Back to the Beach

We got to go back to the beach this week for a few days with Matt's family! It was great to see the ocean again - Owen was especially excited! We enjoyed some good relaxation with the Purdy family too. Here are just a few pictures we took.

Owen really enjoyed playing with Aunt Megan and her boyfriend Kevin. Can you tell he's having a good time?



We also went to a state park called Jockeys Ridge. The park is made up of HUGE sand dunes. It is something that our families have enjoyed doing for years. Owen enjoyed walking on the sand and "skiing" down at the end. Baxter enjoyed watching all of the kites in the air and watching Owen run around.



Here is the whole group.



Another one of O.

Baxter's Baptism

Last Sunday we had the joy of having Baxter baptized at church. Some enjoyed calling it a "baxtism." :) It was a really special time to baptize Baxter into the covenant community and Matt got to do it! Our friend Jenny took some great pictures of the morning! Thanks Jenny!

Sweet Baxter.



Matt performing the baptism.



The water on his head.



Our family.



Some of our family came to celebrate with us. It was great to see you Gramma Grampa Grams Grampop Aunt Noelle Uncle Scott and Uncle John!



Here are a few that I couldn't pass up posting.

Blueberry Picking

Matt Owen and I went blueberry picking the other day with our friends Wes and Luke (Jennifer stayed home with their two week old - Sam!). It was a blast. The boys ate SO MANY blueberries and we took a lot home too!

Hysterical!

Here is the last photo taken at the beach. Can you tell that, though our boys loved their time at the beach, they were ready to get home? What a hoot!

5 months old!

Our little one is 5 months old today! Here are some pictures that we captured this weekend. There have been many many hours of crying and being cranky in those 5 months, but we love this little boy very much and are so thankful for him! We love you B!

Cousins Now and Then

2008



2006

Gillan/Purdy Beach Trip

We just got back from a great week at the beach in Corolla, NC with my family. It was a great time to hang out and spend time with each other and enjoy God's creation in the beach. One of the neatest parts was getting to know the newest members of our family better(Nathan (7 months), Baxter and Jake (almost 5 months)). It was also hard at times - Baxter did not prefer sleeping on the beach and woke up at 5:30 or 6:00 each morning. Owen LOVED the beach and spending time with family. Overall it was a great week! All week I felt like I couldn't take enough pictures to capture certain moments, but the following pictures will at least give you a look into what it was like.

Matt and Owen standing in the waves early one morning.



what a goofy boy!



Baxter did take a couple of good naps on the beach.



Here are the "big cousins" and the "toddler cousins" at the beach together. Megan (almost 8), Anna (2), Owen (2), and Reese (10).



Owen's love for trains came with us to the beach. We made a lot of sand trains!



Here are the CT Gillans and the Purdys hanging at the house. Owen, Baxter, Jake and Anna.



This is what Owen did about 90% of the time we were down at the beach!



This was a good part of that 90%!



Here is our newest family picture.



Megan, Owen and Anna. Notice the ouchies on Owen's ankles. They are from his water shoes. They hurt him so much that he kept saying "mommy, can I crawl?" He spent a good portion of the week crawling around inside because they were so sore. Poor thing!



Here is the whole family! We are in green, Brett, Carolyn, Anna and Jake are in white, Bryan, Becky, Reese, Megan and Nathan are in black and my folks are in blue.



Just precious.

Family Run

One of my favorite things to do as a family is to go running - crazy I know! Baxter is finally old enough to go in our new double jog stroller, so we went out for our first family run last weekend. I had taken them out by myself a few days earlier and it was a slight disaster. At one point they were both crying, I was holding Owen and we were a good 5 minutes from home. I was glad that for our second attempt with the stroller Matt would be with us too! It went so much better. Both of the boys seemed to enjoy it! We look forward to many more runs with our two boys!

A shot of our running shoes before we left. Owen loves to run very fast in his!



Baxter before we left. Doesn't get much sweeter than this!



Here are the boys in the stroller. Owen held onto Edward the train just like this the whole time.

First Wedding!

Matt got to officiate his first wedding last weekend! Our friends Kyle and Jenny watched the boys for us so I could go too! He did such an amazing job and really brought such glory to God through the ceremony. He had been able to do some pre-marital counseling with the couple too, so it was neat to get to know them and then be a part of their wedding day. It's something that he looks forward to doing more throughout his ministry. I snapped a picture from the back. It wasn't a very good one, but it captures the moment.

FREE Chick-fil-A!

At Chick-fil-A today, if you dress up like a cow they will give you free food! So that is just what we did at lunch. We went with our friends Wes and Jennifer and Luke. We ran into some other folks from church too. There were many cows running through the food court at the mall. Quite a scene!

Here are our two cows before we left home.







Matt and I weren't going to dress up, but when we got to the mall, some of the others had extra cow "stuff" so we taped it on to join in the fun. What a great family portrait. It doesn't get better than this!



I failed to get a shot of Luke and Owen in their cow clothes, so here is a picture of them talking in the car at the little play area.

Thank You Costco!

You may already know how very much our family loves Costco. If you don't know, we love it VERY much! Here are FOUR MORE reasons that we love Costco.

1. You can build a great tower that is REALLY fun to crash!



2. You can make a train track with tunnels.



3. This one is a little scary :) I came home from my Saturday morning breakfast at Panera to this. Matt didn't even hear me come in the door.



4. Like father like son.



Thank You Costco!

Maymont

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at this great park (Maymont)in Richmond the other day. It can take a lot of energy to get all four of us out of the house with a picnic lunch, etc, but it was WELL worth it!

Matt and Owen ready for lunch! We found a great spot to eat under a BIG tree, on top of a BIG hill. We could see the "choo choo" (which was actually a "tram" that drove people around the park) go by which was a highlight for Owen of course.



Baxter hanging out in the stroller while we got everything set up.



Mommy and Baxter.



Mommy and her two little boys. I should post this one somewhere in our house so that on hard days I can look at it and be reminded of what a blessing they are and what a blessing it is to be their mom!



This is a video of Owen and Matt running around a bench near where we ate lunch. Just listen to the joy that Owen has! It's a blessing to see our boys love their daddy so much!