Salsbury Beach

Cara had her first trip to the beach today. The Van Reeses were in from land-locked St. Louis and typically make a point to hit the beach when here. Salsbury was kicking, as always. They were completely sold out of neon "Salsbury Beach" wife beater t-shirts so I was out of luck.

Cara's first trip to the beach


Little Brigid eyeing the ocean suspiciously.


I thought that getting a shot of Lily with the
waves coming up would be cool...


...so I waited with the camera ready...


...until my opportunity came...



...luckily, her dad wasn't distracted by the camera...


... and scooped her up...


... in the nick of time (no pun intended
-- her dad's name is Nick).


Good thing someone was paying attention.
I could have been down one niece.


Joanie and Brigid posing for a picture...
for their dad off to my left...
who Brigid isn't looking at either!

Kid's Playland

We ended up taking Cara to some crazy playroom in Andover. She had no idea where she was, but her cousins had a great time.

Brigid and Cara


Alex plays with some toys


This is the perfect place for little Charlie -- he bounces around everywhere anyways! He could be part Tigger.


Lily plays behind the counter


Maniac -- I think he jumped over another kid to hit this pool of balls.


What a ham


Lily gone wild

Cara's Christening

Cara was baptized today at St. Michael's in North Andover, Massachusetts. The ceremony was at 1:30 PM and she did great. Brigid timed Cara's nap just right and spent some time calming her down before the ceremony. As a result, Cara was sound asleep through a lot of it. She woke up before we headed up to the holy tub (using the official church terminology) and was fine during the baby watering (again, church's lingo).

Cool as a cucumber!


Cara was in a great mood!




Cara with the Van Rees clan; Joanie and Nick are her godparents.

Cliffy & Tara Visit Cara

Tara and Cliffy were visiting from Colorado and stopped by to meet Cara.

They got along marvelously.


Cliffy has a way with the ladies.


Not a great picture of Cara, but look at those gigantic blue eyes!

Jamie's Surprise Party

Jamie Fitton turned... another year older this past weekend so we had a surprise party at her mothers house. It was a great time with lots of swimming, sliding, diving, drinking, eating, and babies!

Cara's first swim!


Brigid and Cara enjoying the party.


Jamie surrounded by the girls.
She's holding a picture of her 16th birthday party,
showing all of these same people.


The boys didn't have a sweet sixteen picture to
hold up, so we just tried to look tough. I think we nailed it.