The Clean-Up Crew

We survived the much anticipated Hurricane Irene with little loss of power and no real damage.  She was a rough one though, and her howling winds did get a bit concerning through the night.  We spent a lot of time indoors over the past two days playing, watching movies, playing, sleeping, playing,  doing arts and crafts, and more playing... whew, it was exhausting!  Once the winds died down on Sunday, we headed outside to clean up.  We were so lucky and only had a bunch of little branches that fell.

One of the cutest little cleaner-uppers that I've ever seen!

Getting them both to look at the camera at the same time is an impossible and frustrating task.

Gracie's airplane face!

The cutest working man ever!

 After cleaning up our yard, we headed over to Nanny and Pa's for a visit.  They had tons of branches down and the working man was in his glory...

Between all the rain, the earthquake, and Hurricane Irene, we have had enough for a while.  We are looking forward to the pleasant weather forecasted for the week ahead! 

A Natural Disaster Sandwich

Today was a beautiful day!  It was a picture perfect day - sandwiched between an earthquake and a hurricane. 

The earthquake yesterday literally shook our house.  Brady and I stood there looking at each other for a moment - we were totally confused and really had no idea what was happening.  When I realized that something kind of scary was happening, I snatched my sleeping baby out of her bed and ran outside.  Thank God everyone is ok, and there is no real damage.  I will never forget the feeling of the ground moving under my feet and pray that I never feel it again!

The hurricane predicted for the upcoming weekend is ruining our last beach trip of the season!  Boo!  We were really looking forward to one more sunny weekend in the sand.  Oh well..

So, back to our perfect day... We made the most of it by taking a trip to Longwood Gardens.  We love it there!  Grandma came along with us which made it even better!  Honestly, I don't think I could ever take Matty and Gracie there by myself.  They run around like wild kids there since there is so much to see and do!

The Airplane Museum

Today we visited the Airplane Museum (a.k.a. The Air Mobility Command Museum) at the Dover Air Force Base.  This was a trip back to my roots.  I was born at the DAFB hospital and both my mom and my dad served in the Air Force. 

The Airplane Museum was great!  It was free, and it was huge with tons of old airplanes.  The kids loved it!

 This is Gracie's airplane face :)  Whenever she hears a plane, sees a plane, or someone says "airplane," she makes this face.  It is hilarious! Considering all the airplanes in the museum, we were lucky enough to see this face a lot today!

These next pictures just make me smile:)

There was a retired Air Force One on display that President George Bush, the Queen of England, and lots of other VIPs flew on!

We got to go on a huge cargo plane which was very overwhelming to the little ones :)

Geez, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get a picture of these two!  This is the best I could get...

Matty went on Air Force One.  It smelled a little old and musty which Matty let everyone know with his facial expression...

 He even got to go in the cock pit!

We tried to get a group picture of this mannequin of Grandma.  She had this exact uniform and haircut when she was in the Air Force!  Ha!

Gracie was saying, "no pictures please" to this mamarazzi...

Oh, how I love the airplane face!!!

 This is another one of Gracie's many expressions... "ooooo."  She does this whenever she hears a loud noise or sees something that she can't believe.  I love it!!!

Happy Birthday Papa's Lung!

Three years ago Papa was blessed with a new lung after a long illness.  He has definitely had a very rocky road since his transplant in 2008, but he is doing great now and we celebrated today!  We had a huge party with family and friends celebrating his health and happiness. 

Matty loves a good party, so he was psyched when we told him that Papa was having a party.  He walked into the party and exclaimed, "Happy Birthday Papa's Lung!"  Matty insisted that he must wear his party outfit which consisted of a tie and his Easter hat!  Ha!  He looked so, so cute!  I'll admit that I wasn't too sure when he showed me what he'd picked out to wear, but he really pulled it off! 

I am really bummed that somehow I didn't get a picture of Matty and Gracie with Papa, but I am sure someone did.  Hopefully I will update the blog soon with a group picture.  But for now, here's the few that I did get today...

The lung cake!

The kid's got style!

Grandma and Gracie

It rained the whole way home from the party, and Matty was dying to splash in puddles.  So the kids got their firefighter gear on and had a great time.  They move so fast, and it is almost impossible to get a picture of them!

A sweet picture of Daddy and Gracie Girl

Learning to Swim

Matty has been taking swimming lessons at the YMCA and loves it!  He looks forward to going each week and loves his "Daddy time."  Matty has turned into quite a little fish and can even swim by himself as long as he has a float belt on. 

While Matty is swimming, Gracie gets to go to the babysitting room which she has grown to love.  They have sidewalk chalk and let her go outside, so what's not to love?!  Today when I picked her up, she was covered from head to toe with chalk.  Apparently she was hoarding the chalk which is no big surprise, and yellow was her favorite since it was all around her mouth.  Yuck!

Anyway, good job with the swimming Matty and Daddy!  I'm a proud mama!