Proud of his hunting dog...

Yesterday, Zoe had quite the adventure. Where do I start??

We went to the pool in the afternoon and noticed a cute little family of ducks waddling around. Didn't think much of it. Well, late yesterday afternoon, our doorbell rings. It's Jerry's good hunting buddy's wife. She asks Jerry if he knew that Zoe was out, and that she had gotten a duck over at the pool.

Umm... no. Didn't know she was out. And really didn't believe that she had killed a duck.

So, we headed out to find her.

Turns out that Zoe had actually returned to our backyard. Very out of breath. And, she had buried her prized find. There was a fresh duck in our flowerbed. (I wonder if duck is a good fertilizer??)
Jerry was beaming like Grayson had just scored a goal at his soccer game. He was so proud of his hunting dog.

I was just laughing hysterically. I thought it was hilarious that our dog went over to the pool and killed some poor duck, while there were tons of innocent families just enjoying their Saturdays. It's sick, I know.

And Grayson started crying right there. Saying that ducks didn't deserve to die. That made me laugh harder. Sorry, buddy. (What do you think your dad does when he goes pheasant hunting?)

Jerry's hunting buddy (and our neighbor) Stu said that we just took the term red-neck to a new level.

What a Saturday =)

Carter is 16 months!!

If I don't write it down, I won't remember it! So... here are some tidbits about our sweet 16 month old!!

• he walks and runs everywhere!
• still has an obsession with his white bear and his left thumb
• says new words: mama, nana, hi dad, gaga (Grayson)
• points at airplanes
• has at least 16 teeth!!
• loves, loves, loves the pool AND has no fear (scary!!)
• can climb up and slide down his Little Tikes slide by himself
• climbs up the stairs, but is still unsafe to go down without help
• still has NOT had a haircut yet =)
• loves to swing at the park
• pretty much is down to just an afternoon nap
• sleeps from 8p-7a! yea!
• loves to wave bye-bye to Jerry as he leaves for work in the mornings
• straddles his legs, bends over, and puts his head on the ground like he's going to do a somersault... pretty cute!

Grayson and Nana spend the night at the ZOO!

Nana and Grayson had a blast spending the night at the zoo a few weekends ago. They went to one of the zoo's special "Critter Campouts." (Mom did tell me that it was quite possibly the hottest night of her life, but we won't tell Grayson!) Here they are with all of their gear loaded up in Nana's Yukon, ready to head to the zoo
They hauled all of their goodies (i.e. sleeping bags, tent, lantern, PJs, snacks, and bugspray) to where they would put up their tent

Hot and sweaty, but having fun! Grayson helped Nana hammer in all the stakes for their tent!

Having dinner at "The Beastro" at the zoo

Mom said that this was the largest bunny she had ever seen! Oh my!

Thanks to Nana for such a fun outing!! Grayson LOVED it! =)

Some pool time

While we've had quite a bit of rain lately, we definitely have been at the pool A LOT! And, both the boys LOVE it! This represents ALL the testosterone in our house... nice cheesy face, Jerry =)
Carter is part fish. He's a fearless fish!

He thinks the pool water tastes good...

Grayson has been working very hard on perfecting his dive. Here's a video of him diving, Carter jumping off the side, and just playing in the water with Daddy!

i {heart} my family

To finish out my posts from St. Thomas, here are some of my favorite pics from the whole week. Mom had asked all of us to bring white shirts and khaki shorts/pants for a family picture on the beach. We planned to take the pic the last night that we were there. Well, it started to downpour about 6:30 that night. Mom was devastated... thinking she wouldn't get her family picture. It ended up working out perfectly -- the sky was gorgeous after the rain! Hard to believe it's our TEN year anniversary this year... time flies when you're having fun =)
Mom actually framed this pic already in her family room!
Jerry holding Grayson and Dave holding Brett

Our entire group

the girls

Happy 40th Anniversary to sweet Nana and Gramps!

Thanks for such a wonderful trip... we love you guys!

A day trip to Tortola

In the middle of our week in St. Thomas, we took an hour-long ferry ride to Tortola, which is one of the British Virgin Islands. Waiting for the ferry to head out...
Aunt Laura, Mom, and Grayson drinking their water and staying hydrated! While it wasn't horribly hot (mid-80s), it was so incredibly HUMID!

From the ferry, we could see our house -- Cote Sud. It's the white house on the bottom right... you can see the infinity pool and the steps that lead down to the beach.

The West End of Tortola... the water was so blue...

We stopped for lunch at a little sandwich place before heading over to our Dolphin Adventure!

We were AMAZED that they let Jerry and Kristen take pictures during our Dolphin Adventure! Here, Mom is giving the dolphin a kiss =)

We had two dolphins with us: Einstein and Al. Here, one of them is becoming friends with Grayson.

I get to give him a kiss! Our favorite part of our time there was getting pulled by the dolphins, through the water. It was so cool!! =)

They put on a little show for us!

A day trip to St. John

A week ago today might have been my most favorite day of our week-long adventure. We rode a ferry from St. Thomas over to the beautiful island of St. John. We were specifically told NOT to bring our rental cars over to another island, so after we got off the ferry we walked around, did some shopping, and ate lunch at a neat deli in a cute area called "Mongoose Landing." Then, we hopped on a "safari" -- their version of a taxi, made out of the back of someone's pick-up truck!
Trunk Bay Beach is known as being in the Top 5 beaches in the WORLD!

And it was GORGEOUS!! The prettiest beach I've ever been to. The white sand, blue-green water, no seaweed or rocks... it was magnificent! Obviously Dad had had a tough day... =)

Grayson got in some writing practice

Aunt Laura and me

Uncle Dave and Jerry buried Grayson (alive!!) in the sand

Then they pulled him out!

The boys found this cool starfish!

We ended the day with a yummy Italian dinner on the 2nd floor of Roma's restaurant in St. John. (Dad's head got in front of Aunt Laura here... oops!)