Chili Cookoff

So like I said, we got up early in the mountains on Sunday and high-tailed it back to Wilmington, only briefly stopping to drop off Ali and Colin in Chapel Hill, and then again when I thought Danny might barf - luckily it was only a false alarm. Anyways, we met Jimmy at his buddy Jake's where they were having a chili cookoff to celebrate their son AJ's 2nd birthday. There were A LOT of yard toys and a bounce house (not pictured) - both boys were happy, happy, happy!

Red cupcake frosting - not lipstick!

Brothers

Danny serving up drive-thru "water" 

Mountain Weekend

Even though it's been such a crazy 2 months or so, I still really wanted to take the kids up to the mountains to see the leaves and feel the cooler temps - get us in the fall spirit! So I picked up Ali and Colin and we headed up for a quick weekend at my Dad's. Though it was cold for us beach folks, it wasn't nearly as cold as predicted, so we got outside for the Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk and then some Frisbeer in the backyard. And then we got up early Sunday AM to make it back to Wilmington for little kid's bday party. Thanks to Dad and Beth for the hospitality - it was a blast!

Packing - trying on our coat!

And our camo vest

Running on fumes about 8:30pm Friday night

Ali and the tubberware entertaining Crew EARLY Saturday AM

In our cute borrowed highchair seat

Snuggles with Gpa

Love this kid

Looking at the fall foliage 

Woolly Worm Festival Bounce House

Having Fun

Danny's spectators

Uncle Mac!

Family

Creepy mannequin at the farmer's market

Playing Frisbee

Gpa with his boys: Bodhi, Danny and Crew (not pictured: Mac)

Loving being outside before the sun went down and it got COLD

Playing games with the grown-ups way too late

Fall Week

The family was back together for the weekend and weekend felt like fall!

Ready for our walk

Representing

Practicing bike riding

And then it went and got warm on us again, so the boys put on their suits and we hit the beach!

Sadly one of the last "pools" Jimmy will build Danny this year

Gnawing on shells

Debuting their matching skeleton shirts from Grandma at a Halloween party

Danny not enthused with my picture taking 

Now that's better

It's a squirt gun!

Helping mommy pack for our next jaunt - the mountains!

Quick Trip

Jimmy had a business trip so I went up to Chapel Hill for a quick and impromptu visit with Ali, Colin and Dieter. It's always super chaotic being away from my home with the two kids (even with my mom and Ali's help), but it was fun. Big thank you to Ali for being such a gracious host!

Danny is obsessed with Mr. Kitty (and all cats)

Making homemade pizzas

Hurricane Joaquin and a Black Eye

My little maniac, Crew, decided to head butt me and I'm now sporting a little bruise under by eye. Thanks buddy! In other news, we were hit by major amounts of rain from Hurricane Joaquin. It was pretty uneventful outside of our house (not in the flood zone) but other areas, including up by my mom, was really bad. The worst for us was DAYS of being trapped indoors - hence the "outing" to Walmart to play with costumes.

Right after the collision

About a week later and I had to go into the office!

Good thing you're cute!

Scary storm before the hurricane

Entertaining ourselves at Walmart

Part of CB under water

Poor Crew

We've had a tough spell with Crew! He refused to nurse for about a day and half and then eventually started running a fever. At the doctor they tried to get him to take in some Pedialyte via syringe because they were afraid of dehydration. It wasn't strep or an ear infection or anything we could treat with antibiotics, so it was just a waiting game until he started feeling better. All the spotting nursing caused my supply to dip, so it's been a hard time for all. Luckily we had Lita and Papa to help entertain us for the weekend!

Poor fella 

Yep, that about sums it up

Papa, the human horse