The beach

The morning of July 13, Jane woke up and the first thing she said was, "It's time to go to the beeeeeeach!" Then for the next eight hours in the car she kept saying, "We're almost there!"  Well, eventually that was true.  

We are so thankful that we got to take a week this summer and head to the beach! Richard's family has been visiting the same sand in Destin, FL since before he was born, so it is especially fun to add to those memories each year as our own little family grows! (We kept reminding ourselves that next summer is going to be VERY different. Richard said, "Yep, it will pretty much just be me and Jane at the beach all day!" But I'm sure I can manage a few treks to the sand with a seven month old, right?)

Anyway, here are some pics of our favorite activites:

Playing in the sand with Daddy

Woo hoo!

Digging holes...

...and tunnels!

Eating fruit snacks

Post fruit snack sugar high silliness

Watching for parasails

Piling sand up on her shovel/rake...

...then "wash wash washing it off" over and over again.

We even met another two-and-a-half year old girl!

Then she and Jane took turns wash wash washing each other off.

Jane held on so tightly when we took her into the waves

But she was always so proud and happy after she swam in the big ocean

She even rode on the boogie board and caught a wave with Daddy!

One stormy afternoon we just watched the rain roll in

As much as we enjoyed the beach, Jane was definitely the most excited about the pool. After a morning or afternoon in the sand, we would always jump in the pool to rinse of the salty sticky of the beach.

I love my floaties!

The step/lunge...

...the full jump...

...and the toss!  

"Wheee!"

And now for one of my favorite parts of the trip... Richard cooked!

This meal featured crab stuffed mushrooms, the best bruschetta I've ever had, and sauteed spinach.  Thank you, Richard!!

Dress up

I recently introduced Jane to a box of princess dress up clothes that I acquired at a consignment sale this spring. Definitely some of the best bargain bucks I've spent so far! Her favorite part is the shoes, most of which are mini versions of high heels. Her observation of this strange, impractical shoe was, "They have bumps on them. They're kind of wobbly." Nevertheless, she loves to click clack up and down the hallway.
Disclaimer: I do not think that little girls have to play exclusively with dolls and be inundated with pink princess paraphernalia. In fact, Jane has spent most of her life playing with gender neutral or even "boy" things. But this spring she started showing an interest in the Disney princesses, whom she met through her new big girl underwear. (There are no gender neutral underwear options.) So, seeing as how she has a strong foundation on the non-girly side of the spectrum, I decided it was OK to get a few more princess items. I must admit, it was pretty sweet watching her dress up as Snow White, and then find her picture in the princess book.

How come I don't have a bunch of cute animals helping me
clean my room?

Don't worry, she still loves playing with her tool box, helicopter and various gadgety toys, even if she likes wearing high heels and singing "Be Our Guest."
Ok, now I feel like I have to give a disclaimer on my disclaimer: I don't think girly toys are bad. I just want Jane to know that she can grow up to do anything, regardless of gender stereotypes, so I guess I'm just overly sensitive about locking her onto a girls only path. It probably has a lot to do with the years I spent attending and teaching at an all girls prep school, where they are empowering women to go out into the world and be just as good as the guys. I didn't realize quite how much it had rubbed off on me until I started writing this post!

No shoes

This week the weather has really warmed up, so we broke out the baby pool. Shortly after Jane got in she said, "I don't need shoes in my pool. I just need feet." So true, Jane, so true. Here's to a wonderful, barefoot summer, right around the corner!

Maggie likes the pool, too. She kept trying to lie down in it, but there were too many toys, and a child, in the way.

Other random tidbits:
Richard has begun (and almost completed since this picture) putting the roof on the shop.

After a rainy afternoon, we looked outside and caught sight of this AMAZING rainbow. You could see every color and it stretched across the whole horizon.

Jane LOVES to swing. When we go to the park, it is her favorite part, even though we have one in our own backyard.

"Swing a lot of times?"

At a birthday party last week, Jane was so intent on getting every drop out of her CapriSun, that she drank the last half using this attractive posture. I'm not sure it helped, but she definitely drained it.

The Shop

Richard is building a shop. Ever since we moved out to this house with a big yard, he has been dreaming about it. About a month ago, he realized that part of his dream of having a shop was building it, too. And so it has begun...
The best part, besides seeing Richard in power tool heaven, has been watching Jane help him. Richard has been so good about finding little things for her to do, or figuring out how she can watch from a safe distance.
Here is the progress in pictures:

Posts and framing in place for the floor

Mixing concrete to set the piers (after digging 12 holes).

Gatorade break

Wheel barrow break

Back to work, nailing in the floor joists

At this point, we drove to Memphis to drop Jane off for the week of Spring Break so Richard and I could have a "staycation" back in Nashville. Yes, Richard's idea of a break from work is manual labor. So, we picked up a ginormous trailer load of cypress boards on our way back across Tennessee (only one flat tire).

Nickel enjoyed this new jungle gym.

Thanks to our very skilled and generous friend, Jack,
the walls went up in a day.

And all the rafters in one day, too! The weather was amazing,
as you can see by the sunny blue sky.

Another project that happened over spring break was that we had some guys cut down a dead tree on our property line. Their job was simply to cut the tree down, which means that Richard gets to saw/chop/drag all the pieces. So, as soon as Jane was back in town he put her to work, too.

Cool, sawdust! (Only Daddy's chainsaw can make that.)

So many legs

I love the way Jane observes the world at age two. She is fascinated by things that I never even think about.

Yesterday she and Maggie were running around in the back yard when Jane said, "She has so many legs!" Then she looked down at her own legs and said, "Jane has two legs... Maggie has a lot of legs." Ha ha!