The most beautiful pictures ever taken of our family

Jeremy's cousin's best friend does photography in his free time and has taken pictures of their family before. Since we were staying with them for the weekend I asked if he would be willing to take photos of our family since we didn't have 3 yr photos of Owen.

Owen 3 yrs 3 months
Gillen almost 9 months

I have been really happy with so many of the pictures we've had taken of us over the last few years, but these really captured us as a family. We had been in the car for 6 hours that day and neither boy napped - we had to bribe Owen to smile and lots of tickles and silly noises for Gil, but they are perfect! I think they especially capture who Owen is right now.

Three. Climbing. Wondering. Always a stick. Loves Gil.  ----- that's Owen at this moment.

Visiting the Cousins

We have a fun tradition of staying with Jeremy's cousin Mary and her husband Seth on the way down and back from Hilton Head. Their place is a little past the half-way mark so it's a great way to break up our trip. They bought a new house out in the country and we had an awesome time exploring the back-roads of North Carolina.

Owen and Clara Jane get along so well, this time they had fun playing toys, watering the garden and playing in the sandbox while the rest of us talked and drank beer. FUN!

Such a perfect way to end our trip!

Shannon Tanner Concert: EPIC FAIL.

We were so excited that our last night in Hilton Head was the kick-off concert for Shannon Tanners peak season. We went out to an early dinner and Owen was in rare form.

He refused to eat and threw a piece of bread across the table - which was fine because Gillen happily ate his dinner (this kid decided while we were on vacation he wants to pound table food). After dinner we headed over to the concert.

(check out that face on Owen) About five minutes in he decided to run away from us. We told him he could sit with us or go down and sit by the other kids. He wandered down by the stage where a baby was playing, picked up a handful of rocks and threw them at the baby. We scooped him up to tell him that was no okay and he proceeded to have a full-on tantrum in front of the entire crowd.

We walked out furious and dissapointed. Owen really didn't give a shit that he ruined our final night on the Island. We were supposed to get ice cream at the concert and that was clearly not happening now. So we talked about the choices Owen made to misbehave and then we drove to an ice cream place where I got a huge cone of dairy-free sorbet and Jeremy got ice cream.

When O finally realized he wasn't going to get ice cream he was hysterical. This was the first time we followed through with something (normally we would have just skipped the ice cream all together) but we wanted him to see that his actions caused him to miss out on something fun. Weeks later he still talks about how he made a bad choice at the concert and didn't get ice cream :)

Hilton Head: The Beach

Owen is in love with the beach, the sand, the ocean - all of it. He was so happy every time we set foot on the beach.

This guy too, because apparently sand is delicious!

Hilton Head: Bikes

One of our favorite things to do on the Island is rent bikes and ride to the beach. Gillen isn't big enough to ride on the back of a bike quite yet so we rented a trailer for the boys. There wasn't a helmet small enough for Gil, so we made sure just to ride slowly on the path from our villa to the beach and back. The boys loved riding together in the trailer! Jeremy was SUPER DADDY towing these two plus our beach gear on this back.

Hilton Head: Lawton Stables

Our first stop was a morning at Lawton Stables. This is one of our favorite places to visit and each time Owen sees the farm with new excitement. We remembered apples and carrots for the Clydesdale this time but Owen was pretty terrified to feed him (as was Jeremy).

There were two new Lamas in the petting zoo, a brown one and a black one who were totally adorable.

Owen was big enough to ride the pony this year and he was thrilled. This was his THIRD pony ride and he remembers the names of all the ponys he has ever ridden: Spanky, Jo-Jo and this pony's name was Cookie.

It was a really, really hot morning so we were all exhausted by the time we headed out for lunch.

Gillen was clearly the MOST exhausted of us all.

Hilton Head, SC

The beach welcomes us back, but somebody didn't want their toes in the ocean.

and another somebody did.

Mama and Gil in the Big City

I had a meeting for work in New York and I had missed one other meeting because I think I was pregnant so I really needed to be at this one. It was important to me and since I get to do very little to stretch my professional wings, I needed to make this happen.

The scheduling could not have been worse as the meeting was finalized less than two weeks prior and it was the two days before we were leaving for Hilton Head.

But thanks to Papa, Jeremy and an incredibly flexible baby - I made it. Despite being dead tired when I made the reservations and accidentally booked two one way flights on Friday - I fixed it at the last minute and my awesome cousin Ry took the day off so that he could get us from the airport. We stayed out on Long Island with family and one of my coworkers lives ten minutes away.

Gil and I drove into the city with her for the meeting, had dinner and then back to Long Island. We flew out first thing Friday morning.

A crazy whirlwind 43 hour NYC trip. Owen had a blast with his Papa and didn't even notice I was gone ;)

{Me and my awesome Kveller co workers - Sarah skyped in from Israel. Mayim had Gil.}

{ Apparently paper plates are vegan}

 {Uncle Amos met up with us after work for a quick snuggle with his Godson}

 {Sissa and Aunt Marylou fight over who gets to hold Gil}

 {excited we made this trip happen. Here's hoping I make it out again soon}

We arrived back home and had a wonderful brunch with Owen and Papa and then headed to the Children's Festival for the afternoon.

 {Papa teaching Owen how to shoot marbles at the Children's Festival}