Delaware Pictorial Review

June 17, 2008 Our 13th Anniversary
Rehoboth Beach, DE -one of my favorite beaches.

Tommy enjoying some Kohr Bros frozen custard, melted custard I might add.


Tommy having a temper fit, and boy was that sand a funny feelingfor having a fit in!


Kimberlyn and Tommy waiting on Dad to bring the van up to get us. Finally, I found a way to contain the over-tired pistol, Tommy I'm speaking of!


We had a relatively nice time. If you're wondering why there's no actual "kids playing in the water" shots...oh, it was TOO COLD! The older kids did play a bit, but FROZE! And to make it worse the beach was full of shells and rocks....so as you are TRYING to handle the fridged water, your feet are in pain due to the rocky bottom. I'm sure we'll be back for the beach fries and frozen custard....YUM...and lets not forget the Grotto's pizza! The boardwalk is still wonderful...

Tommy obviously didn't think Mom needed to be alone while bathing....he no kidding just climbed in my bath full dressed, shoes and all?!?!?!?!



June 18th
Brecknock Park, Dover, DE -our old stoppin' grounds!

Tommy investigating a pretty flower with Dad.


A cool picture of Tommy through the wooden slats at the park, I love how you can see Robby in it too.


Brotherly love!


My, how times have changed...Robby was just 2 yrs old when we first found this park- now (8yrs later) he's the monkey climbing on the top of monkey bars!


Kimberlyn just hangin' out!


A cute shot of Robby and Kaitlyn, I'd love to tell you I didn't have to threaten them to sit cute ;) What stinkers! They can sure pose on demand well!



Later that day for a cookout with our old neighbors, the Keysers.


Nothing surprising here....Tommy never fills up and is stuffing himself with watermelon.


The birds aren't used to being handled and Larry decided to catch them so we could play with them...after being held a while they all calmed down and watched TV with the kids.

Tommy's 18 month check-up...

Forgot to mention this...but as I was looking at beach pictures I chuckled, at his well baby appointment last week Tommy's doctor was checking his ears. He said his tubes are in place and look nice and clear with the exception on some sand ;) Seems as if Tommy brought home a souvenir from our beach trip!

The important part...he's well and thriving, not a big drinker, but the boy can eat! He now weighs 22 1/2 pounds and is 32"- for fun I went into the older kids' baby books to compare. He is just 1/2 pound and 1/2 inch smaller than Robby was and like 4lbs and 1 3/4 inches smaller than Kaitlyn...poor Kimberlyn's last weight/height entry was at 10 months old...OOPS!! Now that I think of it...I haven't entered in many stats in Tommy's book either...BAD MOM! At least each kid has a few letters from Mom in their books. I wish so much my mom wrote to me in my baby book, I suppose I should wish I even HAD a baby book....life being the third child :)

When we opted out of Early Intervention this past Spring the doctor told me he'd evaluate his speech at his 18 month appt. I honestly hoped it'd wouldn't come up or I could postpone it until Tommy turns 2. No such luck! He is very adamant on Tommy going in for a speech evaluation. He's at risk due to being a 28-weeker AND from his ear infections/tubes. Thing is, he's my 4th kid and a little replica of his older brother, whom didn't speak much or well until 2 1/2 years or older! He's a thriving boy headed into 5th grade now. I personally have a lot to learn as I don't think speech therapy is necessary at 18 months of age, or even 20 months of age (what he'll be at his eval appt)- I think/thought waiting until he turned two, we moved and settled in at Scoot AFB this coming Spring would be just FINE. The doctor disagreed and since we've been totally pleased with our pediatrician here and it's NOTHING out of our pockets and the speech therapist here at Children's are supposedly fantastic....we are going to investigate. Since Tommy says like 6 words and only 2 of which on a daily basis...I KNOW he'll qualify for therapy....that's a no-brainer!



This turned LONG....more to come....promised Delaware pictures and now we have some fun pictures from our Nebraska visit on the lake.

Assateague Island, MD ~ June 16, 2008

Most possibly the highlight of our Delaware trip....although this is actually in Maryland ;)

Tommy's first beach trip....not a fan yet!

He was cool with the beach sand though!

Kimberlyn...

Kaitlyn....

Robby pullin' a move on a wave!

Robby and Kaitlyn.

One of the many sand crabs they found.

