Week 46: Beach Cutie

The Rock: There are few places we know of that would possess us to make the 13 hour drive Dave described in the post below, but Hilton Head is one of them. Dave found us a great condo with a "5minute" walk to beach (give or take 2-3 minutes). Here he is pulling daddy duty as we set off for some fun in the sun, with the Bob in tow.


Lily took all the new experiences in stride. She found out quickly that she wasn't too fond of eating sand....even though Mary Hudson tried to convince her otherwise. Nana provided some fabulous beach toys, and though I think Lily's daddy had the most fun playing with them, she really liked the white shovel...just the right size....
As for the pool....well....indifferent is probably the best description of Lily's reaction. She was most excited about the plastic bottle she was playing with.....which I took away right before this picture. Dave tried to float her on her belly to see if she would kick or splash.....but all she wanted to do was drink the water.....










Anna, Sam and Mary Hudson joined us mid-week. Luckily it was Anna that had a medical conference on the Island, that triggered the idea for the whole vacation in the first place. It was a blast having both babies together, mock 'baby fighting', and seeing which could out-screech the other....oh, the memories..

Nana and Papa were of course there the whole week, and I don't think Lily could have had more fun. Between bubbles and boom-boxes and games of peek-a-boo (one of Lily's favorites) Nana had Lily constantly entertained.















To end the week, we went to Gavin's first birthday party (seated far right in the picture below). Gavin and Mary Hudson stay together during the week, with a nanny. It was great timing that Gavin's b-day fell when we were down there and Gavin's grandparents just happen to live down the street from where we were staying....

I love the picture of the three babies, because if you look close, they all are playing with their own pine needles, needless to say, that was way more interesting than three mothers making goofy noises and faces, trying to get their attention.

Roads Scholar

Usually a car trip doesn't get that much attention, but in this instance, our fantastic voyage was so ambitious that it deserves its own post. On Sunday we spent 13 hours in the car, traveling from Church Creek, Maryland to Hilton Head Island. Since we would be in the car all day, we decided to take a travel down the the Eastern Shore of Maryland, take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, come through Norfolk and get back on I-95 near Virginia's border with North Carolina. And true to our expectations, it proved to be a nice way to spend the first several hours of the trip.














Of course, what should not be lost in all of this is how amazing Lily was for the trip. As you may imagine, having a 10 month old in the car for 13 hours is probably not such a great idea. But in true Lily fashion, she took it all in stride. What really helped was meeting up with Nana and Papa just after crossing the NC border. While stopped for a picnic lunch, Lily was able to exercise her legs and show off for her grandparents.














And what trip down I-95 is complete without mention of Pedro! Emily and I spent a lot of time on this stretch of road during the first year of our relationship, and I always had a particular fondness for the South of the Border signs.... corny jokes can be mighty entertaining during 8 hours of interstate driving. You truly never sausage a place! Unfortunately, this shot as we drove past was a close as we got this time around.

Week 45: The Dan and The Shell's Wedding

We are a little backed up on posting because we have spent the last two weeks traveling around the East Coast. Our adventures started with a spectacular wedding on Maryland's eastern shore (one of the state's few redeeming qualities). The Dan and The Shell got married at a beautiful retreat that was isolated from most of the modern world....though not without the modern world's perks. The retreat had a heated swimming pool, jacuzzi, game room, and plenty of grass that made for an excellent bacci ball field. The link to the retreat is below:

http://www.chesapeakeretreats.com/


As for the wedding itself, it was top notch. They erected a large tent out by the water where the reception was held. The rehearsal dinner would have been there as well, but a hurricane blew through Friday night that forced the festivities indoors. And they were festive....it was a good old fashioned crab pickin, complete with two bushels of crabs and a bushel of corn on the cob. Back to the wedding though, the ceremony took place under a tree by the water with an amazing view of the Chesapeake Bay. The reception was great too, catered by old Salty or somebody, they served the most delicious crab cakes we've ever had. Each one was full of REAL crab meat. That is not to mention the coconut and chocolate meringue pies for desert....so good.

