Water Fun!

It's official! Barnes is a water baby for sure. We've known since he took swimming lessons in April that he loved the water but he went tubing for the first time this past Labor Day weekend and hes hooked! Its all hes been able to talk about all week. Daddy had fun tubing with him and I had a great time watching my boys. Barnes' face was priceless. He LOVES it!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Daddy turned a year older (36) on Monday and he was off work so we got to enjoy one more day of vacation with him and celebrate his birthday! We took daddy to the Casey Jones Train Museum so Barnes could play and show daddy how much he loves the trains. Then we took daddy to lunch and Buffalo Wild Wings (his choice of course)! Barnes helped me make daddy a cake. He is quite the little pastry chef.

There aren't enough words to say how special daddy is to us. He is Barnes' hero and my dear husband and best friend. He works tirelessly to provide for us and never complains a minute about pitching in to help with bath time or dishes after dinner. I am so blessed to have such a true partner in this life we have together.

Testing the cake
our birthday boy

I LOVE this photo. Notice how BBP is looking up at daddy like he hung the moon.

We think he did just that and more. :)

Family of Three

The Perry family took our last vacation as a family of three... it was a magical week! We didn't want to leave. I actually cried our last night there (thanks prego hormones)! I had looked forward to the vacation so much and it was so fun, I was just disappointed it had to be over. It was our last vacation as the family we are now. I know we will have LOTS of vacations when our new arrival gets here in the years to come but this one just felt different. Sweet in a way. I cant explain it really.

I cannot say enough great things about the Waterscape resort on Okaloosa Island, which is just between Fort Walton Beach and Destin. It is the BEST place for kids ever. They have multiple kid pools including a baby pool that's probably not even a foot deep. As you will see in the pictures, Barnes had an amazing time. He was an angel while we were there (except for a few two year old moments)! Brad and I had the best time relaxing and watching him enjoy and discover so many new things. Our pool at home is now boring compared to what he's experienced on Vacation. Maybe Daddy will think about putting in a slide for us next summer!

We played on the beach, built sandcastles, buried trucks and dinosaurs and trains and then dug them up to discover them all over again! Barnes realized how much he loves the sand and I realized how much I hate it! But I will get over it because he thinks its divine. We had front row chairs on the beach everyday, though in all honesty we spent most of our time at the pool. The water had some green algae in it several of the days we were there. Barnes did love getting in the ocean and looking for fish. He would say, "hi, fish!"

Thanks to daddy for finding us a great place to stay and for taking us on vacation. What wonderful memories were made for our family.

walking the beach

feeding alligators at Fudpuckers (BBP loved this!)

Relaxing while watching Curious George (we found him like this in the bed!)

Mommy and Barnes enjoying a snack at the pool

BBP driving his trucks in the octopus' arms

Playing on the beach

Playing in the baby pool area

Splash!

eating lunch while daddy checks some email

our little dare devil

Daddy was the self appointed life guard

daddy got up and surprised us with donuts

my sweet boys little two year old foot

Our three feet together - next time we go to the beach it will be four

snoozing on the way home

Barnes was SOOO sad all the way home. He cried a lot of the way home and kept saying,
"beach, beach" and "way, way." When he says, "way," he means we are going the wrong way. He knew we were leaving the beach and wanted to go back.

After a very long nine hour drive, he realized we were almost

home when we turned off of HWY 412

and he started clapping and saying, "home, home, home!"

Vacation was amazing but its always nice to come home.

Thanks to all who read.

Choo Choo!

Today we went to the Casey Jones Museum in an effort to get out of the house but also stay out of this heat! Just after we arrived, our friends and neighbors just happened to show up too! Barnes got to see his friends Isabelle and Annette and their new baby brother William. (Mom, Elle just had baby last Thursday!! Needless to say I'm impressed!) Don't look for that to happen at the Perry house this fall when our baby comes.

Barnes has been talking obsessively about Choo Choo's since the weekend when we found a Thomas the Train DVD in the sale bin at Wal-Mart. He loves trains. Anytime we see a train he gets so excited.

He had a blast at the Museum. Most of the museum is very historical and not something he had much interest in, but they have a big locomotive in the back that the kids can actually ring the bell on, There's also a little house that shows how people lived in the early 1900's. It was all very fun and a change of our daily pace.

The inside of the museum has a gift shop with a play area for kids that includes two train tables and TONS of train memorabilia you can purchase. Barnes played for almost an hour at the train table and had so much fun pushing the little trains on the wooden tracks.

As soon as Daddy got home tonight Barnes couldn't wait to tell him about the Choo Choo! He got so excited telling him about it all. He even said he rang the bell.

Even though it was 103 degrees (actual temperature!) here in Jackson today, we beat the heat and had fun playing Choo Choo!

Barnes ringing the bell! Thanks to Belle and Annette's daddy for helping him.

Beside the Choo Choo!
Playing at the train table with Annette and Isabelle

Concentrating!

Having a great time

Barnes meets Miss Tennessee

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, Barnes got to meet Miss Tennessee on the fourth of July. We asked if he and Gavin could have their picture made with her and she kindly agreed! She was singing the national anthem at the fireworks display we attended.

Here is the photo, not sure why it scanned so small!

