Our recent trip to New Jersey was great! (I cannot believe it has been 2 weeks since we got home and I am just now blogging about it.) Josh had a Stanley Sales convention in Connecticut at the beginning of June, so we decided to make it a family trip to New Jersey to visit Grandpa Pete and Grandma Deb. Josh got home from work on a Friday. We ate dinner, gave the girls baths, got them in their pj's, fed Peyton her bottle and got in the mini to drive as far as we could. We figured this would be the easiest way to travel as Peyton does not enjoy her car seat for that long of a stretch of time and we knew it would be easiest to drive while the kids slept. We drove until midnight and got a room for the night at Hampton Inn. In the morning we got to eat a hot breakfast at the hotel and then loaded back into the mini for a short 4 hour ride. Let me be the first to say how much easier it is to travel in the minivan. As Peyton fussed I could climb into the back to sit next to her. When she was hungry I could sit beside her and feed her. When she had a dirty diaper I could take her out, lay her on the floor, change her and then strap her back into her car seat. IT SAVED SO MUCH TIME!!! We only had to make one stop and arrived in NJ around 1:30 rested, happy and having the whole afternoon to play.



Josh was able to hang out until Monday morning when he left for Connecticut, while the NC Cowley girls got to hang out. Jenna had a blast playing in her kiddie pool on the back deck, swinging on the front porch swing, riding her Backyardigans bike, and playing with her grandma and grandpa. One day we headed out to McDonald's for lunch and to play on the playground. One day her grandpa took her to Toys R Us and she got a bunch of toys, but the most exciting trip was when Jenna got to go to her first movie at the movie theater. She went to see Up. There were some scary dogs in the movie that we had not been warned about, but other than that she enjoyed it. When Josh got back from his trip, Jenna excitedly told him she went to the movies, it was a little scary, but it was fun!

It was so nice having help with the kids while Josh was gone. More than the help it was nice getting to watch Jenna and Peyton spend time with Grandpa Pete and Grandma Deb. You can just see how much they love their grandparents and we are trying to take time to see them more often.

What a busy summer. It seems like the days just keep slipping by me. The girls just keep growing, making us laugh and amazing us every day. Jenna loves her baby sister, Peyton, and Peyton just loves her big sister. Jenna even got Peyton to have her first belly laugh while dancing around the living room.

So here is what we have been up to since my last post. In May, Jenna, Peyton, my mom and I all went to Patterson Farm to pick strawberries. I am so glad my mom was there, because she kept Peyton in the shade while Jenna and I trudged through the muddy fields to pick the berries. Jenna had fun during our first 2 passes of the rows, but then was bored. So we ended up just picking one basket on our own and then bought a pre-picked basket from the farm. Then that afternoon we made homemade strawberry icebox jam. Boy was it yummy!!!!



Here's Jenna being a diva, which seems to come out more and more everyday. She loves her purses and necklaces.

Peyton being a good sport hanging out in the shade while her big sister was playing with her neighborhood friends. The warm weather is tricky since Peyton cannot be in the sun, but doesn't want to be in her stroller that much.

Here is Jenna with her BFF Kristen riding on Matthew's power wheel. We are preparing Jenna for the departure of her pacifier by telling her that when she turns 3 she can go to Toys R Us and buy a power wheel like Matthews using her pacifiers. So far she thinks this is a great idea, but we'll see what happens when the big day really gets here.

Yet another day playing with neighborhood friends, but this time we took the kids to the mall so they could climb on the indoor figures. They had the best time just running laps around the space and jumping off of everything. Everyone napped like champs that day which made the outing worth while.

Here's Peyton hanging out with daddy watching her big sister running all over the place. Peyton is a mover and you can tell she is ready to run with Jenna.

Jenna has decided she loves to ride her bike. Here she is riding all over the driveway.

There she goes...

Now as the heat has arrived in full force, I bought Jenna a little pool to play around in on our driveway. I told her it was our "staycation" and we could pretend we were hanging out at the beach.

Jenna spent her time in the pool and I kept Peyton under our "beach umbrella" my cleaver rigged up golf umbrella attached to a chair.

When the kiddie pool was purchased so were a pack of water guns. One night while I was feeding Peyton her bottle I heard the garage door open and never heard it shut again. Once Peyton was asleep I went outside to investigate only to discover Josh and Jenna having a water fight. Jenna and I joined forces against her daddy. Josh had to be reminded of "Fair fight, daddy, fair fight!" as he would choose to soak Jenna and I each time we ran out of water and had to reload the water guns. We had the best time squirting each other and running around the house. I am sure our neighbors got a kick out of watching us.

Peyton has now gotten big enough for us to try out the highchair at dinner time. She's still a little small for it, so we still have challenges at dinner time keeping Peyton entertained and happy so we can all eat our own dinner.