adeline and Esther were much more mellow.  Adeline and Esther were thrilled to leave with dish cloths made by Rossie.  It was so cute.  Then we headed over the the Ross’s hotel.  When we were surprised to have so many extended family join us for some family time.  Jan and Harolw came from Ashville, Fran came from Georgia, Cynthia with Heidi, Lindsay, and Emily from Gastonia.  It was a dream come true.  Though Adeline did the turtle shell thing for almost 15 min.  I finally got her to go swimming with Jesse in the pool and the world was right.  Esther loved swimming with Lindsay.  So sweet. We had lunch and then headed off around 2pm to head home to Gainesville. 

But wait… we took a delightful detour in Georgia to see some fab friends, The Judah Family!  So exciting.  They treated us to a dinner, tour of their home, smiles, water and rejuvenation to hit the road again.  Luke has grown so much in 2 months.  Such a big boy and will make such a great big brother.  Katie is such a hospitable 9month pregnant friend.  She and Joel really wanted us to stay, but it just felt like we had to get home.  We arrived home sometime after midnight.  What a journey.  So much fun.  We go to see so MANY people. 

Adeline still says she wants to spend the night again in Georgia since we didn’t on the way home.  She loved visiting Georgia and family she calls it.  I guess I didn’t emphasize South Carolina enough.  Though when we drove into South Carolina I was pointing out Lake Hartwell and she asked if South Carolina was an island.  Pretty smart girl I think. 

Talking with Daddy T:

    

Being silly with Abby:

Asking Rossie about her refrigerator magnets (one by one):

Adeline and Jesse:

Esther and Lindsay:

All the cousins (though some 1st and some 2nd if you were curious):

Adeline’s new best buddy (thank you Jesse!):

Birthday Celebration

So on August 20th we headed down to Disney!  Annie, Esther, you and me!  We had a lot of fun.

 

Then on the 21st (your birthday) we went to Pizza Vito for special pizza dinner:

and then to the local Game room/miniture golf, climbing area, with a dancing game.  We had a family blast.  You and Essie loved climbing in the huge play area. 

We only made it through 9 holes of mini golf before we needed a bathroom break and we never made it back out there. 

We also collected tickets from the game room and spent it on, you guess it… candy in the trading shop.  We had a blast Adeline. 

Meme and Papa took us out for Japanese Steak House dinner.  You dressed appropriately.  Here you are with the shoe dessert we had after dinner in your dress.

So then what else you might ask did we do….well we had a part at the beach just like you asked for the past 6 months:

Above is Adeline as we arrived at the beach… she was READY!

So we had a most excellent destination party for Adeline at Anastasia State Park on the beach (with an excellent picnic area – we had the gazebo spot).

Thanks to all who drove across the state to attend.  She had so much fun.  The day was a very cloudy (no direct sunlight all day) day.  It seemed it would rain at a moments notice and only sprinkled for about 30 or so minutes… not bad.  The kiddos has fun in the water, fun in the sand. Adeline, Esther and I buried some treasure in the sand earlier in the day and had all the friend do an adventure race ending at the treasure finding area. 

Above they are lined up for the adventure of jumping over the rope, filling cups with ocean water and racing back to the treasure area.  Below I think Gracie found some treasure:

Bryan cooked hamburgers.  We had a great dinner.  Adeline wanted a glass slipper for a cake.  I had learned earlier in the week when I tried to do a double layer cake and cut it out in the shape that it was not stable.  So we went with a single layer cake and decorated it to look like a shoe.  She loved it.  She and Esther added sprinkles before we left.  I froze all of it the night before the beach hoping it would help the homemade icing last.  Jill gave me the website of some delicious butter cream icing and the secret that you substitute some almond extract in for the vanilla (not all of course).  It has been on all her girls cakes and is rather delish! Once we had the cake at the party Adeline then decorated the cake with “beach umbrellas”.  The umbrellas were a hit as all wanted one.  (Didn’t see that coming, so of course there were not enough – sorry kiddos!) While we were there a wedding occurred on the beach.  Adeline was very enamored.  Unfortunately it happened right when it was raining.  Sorry for them.

Being a Conrad I have always learned to expect an adventure.  This fine day the matches were a little wet, so we lit them with the half cold coals.  It only took a few folks, but it got done:

Another super fun party day fact:  Squirrels decided to eat through our “green/recycle” bags in hunt for the roasted peanuts (fully closed in their packaging). 

Some random cute photos:

(Sweet Jonathan who was in her 3yr old class and probably the only student she talks about regularly from that class… good buddies at school and church)

(Sweet Gracie and Claire – with Jonathan too.  We live real close to Gracie and Claire and catch up almost once a week for play dates, great buddies.)

