a Rice life in the Big Apple!

Shortly before Cooper's first birthday, we had a long weekend planned for the Big Apple! This was Cooper's first trip there and boy was it jam packed!

We did a little bit of everything, baseball games, broadway and even a boat ride through the harbor. Rick's sister and her husband live in Long Island and they were able to come to NYC for the weekend to hang out.

Rick and I also took a train up to Poughkeepsie where we saw my longtime good friend Jacqui marry her best friend. (First 2 photos are from her wedding photographer Andrea Ouellette.)

My love and I :)

It was a wonderful weekend!

Shelton Beach Week..filled with traditions.

Cooper's 6th postcard is a doozy.


My dad is 1 of 6 children. Each sibling is married and has between 1 and 4 children each and now 2 of the grandchildren have children of their own. 

We have been taking this annual vacation for 30 years. The stories range from stories of all 6 kids and their parents sleeping in one hotel room all the way to people having to sleep on balconies, in bathrooms, wherever they could find a place to rest their head.


I barely remember a time when we all fit in one beach house.


Today, there are 33 of us! My grandmother's brother and his wife usually attend every year as well which makes 35!

Within this week, there are a million traditions packed in, like getting the annual Brew Thru t-shirt and picking bushels of crabs for hours sitting around one two tables. Some traditions are newer like fishing in Oregon Inlet. There are other traditions that have died like shooting off fireworks Uncle Steven smuggled in from South Carolina and building fire-camps on the beach while the young cousins (we are actually the old cousins now) put on shows and sang "Roll the Old Chariot Along" but the memories have far from died. 


One thing remains the same. We have a wonderful time and we all eat WAY too much.


This was Cooper's very first beach week and he had a blast! If I was ever worried he wouldn't enjoy the beach as much as his daddy and I do, I will not worry again. He had a blast watching Delaney run around the surf and if he could walk on his own he would've learned to run trying to keep up with her. 


At one point, he was on all fours crawling into the waves, letting the waves crash on him.

 It was perfect. I am tearing up as I as I write, just now beginning to fully grasp the importance of this family vacation. The fellowship and quality time that is created. I am so thankful. I cannot wait for Cooper to grow up doing this every year, just like I did.

chitown... a best friend tribute.

So as you probably remember, my best friend, Shannon (who also happened to be my maid of honor and happens to be Cooper's godmother) moved to Chicago shortly before Cooper was born. In fact, I distinctly remember endlessly praying that she would have to cancel her going away party to spend the weekend in the hospital with her newborn godson. Not so lucky as you can see...

So my wonderful best friend flew back the following weekend to visit us and meet Cooper after his birthday. In fact, she even surprised us on Christmas Eve for Cooper's Baptism and has visited us every chance she has gotten. 


To say we owed her a visit in Chitown is an understatement! We made plans for Cooper and I to have a weekend in May only to realize a few months before that it was Mother's Day weekend. Whomp....


We scheduled for us to come Memorial Day weekend, but the prices were absurd. We waited and waited and then all of a sudden it was the week before and the prices still hadn't come down. I had conceded that maybe this just wasn't going to happen. I needed a break from Richmond so bad, but it just didn't seem feasible.


Then, on the Tuesday before Memorial Day weekend, Shannon sent a text saying there was a deal running on American for $69 each way. I called Rick immediately and before I was home from work that day. Coop and I were headed to Chicago!

Of course the weather was terrible while we were there, but it didn't matter. Turns out all I needed was some one-on-one time with my best friend. I didn't realize how much I missed her until we got to spend 3 days together. We drove around the city, walked around the shops, swam in her indoor pool and even ate at the BEST Nawlins restaurant. But by far the best part was laying in our jammies, watching old reruns of Beverly Hills 90210 and talking endlessly about anything and everything all over a bottle (or 2) of wine. 


It was a wonderful weekend. Cooper even knocked Illinois off his state list and added a 5th postcard to his travel box!


I hope everyone is lucky enough to have a friend like Shannon.

Shannon and Coop in Chicago

One of my most favorite pictures. 

