Tumble Bumble

Kevin's ND buddy Grable took some great photos from last night's Hope Classic that I wanted to share. If you haven't already heard, Kevin's basektball team devoted last night's game to raise awareness and funds for Angelman Syndrome. We had a blast! If interested, you can read a synopsis of the event and game here.

Here's Grable and one of the posters promoting the event at LMHS.

Kevin and Hope at center court before the game.

Some of our family and friends in the stands listening to Kevin's remarks.

The student council made t-shirts special for the event for the players to wear during the warm up.

Jack and Hopie got them too!

The Aces pulled off a big win!

My favorite part of the night was after they had shook hands with the opposing team, they all came over to where we were sitting to each give Hopie a high five!

Post win team photo with the star of the night

Seconds before this picture was taken, someone handed me this bunch of balloons. Hope thought they were fantastic, but I was a bit panicked about what to do with all of them.

Family photo at center court - Jack was feeling extra affectionate!

Kevin and Grable

Thanks for coming up from Texas for the event, Uncle Grable and for being our event photographer and facebook/instagram promoter!

Erin stayed home so she could get some special one on one time with her Cousin Kate (Thanks Kate!!!). She got her pink #hoopsforHope t-shirt this morning and had fun with one of the balloons.

Many thanks to all at Lower Merion who helped to make this event happen and to all of our family and friends who came out to support us. It was so fun to have all of you there with us. We are very blessed.

The first month back to school is under our belt and we have a new nanny who's been spoiling us, so it seems like a good time to finally reflect back on some of our summer fun.

One of the perks of being married to a teacher/basketball coach is that summer is our best (only) option for vacations. Therefore, we spent the second half of our summer on a whirlwind tour cramming a few different trips one right after the other. Not necessarily the best designed plan, but that's the way it worked out and we had a lot of fun.

First, some numbers (within a 4 week period from mid July - mid August):

# of state visited or driven through (not counting those flown over): 10
Plane flights (by either Kevin or me): 5
# of aunts or uncles seen: 8
# of days during this month when I was "working": 10 (w/ 4 of those away on a business trip)
# of different beaches visited: 4
# of times mini-van was packed or unloaded (mainly by Kevin): 12

Here's the run down:
First a weekend in Sea Isle NJ, soon followed by 5 days in Rockport, MA preceding a work trip for me in Boston, immediately followed by a solo Baton Rouge weekend trip for Kevin, and 4 days after that, a week long road trip across North Carolina for the whole clan.

So yes, it was a busy time. It's taken me awhile to adjust back and thus the delay in getting my highlight blog up complete with a ton of photos taken on our travels.

(1) Sea Isle, NJ

where cousins Matt and Grace competed for the award of cousin of the year . . .

Erin made a new fuzzy friend appropriately named Jersey

She enjoyed the beach and sure looked cute

Hope had a blast on the beach

I got a special kiss . . .

and even a night out for our anniversary

(2) Rockport, MA

Jack quickly learned that our time in Rockport is all about walking

Click on this photo below to make it bigger. You might then be able to see a very tiny Jack getting to run ahead

Sometimes one gets tired while "walking"

Sometimes on walks it's fun to pose in front of the ocean

Or by some wildflowers

or maybe even stop to enjoy the view with Granddad

We hit the beach

Yup, that's my brother ALL the way out there and that's my son thinking he can walk/swim all the way out to Uncle Ben on his own

I taught Erin all about the benefit of a good beach chair

She also learned if she sat nicely Daddy would feed her bites of PB&J

Jack and Hope "helped" build a sand castle

We posed for more photos by the water and spent a lot of time with family

Uncle Ben photo bomb

(3) Boston

Our Rockport visit was timed so that I could stay behind for a few days in Boston for work. My dad stood in as co-pilot to help Kevin and the kids get home. On the way home, they had their first meal at Ott's,

I enjoyed the view from my hotel,

the time to go for long runs to take in the view,

and ate too many bowls of this.

(4) Baton Rouge

Kevin and I crossed paths in the air as I returned from Boston while he headed south to Louisiana for a wedding of one of his former players.

While Kevin relived his bachelor days in Baton Rouge complete with golf, fried catfish, and a lot of basketball talk, I bravely took all 3 kids to Trader Joe for a much needed milk and bread run

We took the long way to the park

and I was grateful for the ease of pushing our jogging stoller, even when all 3 kids needed a ride

Trip #(5) was a whirlwind tour of eastern North Carolina

We got a late start to our trek south to NC so that we could attend the end of summer show at Hope's school.

While we loved the show and getting to connect with Hope's teachers and therapists, we didn't love the Friday afternoon traffic we hit on 95 south of DC before Richmond. If you ever find yourself in that area, whatever you do, do not miss the HOV3 exit!!!

Our first stop in NC was to Raleigh to see Courtney and her family. It was a wonderful fun weekend visit with seven kids keeping us busy. Our arrival was delayed until after bedtime, but the door was enthusiastically decorated.

While we were there, Kevin helped Braden work on his shot.

We were too busy catching up and having fun with the Beyer clan that we didn't take additional photos while all together.

Next up we spent a couple nights in OBX to see discover what the hype is all about. Philly people have strong feelings on their preferred beach locations and there are a lot of people from up in our area who swear by the outer banks of NC. Neither Kevin nor I had ever been there so we thought we'd check it out. Since we didn't have a week to commit to a rental, we found a beachfront hotel for a couple nights.

Normally we opt to stay at a suite type of hotel so that the kids can go to bed before Kevin and I do. But for this visit, we tried out staying in a standard two bed room and it worked out pretty well for our family of five.

Here's Kevin and Jack after we'd turned out the lights

The water was pretty rough so I made Jack wear his float when playing in the waves. He didn't seem to mind.

We found some BBQ

and discovered Duck Donuts!!!

We checked out a lighthouse

And took some pretty cool sunrise and sunset photos

After the Outer Banks, we ended our NC week with a visit to my Uncle Lew and Aunt Sheri's house. There we were spoiled with good food, plenty of pool time complete with intense lessons for Jack to perfect his pool side jump, boat rides, lawn mower rides, and a whole floor of the house for us to spread out in.