Significantly, one of the best good luck signs of the day (other than the great weather), was Lily's squishy nose of approval following the ceremony.

Needless to say, we celebrated the thing like it should have been celebrated (complete with a homemade fireworks show). The Dan sang a soppy love song to The Shell (it was very sweet), and later in the evening The Dan did his performance of "The Humpty Dance" where he was truly about "to ruin the image and the style that ya used to". And to all the other rappers in the top 10, he did indeed bump thee.

There was a beautiful sunset that evening that was so picturesque it could have appeared in the sunset room at The Big Bamboo. And speaking of The Big Bamboo, The Campbell Pack was up early the next morning and on the next leg of our journey....the 13 hour drive to Hilton Head!

Week 44

Here's an update on the happenings around these parts.....

Well, nothing much different here......


Here's Dave providing me with the opportunity to experience angina first-hand (see previous post for the reason for this idiocy.....I mean handy-man work.....).



And here's the next installment of the crazy-hair photos - the pictures never truly convey the poor baby's actual dishevelment, but we still think they're funny.

Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday, Lily and Emily got to experience their first Mother's Day together. We actually started to celebrate Mother's Day on Saturday when we heard that Emily's cousin from New York, John, was currently in town as a Mother's Day gift to his mom. Carrie, Kevin and John all stopped by for a nice visit on Saturday afternoon. Lily was a little apprehensive of John at first, but he was able to quickly win her over.

When Sunday morning actually rolled around, not all of us were totally ready to get up and get started. As most of you who know Lily well will attest, she is not usually the type who has to be woken up. But we think she has a bit of a cold or allergies right now and she decided to curl up in a ball and sleep late. Once we did get her up and out of bed (or crib, I should say) we went to church and came home to find that Gran and Jonathan had weathered the storms and beat us home. We spent the afternoon hanging out as a family until the next storm with a strong wind tore some shingles off the roof. Jonathan and I went out and fixed about half before it started raining again.

Fortunately, the rest of the day was not as eventful. Although, it should be noted that Gran has indicated a willingness to get in on my latest crazy idea of buying a beach house somewhere. Who knows, some day we may actually do it. You just have to believe in the teachings of that great 20th century philosopher Jimmy Buffet who said, "If we weren't all crazy, we'd go insane."

Week 43

Here are just a few extra pictures from our weekend. For the week picture, we did what we could before Lily took off the hat (you see we caught her in the act). The roses are courtesy of Aunt Lynn and were a gorgeous addition to the get-together we had Friday evening with the family. Thanks Aunt Lynn!

Lily was a gem throughout the Honors Convocation on Friday. I kept a close eye on her from the stage. I loved this pciture of Lily and Dave...too sweet!



















Friday evening Aunt Carrie was gracious enough to host a get-together for all of us. We were lucky enough to have my great-uncle Julian and great-aunt Peedie join us as well as many other of the local family. We were presented with a cake celebrating the Drs. Campbell..... (going to take awhile to get used to that one). I want to thank everyone for being so supportive and I appreciate you all joining us to celebrate on Friday. (Especially Aunt Dena and Uncle Chris, thanks so much for traveling to be there!)

Lily had the luxury of having all her grandparents doting on her all weekend. I think she would have it that way every weekend if she could.

Doc Hollywood

As most of you are aware, we already have one doctor in this family. Unfortunately, the only medical condition he is qualified to treat is insomnia. Therefore, we thought it would be a good idea to have a "real doctor." Emily fulfilled that role by graduating from ETSU's Quillen College of Medicine yesterday. I could try and give you a recap, but will instead defer to the local paper "The Johnson City Press," where a picture of Emily and a couple friends made the front page!

Emily's Front Page Story in the Johnson City Press!!

We couldn't be more proud! And of course, Lily has tried to not steal the show from her mother this weekend, but it was tough. So, some pictures of our own from the weekend: