Okay one more beach picture. Then I’m done I promise. One of Kaya’s oldest and greatest friends Emerson.

I’m finally getting around to looking through the rest of our beach pictures (delayed due to the 12-day work week I just completed). I think this one takes the cake. How is it all of our children are so blonde?

Thank you Grandma Barbara (read: Baba) for watching Kaya and Laney this past long-weekend.

Kaya celebrated her third birthday this month (already covered below). A little unknown fact, on Kaya’s actual birthday, she was living with Grandma Barbara, who gave her these pajamas when she woke up. I love this picture so much, I can’t stop looking at it. (Addendum by Tracy: This picture is a duplicate from a prior post, but I too love it so much I’m leaving it up)

We took a family trip to the Maneo Acquarium, which, for some reason, has a killer exhibit with life-sized, animatronic dinosaurs that roar at you. The expression on Kaya’s face is real and is something she does all the time when she hears noises that she doesn’t like. (She has become quite noise-sensitive these days.) My facial expression is fake to match the scene, and the T-Rex is of course, real.

Laney loves the beach too!

We took the Forester up past the paved roads in the Outer Banks and went wild horse searching and…success! We found them pretty quickly, then spent the rest of the day on the beach eating Cheese Curls. Heaven.

We have arrived in OBX. For one week a year, we lounge by our private pool, drink in the hot tub, swim in the surf, and play in the sand with the kids. It’s pretty awesome.

Laney got her first tooth! And by the time I got around to taking this picture, she had two!

We had 17 of Kaya’s closest friends over for her birthday party last weekend. It was a bit chaotic, but she had a great time. She had a shared party with her classmate named Laura – and luckily Laura could show Kaya how to blow out candles.

I spend my available energy with Laney reading to her and trying to teach her how to bear weight/stand.  What does Tommy teach her? How to hold her own bottle.