Julia looking for treasure with Esther (Julia loves Addy and both the girls love to find Julia on Sunday’s at church, it is like a Where’s Waldo game until they do):

Some other cuties having fun on the beach (Sammy loves Addy, watches videos and always looking for a hug so sweet!  Kate is a dear friend of Essie’s and Adeline):

The gang (Julia was just arriving – sorry we missed you, though you can see her way back there!):

I am having video difficulties, otherwise I would have some birthday singing… maybe another day!

Adeline is 4!

And she sure is super sweet and cute on top of that!  So here is my sweet Adeline in pictures the last year:

Adeline we have had so much fun.  This past year you did Children’s choir, Worship Dance at Grace United Methodist, Cubbies, and had lots of fun with family and friends.  You went on your first cruise this year and were a cruising pro.  All the staff on the ship knew you by name and you could tell they enjoyed having you.  Some even brought you chocolate milk without us even asking!!!  What a treat.  You had so much fun on dress up night.  You were radiant!!!  You have a huge vocabulary.  You love pink and would quickly follow that up with purple.  Though the other day you told me blue was your new favorite color  though I don’t think it lasted longer than 24hours.  You are super duper helpful.  You love doing just about anything to help your Dad and I around the house.  Just today you helped drill in some screws for a new swing in the back yard.  You are a dear sister. One night Essie was calling out and you reached over gave her a huge and she settled right down.  You are an impressive share’er.  We call you share bear all the time.  You wanted a birthday party at Disney this year and at the beach.  So we have invited folks out to the beach with us and then Annie, and us 3 girls headed to Hollywood Studios so you could see Ariel sing.  It was a blast.  Annie gets all kinds of trooper points for going in August heat.  We have been to the beach several times.  This year you took to swimming like a fish.  You jumped off the high dive at Blue Springs.  You love your baby doll, bitty baby that has a new name every couple of months (katie, and then you make up names because you want them to be different you tell us).  You love love love to read books.  We read several every night.  We typically sing out of the hymnal as well.  Your favorite song here lately is Blessed Sunshine.  This year you have loved Victory in Jesus and Nothing but the Blood.  We love pizza and park nights, movie night and going to run up the hill on the path near our home.  You never want to go home after being at Sonshine all day.  You ask every time I pick you up where are we going and aren’t too happy when I say home.  The Tilley family are our favorite folks to hang out with.  We typically catch up weekly or almost.  You love to sing your prayers over dinner.  (Oh the Lord is good to me and so I thank the Lord, for giving me, the things I need, like the sun and the rain and the apple seed).    You can ride you two wheeler with training wheels if you want to, but here lately you prefer the big wheel. You still say finking for thinking and I LOVE IT and somephing.

At your check up you were 44inches and 43lbs!  greater than the 97th percentile for height.  The internet estimates you at 5’11”.  We shall see big girl!

Everyone in your life loves you so very much. We can’t wait to see what God has in store for you.  You have already blessed our socks off! 

 

 

 

 

Catch us if you can!

So we have lots to catch you up on:

Essie is likely going to be over 6 ft tall according to all the internet calculators (you know 95% accuracy within 2 inches).  She measured at her well check at 38 inches (off the charts for a 2 year old).  And now a pic of my cutie with Adeline and cousin Faye at Blue Springs:

Adeline jumped off the high dive at Blue Springs.  She saw me jump off and made a bee line for the platform. I intercepted her and she not only jumped off once, but twice.  So brave!  LOVE it!  (I deserve kudos too for not freaking out that my 3yr old wanted to jump for it).  Now granted we had Papa in the water there to rescue her after her jump (and we had Cousin Tess and Faye there to cheer her on, surprised it didn’t require goggles!). 

So the recent thing to knock my socks off is that tonight Adeline said I was her best friend.  No prompting either.  Never even have heard her say much about what that means.  I just drank it in as a blessing that she enjoyed the fun we had today.  Which I might add was a tea party that involved all the dolls in the house and we ate ice-cream.  Think I know my way to her heart.  Did I mention sprinkles and even more Willy Wonka candy (that is the name of the candy now that we have seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

Bryan is now officially University of Florida, College of Medicine, Research Assistant Professor.  I am super duper way proud of him.  So now instead of Dr. Bryan he can be called Professor Conrad, ha ha!  Love you dear!

As for me…. for the record, the beat goes on in Heart Transplant world.  It is a great job with a boss/coworkers that is very flexible with letting me have family time.  It only feels like a job after being away from my cuties for too long.  I bring several of my patients to this blog to show off my sweet family.  Just about every time I am in clinic someone gets to look at these cute girls!  It is way easier than carrying around outdated photos!