Right before this, Shannon asked if she would be my maid of honor (This was at least a year before I met my husband!)

postcard project take #4

We have added New York to Cooper's last of states visited bringing the total to 7 states in his short not-quite-9-months life. With this new state, is also the 4th installment in the postcard project. (You can also read about  installment #3, but it seems I never blogged installment #2 i. e. Key West- must of been during that blogging hiatus I took. So that has been added to my lengthy to-do list! :)


We traveled through the night on Wednesday to Long Island for my sister-in-law's Southampton beach wedding. We weren't in town very long because I had a class Saturday morning but it was quite the wonderful mini-vacation even with over 14 hours in the car and 1,100 miles we put on my car. It was all worth it to see Jennie and Brian tie the not as well as get to take Cooper to his very own Beach.


It is true. The #1 Beach in America is called Cooper's Beach so of course we had to take Coop. He was definitely unsure about his toes in the sand at first but he warmed up to it, which is a good thing because this family loooooves their toes in the sand!


The funny thing is, Rick and I realized we had been to Cooper's Beach before when we went to Long Island in 2007. Kinda crazy, right?


I am really excited for Cooper to have these postcards as he gets older. He is going to have the pictures and wonder about the details. Along with the postcards he will have all kinds of little mementos to remember (or pretend to remember) all the fun times we have together, as a family. Hopefully they will help remind him that life is about adventures!

And for posterity's sake...

Cooper's Beach circa 2007

My Little Fish!

Cooper received his third postcard this week, the third installment in the postcard project.


It arrived on Tuesday from Richmond, Virginia. Yeah, you read that correctly!


Every year since I can remember, we take a "vacation" downtown for the Men's CAA Basketball Tournament. And although the travel time is short and most of the destinations are familiar (and your best friend and child's god mother can sneak downtown and join your alleged vacation...) staying in a hotel makes it feel like you are out of town.


And nothing says vacation like swimming in the winter!


Let me backtrack a little... 

Cooper has always been a swimmer. Even in my belly, he did somersaults, one so acrobatic he tied his umbilical cord in knot! Baths have always been a breeze. In fact, those beginning nights when I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't stop screaming, I would put him in the bath and everything was better. Cooper went in a swimming pool for the first time when he was about 6 weeks old and has been swimming almost every month of his life.

Rick and I both loooove the water, I mean we got married on the beach! So we sort of figured that because we planned on exposing to our child to the water he would love it too but I am pretty sure he was just born this way. 

A friend at school taught Cooper how to spit bubbles. When he did it the first time, it was cute. But this new trick lost its luster pretty quickly. BUT when he started spitting bubbles in the pool this past weekend, we got a little excited. After careful baby steps and lots of practice, Cooper put his face in the water and eventually his entire head. In fact, the second day in the pool he started spitting bubbles and putting his face in without any prompting!

He is my little fish!

Meet our daughter!

Haha, tricked ya! We are not having another baby. But we do have a 3rd addition to introduce.


Meet Sophie Giraffe.

I first heard about Sophie from another blog OMG.....I'm a Mom! Her daughter apparently LOVED Sophie.


I had planned to purchase a Sophie myself but just didn't get around to it. Then Cooper came. A good friend from college came to visit and meet Baby Coop and what did she have for him but his very own Sophie. (Thanks Kate!)

Needless to say, much like OMG Mom's daughter, Cooper just couldn't get enough. Sophie has saved us from many a teething nightmare. She made it to Alabama and back, multiple trips to the grocery store, target, church, etc. etc. She even got her very own trip to Key West and got to ride up top with us in the plane instead of below with the luggage. Sophie put her toes in the sand and basked in the Key West sun and even got her picture taken at the Southernmost Point Buoy.


On our last night in Key West we went to eat at Blue Heaven, which is a pretty good walk from the condo we were staying. I guess Sophie decided she loved the island life so much that she jumped ship (i.e. the stroller) and opted to live the rest of her squeaky life island style.


We had a very frustrating flight back to Richmond with no Sophie but less than 48 hours we can now introduce Sophie II. She is a little different, legs are a touch shorter and her spots are the food paint that OMG Mom speaks of but thankfully Cooper didn't seem to mind!


Sophie I you were loved!

We can only imagine the places Sophie II will go! Thank you World of Mirth for not making us wait for Sophie in the mail!