Striding

Here are a few videos of Alec on his Strider - sorry for the delay Aunt Abby and Uncle Ross. He's a pro, and we really think he will be ready for a big boy bike in the next year. He is such a tough little boy - he takes a pretty good spill at the end of the first video and he didn't shed one tear, just got up and kept riding. And I apologize now for the shotty video quality - taping a kid on a bike is a lot harder than you might think.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day - a little late. My mom flew back with Alec and I from Sanibel, so we have had company for the last 10 days and been a little blog neglectful. Anyway - we had a wonderful Father's Day and Alec loved getting to spend it with Matt, who is hands down his favorite person in the entire world. Matt truly is a wonderful, devoted, hands-on Dad and Alec and I both feel so lucky to have him.

The boys - Alec continues to look more and more like Matt. They make a ton of similar facial expressions, which actually catch me off guard sometimes b/c Alec will make a face that is a spitting image of his dad.

Grammy and Alec at Jack Straws, a little outdoor hamburger/pizza restaurant in town. We miss you already Grammy!

Doing some high-jumps with Daddy - one of Alec's favorite Dad activities.

With mom on a pre-dinner walk/bike-ride

And the highlight of Alec's Father's Day - trash duty. Alec is 100% obsessed with the trash. We spend an inordinate amount of time with trash related activities over here. Alec's favorite things to do right now all revolve around trash. He loves to go from room to room in the house dumping out the cans and collecting all the trash into his various trash/recycle trucks, he loves watching for the trash trucks and talking about them constantly, he loves to pull out every single trash can in the garage and move them around in our yard, and he loves trash day. He tells me every week about how the trash men come on Mondays, and we pretty much spend half of every Monday talking about and analyzing all the trash that is put out on the streets. He will literally walk from house to house telling me how many trash cans/recycle cans/Home Depot bags (the paper lawn bags) each person has out and about which have been picked up already and which haven't. It's pretty nuts and kind of a strange obsession, but what can we do. The boy likes his trash! So - Father's Day was extra special for Alec b/c it fell on trash take-out day, one of his absolute favorites.

Dumping trash from one can into another is a huge area of interest - he does it all over the house. My mom thought it was pretty hilarious that the trash in her room was dumped out, moved around and sorted on a daily basis.

Alec will turn this giant can over onto its wheels and move it all over the yard. He usually takes it to and from the curb on his own, but since it was Father's Day and all - he let Matt help.

and some races

What better way to celebrate Dad and Father's Day than with some trash. We love you Matt!

Life's a Beach

We got back on Sunday from a great trip to Sanibel Island in FL. We met my mom, my Aunt Barbie, my cousin Rhett's wife Christie and their 7 year old Tyler. It was a great, very realxing trip and Alec thoroughly enjoyed the beach. Sanibel is a super cute little island, and we had a cottage that was only about 30 ft from the ocean, we also had a great pool. It was super hot, like 102 with 90 percent humidity, so we spent a lot of time in the water every day, and generally just relaxing and hanging out. We did go on one dolphin spotting cruise ride where we saw a bunch of dolphins, which was cool, although not as cool as seeing the dolphin's swimming in the ocean water right by us on the beach, which we ended up seeing several times.
All in all it was a great trip, and I think something we will try and make a yearly tradition of.

Watching for dolphin

Tyler and Alec. Alec absolutely adored Tyler and wanted to do every single thing that he did at all times.

Frisbee on the beach - he got really good

Some yard work at the condo

The beach - Sanibel is known for its shells, which you can see on the beach. It was incredible to see, and Alec loved collecting them everyday.

Races with Bub

Watching dolphin with Grammy

Headed to the beach for the day

Like last summer, Alec is already ridiculously tan. I dumped sun block on him the entire trip, but he still darkened right up - one trait he got from his mama.

The boys

The Sanibel crew

Alec also LOVED floating in the ocean - every time we were out he would want to lie on his back and float, waiting for another wave to come and crash into him. He wasn't so into floating at the pool, where instead he wantes to jump in every 5 seconds for hours on end.

More running - you know it's a good trip when you get almost everyone in the your party in on some good old fashion chase.

The Start of Summer

Alec and I are off to Sanibel Florida with Grammy, Bub, Christie and Tyler in the morning. We are very excited for a nice week long beach vacation. Until then, here are some pics from the last week. Ryan and Debbie came to visit this weekend, so we have enjoyed more great company. The first pic is Alec helping me make banana bread for them on Sat morning.

Reading with Debbie

We all ran a 5K yesterday morning that went right down our street -the proceeds went to the little zoo up the street, so we were thrilled to participate.

At the zoo with Ryan

Petting a snake

Alec wants to take everyone who comes to visit to feed the ducks

We finally got Alec his own lawn mower this year - he helps Matt every week

At the pool - we got a membership to the two pools in our neighborhood for the summer and we were thrilled to find out that they are these huge kid friendly pools with slides, fountains, and sandboxes. They even have a high-dive, which Matt and I thought were banned from pools forever. We will certainly enjoy them.

pool toys

Welcome summer

Gymnastics

Showing off some of his new gymnastics moves - what he really likes is watching the videos of himself.

A Visit from the Nichols

We had a great last week and all enjoyed the company of the Nichols family. James and Alec are literally two peas in a pod and couldn't have had more fun together. They provided all of us with constant entertainment and thoroughly enjoyed each others company. We also kept very busy, visiting places in Wheaton and down in the city. Highlights of the trip included a trip to the Cosley Zoo up the street from our house to feed the ducks, a trip to the Morten Arboretum to play in the river and hunt for tadpoles, taking the wagon to downtown Wheaton for pizza and ice cream, a trip to the Chicago Aquarium downtown, and our first ever Cubs Game!!! Alec and I also rode the train by ourselves in and out of the city and took our first taxi ride together. It was a busy few days, but SO much fun. Katy, Time and James are welcome anytime!!!! I have about 400 pics from the trip, so here is a little glimpse.

Going for ice cream - I LOVE this pic

On the run - there was a lot of running done by Alec - James takes the more leisurely approach and prefers to be carried while watching Alec burn through the calories.

Getting James in on the running

Watching trains

At the Cosley Zoo

Duck Feeding

At the Arboretum - this is the boys trying to lift huge rocks out of this fountain

Tadpole hunting

Arranging rocks in the river - I think the boys could have done this for 6 days and been content.

In the city

at the aquarium

site seeing

Alec telling James all about his "owie"

Having some sort of hilarious conversation

Getting filty...we had pizza on some outdoor tables up by the train tracks one night and Alec and James decided to throw sticks in the fountain and ended up covered from head to toe in mud - it was a sight.

The Cubs Game

Out little Cubs Fans

Katy and I and our chicago style foot long dogs

....and that's a wrap - here is Alec on our drive home from the game on Sat night. Thanks so much for making the trip guys!!!