Loving His Animals!

He even shares his pool with them on hot summer days!

Caden seems to be fascinated by any four legged furry animal, but he and Gracie seem to have a special bond. They really love each other! Whenever we say Gracie's name, Caden looks around for her and she is the only one who can ALWAYS get him to smile.

Gracie still comes in his room with us while he is going to bed or getting changed and curls up next to his crib. She never wants to come out until she knows he's asleep. It's like she wants her alone time with him before she calls it quits for the night.

Both she and Rigger love to give Caden kisses, especially now that he's eating solid food and always has leftovers on his face and hands. The pups have been a great help in cleaning him up!

Even Cat has shown an interest in Caden and he's definitely intrigued by her, but unlike the dogs, she's a little hard to pin down, so he spends a lot of time watching her tail disappear around corners! The picture above was one of the few times that he was able to see her in full because the dogs were outside running around.

Aunt Jenny's House

Caden and I went to Aunt Jenny's house on Sunday for a Father's Day celebration while Spencer was coaching at camp. Caden was really good in the car and he had a great time visiting with everyone! He is now totally interested in Addie which is adorable! My favorite picture of the two of them is the one where it looks like he is giving her a kiss :) Aunt Beanie and Aunt Rissi had so much fun playing with the babies...they love them so much!

Family Visit!

Caden had lots of fun visiting with his aunt and uncles this weekend! Taylor and Walker spent the night on Saturday and Aunt Sklyar came on Sunday and left today. Taylor is working a camp at Princeton this week so he was able to come over for dinner tonight with Skylar. Some of our favorite memories from the weekend............Aunt Skylar discovering the fact that Caden can hold his own bottle, The Baby Whisperer (Uncle Walker) taking over for Mom when she needed a hand and hearing Uncle Taylor make Caden laugh :) Between the three of them, Caden was completely spoiled!!! We miss everyone already and can't wait to see them again!

Outer Banks...Caden's First Vacation!

The three of us went on our first family vacation last week to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and it was so much fun! We left at 4:30 Sunday morning which turned out to be a great idea because Caden slept for a good portion of the trip. While he was awake one of us was in the back with him providing entertainment which Caden thoroughly enjoyed :) On the way home we left at 9ish so Caden was awake for more of the trip which meant lots of entertainment from Mommy and Daddy!
Caden was such a good sport the entire trip. A few nights we put him to sleep in the stroller and then we walked from our hotel to one of the nearby restaurants...it was like we were on our own little dinner date :) Luckily, he slept better than we expected him to in his pack and play. He woke up a few times each night for his bink but then he'd go right back to sleep. He was up super early each morning but we were able to get another hour or so out of him by putting him in bed with us :) My favorite!!

We took a 2 hour walk on the beach down to the Nags Head fishing pier and back the first morning we were there. Caden had a good time in the backpack and even took a nap while we were walking!

This is a picture of the sunrise from our room. Our room was right on the ocean so we enjoyed sitting on our balcony and watching the water, and laying in bed and listening to the waves.




Our little tent worked out great...it blocked the wind and the sun! Perfect for nap time :) He is bundled up sleeping in the towel underneath!



The water was nice and warm so Caden had a great time playing in the pool!


Caden loved playing in the sand. We kept his bink in his mouth the whole time so he wouldn't eat any sand and we were really careful not to let him rub his eyes with his sandy hands!



We spent a day on Roanoke Island which was fascinating. We learned about the lost colony and we got to walk around where the settlement once was located. Then we went to Festival Park where they have a settlement site, an American Indian town, a museum, and a replica of the Elizabeth II. We got to see it all and Caden took a nap in his stroller while we walked around.

We drove down to the Bodie Island Lighthouse after we left Roanoke Island. The lighthouse is under renovation, but it's still beautiful! Caden took a nice nap in the car on the way from Roanoke to Bodie Island.

We also went to the Wright Brothers Memorial which was fascinating! On December 17, 1903 the Wright brothers made the first successful power flights in Kitty Hawk and we got to see where the first flight took off and where each of the first four flights landed (shown in the first picture). It was an amazing experience for Spencer and me but Caden wasn't too interested. He spit up on the floor in the museum, he had an explosion in his diaper, then he fell asleep in his stroller for the rest of the visit. He would have preferred to be at the beach :)

Teeth!

If you click on this picture to make it bigger and look very closely you can see Caden's bottom two teeth!

Caden is way too big for his infant tub so we got him this awesome duck tub that some friends told us about. Caden loves it!

After an afternoon swim...

Warming up with Mommy...the water was cold!


Caden has been doing a much better job sleeping at night. He wakes up a couple times and we go in and give him his bink and he goes back to sleep! He goes to bed between 7-8 and then he wakes up around 6:00....at that point we are either up for the day or he snuggles in bed with Mommy and Daddy for a while so we can all get more sleep :)

IRAs

Kit and Walker came down to watch Parker and Spencer's boat at the IRA and both teams did really well. Parker's team medaled and Spencer's boat finished fourth. It was fun to hang out with Kit and Walker during the race and, or course, they were a huge help! We did the Baby Bjorn for a while but that may be the end of the Bjorn because our new baby backpack just arrived and Caden loves it!

Team Dinner

We had Spencer's rowers over for dinner last week before the IRAs and it was so much fun to see all the boys! Last time they came over we had a pasta dinner so this time we grilled and luckily the weather cooperated. The guys were outside on center campus playing volleyball for a while before dinner and Caden was out there watching....wearing just his diaper. They did a great job at the IRAs last Saturday and finished fourth. Way to go Tigers!