Time to get caught up!

Well the summer has come and it's now August! I see my last post was about swimming lessons - we have continued them for 4 months now, and Grady can put his face in the water, jump off the side, and actually doesn't hate floating on his back. He has NO FEAR in the water, which is in some ways good but also makes me nervous. We've taken him to the river a few times and he loves climbing over the rocks and looking at the "bubbles", aka whitewater ripples. We went swimming at the pool at John and Bonnie's housing development and they have a great little kids area that's about 18 inches deep. Grady would get himself going in the water and his legs would fall out from under him and he'd dunk under! He would probably have been able to get himself up, but I whisked him out of the water so fast he didn't have a chance to.

Alisa got married at Hilton Head in May, so that was a nice mini family vacation. We had a great time with the old crew, and even found out Carrie is going to have a baby in the fall!

Grady and Jessica

Grady and Justin

The day after the wedding with the girls

Big news from Carrie

Spent time with Claire

We had a nice Hunter Family Camping Trip over the 4th of July weekend with John, Bonnie, Anna, Jack, Chris, Sarah and Lucille at Cataloochee Campground. It was Grady's first ever camping trip, and it was a great success! Luckily our huge tent was big enough for a queen-sized air mattress AND his pack-&-play so we all slept comfortably. The sound of the river in the background was a big help too! We went on a long hike, and saw the wild elk too. Grady had a wonderful time bonding with his cousins and we also found out Sarah and Chris are going to have another baby in February!

Jack, Anna, Grady and Lulu at our campsite

Time to roast marshmallows!

Wild elk - they were beautiful

Hiking fun

Owen LOVES chocolate!

Bele Chere was a couple weeks ago -Amy, Andy and Owen came to visit and we had a great time! Two 1-1/2-2 year olds are not the best company for a hot downtown Asheville amongst 10,000 people, however we still got to check out some crafts, bands and even had a couple beers. Grady and Owen's favorite? Not the kids area, or the music or the art... it was the curb in front of the Grove Arcade. They had a BLAST trying to jump off it. Ahh to be young!

The 2012 Summer Olympics have been a big hit at our house. Justin and I have always loved watching them, and Grady is no different. He especially enjoys the diving - both individual and syncronized. He says "woah!" and claps after each dive. Michael Phelps just won his 19th medal (an Olympic record) and the USA women's gymnastic "Fab 5" won the team gold medal.

Fun with "jumping"

We definitely have a fully speaking child. For a while he would point and grunt when he wanted something, but he has gotten much better at voicing what he wants/needs lately. The most popular phrase is "I want more ____", usually crackers, banana, blueberries, grapes or milk. Yesterday we were driving home from swim lessons and we went over a speed bump and I heard "Woah mommy, be careful" from the back seat!

His favorite toys are "choo choo trains" - the set I got at Ikea for $10 - steal! Also is really into cars/trucks in general. One night he had all 3 of us crawling around the house with trucks saying "beep, beep coming through!" Favorite books are Goodnight Moon, a Truck book where you match up photos of trucks, and an animal book - he and Justin love to make animal sounds together.

We are still plagued with watching Yo Gabba Gabba quite often, however he also really likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sesame Street (mainly just the Elmo's World part - makes us fast forward to it) and Blue's Clues.

All in all, we are having a great summer and feel very fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends.

Grady the Fish

My mom met Amy's mom when she took me to my first swim lesson when I was around 18 months old. That chance meeting ended up turning into a lifelong best friend, so it's always been in the back of my mind when thinking about taking Grady to his first swim lesson.
We are lucky in that Grady's since Grady's day care is at the YWCA, we get to take him to swim lessons for free...even better! We had our first lesson 3 weeks ago. - it's on Tuesday evenings at 5:45, so I go directly from work to pick him up and get us both changed. That is a task in itself! Anyway, I wasn't sure what to expect; he has always loved the water but is not a fan of laying on his back.
There are 3 other kids in his class, which is the "baby 1" class for everyone under the age of 2. Two of the kids are babies, around 8 months old and the other one is in Grady's daycare class - Nolan. Nolan has been taking swim lessons pretty much straight since he was 6 months old, so he's an old pro... Can put his face in the water and everything! The 2 babies didn't know WHAT was going on. So it was kind of hard to judge Grady's reaction. The instructor lead us through some games to get them used to splashing around and "dig, dig, digging" (doggie paddle) back to the side of the pool. Grady generally went along with it, except for the parts where we get them to float on their back, just as I had expected!
Grady's favorite part is right at the end. They have a big plastic slide the instructor puts up to the side of the pool, and she slides the kids down it and we catch them in the water. Grady LOVES it and wants to do it over and over! That's really the only time I can get him to do his "dig dig dig", so he can get another turn at the slide.
The last couple weeks have been a bit better, and especially since I have been getting there soon enough to get him a snack and let it settle before we swim. He acts like he is starving when I pick him up!

-Jessica

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

March 2012

Of course the most exciting part about March was the annual trip to Ireland, West Virginia to go Irish Road Bowling with friends and family!  It started out with the long drive north and we arrived late on a Thursday night.  First stop after visiting with Grandma and Pop Pop Hunter?  To see Matt, Carrie, and West!

