Memorial Day Weekend Fun

Since we had been busy the couple of weekends leading up to Memorial Day, we decided to relax and be lazy around the house.  Plus we had a new baby girl to love and squeeze on, yard work to get done and lots of house chores to accomplish!  We did the normal get up and eat breakfast then we let the day progress on its own with no set activities or plans......except scheduled naps for a sometimes cranky toddler boy.

When Grandma was here during the birth of Caroline she had bought Cannon a blow up pool for the backyard.  Yeah for blowup pools!!  Cannon loved it for the little time he was in there.  We brought out some bath toys for him to play with but they just didn't seem to keep his attention.  Instead he found it more enjoyable to play with the grass and look around the backyard while in a big (bigger than the bathtub) pool of water.  Then while I was getting him ready to come back inside daddy caught his attention with the water hose and off Cannon went.  There was my little boy in nothing but a swim diaper in the backyard helping daddy water the azalea bushes.  You ask why this might embarrass me?  For a millisecond it did then I soon found myself realizing that you just have to let kids be kids, boys be boys and enjoy the moment.  So I did!

Hope y'all had a fun weekend too!

Not the warm bathtub water he was use to!

Cannon's favorite thing to do while eating....look for birds.

Letting Caroline know that those were his toys first and this is how they work!

Such a proud big brother!

Cannon's New Love.....

BOOKS!

Cannon has just recently found a new love for books!  He has been given lots and lots of books from so many people before he was born and after.  Before we would read to him and he would sit quietly and look at the pages.  Now he wants to flip the pages himself (and not always in the order of "forward") so we let him and we sit patiently until his attention span runs out and we are off to the next book!  He loved the picture book Grandma gave him for Christmas.  We go page by page and look for the hippo or cow and Cannon points it out to us.  My very best friend from high school sent Cannon a book called Huggy Buggy goes to School and he brings it to us to read to him about ten to twenty times a day.  I'm not joking!  The book was actually Andrew's (Kim's son) and she said it was his favorite too.  Thank you Andrew!!

Singing and dancing has always been a favorite with Cannon but now he actually realizes he can clap and that clapping goes along with the "If Your Happy and You Know It" song.  So we sing, clap and stomp our feet about ten to twenty times a day too.

It's just so bittersweet to see Cannon "graduating" from his baby toys to more big boy toys like cars, trucks and blocks.  We are loving our sweet boy growing up into the little person he is becoming..........just without the temper tantrums!

Bath to Bed

Getting all cleaned up in the bathtub!

Then all freshened up with lotion!

To settle in for a good nights rest!

Wheat Cousins

We arrived back from our trip to North Carolina to more family!  Uncle Kevin, Aunt Pamela and cousins Kayden and Mackenzie had arrived from Florida to visit us for a couple of days.  Aunt Pamela brought her newly purchased camera so between us we were not short on pictures of the kids. 

The spring weather kinda put a damper on our plans for outdoor activities but we still managed to get in a couple of hours at the pool.  A couple of hours at the playground.  And a lot of hours hanging out watching cousins be together.  Pamela was nice (and patient) enough to have Miss Caroline pose in several photo shoots too which was fun to watch.   

This trip was the first for all four Wheat cousins to have been together.  I know these times are just the beginning of the wonderful life Kayden, Cannon, Mackenzie and Caroline (in birth order) will have being cousins.  Aaron is the oldest of twelve cousins and I am in the middle of five cousins.  To me, cousins are like having additional brothers and sisters.  Only you don't have to share rooms with them!  And there are more and different toys to play with when you visit.

These trips mean a lot to us even more now that we know what all goes in to traveling with little ones. We only live about three hours from each other but kids definitely add extra time. Or is it the stops we make at the outlet mall?  Or to eat at Whataburger? I guess those are the perks of traveling! But loading up two kids and all the "stuff" that has to come with them isn't always easy so thank you guys for doing this for us.

And I know if your reading this Grandma you would have loved to have been her with us!  And we would have loved to see you down on the floor enjoying your grandkids too BUT we will all be together soon when we head to West Palm Beach for a family vacation in a couple of months.

Don't adjust your screens.  That really is red in Cannon's hair.  He comes from good redhead genes!

Three out of the four cutie pie cousins!

Cannon loves his Uncle Kevin!!

Cannon wanting to go down to the boats........

.....until he noticed the sign!

The Wheat brothers with their kids.  Life is good!

Big blue eyes and a big happy smile = Mackenzie!

Could she be any cuter?

New Bern, NC or Bust!!

Another first for our family of FOUR......an eight hour road trip!!

Aaron's cousin, Kristin, got married and before the birth of Caroline we knew for certain he and Cannon would attend the wedding which was taking place in New Bern, North Carolina.  Soon after Caroline was born I made a VERY quick decision that we would all four pack up, buckle up and head north!  I say it was a quick decision because we had never gone on a road trip more than three hours with Cannon and now we have an additional child too....not to mention, she is a fresh out of the womb newborn!

