The Smith Family!

Two weekends ago, Josh's best childhood friend and family made a last minute trip to Knoxville, and we had such a blast.

Well...let's not kid anyone.  Really, Jace had a blast. He got every last little bit of attention that Joel could possibly offer. But it was so stinking adorable.

While Jace was pre-occupied with Joel, Bubbaloo took every opportunity to get attention from their boys. and FYI - if Jace is even 10% as polite and well-mannered as Joel and Jen's two boys, I will consider my motherhood a complete success. Those boys are amazing! 

We decided to head to the pool on Saturday. We fought through a monsoon and lightning and thunderbooms to get there...but we sure enjoyed ourselves.

We finally had enough of the lightning, and we ended up having everyone over to our house for the rest of the night.

And we even got a Boom Beach "Velvet Thunder" picture (if you don't play, you wouldn't understand...):

Joel's obsession with Jace allowed me to have a few more adult beverages than I probably should have. And because of that, I completely failed to get more pictures of the absolutely wonderful Smith family. Huge regrets about that, and I blame Joel...

In all seriousness, we really had such a great weekend. These visits really need to become a more regular occurrence, okay? Love y'all :) 

Back Surgery :(

Several months ago, I blogged about Josh being in a pretty bad car accident that resulted in a totaled 4Runner and a new Tahoe. Well...without going into a whole lot of details, Josh's back never got better. The poor man had to have back surgery the week before our vacation. Prior to surgery, life had been tough on the both of us. Baby Jace was less than a month old when this happened. So for the last several months, Josh has tried to help me take care of an infant while being in a whole bunch of pain. It's not been the easiest situation for either of us. And as silly and simple as it might sound, it was upsetting for me to think about Josh not being able to throw ball with his own son. 

So Josh and I headed to the hospital on a Friday afternoon, and we got this situation fixed (fingers crossed...he's still recovering). Brave Josh was all smiles going into surgery prep.  I, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck.  Y'all...I get lightheaded when someone gets a paper-cut. I definitely don't do major back surgery.  Thankfully, Patrick hung out played Boom Beach and ate Doritos in the waiting room with me for several hours. This definitely helped me from going into a complete panic (and shout to Camille for the snacks!).

While all of this was going on, Papaw Dwight swooped right in to take care of Baby Jace. Baby Jace had the afternoon and evening of his life! They practiced fishing. They watched the cars go by. They did some front porch sitting. They went on piggy-back rides. And they even told short stories to each other. 

After several hours of Papaw/Jace quality time, the hospital finally wheeled Josh into the recovery room. It was definitely a relief to see Josh after the surgery. He was a little loopy and a whole lotta giggly. By around 9 PM, he was standing and walking...and the hospital let us head home!

We are so thankful that surgery went like it was supposed to. And I'm looking forward to many, many years of watching Josh throw ball with his son :) 

Five Months Old

Our sweet Baby Jace turned a whopping five months old while on vacation. He is getting so big and fun! No weight or height update (he has his next doctor appointment at six months). He is wearing 6 month clothes although his big ol' noggin can fit into a 12 month hat. 

We are trying to feed him solid foods, and he HATES them.  He was okay with squash, but everything else pretty much makes him cry his head off. He loves to watch Family Guy and Sesame Street, and his witching hour is pretty much over (praise Jesus!). He absolutely looooves his walker and spends much of the day chasing and terrorizing Sienna. 

He is getting really good at rolling over both ways. If you put a toy in front of him, he looks like he wants to crawl so bad but just can't quite get the hang of it yet. 

He still looks just like his Daddy - although I think he has my hair texture, and his eye shape is still up for debate (I'll take what I can get). He giggles at new jokes and tricks, but he gets sick of them pretty quickly. He mostly has his Daddy's temperament, but every now and then I'll see my intensity and frustration come out in him (not necessarily good traits, sorry lil man). 

He is still sleeping in the bassinet right next to our bed, and he usually wakes up at least once per night to eat. The goal is try to get him in his crib at six months, and I imagine that I will be busting out the sleeping bag to spend the night with him. 

Oh...and he rubs the heck out of his eyes when he's sleepy.  It's really quite adorable. 

Baby Jace...it is so much fun to watch you grow and learn. You have two very, very proud parents, and we just can't get enough of you :) 

St. George Island - Outtakes

Y'all, my vacation was so much fun...I STILL want to talk about it. Or at least show off pictures. So I'm going to dedicate my last St. George post to a ton of great memories and pictures. Enjoy these little outtakes:

Day 1 - It was Fourth of July, but we didn't get too crazy just yet, Just got comfortable with our surroundings, and Jace tried some peaches. And hated them.....

Day 2: Jace slept before the beach. Jace slept after the beach. Tom got mad. We had a low-key Sunday Funday, and everyone else got tired. 

Day 3 - Josh played Boom Beach. Grammy and Sammy took a bike ride. Josh couldn't figure out the ice machine. We went to the liquor store (we thought we packed enough for the week, and we severely underestimated our livers....oops).  Josh and Tom represented our Boom Beach task force, "Velvet Thunder" (you should join if you're good...). More naps. And Tom made enough pasta for the entire island to enjoy....

Day 4 - Jace played Boom Beach. Jace played with toys. Jace and I took a "nap" (not at all grape-bomb induced, I assure you...). Jace took selfies. And I made Mom take pictures next to inappropriate road signs....

Day 5 - Jace and Chase continued to be best friends. We bought the world's best scallops. More Boom Beach. Uncle Tom ate an ice cream sandwich, and then of course...grape bombs. 

Day 6 - Josh was exhausted. Jace was exhausted. I tried to take a selfie with Shark Week, and Kara cleaned the kitchen.  

Day 7 - I finally took my filthy hair out of a ponytail and brushed it with firecrackers. Then took full advantage of the last day of vacation and went a little nutso trying to finish off the rest of our beverages and failed to get any additional photos from the evening. #fail

Y'all we had such a blast. In fact, we even decided to extend our vacation by one more evening by making a pit-stop in Columbus, Ga. Despite the much less scenic views, it was still a perfect way to end the week.  Such a great time finalizing our trip with a huge sushi dinner followed by some Fireball in the hotel room (my head still hurts...)

I couldn't have imagined a better vacation if I tried. Seriously missing that week of my life, and I want to do it again and again and again. Special thanks to the Wheelers and Mom for just being an amazing support system to us. Let's try to do a repeat next year :)