Seaside Beach Stenger Family vacation

 The week after the 4th of July, the Stenger clan had a family vacation at Seaside, FL, to celebrate Steve and Deb's 60th birthdays this year. Everyone made it for at least a protion of the weekm and it was a blast! Brian and Whitney and Abby met Max for the first time, and Karmann, though she had met Abby when she was a baby, basically got to know her other cousin for the first time! It was a wonderful trip and, though we had to leave a few days early, it was well worth the drive! As you can see our beach was beautiful!

Does this house look somewhat familiar?? This house is along the beach on 30A - but we decided it was our house, but the beach version! I bet we spent a lot less building ours!!

 Back home we've been getting a lot of rain. Karmann likes to pretend she is Peppa Pig and jump in "muddy" puddles. She has soo much fun!

 We tend to spend a lot of time laying around in our PJ's and in be on the weekends. These were just a few silly photos from last weekend.

Check out that hair and profile! Such a handsome little guy!!

Max is about to turn 9 months old. He is on the go and up and crawing. He pretty much gets his eye caught on something and makes a bee-line to get it. He'll strech as far as he can, or roll over until he gets there, or flat out crawls! He's pracitcing trying to stand up in his crib - so we lowered it as far as it will go now! He is sooo close to having teeth, but nothing has cut through yet. And, he's still eating very well, though he pretty much refuses to eat from a bottle at school these days. I think the vacation time with mommy has spoiled him...

June update

I seriously have an excuse this time. This computer crashed and we had to reload everything. Luckily - so far - we have been able to recover at least our photos - still looking for previous videos. BUT, in the mean time, a lot to update. Karmann finished her swim lessons sucessfully, though we really need to keep up on it this summer and probably take more next year. She already is looking forward to dance lessons, which start in August.
A couple weeks ago, we were lucky to Aunt Delana and Uncle Adam come for a visit and finally meet Max. It had been 3 years since they had seen my dad, too, so it was about time! We had a great time, and Karmann really connected with them. Adam and Karmann played mini golf, and Delana had the priviledge of giving Karmann a bath! It was a fun weekend and we look forward to seeing them again sometime soon.
Last week was Karmann's daycare "God and Country" performance and pot luck at school. We had been talking a lot about her performance, and she had been singing all the songs for weeks now at home - mostly in the bath or shower! - and we wanted to make sure she didn't freak out on stage like at Christmas. Well, she was doing so good and was happy and excited to see us in the audience, and had a smile on her face until she was the first one on stage, and she saw us again, and then it was all hands on the eyes and no singing!! Poor thing, she got stage fright. It was still pretty cute. See this link for the video: http://youtu.be/5HefM_zu3z0
I also posted another video of Max and his belly laugh at this link here. He is going to be 8 months old tomorrow. I cannot believe it!! He is sitting up by himself, getting up on all fours, but not yet technically crawing. He can however get to about anything he can see when laying on the floor or in his crib! We also swear he's been saying Mommy and da-da in his garbles. He eats like a pro - almost anything that you can put on a spoon - yet he still does not have teeth! They are there, just haven't broken through yet. He is such a happy little man and we are so blessed to have him and Karmann in our family.
A little bit about me, last week I sat in on my first official "panel discussion" as an invited guest. It was for the Local AIA chapter, and specifically for the Women in Architecture event. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot from the other panelist and I hope I have the opportunity to do it again soon.
This weekend, however, I woke up from a nap with a temperature of 102.1. Am now on antibiotics, and can not nurse Max while its in my system. I am "pumping and dumping" as they say. Max is not a happy camper! Since he started eating solid foods, he's not exactly accepted the bottle anymore, so it has been a challenge. I am looking forward to getting through this and hope he doesn't forget how to nurse! I am feeling better now.
I forgot to mention the week before Adam and Delana visited, I was a volunteer at the US Congress of Mayors, which had their convention in Orlando. It was a big deal, and even Vice Pres. Joe Biden spoke! Anyway, as a thank you to the Staff that volunteered, me and a guest got to go to a special dinner at Epcot and watch the fireworks show. My special guest was Karmann - and boy did we have fun! You can tell by the cheezy smile that she was enjoying herself!

 At Epcot with Mom

 Father's Day with Dad

 Father's day with Grandpa

 Aunt Delana and Uncle Adam visited!!

We are looking forward to a 4 th of July break in the middle of the week! Hope everyone has a safe and fun day!