Visiting West is always fun and they even got to share some sandwiches!

Jessica and I got to team up with Matt and Carrie for road bowling while the kids were with the grandparents but we always do our best to make sure they get to hang. 

 A trip home also means the we are going to get to see the other big guy that is pretty much family.  So next stop was to see Amy, Andy, and Owen!  Jessica and Amy always love to visit and this is a great example of what they do... catch up!

Alright the next step was get out to the cabin at Stonewall Jackson Lake and meet up with the rest of the group.  Time to hang out with Jana, Porkchop, and a whole lot of Ashley's! 

Ok, this photo was actually AFTER road bowling but they all looked so good and showed up at about this point in the story that I figured it made sense to add this one here.

Next step was a tradition like... well like a lot of things.  We went to dinner at C.J. Maggies.  It was definitely a fun bunch including these guys... and these guys!

Grady and Gavin (the 4th big guy!) got to hang at the cabin after dinner and boy oh boy did they just chill out!  They share the same birthday only one year apart exactly.

Next up was road bowling!  Here are some photos:

Grady got to spend this night with Grandma and Pop Pop Hunter and unfortunately I don't have any photos of that but here is one of Grady walking the old man Buddy.

 We headed home safely the next day after a wonderful weekend with family and friends.  Of course we still feel bad with how long Grady kept Grandma up that night!

February

Whoops!  We got lazy again!  Here are some updates to what we did in February.  March will be very soon to follow.

February started with a trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa L in Buckhannon, WV.  Grandma and Pop Pop H were at the beach so they didn't make any of these pictures.

It has been a very warm winter and of course we had to drive almost seven hours north to get our first taste of the snow!  It made the drive up a little more difficult but was a good trip and we made it safe.  As you can see once we got there it really started to come down and we enjoyed a nice later winter wonderland.


Grandpa L and Dad got to go to the WVU vs. Louisville basketball game thanks to Aunt Becky and Uncle Keith.  Unfortunately WVU lost but we enjoyed the trip and the experience.  While we were at the game Grady and Owen got to visit.

Grady also got to meet Grandma and Grandpa's new kitty, Smokey.

It was a pretty laid back trip but we got a lot accomplished!

For the rest of the month we were in Asheville and here are some pictures to prove how much fun we had!

My Photo Book Jan 17 2012

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December (mainly Christmas) 2011

After arriving home from a long and fun trip to WV and a stop in Mt. Airy it was time for our annual tradition... picking out a Christmas tree!  December was a great month with it all of course leading up to Christmas which included visits from both sets of grandparents. 

Grady helping Mom decorate

 But first... the tree.

Grady was kind enough to help Jessica decorate the tree.  He really loved pulling out the decorations and of course quickly hope into the box holding them as soon as it was empty.

We are hoping that I got all of the ornaments off of the tree before throwing it in the compost heap about a month after this photo was taken!




 We had our normal winter fun of Sunday's watching the NFL with Leslie, Jonathan and of course Lilly.  Grady and Lilly got to spend a lot of time together this year and really enjoyed playing the piano.

Lillian and Grady Playing Piano

The month flew by and included some pretty drastic changes in our lives.  As many know Jessica had been working part time since August and staying home with Grady two extra days a week.  After some very eventful weeks she was offered the opportunity to go back to full time at Imagsmith and she accepted.  She did not actually start her first full week until January.  Grady has also started full time in daycare at the local YWCA as a result of all the changes so much of December was spent planning these adjustments to our lives.

Then came Christmas and many visitors!

Grady with Santa!

Grady didn't quite know what to make of Santa but he was happy with what he left under the tree.  Toys!  Lots of toys that came with the funnest boxes!

Grady playing with Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Loftis came to visit over Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  We went to the Christmas Eve service at Central Methodist Church downtown and it was so packed that we actually watched it in the basement on a live broadcast on a big screen.  It worked out well since Grady didn't really feel like sitting so I walked around with him for most of it without bothering anyone (I hope).

Grady and Grandma

 

 

Check out my new kicks!

We opened presents at home on Christmas morning and then made our way over to Aunt Catherine's apartment for a nice Christmas Day lunch.  Of course there were even more presents there (and cat toys which apparently are way more fun than kid toys).

It was a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa Loftis and we then prepared for more visitors who were making their way north from a weekend in Atlanta.





Grandma and Grandpa Hunter had made a trip through the south to see everyone and visited Asheville on their way back to WV.

Grady and Grandma Hunter

Grady and Pop Pop

We had a nice walk down to the dog park to get a little exercise.  

Grandma and Buddy walk with Grady

Grady going on his own adventures

Grady wants to walk all the time... no more carrying.

After all of our visitors were gone it was time to have a little fun with our new toys...

Justin with Yoda and a Storm Trooper

Beware of Yoda, Geno

It was a very warm December and we got to spend more time outside than normal. Which allowed me to get some great shots like this one.

 

 And finally we rang in the new year!  It was our first full year with Grady and I can't think of one that has been better.  So Happy New Year (a little belated) from the Hunter's!  Looking forward to 2012.

Happy New Year!