Bye Bye Elinor!

We haven't had the courage to tell him yet but Dylan's best mate Elinor has moved away to New Orleans.  They had such a great time together here in Virginia, I'm sure they will be life-long friends but for now we'll have to keep in touch with crazy screams on Skype...here are a few pics from their last weekend on the Williamsburg commons.

Bye-Bye Elinor!

Happy Birthday D!

Our little man is 2!  We're a bit late with the blog-post but I can assure you we've been very busy with new toys (check out the new trike!), books, birthday cake, and friends.  Dylan has been strutting around, quite proud of his new age - and he has been showing off by reciting the alphabet (he can get through the whole thing) and he's counting to 12 (blew right past 10 for extra credit).  His parents feel pretty good too, but wow time flies when you're having fun!  Thanks for all the birthday wishes from across the US and overseas.  We had a small party here in Williamsburg with a few of his Virginia mates.  Good times!

Playing with "Dadda's Big Boat" (toy aircraft carrier)

Michelle and Dylan pushing Molly on D's new trike

Disassembling toy airplanes - a critical skill!

Botany 101

Dr Reid has been holding classes with young Mr Dylan - but his first botany class wasn't very exciting...it turns out that "creating life" takes a bit longer than a 2 year old's attention span might prefer.  But, seeds planted...now we wait...

Fast forward a few weeks and class is back in session...ah...life!  Thanks for the lesson Mumma!

High Seas

Although I'm safely back on dry land I thought I'd share a great photo from our recent time underway off the east coast.  As has been typical in the winter months we were chased by the weather - in this shot the weather won - it was actually more ominous than it appears with 25-30 foot seas and winds topping 50-60mph.

                                                                             US Navy Photo

The ship held up just fine - in fact, onboard you hardly knew it was raging outside.