Quick update...

Well, the camera is packed so there won't be any pictures to accompany this quick update but just wanted to say that all is going well on the move front. We're doing our "lasts" in Cincinnati and running around like mad getting everything done while Josh is still working these last few days and the movers are doing their thing. They packed 80% of the house yesterday (they are so fast!) and just have the finishing up to do today before the loaders come tomorrow. Then Thursday we're off!
We will get to Oceanside on Tuesday night so we have close to a week of travel in the car with some fun stops along the way visiting family and seeing the Grand Canyon. Should be interesting with a dog and potty-training toddler. We'll have lots of pictures to post on the other side. Wish us luck!!

Coney Island

We went to Coney Island (a water/amusement park along the banks of the Ohio river in Cincinnati) for the hand surgery group's annual picnic on Saturday. We got there about 10 o'clock and had a couple of hours to do whatever we wanted. Caroline wanted to go swimming first.

They had an enormous pool (they boast that it's the largest in the world, and it might be). It was mostly a shallow wading pool but had a big water slide in the center and then a deep area at one end with about 6 diving boards. Caroline wanted to, and DID, go down the giant water slide in the picture by herself! Josh walked her up the giant ladder while I waited at the bottom with my heart in my throat. She went down all by herself (with her little tube float on) and I was at the bottom ready to grab her. She came down without any hesitation but I think she had second thoughts about half-way down when she twisted sideways a bit and got pretty wide-eyed. No tears or anything, but also no requests to do it again. I still can't believe she did it. What can I say, the girl can't resist a slide!


Then we got into dry clothes and took her to the kiddie rides. She had only ridden carousels up to this point but she really liked all the rides (turtles, trains and rocket ships). She looked like such a big girl riding the rides all by herself and waved to us every time she came around to where we were.

painted piggies

We hosted a "pool party" at our house the other day for Caroline's friends, and in the spirit of summer days, I painted Caroline's toenails for the first time. She sat still because she was so excited about it. You can kind of see it in this picture of her with her best bud, Maggie.

A funny something

Caroline has started singing along with the radio in the car. I have satelite radio in the van and mostly listen the the Nashville station (go figure!) or "Flight 26" which has the top current pop songs (I'm desperately trying to stay atune to other things than the wiggles these days). Anyway, they are always playing the same top 20 songs and Caroline can now sing along with Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape" and Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love." This really cracks me up! You should hear her do the "Whee-Hoos" on the sweet escape song... it'll make you laugh for sure.

Friends reunite

Our friends, the Wilkes, have moved to Cincinnati and we will be overlapping our time here with them by a few weeks. We ran into Trevor and Connor at the park today (while Karry and 4-week old Claire worked on unpacking the house a bit). Connor, was one of Caroline's first playmates (along with Miss Isabel, of course!) and it's funny to see them together now, just over a year later from when they last saw each other. They don't remember each other but they immediately were chasing each other and coming up with things to do together.

A side note - you can really tell in these pictures with another kid who is just 3 months younger than she is, how TALL she has gotten. She looks like she's on stilts with those legs of hers!

Fun in the pool

This was actually from a couple of weeks ago when we went to Nashville over the weekend. It's the most fun we've had in the "big" pool with Caroline. We were in the water for close to 3 hours and she had a blast. I had gotten this little vest-tube float and it was her first time wearing it. It really gave her a lot of confidence in the water. She started off jumping in off the side and then she would "swim" to the steps, climb out, and walk to the spot where she would jump to me again. After a while, she was jumping off the diving board (with a little assistance to make sure she didn't bonk her head)! Josh and I were pretty tired ourselves after treading water under the diving board for a good while. We got a video of it but it's not cooperating so I'll have to try and upload it later.

While we were in SoCal...

Caroline was with her Nana and Papa in Indianapolis. She kept her grandparents busy and got lots of good cousin time in as well. Mary Pat held her still for a quick photo op.

Our house in Oceanside

Josh and I made a trip out to SoCal last week to find a place to live and check out our new town. We are so excited to move there! It didn't hurt that the weather was perfect our four days there (think sunny and 70 with no humidity and no bugs!). We found a house to rent and it looks like we can stay there as long as Josh is stationed at Camp Pendleton, so this is our new home!! Some of the best things about it.... it's a 6 minute drive to the beach and there are even bike trails from the neighborhood to the ocean (about 3 miles away)... it sits atop a bluff and overlooks the neighborhood so it has great views and faces south-west - lots of pretty sunsets... there's a dog park and park with a playground one block away. I think we're going to really like living here. I still can't believe we're going to have palm trees in our yard. Now we just have 4 weeks, a 2,000 mile drive and we're there!