Preparation for the trip was tense.  I had checklists in my head and checklists written down and finally I had to just take a deep breath and realize that if I forgot something then we would pick it up along the way or buy it when we got there.  To my amazement, I forgot nothing BUT that doesn't mean that I kept on schedule and did things exactly the way they would have been done if at home which is sometimes a problem with me.  I like my kids to sleep in their own beds for their naps and stay in their "comfort zone" plus having a schedule with the kids makes life a little (just little) bit easier.  Again I had to throw those schedules out the window and enjoy this new adventure we were about to be on and the moments we were about to have with Kristin and the family.

So come along and enjoy our trip!

We set out on Friday afternoon and hoping Cannon would enjoy the portable DVD player we bought for him.  This picture truly captures the amount of time he spent watching the movie Happy Feet.  The rest of the trip was spent looking out the window at the trees passing by, cows and horses in the pastures and big trucks next to us on the highway.  Cannon was a good passenger and we were so proud of him for enduring the long drive strapped down his car seat.  I think he enjoyed having Orie (his best buddy) make the trip with us!

First stop - BOJANGLES!!!  Yummy!!!

Aaron and I are obsessed with this place and since we don't have one in Bluffton we stopped the moment we saw the sign on the highway.

Cannon showed off  his driving skills while at the gas station.

And after eight hours, two eating/feeding/bathroom stops, we finally arrived at the hotel!!
Cannon made a bee-line for the room!
Little did we know that once in the room..........

....he was like a monkey jumping on the bed. 

Seriously?  Could this kid have this much energy at 8:00pm after the what I thought was forever drive from South Carolina to North Carolina.  But he did and we enjoyed seeing that smile and hearing him laugh the entire time he was getting out the last of his energy before going to bed.  What you don't see is Grandma having just has much fun with him!  He loves his Grandma W!!

Cousins, Luke and Lindsey hadn't seen Cannon since he was 4 months old so they didn't waste any time reintroducing themselves to him.  Cannon took his usual moment to warm up.

Miss Caroline got cozy in her pj's and said goodnight once arriving at the hotel, the trip wore this little one out.  It would me too if I was stuck in a car seat riding backwards for eight hours!  Hang in there girl, one day you will be calling "shotgun" in an attempt to gain front seat access from your big brother.

And look who was back at it on Saturday morning!! 

Cannon was up and VERY ready to be a monkey again jumping on the bed. 

No wonder there is a song about this!

Lindsey holding her new baby cousin for the first time.

Luke was waiting his turn to hold Caroline and sat "practicing" the baby hold.

The handoff was seamless.....

.....and baby Caroline now enjoyed being in the arms of her big cousin Luke.

Of course I didn't pass up a picture with my sweet baby girl before heading out to go shopping in downtown New Bern.

Cannon ran around the lobby like it was a new playground and tried to escape a couple of times.....

....but Luke and Lindsey were always there to corral him back!

We see you and those cheeks sweet Caroline!

Did you know New Bern, North Carolina was the birthplace of Pepsi? 

We didn't either until we saw this!

Time for the wedding and while waiting for the bride to walk down the isle, Daddy kept Cannon's attention with some yummy snacks.

It was a beautiful day at a beautiful place for two beautiful people named Kristin and Alan to get married!!!  We are so happy for them and pray for lots of love and happiness in their journey of marriage!

Look....more cousins!!! 

We loved being able to see Uncle Brian and cousins Jake, Megan, Kelly, Katie and Tracey.  They are all growing up so fast and are such good kids.  We miss them all so much.

Cannon takes any opportunity to help out with his baby sister these days.....but this time I wasn't sure if he was helping or pushing her back out to the car so HE could get all the attention?

Grandma was LOVING the time with her grand babies.

Cannon had a blast with Aunt Blanche.  

Who knew banging on chairs could be so much fun?

Caroline got to have a Kodak moment with the bride and groom.  I think she was telling Kristin that she wanted a baby cousin to play with! :)

By the end of Saturday, my little man was t-i-r-e-d!!

Sunday morning came and before we got back in our car seats and seat belts to head back home, Cannon got to be loved on one more time from his cousins......

......and Grandma of course!

Having fun with his Grandma, aunts, uncles and lots and lots of cousins is exhausting!  Can you tell?  We weren't even a couple of minutes on the highway before I looked back and noticed he was OUT!  Even Orie was put aside so he could settle in for a good car nap.

The only stop we made on the way home was for some good 'ol country cookin at Cracker Barrel....and of course some front porch rockin in the rocking chairs!

Well, I'm happy to report that our first long car trip as a family of four was a success!  It had it's moments where we thought we were driving to New York instead of North Carolina but I can honestly say it wasn't too bad.  I'm not scared to to it again. 

After all, a trip where you get to see the ones you love are the best trips of all!