Larry likes this picture of me saving Kimberlyn. She liked the waves, but not going under with them so much.

Kimberlyn and Mom having a blast!


Then what Assateague Island is known for....the wild horses!! And the whole reason we came. We saw more horses at once that day than any other day we'd gone when we lived in Dover.
They definitely aren't shy!
Kaitlyn dreamed about touching the horse..just once. Turned out she got a couple touches in, and nobody saw :) They supposedly will fine you if you are caught touching them?!?!?
Just a fun picture Larry caught!


At Busch Gardens, VA the day before....for Father's Day.
Dad and the kids...Tommy was SPENT!
Mom and Kaitlyn's favorite thing....TEACUPS!
One of the kids snapped this cute one of us...
Kaitlyn was all about seeing the Clydesdales.
What a goof...on our way to the car....

Over all it was an okay day. But being from Florida....this Busch Gardens has nothing on Tampa! It's focused too much on the theme and not as much on the kid fun. It was terribly hard to find kid friendly food too, it was all this themed food which our kids didn't find good!

Last Month...in picture review Part 1....

Tommy's First Ice Cream Truck Experience...June 9, 2008
I was attempting to not get him involved with such a habit at such an early age, and we had plenty of treats in the house that didn't cost $2 or $3! The Ice Cream Man actually GAVE Tommy this red popsicle! Pretty Cool!

Sharing a bite with Dad...


Up close of the mess and reason Mom was content with NOT getting him ice cream!


Ah, man! Oopsie!!!


After sharing Kaitlyn's ice cream sandwich...


Clean UP!!!
This started with the idea of everybody cleaning their hands and feet from the stickies before going in the house. Tommy naturally needed the head to toe wash. Really him getting wet was started by his curiosity in the WATER and how he couldn't GRAB IT!!!


Grabbing it turned out to be quite disappointing as he got splashed every time!!



Just to prove this was an all smiles event :)


Kings Island - June 12, 2008

My cousin Trevor and his wife Sawyer we're in town for a show and actually had a day to spare for PLAY! Crazier yet, Larry had this Thursday OFF from school...I may not mention it here, but even though school is going well for him, it takes a bit of family time away from us and finding timeto do fun family stuff is limited. In a nut shell school stinks ;) He graduates in about 8 1/2 months. Nah, nobody is really counting!?!

Robby and Kaitlyn are in the front row to the right ;)



We had a fun and exhausting day, notice the younger two were too tired to join in the picture with Trevor and Sawyer!!


KAITLYN'S FIRST HORSE SHOW!! June 28, 2008

So literally THREE lessons before her first show her normal riding lesson horse, Lacy went lame :( Kaitlyn and Jordan worked together trying to learn each other. In just three lessons. They did great, especially for Kaitlyn going into her very first horse show.
There was some pretty yucky storm weather coming in, it was very cloudy and gray out. The horses were all on guard as they sense the weather long before it's in.
Kaitlyn's first class was Showmanship (where she leads Jordan through a pattern), the next class later in the day was Equitation where she rode Jordan.

Practicing for her Showmanship class.
Attempting to back Jordan up 4 steps, he really wasn't interested :)
Warming up before her Equitation class...in the warm up ring. This was RIGHT after her warming up out of the ring and using spurs, she's not very used to spurs and Jordan obeyed a good kick by cantering off. It really startled Kaitlyn and she felt as he was "running" away. She kept great composure during the 30 second escapade. needless to say the spurs were removed and they proceeded to warm up in the ring.
Doing her pattern in the show ring! This was right after Jordan attempted to scare Kaitlyn again. He didn't want to "line- up" to wait their turn for the pattern and did a small rear-up on her! She sat that well too, and proceeded on just fine!
Showing off her "cups" - just what exactly happened to show ribbons??? We were a tad bit disappointed... she'll have a couple more shows in the next few months...please let them have ribbons! Kaitlyn placed 6th in her Showmanship class- Miss DeeDee was disappointed in the judge...I watched Kaitlyn and Kaitlyn only, verdict was others placed higher that didn't deserve it??!?! Kaitlyn placed 2nd in the Equitation class...she was tickled pink even though each placing was last place!

I told her that I started showing English at an older age and never endured the excitement of being run off with or reared up on! She should be broke in to the show ring excitement for sure!! All in all a good day and she stills wants to show more!

Delaware details to come soon...