A Couple Collages

Today we went to Touch-A-Truck. Quinn had the perfect shirt to wear, thanks to Grandma Mary. If you click on the collage, you can see the pictures more closely. His shirt has cartoon pictures of just about every truck there is, and most of them were at touch-a-truck, which is an event held in a large parking lot full of different vehicles kids can wait in line to sit in. It was a good day for it, overcast and cool. The lines were very long, but thankfully at the end, so many people had left we could buzz around to the most popular ones without waiting too long. Quinn had a great time.

And the above collage is just of my silly boy having fun in his bubble bath the other night. He is such a joy! I love my sunshine boy.

Backyard Pics

For awhile now I've been feeling badly that it's been well over a year since I had professional pictures taken of Quinn. The problem is, I knew studio photos probably wouldn't capture who he is right now very well. So today after church, I took Quinn out to our backyard, and with Andy's help to make him smile, I got these pictures. I'm very happy with how they turned out and can now let go of my guilty feelings! :) Oh, and that's a seahorse tattoo on Q's arm. We're rarely without a tattoo somewhere these days. :)

Michigan Trip

Every summer we get together with our friends, the Hackneys. We trade off who hosts each year--either they come here, or we go to their home in Michigan. We strongly feel like they get the short end of the stick when it's our year to host because they have waaaay more to do where they live! They live less than 10 minutes from Lake Michigan, so we have beaches to play at, lighthouses to see, and boardwalks to walk. Basically, there is plenty to burn off the energy of our 2 year old and their 3 year old, and to me, that's a great place! We had a lot of fun with our friends, and I took many pictures. As I've posted before, I love taking pictures on the beaches, so this post is quite full of them. :)

Here Quinn is lovingly tackling/tagging Drew during a game of duck-duck goose on their trampoline.

Hiding in the dunes

Quinn loved playing the warm sand, since the air temp wasn't actually super warm. He went off by himself to roll around, make sand angels, and just enjoy the beach.

This picture is literally as close together as we could get the boys. They get along really well, but it was nearly impossible to catch them together for a posed picture.

I love this picture. I really thought Quinn would hate how cold the water was, especially since the air temp was only about 77, but I was wrong. He waded all the way out in the water, laughing and shrieking at the waves. I barely put a toe in because it was way too cold for me, but luckily Daddys are more impervious to the cold!

Fascinated by the seagulls

Playing on the playground on the beach. I love the colors in this pic.
We saw a crane AND a tugboat, which was very cool for my machinery-loving little boy.

Summer is rolling right along! It hasn't been as sunny as I would prefer, and we've been rained out of more than a few planned activities. Still, we're loving our often-barefoot life, going to parks, playing in water, and spending as much time outside as possible.
I have an assortment of pictures to post, so here goes!

The above cousins picture was taken to fill a frame for my dad for Father's Day. We were really pleased with how sweetly they all sat together and smiled.

We made a 24-hour trip up to Papa Bruce's house before the 4th. Quinn loved riding in the go-kart with Daddy (Mama did not really enjoy watching them zoom around!) and exploring the land.

Quinn and Daddy also washed their cars together in Papa Bruce's driveway. Q gets to play with that little red car when he's at Papa Bruce's house, and I thought it was so cute that he wanted to wash it just like Daddy!

Quinn loves his (great) Papa Lou, so it was with much love that he did his Papa Lou impression in the next two pictures. :)
We also were able to take another "4 generations of Albert guys standing by the Albert St. sign" picture, since the other one we took was 2 years ago already.

This picture just captures my goofy guy. He desperately wanted goggles, so of course as soon as we got home from the store with them, he had to put them on. Then he walked all over the yard exclaiming how blue everything was: "Mama, this mulch is blue! That tree is blue!" So cute and so oblivious to how funny he looked! :)
And here he is a few minutes later, when he decided to complete his ensemble with a swimming vest and get into an empty pool, fully clothed. Why not? :)

I just loved this classic little kid pose.

It was so exciting when my very good friend Kristy came to visit. She and I have been friends since before our freshman year of college, and it meant so much to me to have her finally meet my Quinn. He, of course, loved her and treated her 100% as an aunt of his by the time she left.

1st Fireworks

Tonight Quinn saw his first fireworks show. He was extra excited because we went downtown last night and were there until 10:15 just to have the show finally postponed due to fog and rain. So, it was a first for Andy and me too because I've never gone to a 5th of July fireworks show before! Q loved the show and wasn't at all afraid of the noise. I loved the comments he made, such as after seeing green fireworks, "Oh, those looked just like jalapenos!". Hmmm. Yes, I guess they did, random boy! :) It was a fun first!!

Daddy and Quinn waiting for the show to start. Quinn was in his jammies so we could put him straight to bed when we got home.

Quinn's Half Birthday

I grew up with a few birthday concepts that I've found in adulthood not to be very common. One is the idea of a golden birthday, which is the birthday where you turn the age of your birthdate. Mine was when I turned 24 on August 24th. Andy thought I invented the idea, since I strongly encouraged him to give me a golden gift to commemorate it. :) The only people I know who have heard of golden birthdays are from Illinois, so maybe it's just an Illini thing.
The other concept is half birthdays. Half birthdays were very important to me because they allowed me to bring treats into school to celebrate my day, since August 24th was usually the day before school started or the first day of school. Until I graduated from college, my mom gave me cards for my half birthday, and I, as a middle child, always welcomed the added day that brought me a little more attention. :)
Since Quinn is a week-before-Christmas child, I decided before he was even born that we would try to do the half birthday party thing so he could celebrate with friends. I didn't think I'd start it until next year, but I was getting a bit bored a few weeks ago, and since we have no parties on the horizon, I thought I'd throw one for Quinn. We talked it up for days, and all he wanted was balloons, cake, people to sing to him, and a pinata. So basically, it was glorified play date, but it worked out well. Since it rained that morning, we held it at my sister's house and enjoyed their bounce house. The pinata was a graduation hat I got on clearance, since it didn't need to be anything more than something to smash. The kids had a lot of fun, and I do think I'll continue having his party in the summer.