Happy Birthday Harrison!

Harrison turned ONE this past Friday, June 22nd, and we had a very busy weekend celebrating!


Mommy and Daddy gave him this wagon on the morning on his birthday and he loves it. We've been on several walks already with it, and it's a big hit.






Harrison shares his birthday with his Poppy Eschen. Here they are in the birthday T-shirts that Car Car Eschen made for them! Poppy's has 55 palm trees on it for every year old he is.

Harrison gets serious with his basketball!

The Carters and Eschens went out to have Mexican on Friday night to celebrate the birthdays.

We got free birthday sopapillas and Harrison is asking for more ice cream, Poppy!

Here's the two birthday boys blowing out Poppy's candles on his ice cream cake.

On Saturday the 23rd, we threw Harrison a birthday barbeque at our house and had lots of guests! It was a really fun party. In total, there were 15 babies/children that came, so it was a wild time! Here are some party pics.

Here's Harrison with his baseball cake for him to dig into. He was excited to stick his hands in it but didn't like the sweetness of the icing.........

........so he was done with it pretty quickly!

On Sunday we got most of the birthday toys out that he got as gifts and he and Caitlin had a ball playing! Here he is with one of his favorites, a toy grand piano.

Happy Father's Day

Jason got home from his golf trip early Sunday afternoon so we were able to give him our Father's Day gifts! Harrison gave him a card and a popsicle stick "DAD" sign that he "made" at school. Here's father and son checking them out -





We talked to Papa Carter and Poppy Eschen yesterday too and wished them a Happy Father's Day! We can't wait to see them this weekend for the big birthday bash!

We also got Harrison an early birthday present, a swimming pool! It was pretty hot on Sunday so we thought it would be a good time to get it out. He wasn't sure what to think about it at first and didn't want to get in, so I jumped in with him fully clothed because, hey, I was hot too! Once he got used to it he had a lot of fun.

Endless Summer

We just got back from our summer vacation! We took a week off of work (our first since our honeymoon four years ago!) and drove up to the Outer Banks in NC to spend a week at Jeff Almstedt's parents' beach house (which, appropriately, is named "Endless Summer"!). On the way there, we stopped overnight in Winston-Salem to stay with our friends Jaime and John Gallimore in their brand new house, which is SO beautiful. The next morning we had breakfast at the K&W Cafeteria with Grandma and Grandbirdie Eschen, and then we were on our way to the beach! We spent a week at the Outer Banks, and then left on Friday to travel to Colombia, SC for my cousin Bryant's wedding. We spent two nights there and then came home this past Sunday. We had been gone for 10 days and it was a wonderful vacation, but it is also nice to be home! We really appreciate the hospitality of the Almstedts for inviting us to spend the week at their beach house, thank you so much!



Here's Harrison and Jaime in front of their new house. Harrison and Jaime go way back and are total BFFs.




Here we are at breakfast with Grandma and Grandbirdie! Grandbird calls Harrison "GG" for "Great-Grandson".



Our first day at the beach!



Harrison loved the windsock!




First morning at the beach......all of the babies got up REALLY early while we were there!






Harrison had a great time watching Ava Mei walk around. You could tell he was trying to learn! Here she is looking at the ocean for the first time. She always says, "Oh wow!".



Helping Daddy play Yahtzee.



Harrison was very affectionate with the girls! Thankfully their Daddies didn't mind. Here he is giving Anna kisses........



........giving Ava Mei hugs........



........and giving Lauren a back massage!



This was the first time Harrison got to play in the sand. He had a great time picking up shells and crawling around, feeling the different textures.





This is one of my favorite pictures!



Harrison and Nathan McGinn were two peas in a pod!



We actually got all the babies to sit on the couch together, they were so cute! Here's Lauren, Nathan, Harrison, Ava Mei, and Anna.



This is from Bryant's wedding reception in Colombia, SC. Harrison loved playing with his cousins Jordan and Tanner!



It was great seeing and catching up with the Roberts clan at the wedding, we had a great time! Harrison had so much fun crawling around the reception and dancing on the dance floor. He was definitely intrigued by the band and their instruments. He also clapped along with everyone as the wedding party was introduced!