Braden's Rough Sunday

Braden has completely embraced walking. He's gotten very confident and sometimes moves a little too quickly for his little feet to keep up with him. This lead to a rather interesting Sunday! Braden decided to go see Daddy in the bathroom. He got turned around, fell over and bumped his sweet little face right into the bathtub! Poor little guy got his first black eye! It instantly puffed up and I knew we were in for a doosey. He had a pretty good cry, but then was fine. After his morning nap, we went for a swim. Braden loves to stand on the top step and drop his rocks and pick them up. He was doing this when all of a sudden he started crying. When we saw his face he had blood running down his chin... he had bumped his lip on the edge of the pool and got a fat, split lip! As with most mouth injuries it seemed worse than it was and he was quickly back to playing. So this should be enough for any soon-to-be 14-month old in a given day, but not Braden! We were at some friends' after church and he was having fun playing with his buddies. He decided he wanted to squeeze in a little space to say hello to Nicole and he took a big spill and cracked his head right on the corner of the ottoman! I picked him right up and he instantly had a raspberry on his forehead. The poor kid!! Add to it the big space between his front teeth and he truly looks like the world's youngest prize fighter! Our tough little guy. He's such a sweetie.

Guess his bumps and bruises aren't bothering him!

This is how we found him later when we went in to check on him. We've debated taking his bumber off but he totally loves snuggling up against it!

Mystic

Before heading home we visited the Mystic, CT area for a few days. My work has an operation in Norwich, CT. I try to visit them once a year, so I figured this was as good a time as any! Carla drove down with us. She was glad to have a chance to spend a few more days with Braden! Carla has a cousin who lives in the area and they stopped by to see him. He works at a local Planetarium there. They recently renamed the Planetarium after him and one of the pictures below shows Anthony, Braden and Carla below a sign with the new name. If you've ever seen the movie Mystic Pizza, the character Cat works at the Planetarium and there is a scene when she walks out and it shows the old sign. We watched the movie this weekend because we thought it would be fun to see if we recognized anything... didn't think that would be included!

Thankfully Braden didn't really go overboard!

The Planetarium.

Exploring the boats at Mystic Seaport.

Driving the boats.

Checking things out with Grammy.

There were lots of beautiful flowers in Mystic.

That's a big anchor!

Daddy's shoulders are a great place to check things out. We found a concert in the park.

Braden loves pushing his stroller around.

He found this cool rock with fish statues in it!

There is an operating draw bridge in Mystic. We watched it go up and let the boats through.

The Rest of Maine

These pics are from the rest of our days in Maine. We stopped in Freeport where the LL Bean mothership is (and other outlets). LLBean is definitely a Maine store... We visited Nana Drucilla, played outside in the nice, soft grass, went to the playground, went out to eat, went for walks, checked out lobsters, did more playing outside... We had a wonderful visit and Braden did great adjusting to the time change and the different places we stayed. We are very thankful that he is such a good, flexible, fun little boy!

Checkin' out the fish at LL Bean.

Checkin' out the guy fly fishing (inside the store).

I think we figured out how we can handle the pet issue!

This was our last day of rain. We went to a restaurant in Old Port and I had the best lobster stew!

Wearing Uncle Matt's hat. Be prepared for Red Sox stuff everywhere if you ever visit Maine!
Checkin' out the ships with Uncle Matt.

How Braden likes lobster...

How Mommy likes lobster!

I'm so cool, even with food all over my face!

This window is just my size!

Swinging at the playground at Daddy's elementary school.

Can he have any more fun!

Grammy has a great backyard.

We were able to go to a high school friend of Anthony's wedding while we were in town.

Grammy had to water the plants. It had rained for 30 straight days, but apparently the ground was "wicked dry!"

Meeting Nana Drucilla (Ernie's mom).

Scarborough Beach

We had a great, sunny day to go to the beach during our visit, so we headed out to Scarborough Beach. It was beautiful, both getting to it and once you got there. Everyone was glad to see the sun and it was a perfect day. Braden loved the sand, seaweed and rocks. He didn't love the waves and the fact that it was pretty cold didn't help a ton (although the Mainers were saying it was warm!). Anthony, Matt and Emily did some wave riding and we had an all around enjoyable day!


Having lunch in his new chair. You can always tell when Braden is content when his precious little feet are crossed at the ankles.

Spitting out the sand he ate!

Rocks and sand... a dream!

Hum... Daddy eats seaweed, why can't I?

Ella (Emily's niece) checking things out.

Wonder where this path leads?

Walking on sand is a little harder than other things!

I'm not so sure about this cold water.

Taking a walk with Grammy.

Ella, Emily and the sea sponges we found on our walk.

Braden was the one who was supposed to be napping!

Ella chillin in the chair.

At the end of the day, before the sunburn set in.

The pretty marsh you walk past on your way to the beach.

Couple More Pics

Here are a couple cute pics from our visit in Hampden from Lindsay's camera.

Keeping Cool

Ok, I have to take a break from our Maine pictures and stories to share how we are keeping cool during the Scottsdale summer! It's actually not as hard as you think as long as you have: a pool, a garage, air conditioning, shade, covered parking at work and fun places to go. Since we have all of those, we're managing. There are 2 things that amaze me about the heat - the fact that Braden wants to go outside at all hours of the day and the fact that I can be cold and have goosebumps when I get out of the pool and it is over 110 degrees! Thankfully the monsoons have arrived so the end of the summer is in site. Plus, we have a trip to DC coming up to go visit my family (can't wait)!! We can do it!


We go swimming almost every day.

If you look hard, you can see Braden's toes at the top right corner of the picture!

Daddy got him in the pic this time!

The other day Daddy suddenly went outside and jumped in the pool in his clothes! Crazy Daddy!

Taking a stroll in the shade of the back patio - happy as a clam in the +100 degrees! We'll be in trouble if we ever move!