Catch Up

Life has been pretty busy and crazy for the last month or so.  We found out on May 11th that our baby had a potential abdominal wall defect and on May 21st we had a level 2 ultrasound and appointment with maternal fetal medicine to determine that the baby does has an abdominal wall defect.  I have had doctor appointments and ultrasounds every 2 weeks.  We have found out a lot of information and are trying to absorb it and all of the things the various doctors we have talked have told us.  We are starting a separate blog for this baby to share more of the details that we find out (babyshookv3.blogspot.com - it isn't fully ready yet, but it is a work in progress).  Hopefully this will help to keep people updated and also help us to keep a record of everything we are going through.

We have also had some exciting stuff going on in the last month too- we spent a week in Virginia Beach with Eric's immediate family.  I am posting a bunch of pictures from that trip.  We all had a lot of fun- swimming in the pool and ocean, playing in the sand, watching movies in the theater room, going to Busch Gardens and an aquarium, a boat ride to see dolphins, a trip to the boardwalk, and lots of other fun things.

I went to Iowa on June 8th with the boys and my friend Val.  The boys and I spent the whole week there seeing lots of family and friends.  I helped throw a baby shower for my niece Kayla while we were back.  I also went to a McGarvey women's weekend which was a lot of fun.  Eric's cousin Kristin got married on the 17th so we were able to share in her and Tyler's special day.  Eric came and joined us Friday afternoon which all 3 of us were very happy to see him.  Eric and the boys went Friday night to let off a lantern at a suicide awareness event.  They also went and cheered on my sister Coco in a 5K the next morning.  We celebrated Father's Day with a few gifts to Eric- Oliver picked out a Superman T-shirt and a flashlight set for Eric.

Here are pictures from our Virginia Beach vacation.

Oliver and Braden playing in the pool at our beachhouse

Parker in the sand

Oliver and Grandma walking toward to ocean

The boys playing in the sand

Oliver looking for dolphins on a boat ride- the poor kid enjoyed the beginning, but got sick about halfway through.  Luckily he recovered quickly and didn't miss any vacation fun.

Sandy Parker

Parker hunting for crabs- there were lots of crabs all over in the sand.

Eric made a sand turtle :)

Oliver and Braden in their pajamas playing on Kindle Fires.

Parker and Oliver at the aquarium on a dolphin

Boys in a shark

Beginning of Busch Gardens pictures- ride number 1

Parker's first ride :)

A climbing area that Parker loved- they played Sesame Street music and Parker did a lot of dancing.

Eric and Parker wandering around the Forest of Fun.  It was a drizzly day, but was nice that it wasn't miserably hot and we never had to wait in line for a ride.

Dining with Elmo!

Oliver got an autograph book and had a lot of fun asking the characters to sign his book.

Parker liked all of the characters coming over to our table.

Oliver took his cookie over to show Cookie Monster!

Parker and Eric getting a hug from Cookie Monster

Oliver and Kaydence on a ride- Oliver's favorite ride was Grover's roller coaster, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.  I think they went on it 7 or 8 times.

Savannah, Kaydence, Braden, Eric, and Oliver on a ride together.

Eric and Parker on a ride

Kaydence, Savannah, Braden, and Oliver on a swing ride- it was a little disappointing and they all kept asking for it to go faster.

Oliver, Braden, Savannah, Kaydence, and Parker in the dinosaur eggs.

Eric and the boys playing in the sand- we had to use buckets to bring water to the dry sand because the boys were too scared to be in the wet sand.

A view of our beachhouse from the beach.

A silly Parker

King Neptune statue- Eric is off to the left (with Parker on his back) and Oliver is standing in front of the statue.

We took a bike ride on the board walk.  It was a lot of fun- too bad we don't have a bike like this at home :)

The boys sitting on a wall at the boardwalk.

There was an air show while we were in town and the boardwalk had lots of vendors and booths.  The Navy had a trailer with a tank on it and a diver inside who played tic-tac-toe with Oliver.  He thought that was pretty cool :)

Braden and Oliver got quite a few tattoos

Our last morning on the beach :)