sorry this post is going to be a short one. the connection has been acting up and it took longer to load the pictures. this means that the girls' naptime is almost up and i still have LOTS to accomplish. these pictures are from our trip to minnesota during labor day weekend.

on the plane...

we arrived pretty late due to dan having to work that day, but everyone waited up for us. colton was extremely excited about meeting his new cousin.
the weekend was mainly just us lounging around, watching movies, playing video games, and enjoying time together.
dustin, hunter, and daniel had to play it low-key to prepare for the triathlon on sunday. they participated in the relay portion of the triathlon. there were 144 teams total, and 6 relay teams. we all had to wake up really early that morning to get to the race on time. it was held in hudson, wisconsin, which is about an hour away from eden prairie, minnesota. it was also VERY COLD!!!
the southern girls (and momma) were NOT prepared for the cold!
the relay team before the race...dustin (rode the bike), hunter (ran), and daniel (swam)
hunter tried to keep hannah warm before the race by cuddling and wrapping her in one of his old blankets.
daniel warming up for the race.
the sea of swimmers. there were three different heats. blue cap went in first (oldest group), purple cap went in second (youngest), and white cap went in third (relay).
dan swimming top left. he had to go around the rectangle of buoys twice and then run out to the top of a hill and tag dustin...
hannah completely enthralled...

dan was so happy about running! he was the second person out of the water and the first relay person.
looks like he is about to have a heart attack.
dustin finishing his bike ride and running to hunter and daniel
daniel had to take the tracking device off of dustin and put it on hunter before hunter could take off...
hunter ran EXTREMELY fast! he got in 20 minutes before we thought he would.
gryffyn finally woke up from her nap, and was just in time to cheer hunter to the finish line. she did this by throwing up on me.
colton and hannah
chilling after the race...

the team afterwards...came in 2nd place in the relay division and 22nd overall. go team two and a half men!
hannah had to go into the office later that day for a conference call...
dustin and gryffyn

sorry I haven't posted in awhile...lost the camera cord the attaches to the computer. but, no worries...it has been found! so here are some pictures from the last few days of August.

Gryffyn is really liking her jumparoo, but just gets exhausted after a few jumps...
Gryffyn's first bites of "real" food. It is pureed pears that I made.

The girls and I just returned from a week visit to Birmingham to visit my parents and grandparents. We had so much fun, and we even got to go to a wedding! Before I show the pictures from the trip, here are a few cute pictures of the girls before we left.

Gryffyn has started enjoying the jumparoo, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of it just yet. Her feet touch the ground, but she seems to think she is just suppose to stand there. Hannah decided to pull her chair next to the jumparoo so that she could be a good big sister and help Gryffyn to jump by pushing down on the sidebar.
This made for a lot of giggles from Gryffyn, which made a lot of giggles from Hannah.
I also have to brag through a picture...Hannah has started eating corn on the cob. I love watching her eat the corn on the cob, but I don't want to chance her getting bored with her meals. I like to mix it up a little bit and look at different parenting websites that show fun ways to craft meals and this is what they suggested for corn on the cob...
Just another picture on Hannah and Gryffyn being sweet...I had to remember this picture while driving down to Birmingham. I endured 163 miles of crying from two girls until they finally passed out for the last 49 miles. Big sigh of relief when I pulled into my parents' driveway.
Here are some cute pictures from the trip...

Need Gryffyn to fall asleep? Give her to Papa with a bottle.
Want Gryffyn to laugh? Let Dearie sing to her.
Just hanging out, watching some TV

Gryffyn and Papaw

Hannah playing with Dearie

At the beginning of the blog, I mentioned that we got to go to a wedding. My mom's friend, Traci, invited us to go to her daughter's wedding this past Saturday. Whitney was such a beautiful bride! Here are a few pictures from the reception. I didn't get any pictures from the wedding because Mom and I were a little busy with the girls.

Buffi holding Gryffyn

Hannah admiring the beautiful bride!

The beginning of August has been pretty entertaining up here in Memphis. Gryffyn is becoming more animated and TALKATIVE, which Hannah is feeding off of pretty well. The first two pictures are from Gryffyn finding something funny (no idea what it was) and Hannah feeding off of that energy and getting the giggles herself. Of course, this made Dan and I laugh pretty hard too!

Our Trivia Group had a party for two of the members the first Saturday of August. This was a party to celebrate Brandy's birthday and Stephanie's birthday. We had a lot of fun, and I got to enjoy my first Key Lime Pie made by Mary...it was amazing and she claims very easy to make!

Here are a few pictures from the gathering...

Hannah re-hydrating after a swim

Hannah and Hunter playing together

Hunter in his highchair after some of Mary's spaghetti (see the sauce on his nose?)

Hunter crashing in his dad's lap

And two traditions continued that night for the Trivia Group...

(1) If one of our girls can't fall asleep, we just hand her over to Tom...minutes later she and Tom are BOTH asleep!

(2) One year old finds everything Eric says SO entertaining!

The next day we enjoyed some Eat Well Chinese Buffet where Hannah chowed down on some corn on the cob...

The girls have also enjoyed some time with their Aunt B and Uncle David. This past week Brandy and David's air conditioner at their house went out and it took a week to get it repaired. This was extremely inconvenient for them (not enjoying the comforts of their own home), but we enjoyed having them as house guests. Hannah liked following David around the house and waving goodbye to both Dan and David in the morning when they left for work. Gryffyn got some extra attention from her godmother and even got Brandy to sing to her.

My other favorite from this past week is Hannah watering the plant out front with her dad. I love this plant that I got from my parents this past Mother's Day, but am horrible at remembering to water it! Thank goodness for Dan and Hannah.