Bubbles...

Grayson enjoys his first bubble bath. These pics will definitely be broken out when Grayson starts dating!

Ryan was curious if they made an adult-sized version of Grayson's little lounger.

Uncle Tim's Visit

A few pics with Dad and Uncle Tim over Labor Day weekend. When Uncle Tim asked if he could "work out with Grayson", I don't think using him as a curlbar was what we had in mind...

Go Pokes!

Labor Day weekend and Uncle Tim is in town to visit. Ryan started school at NC State a few weeks ago. He was working the night shift and then going in to school during the day. One morning, he was sitting in the classroom with a bottle of root beer (side note: the little cafe/kiosk in the college of management had our favorite kind of root beer that we found once, randomly, in a Wegman's in NJ, so he was very excited). Anyways, you can imagine what his classmates thought when they entered and saw a very tired person, which can be confused with inebriation, (or so I'm told) drinking what appeared to be a bottle of beer at 8:30am in the classroom. Explaining that it was root beer only led to others to wonder who would want to drink root beer so early in the morning. Only after learning that he had been up since the night before did their looks of curiousity go away. He didn't bother retelling his circumstances to everyone, so there were people who were very confused throughout classes that day.

Fortunately, Friday was his last day of work, so he was looking forward to a very long and restful weekend. We all celebrated on Saturday morning when he came home from his last night shift (Woohoo!) by stocking the fridge with all kinds of soda and making lots of great gameday foods - wings, chips, queso, salsa, burgers, etc - and watching Grayson's first Cowboys football game on TV! We were really pumped that the Pokes were televised. Once the caffeine and adrenaline from a new football season wore off, Ryan crashed pretty hard. Grayson is really taking a liking to "Ride 'em Cowboys", though, and enjoyed Uncle Tim singing and bouncing him on his knee

First Durham Bulls Game

August -

Grandma and Uncle Ben come to visit! Grayson was much more interactive since Grandma's last visit. She was only able to stay for a little while, but Ben was able to hang out for a few extra days. We all went to Grayson's first baseball game! The USA Olympic team headquarters is in nearby Cary, NC and the team was playing some exhibition games in Durham against Canada before they both left for China. It was a beautiful day and a great experience! The park is really nice, although it doesn't look like the park from the movie Bull Durham anymore due to the upgrading of urban ballparks as a centerpiece to revitalizing downtown areas. Actually, they probably didn't even film the movie here in Durham. Grayson still doesn't quite have the head control to make a collared shirt look right, but it's adorable.

Later the 4 of us went to play golf. Uncle Ben and Dad played while Mom and Grayson walked the course. She made sure to talk strategy, pin placements, and work on Grayson's mental approach as we all enjoyed the sunshine. At least a few times she was overheard telling Grayson, "Okay, did you see what Dad just did there? That's a great example of what NOT to do." Apparently, Andra really wasn't supposed to be allowed to walk the course with Grayson due to insurance reasons - which makes sense. It was still a great time and we can't wait until we can take Grayson back to actually play.

Two Month Collage

Two months old and Mommy has some fun with her new camera...

4th of July Parade & Fireworks

There was a fun parade on July 4 and walking up and down Main St. was nice. Grayson's new baseball cap helped shield the sun from his little face. We ate some delicious seafood at a popular place on the water. Evan ordered some house specialty drink that came in a little plastic skull. Gigi didn't realize until about halfway through the meal and was very startled to see Evan innocently sipping red liquid from a straw coming out of a skull. Sitting on the beach to watch the fireworks was a really nice way to end the holiday. It was a very relaxing week and it was so good to see all of the family.

4th of July Week

July 4 at the beach

All of the Schwenk's and Dyer's made the trek to Duck, NC for some fun family time in the sun! It was hard to tell if Elliot liked the pool or the ocean more, but she sure looked cute in her bikini. She made an adorable turtle when Uncle Evan and Uncle Ryan buried her in the sand. Gigi made sure to keep Grayson out of the sun, not that it took much cajoling to get her to hold him. Tylan, Evan, and Ryan enjoyed some competition out on the tennis courts, although listening to the large family arguing and in turn apologizing to them on the court next to them was much more entertaining. We rented some bikes, which made everyone feel like they were little kids again. Even Gigi got in on the action! We were also lucky enough to take everyone to our favorite burger place - Five Guys. It's kind of the East coast In&Out burger. Even Andra likes it!

As with most Schwenk family gatherings, the evenings were full of games and laughs. Jodi was especially pleased when she recalled a song by Neil Diamond about a steamboat called the Robert E. Lee that she danced to back during her Encore days...after which Evan proceeded to make fun of for the rest of the week (with jazz hands!). We tried to play Axis and Allies, a new strategy game Ryan got for Christmas, but when it took almost two hours just to set up, everyone agreed that spending time on the beach or playing simpler games like Guesstures, Catch Phrase, and cards were better ideas. Of course, Ryan made sure to keep all of the pieces organized in their own ziploc baggies. If only he would be as neat around the house as he is with board games.