Back from the Beach

We are back from vacation. We had a great time! A friend of my dad's let us use her GORGEOUS beach house in Florida. Here are some pics.

It was a much needed time of relaxation for me. Austin did great on his first trip out of state. There were a few meltdowns (as expected) during the drive, but he did wonderfully for a little boy who hates his car seat. I was worried about him sleeping in a new place, but he slept through the night the whole time we were there. As you can tell from the photo below, Austin enjoyed a lot of quality time with Nonna and Papa (my parents), and Walker and I enjoyed the extra sets of hands.

Having the extra hands allowed us to get some rare photos of all three of us.

Austin loved spending so much time with his daddy. He is absolutely smitten with Walker. It was rather bright and windy on the evening when we tried to do photos at the beach, so we didn't get any great ones, but at least Austin's first trip to the ocean got documented.

It really seems like Austin has grown overnight....and not just in size. He is learning so many new things these days. While we were on vacation, he learned to put his own pacifier in (although whether it is in the correct way is still hit or miss ;-). He also learned to make a VERY high-pitched squeal. (That is one that we are not quite sure we are happy about ;-) He is still working on sitting up - up to 15 seconds now, and is trying very hard to crawl. The arms are still not cooperating, but the legs go at road-runner speed now (and are accompanied by a very proud grin). It is pretty hilarious to see. He looks like a bull on caffeine getting ready to charge. He is becoming more and more vocal. He has had the vowels down for a while, and is now learning various consonants. It is pretty funny when he accidentally puts them together and forms words (including "no" and "bam"). He thinks he is such a big boy.