Miss Tennessee 2010 Nicole Jordan

First Movie Memories

Barnes went to his first movie at the theater today! We went to see Toy Story 3 with his friends Gavin and Matthew. We got popcorn, lemonade and fruit snacks before we sat down and he thought the box all the snacks came in was super cool.

I must admit, I was a little nervous before going to the movie because I didn't know if he would sit through the entire thing or get bored. Through the movie, the boys all were ooo'ing and ahhhh'ing at different parts. They were so good. Barnes sat in his chair almost the entire movie, except for a few minutes. He was such a big boy, eating popcorn and drinking his lemonade. I had such a great time just watching his sweet little face during certain scenes.

I remember my first movie. I went to see The Fox and the Hound in 1981 with my mom, aunt and cousins. I was about Barnes' age. I remember thinking how special it was. Hopefully Barnes will remember the first time he went to a movie with his Mommy and smile one day too.

Buzz Light Year is so cool! Gavin, Barnes and Matthew My sweet boy Mommy and Barnes

He's and AR-teest!

So tonight in the bathtub we were coloring with the bathtub crayons that Nana got Barnes for his birthday. Usually he just scribbles away and never puts much thought into it.

Tonight, after he finished his work, he declared to me (without my ever asking) that the purple at the bottom of the tub was a horse and the orange to the right was a doggie.

This is the first time he's ever told me what any of his drawings were. I'm impressed! He has an eye for art. I'm pretty sure Summer 2010 will be his abstract phase judging by his current works.

Two year olds are so fun! Its always an adventure and they constantly surprise.

Barnes and his artwork!

And moving on to an unrelated topic~

I've been thinking all day how the last two years have been the best of my life and part of me feels immensely guilty (by having another baby) that I'm changing the dynamic that Barnes and I have. Each day is an adventure and we can go and do and are so independent at this point. I know having a new baby will change all of this to an extent and we will have to be on a strict feeding/sleeping schedule for the first time in a long time. The other part of me says that Brad and I are giving him such a gift of a sibling. A gift I never had and always longed for. I've been trying to make the most of every minute of this summer and enjoy all that Barnes is. Good things are to come, but I also know a chapter is coming to an end too and its a little heartbreaking.

I'm so blessed that God gave him to me 25 months ago. What a gift these months have been just the two of us everyday (and of course Daddy too when hes home!)

Thanks for reading and I'm sorry for the mushiness tonight. Must be the prego hormones. :)

Love to all!

A Day To Remember

Today we did something special. Something unlike the fun, light-hearted things we usually do.

Today we went and remembered those who came before us. We went and picked up my 85 year old, great-aunt Ruth. She is my paternal grandfather's sister. She also married my paternal grandmother's brother. So my father (and his siblings) and all their cousins (Aunt Ruth and Uncle Lawson's children) were double first cousins! Does that even make sense?

Aunt Ruth is a great woman. The kind of woman who has seen adversity in her life but also enjoyed much joy and love. The kind of woman who loves God and will share her testimony with any stranger on the street. The kind of woman that would take you fishing instead of shopping. Or take you to look at a tractor or a piece of property she was thinking of buying if you were with her on a random afternoon. She told me stories about how she and Uncle Lawson and my grandparents had a double wedding and what fun they had together.

She told me how her family (my grandfather was a baby and she wasn't even born) went to Arkansas in a covered wagon in 1921 as land prospectors. While they lived there (just over two years) three of their siblings drowned in one day in the White river and my great-grandmother demanded they move home to Tennessee and she never crossed the Arkansas state line again. Not even to visit their graves.

We went to Koko, TN and visited the graves of my grandparents and then drove back to the cemetery in Jackson where my daddy is buried. As I look at the picture of my sweet Barnes beside the grave of my father it makes my heart ache. I know daddy would have loved Barnes with all his heart and would have spoiled him rotten. I'm saddened most by the other side of it. That Barnes will never know daddy and never get to do the fun grandaddy things other kids get to do. In my world, that meant... riding the tractor with him, tromping cotton, having a pony and bottle feeding baby calves. I hope I can tell Barnes about him one day and that he might understand a small part of who he was and how much he would have loved him.

Enjoy the time you have with those you love.

With Aunt Ruth at Daddy's grave
Barnes at his great-grandparent's graves

Even the cemetery was kind of fun to Barnes!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Father's Day is a day to celebrate the bond between father's and their children. Father or "Da Da" in our house means lots of things. It means being patient, self-less, dedicated and hard working. It also means, the tickle monster, driving 1.5 hours to work (one way), teaching Barnes to swim, big bear hugs and eating steak (Barnes' new favorite food)!

Not only is Da Da a great father and provider, he is a great example of what a husband/human being should be. I am thankful that Barnes will have someone to model after.

Here are a few great quotes about Dads:

"My father didn't tell me how to live, he lived and let me watch him do it." ~Clarence B. Kelland

"Blessed indeed is the man who hears a gentle voice calling him father." ~Lydia M. Child, author of Philothia: A Romance, 1836

"A father carries pictures where his money used to be!" ~Unknown

Where the Perry family began
With Daddy on his first Christmas (they were twins even then!)

First Easter

Helping BBP hunt eggs (second Easter)

Daddy duck hunts and so do I!

Daddy takes me to all the fun places

Happy Father's Day to my husband and a great Father and Da Da! We love you, honey.