Relaxing summer?

Summer relaxing? Finally! Sorry to everyone for not posting anything sooner and more frequently, I have had numerous emails telling me that those pictures of Virginia were outdated and they needed new ones NOW! Well, here is the latest with Virginia.
I can hardly remember June, but I know she had a great month learning the word NO. She loves to say it all the time.
She climbs up and down the stairs by herself, has even been learning more words other than the word NO, and has developed further her sense of independence. Virginia wants to do most things by herself (eat, shampoo her hair, climb up things she isn't supposed to climb, run over to her Grandparents house, weed the garden, turn on the water outside, push the stroller, pick strawberries, should I go on?) This can be a great source of happiness, pride and frustration when what she is doing is not allowed. One thing that surprised us was how much she is a water baby (I can't get her out of the water even when she is blue and shivering!)



In the month of June we had a great Father's Day, lots of bike rides around town, a Giles Family reunion in Hershey, PA with a visit to see her Great-Grandmother Marschner and a bunch of Taylor's clients along the way. Virginia and I went to the beach with our friends from town and Beth and Samuel even came up one day to go.



The month of July brought a much anticipated visit from her Grandma Rae-Rae and Great Aunt Ruthie, participating in the Wolfeboro 4th of July parade, and Vacation Bible School all last week in the morning with a trip to the ocean, a picnic dinner downtown by the water, and dancing at the Bandstand in the evenings. We are looking forward to the next 5 weeks of unplanned activities until our trip to the Outer Banks!

Summer is here!

Virginia has had a big week. Learning to feed herself with a spoon has been pretty messy, but if you can believe it, the food mainly goes in her mouth. You would never think that from this picture.





On a hot day this past week, we headed off to the beach with Jennifer and Amelia. Virginia at first was a little unsure of the water and thought it was a bit cold. However, with enough coaxing from Amelia the next thing we knew she was in the water sitting down and splashing herself and everyone around her.



















Afterwards, she went for a little ride on their paddleboat... wasn't too crazy about the lifejacket though. Finally, yesterday we all took a bike ride downtown and Virginia had fun riding in her new co-pilot seat behind Taylor.

Memorial Day

Well, Taylor finally hit the big 30 and we had a great weekend celebrating. Thursday Taylor got his coconut cake after many years of waiting and Friday we went out to dinner with friends in Wolfeboro. Saturday we headed down to Sturbridge and Virginia got to see her friend Adam (we got to see Jamie and Matt too!) Monday we had a Memorial Day picnic here at our house and had 69 people in our backyard. We had a great time and the kids did too. As you can see Virginia loved the food!

May is almost over!

Sorry about our delay for the newest posting. Lots going on around here! Virginia has had lots of fun with her friends the last few weeks. She has had play dates with Samuel, Curtis, Keegan and Healy - Virginia has lots of boyfriends as you can tell. We are regulars at the Mother's group and every Friday we are still going to Kindermusik. She really loves to dance and will do so at any opportunity... as well as wave to anybody or anything. She took her mom down to Portsmouth for Mother's Day, she hangs out at the playground, and she has been very busy out in the yard helping us make a vegetable garden. Virginia's favorite activity outside is to run down our driveway as fast as she can to Grandma and Granddad's house. Now if only we could have some warm weather again soon we could go back to playing outside!

Virginia and Ella

Hard to believe it was already 2 weeks ago that we were down at Tech for Taylor's German Club 115th reunion. We had a wonderful trip down and were able to visit with Aunt Charmion, Uncle Val, Aunt Sandra, Nicole, Darin, Grandma, Maude and Rachel. We are very lucky that we can visit with so many relatives along the way. At Tech we stayed with Anne, Mark and Ella and were able to visit with many friends at the reunion.

We took the girls on Saturday to campus, walked them all over Blacksburg and outfitted them with new Hokie gear. We made sure they knew that this is their school too ... I am sure they will grow up with as much Hokie Pride as we have.



Back at home we took Virginia on her first hike of the year up Mount Major with Ali ... there are great views at the top! Virginia has also started to climb the stairs at home. I think she learned this trick from her friend Curtis. Once again we live in a gated house!

We sent this letter to NBC news as well as our Senators and Congresswoman. We urge you to write NBC if you feel as strongly as we did about the airing of the VT gunman video clips.
nightly@nbc.com

To Whom it may concern:

My husband and I were very upset that you decided to show pictures and
video clips from the Virginia Tech gunman. We feel that you gave him a
platform that was undeserved and only created more pain for those
affected by his actions. The airing also lent an air of credibility to
a murderer, making him a martyr for others who may carry out acts of
violence in the future. It would be beneficial to remember that your
FCC license requires you to serve the public interest...we see little
gained by the public through your actions. The decision makes us
wonder why you don't air the martyr tapes of suicide bombers killing
people across the globe? Of course you don't - because it is wrong to
give them a platform to preach their hate from, just as you let him
do.

As alumni of Virginia Tech, we dearly love our school and believe the
current students will recover from this terrible tragedy with the
support and love of our nation. We should be remembering the faces and
stories of the victims, not the gunman.

Krista and Taylor Hudson
Wolfeboro, NH

Happy Easter

Here is our little Easter bunny feeling a bit under the weather. Virginia had a slight fever last night, but doing better today as you can see by her big smile in the second picture.
She has rediscovered her bouncy seat and at first was putting her dolls and blankets in the chair, but today sat herself in the chair during lunch. She was probably saying to herself, why did I really want to get out of this seat before? ... it has entertainment, it vibrates, it has music. I know what I thought when she was little... when are they coming out with a parent version?