Kumquats and such

A year ago today, we were so excited when Max was born!! He sure has grown into quite a handsome little guy and we look forward to celebrating with him this weekend!!  Love you Max!! Watch Me Grow...

On Saturday morning, we awoke to find tasty breakfast burritos made by Grandpa. After downing those, we played with Reagan for a bit and then Jason and I headed out for a quick jog around the hilly neighborhood in VA. Once we returned, the real fun began...EGG DYING! Last year, Jason was deployed, and Reagan and I spent the holiday with the Moore's and the Petree's in Winston-Salem. Mason and Reagan weren't really old enough to dye eggs, so Brian, Lynsey and I took care of it while they napped. This year was a different story. Grandma carefully covered the kitchen table with newspaper and an assortment of dye cups, glitter, paint, stickers and wax crayons. She had already hard boiled 3 dozen eggs too. With MUCH supervision, Reagan managed to only crack 2 eggs and had a blast coloring the others:

Uncle Geoffrey is an amazing guitar player! He's posted several videos of his songs (some he's written, others he just covers). When he visited in February, he entertained us by playing a few. No one was more fascinated than Reagan. Geoffrey was super patient with her and even let her hold the pick and "strum" some chords. In the end, we decided to grab one of our controllers from the Wii Guitar Hero game and let them "play" together:)

Back in February, MIL, FIL and Geoffrey (he only stayed for a weekend) came to visit. We had a great time - built a deck, hung a birdhouse, planted some of the garden, and went to Wilmington on Geoffrey's last night in town. We stopped for beers and appetizers at a couple different places and ultimately decided on dinner at The Riverboat Landing. I got some cute pictures of Reagan with everyone and wanted to share them with you: We are so grateful for family that is close by and look forward to spending even more time with everyone when we move back to the northern VA area. 

On Tuesday morning, I bribed Reagan with the promise of M&Ms if she would just cooperate for a "photo shoot." We had gone to a park the day before and found a lovely place to take the pictures, so I was in a hurry to do them before the flowers all died. I loaded her in the car along with our Easter props and we headed into downtown Jacksonville. She was quite cooperative and it was actually a lot more fun than her Christmas pictures when she didn't really follow directions well:) Here are a few of them: The duck is courtesy of Uncle Kevin & Aunt Lisa - a gift from before Reagan was even born! And the cute Easter sign is from Grandma! Reagan's "cheese" face! Our little bunny This one cracks me up...that thing is bigger than she is! A friend commented on this one saying she looks like she's thinking, "Man, I have to do all the work!" I love this one despite its blurriness...she looks like she's skippi...

We arose in Dublin at 5:45 and hopped on the bus heading for the airport. We had a flight to London Heathrow at 9 and once we landed, we took the Underground to Earl's Ct and checked into the Mayflower Hotel to find our smallest room to date! Also the tiniest elevator I've ever seen. We had to ride separately to get our stuff down! As soon as we dropped our bags, we headed out to grab something to eat. We found ourselves back at the Hung, Drawn, and Quartered where we got delicious pies (the meat kind) and a few pints. Then we wandered down the road to the Tower of London to take a tour. We saw several things inside, among them - the Fusiliers museum & headquarters, the crown jewels, the Beefeaters feeding the ravens raw chicken, and many other sites. Yes, that's a container of raw chicken parts! GROSS! A model fo the Tower of London A terrible picture of one of the crown jewels before I got yelled at for taking pictures:) ...