Trenton's First Word

Trenton has been babbling non-stop for a few weeks, so we knew that an actual word or two might be coming soon. We were sitting around playing Friday night and Jarrod had to go upstairs to grab something. I was walking into the kitchen to grab a glass of water, and Trenton crawled up to the coffee table and grabbed hold of one of his books. He wound up knocking himself in the head with the book. He started crying, and then clear as day called "Mama" with his arms out when he saw me coming. Luckily Jarrod was just coming down the hall so he got to hear it too (and tell me that I did not imagine it). Jarrod is now feverishly working on getting Trenton to say "Dada!"

Yorktown Battlefield

One of the things that Jarrod and I love about living here is that we are close to so much history. This afternoon we decided to take the short drive up to Yorktown Battlefield. Yorktown Battlefield is run by the National Park Service and is made up of a museum, historic homes in the downtown area, and of course, the battlefields. Since we have a year pass, we decided to visit the surrender site today. We also took a short detour to the French encampment. Yorktown was the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. The British surrendered to the Americans on October 19, 1781.

Daddy and Trenton with a big cannon


It is amazing to drive through the park and see these trenches.


French Cemetery


Grave Marker


French Artillery Park - Incoming artillery were brought here to be made ready to move up the siege line. Damaged pieces were also brought to the park for repairs.










Surrender Road - British soldiers marched up this road on October 19, 1781 to surrender to the Americans. They turned over 244 artillery pieces as well as thousands of military supplies and other war time implements.


The pieces of artillery that were on display in the park were engraved with "Surrendered by the capitulation of Yorktown Oct 19 1781."




Mommy and Trenton next to Surrender Road just before we got caught in a downpour!


We hightailed it under a walkway to wait out the worst of the storm.


Once the rain let up a bit, we made a run for the car!

We had a wonderful time at the battlefield and can't wait to go back. We still have a lot of stuff to see!

Crawling

Trenton decided to crawl for the first time on Thursday! He is still a little unsure of his crawling capabilities, so he normally crawls a few steps and then goes back to scooting. Every day he's crawling a little more and scooting a little less though.

Busch Gardens

Trenton and I spent Wednesday at Busch Gardens playing around in the water. We met up with another mom and her 21 month old son. The new Sesame Place was our first stop for the morning. They have a big water play area with water spraying up out of the ground. Trenton was really interested in the hanging buckets that dumped water everywhere when they were full. He sat in my lap for 15 minutes to watch the buckets fill up with water and then dump out to get the people underneath them wet. Every time a bucket was dumped out, he would squeal!



After we had spent about 45 minutes in the Sesame Street play area, the water was turned off. There was an elevated stage above the play area and Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover, Zoe, and Abby Cadabby came out to sing and dance.

Once the show was over we hiked over to Trappers Smokehouse for some lunch. Trenton sure was eyeing Mommy's B-B-Q sandwich and french fries, but he had pears and a bottle for lunch.

Lunch was followed by going to play in the water at The Land of the Dragons, another water play area. Trenton and I sat down at the edge of the water while Josh (the 21 month old) slapped the water to splash us. Once Josh slapped the water a few times, Trenton wanted to try too! We didn't spend as much time in this area because it was getting hot and close to nap time.



Trenton and I were both exhausted after our day at Busch Gardens, but we had a blast!

Pool Party

We had some family come down from Richmond Sunday evening for dinner. Trenton and his cousin Aiden had some fun in the splash pool after they finished eating. They both loved playing with the sprinklers!

On the Move

This was cute the first time Trenton did it. Now that he's up to about the 30th time, it's no longer cute! Trenton has started to try to follow Bailey around everywhere. He sees Bailey drinking and eating out of this bowl, so he thinks that he can too!

Three Firsts

First Finger Food

First Bath in Ducky Tub

Trenton's new ducky bathtub is awesome! It even quacks when you squeeze its beak!


First Shiner

Trenton sticks just about everything in his mouth, but sometimes he misses the target. This was the first time he hit himself hard enough to leave a mark!

Outer Banks Vacation

Jarrod, Trenton, Bailey and I just returned home from spending a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We rented a beach cottage in Corolla with our friends, Greg and Amy, and their boys, Christopher - 4 1/2 and Matthew - 3 (plus baby coming soon).

Trenton loved spending time out at the beach. At first he didn't know what to think about the waves, but after he got used to them, he thought they were fun. He liked running his hands through the sand, but we had to watch him to make sure his hands didn't end up in his mouth! Inevitably they did a few times, although Trenton didn't seem to mind much! We were all excited to see dolphins out playing around in the ocean a few times. Thankfully we didn't see any sharks!

The northern part of the Outer Banks is known for their wild horses. We all decided one morning that we were going to drive out to try to find them. When the town of Corolla started becoming more developed, horses were getting killed by motorists on the paved highway, going for shopping trips at the local Food Lion, and leaving deposits at the bank. Because of this, the northernmost 7500 acres of the North Carolina barrier island were made into a sanctuary in 1996 for the horses. Fences were set up from the ocean to the sound at the end of the paved Hwy 12 on the south and again ocean to sound at the Virginia border on the north. Although there are private residences on the sanctuary, there are no paved roads. Everything is sand. We all decided to pile in Greg and Amy's 4WD Honda Pilot one morning to try to find the horses. We didn't make it too far down the beach before we bottomed out! We hadn't done our research before leaving. We should have taken some air out of the tires, and we also should have driven along the shoreline in the packed sand rather than higher up on the beach in the loose sand. Thankfully some nice vacationers were able to pull us out so that we didn't have to pay $100 to get pulled out by a tow truck! Since we weren't able to see the horses, we all took a tour on a big blue "monster" bus later in the week.

Other than lounging at the beach, we also went to an aquarium. Trenton was mesmerized by the sharks and wants a shark tank for Christmas!

Currituck Beach Lighthouse was built in 1875 to fill the "dark spot" on the North Carolina coast. It is 158 feet tall. After climbing the 214 steps to get to the top, we were pleasantly greeted by a nice breeze!

We had a great time on vacation, and can't wait to go to the Outer Banks again!

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