Patriot's Point

This past Labor Day Josh, Chandler, Dad, Hunter, and I decided to meet Jordan and Kaitlyn up in Charleston at Patriot's Point to tour the USS Yorktown (WWII aircraft carrier), the USS Clagamore (WWII battleship), and the USS Laffey (WWII submarine).

Chandler was an angel and slept most of the way up!

The aircraft carrier was HUGE.

And it was so weird that in spite of how huge it was, the beds and storage for the soldiers were all stacked on top of each other. It was so interesting to see what their life would have been like. We saw the cafeteria with a sample of a menu of what they would eat day to day, the kitchen and bakery were it was all prepared, and where they ate.

We even saw where the soldiers would go to the dentist!

And lots of airplanes:

It was a hooooot day. We got cups of soft snow cone ice and I would feed little bits of it to Chandler to keep him hydrated. He made the most hilarious faces in reaction to the cold, but he enjoyed it.

It was crazy to see all of the guns and stuff on the battleship:

If the living quarters on the aircraft carrier and battleship were tiny, the submarine was insane. I didn't think I could go in at first. After 3 minutes down there I needed to get out. I can't believe men lived like that with 79 other guys for months! Underwater! No fresh air!

And, for fun, a creepy handless mannequin:

When we got out of the submarine it had started pouring rain. Chandler stayed dry inside of his stroller-chariot (but did not like being under the hoods and not being able to see out...he was whining "mamamamamama!" the whole way to the car). The rest of us got drenched.

We went back to Jordan and Kaitlyn's to change into some dry clothes and then Dad treated us to a delicious dinner at Triangles before we headed home. What a great Labor Day!

A Boating Day

Josh, Chandler, and I spent a day on the waterway with the Liljenquists while Allison was in town. For one of the activities we went slalom skiing.

Allison is pretty much a pro:

Josh is great at it, too, but we had to go in different shifts so one of us could be with Chandler on the houseboat. So, sadly, I don't have any pictures of him slaloming.

This was my first time slaloming. I hoped my wakeboarding experience would play into it, but it was a wholdedifferent ball game.

It took 456,234,535 tries, but I finally got up! And had a few of the most painful wipeouts of  my life. If you head to the river and it's dry, it's because all of the water went up my nose.

Chandler Meets Rylie!

One of my best friends, Catherine, had a baby about 3 months before Chandler was born. Catherine lives out of state and visited this past Christmas, so I was able to meet Rylie. At the time, though, I was 7 months pregnant so she wasn't able to meet Chandler yet.

Catherine came to visit at the end of August so Chandler and Rylie were finally able to meet each other! Of course, they were immediately best friends.

We found it very ironic that Catherine has a dark-eyed baby and I have a light-eyed baby.

Catherine has a picture of all four of us that I will post as soon as I get it!

We miss you guys already! Come back!