Father's Day

This year for Father's Day weekend we had Darren's dad and girlfriend (his dad's girlfriend, not Darren's girlfriend) in town for the weekend. On Saturday they went to a baseball game - that the Nationals actually won- while I took the girls to a birthday party at Frying Pan Park. Then for actual Father's Day, we went to a fancy brunch in Alexandria at a place called the Warehouse. It was scrumptious! Then we took a cruise on the Potomac up to Georgetown and then back to Alexandria. It was a fun time - though the girls enjoyed being downstairs out of the wind.

Milking a cow (which they continue to talk about all the time) at the birthday party



At Brunch

D opening his present from the girls. It is a t shirt with their hand prints on it. It is pretty adorable in my opinion.

Shots on the cruise

My attempt at an artistic shot

Cute Sayings

Tonight at dinner, Brooke was being a little fussy and irritable. She said that she just woke up in a fussy mood. So I said, there is no room for fuss-a-musses at the table. She responded: But Mommy, I am right here. There is room.


I already put this on FB, but wanted it here for the book. Earlier this week I heard crying followed by both girls running into the playroom. I asked them what was wrong and Audrey replied that "Brooke hurt us both." So to calm them both down I got them some ice to hold on their injuries (this is a great trick that totally distracts them from any injury at all.) Once they were calmer I asked them again what had happened. Brooke explained: We were doing our show and the amazing part was not so good.

They say the funniest things! I hope to do better about remembering them and writing them down.

Cousins - The Older Generation

As I am sure I have put on here at some point, our beach vacation is with my dad's entire side of the family...a total of 19 people. I love it and the older I get the more I appreciate the time set aside for family. And since I am printing out my blog each year, this is the easiest place to put all the pictures that I want to make sure I keep....even if they include me in a bathing suit with no make-up.

With my identical cousin Bethany...we apparently both shopped at Land's End for our swimsuits this year.

With my sister Amy. Photo credit to John David, pretty good for a 9 year old.

With my cousin Kathryn - who is pregnant with TWINS!

And of course with my sweet hubby D!

Cousins - the Youngest Generation

Love the tushie pictures! Here are the girls walking up to the beach holding "Baby" Vivian's hand

Audrey with cutie Cooper

A first - a picture of all the cousins playing together on the beach! That is Brooke who is buried under the sand.

On the swing with Will and John David (and Uncle Ed)

Posing in the sand with Mitchell and John David

There is a loft bedroom in our villas and this year the kiddos decided to have paper airplane throwing competitions from the bedroom into the living area.

Beach Beauties

These are just some of my favorite pictures of Brooke and Audrey from our beach trip. I am going to do another post that has them with their cousins, but this is all about them!

Adorable Audrey!!


Beautiful Brookie!!

Best Friends Forever

Swim Suits

I think the girls are so cute in swimsuits and so I may have gone a little overboard with their wardrobe this year. So since I took so many suits, I want to make sure that they are all represented here...(this is especially for you Stacy!)

Day 1: Matching Green(ish) Suits...they used to be kelly green but do to an unfortunate chlorine incident and they are now a light teal

Day 2: Audrey's is purple flowers and Brooke's is pink large gingham(ish). Poor Audrey, but I have much better pics of her in this suit for later

Day 3: Brooke's is princess (D thinks it looks like PJ's) and Audrey's is a sporty tankini (which I love!!)

Day 4: Audrey's is orange and pink flowers and Brooke's is brown a-symmetrical flowers (which I love!) They looked so super pretty this day.

Day 5: Audrey's is a-symmetrical Hello Kitty and Brooke's is brown with hearts. I did not take many pictures this day.

Day 6: matching tankinis. Tons of pictures in these which is unfortunate as the tops are too big on both of them. Lots of wardrobe malfunctions on this day

Beach Photo Shoot

This year we had a fantastic trip to the beach for my family's annual trip. I have not had a chance to go through the 400+ pictures that I took this year. However, it was easy to go through the mandatory beach photo shoot pics. Here are the best of those. (which in my opinion are super good - though I really didn't mean for the pictures to be so gigantic but I am too lazy to re-upload them in a smaller size)

They were yelling POOP in this picture - thus the pure unadulterated joy on their faces.