A week full of firsts

Once again, I have gotten behind on my blogging. We spent the week of June 27-July 4 in Cocoa Beach with Mimi, Papaw Al, and Aunt Heidi. The flight to Orlando was Griffin's first plane ride. I wasn't sure how he would do flying, but he liked it from the very start. He was very entertained by the raised A/C vent that went all around the perimeter of the airport. He enjoyed walking all across it and letting it blow his shorts and hair. Then he figured out that he could sit down and lean over it so it would blow more in his face. Then he decided he wanted to "drink" the air!
Once on the plane, he was still enjoying himself. When we took off, he said "going up" and then "high in the sky."

Griffin enjoyed digging in the sand and splashing in the ocean again, but he really loved the pool.

Griffin also made his first visit to Disney World. I knew he was a little young (the only characters he even knows are Mickey and Goofy), but I hated to be so close and not go. He had fun riding in the race car and on the tram, the train, and the ferry. The best ride was the Jungle Cruise since it had lots of animals--elephants, giraffes, hippos, lions, alligators, and more. Of course, they weren't real animals but Griffin didn't know the difference...and we were able to get a lot closer look at them than we do at the zoo!

Griffin has been practicing "tennis" with a little badminton raquet I bought him at Target and with the paddleball racquet on the beach, but this was his first time playing on the tennis court and he loved it.

Papaw Al gave Griffin his first golf lesson on the little putting green at our condo. He also played his first round of Putt-Putt. Most of the time, Papaw Al or I helped him putt, but one time he totally whacked it all by himself from about 6 or 7 feet away and it went straight in the hole!

We also visited Universal Studio's City Walk to celebrate Aunt Heidi's birthday. After dinner at Margaritaville, we walked around a while and then let Griffin ride the carousel. He really wanted to get in the splash area, but I only let him stick a hand in since he wasn't exactly dressed for it.

This was on our last night at the beach. Griffin and I had been sitting at the bar eating dinner. All of a sudden he wrapped his arm around my neck, pulled me really close to him, and said "cute!"..."picture." When no one instantly came running over with the camera, he said "picture" again and Mimi captured this one.

Beach Fun

We spent last week in Isle of Palms, SC with Pop, Chaz, Katie, Connor, and Connor's friend Cody. Griffin had a fun time digging in the sand...

jumping the waves...swimming... playing "tennis" on the beach...

flying his kite, riding in the bike trailer, and more.

One overcast morning we went into Charleston to visit the South Carolina Aquarium. Griffin giggled at the little fish and turtles, but the 2-story tall tank that had fish (and a few sharks) even bigger than him freaked him out a little bit!

He discovered a new favorite treat last week--candy necklaces--but ice cream is still high on the list, too!

Pop & Chaz, thanks for another great beach trip!

Happy Birthday to Griffin!

Today is Griffin's 2nd birthday. We started celebrating on Saturday with a "splash party" at our house. All of our family and four little friends--cousin Harper, Brody, Haley, and Chase--joined in the fun. Griffin and his friends had fun splashing in the little pool, running through the sprinkler, digging in the sandbox, and blowing bubbles.

At the end of the party, Harper gave Griffin a birthday kiss--aren't they precious?!

Since he was officially old enough today, Griffin started his day with a "workout"--he went to Toddlercize, an exercise class for 2-3 year olds at my work. After that, he played at the kiddie pool and then he and I swam together in the big pool. After exercising and swimming, he was ready for a special birthday lunch. We went to Chick-fil-a where he got his very first kid's meal. He got yogurt as his side item, but he thought it was ice cream and was very excited to eat every bite!

After Griffin's nap, Daddy came home early from work so we could all go to the zoo. It was a great zoo trip--it wasn't crowded at all and a lot of the animals came up really close to the fence or glass. Griffin loved watching this Gibbon...and I think the Gibbon must have enjoyed watching Griffin because he stayed right there at the glass for the longest time.

This white Bengal tiger also got very close, and Griffin was very interested in it until it roared at us a couple of times. The first roar was a small one and it just startled Griffin a bit. The second time he roared very loudly and it scared all 3 of us. Unfortunately, I just missed getting that one on video.

After the zoo, we went to Mr. Gatti's for a pizza birthday dinner. Yum, yum!

When we got back home, we gave Griffin his presents from us. We had gotten him some movies, books, and cars, but his big gift was a Kettler trike. He didn't want to wear the Thomas helmet at first, but once he saw the trike he forgot all about it. (Weezy--thanks for the "Driveway Guard" so Griffin can safely ride his trike and other riding toys...and so I don't have to chase any more balls down the driveway!)

After a full day of fun, Aunt Holly, Uncle Jason, and Harper came over to join us for birthday cake. Griffin blew out the candles (it took a couple of tries to get them both out) on the beach ball cake that had sat on top of a sheet cake for his party.

What a fun day! And I bet Griffin sleeps well tonight! Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Happy Birthday Harper!

We celebrated Harper's 2nd birthday on Saturday. She was a precious little birthday girl! She didn't really care too much about opening her presents, but she liked what was inside all of them. Griffin was also very interested in some of her gifts--he was very excited when he saw that she'd gotten some Barney videos and the two of them almost had a little fight over the dog Harper is holding in the picture above!

While Harper was posing for pictures with her Mommy & Daddy and her birthday cake, Griffin was "sneaking" his little finger into the icing for a taste (see him in the bottom left corner of this picture!).

Cake and ice cream make for sweet, happy tots! Here are the two of them giving each other a little love at the end of the party.

Happy Easter!

Griffin has been celebrating Easter for a full week now. He went to his first Easter egg hunt last Saturday with "Chaz" (his new name for Chan) and Great-Aunt Lacy.

He went to another egg hunt last Sunday afternoon with Daddy, Weezy, Aunt Holly, Uncle Jason, and Harper. He and Harper found a couple of tennis balls, and they were more interested in those than the eggs.

He has also had an egg hunt at school every day this past week. Each day, his teachers wrote on his "report card" that he found most or all of the eggs!

Before church this morning, Griffin got his treats that the Easter Bunny left him. He liked the Elmo eggs, the different sports eggs, and his backpack full of art supplies...and then he saw his new Barney video!

After church, we went to Mimi and Papaw Al's house for another egg hunt and lunch. Griffin and Harper were too cute carrying around their big baskets and picking up eggs. Griffin thought he was supposed to throw the eggs that looked like footballs, basketballs, and baseballs.

Basketball Game

Griffin loves basketball! He loves to play basketball, watch other kids play basketball, watch basketball on TV, and wear anything that has a basketball on it. Sunday before last was the last home UT basketball game so we took Griffin. The game was at noon which meant that it would be going into nap time. We didn't expect to stay for the whole game, but Griffin hung in until the very end. He had a great time clapping with the crowd and dancing to the music from the band. He was also excited to see the "Mokey" mascot (his pronounciation of Smokey).