Pumpkin Carving, PLUS Halloween Preview!

Last night we carved our big pumpkin (we are leaving Lincoln's small pumpkin uncarved so he can "play" with it some more).



Link was pretty excited about the prospect of getting his hands on the pumpkin...until we opened it up and told him to get the "guts" out. He kept wrenching his hand back out in fear (hey, I don't like it either - that's why it's Ryan's job to gut the pumpkin and my job to carve it) until we gave him a spoon to scoop it out. He liked that idea much better.



We had a trial run of Lincoln's Halloween costume! He is going to be a puppy. I have been working with him on "What does a dog say?" and finally got him to make a panting noise. "Bow wow" and "ruff ruff" are apparently too complex (although he does the best monkey noise I have ever heard).



Here he is complete with his bear in a matching costume and treat-bag to match (courtesy of Pottery Barn Kids, aka: Nana!)



More pictures of our upcoming Halloween festivities soon to come!

Pumpkin Patch Pickin'

Despite New Jersey being the most urban state in the Union - it's the only state that has every one of its counties deemed "urban" (thanks, Wikipedia!)- we were still able to find a great pumpkin patch out in the little town of Fairfield, NJ. Lincoln really loves pumpkins, so he was excited to see all of his options!

They had these cute little wagons that we took into the field to load up our pumpkins. Link got right to work picking out his pumpkin(s)!


Maybe he got a little carried away!? (He eventually had to choose only ONE to take home)


The Giles Pumpkin Patch Pickers! (My parents were also there - thanks to an extended layover from Ireland. Fun to have Nana and Grandpa here!)

More Beach Pictures

Lincoln loves the sand!


The bathtub was full of sand after this beach outing:


We went to a turtle rehabilitation center, where people can drop off hatchlings that wash up on the beach. They nurse them back to health here and then release them back into the ocean. Lincoln said "turtle" for the first time! There was also a small playground with a "tur-tle" that Link liked to sit on:

We're Back!

We had an amazing vacation in West Palm Beach, Florida last week. Ryan was able to take a whole week off work and we went to the beach to RELAX! It really was one of the most stress-free vacations we have ever been on - just going to the beach and the pool, watching movies, eating out, playing with Link, and spending time together as a family. Life really doesn't get any better than that!

We have so many great pictures of the beach that I have to split them up into separate posts - so here are the first few to pique your interest!

Link was a little leery of the ocean at first, then got over his fear and was lying down on the sand waiting for the water to wash over him, but then went back to being semi-afraid.


He did really enjoy digging and playing in the sand, and yes, did get a couple mouthfuls in.


Our happy family at the beach: