Memorial Day Weekend!

What a great weekend we all had!

We went down to Wilmington on Thursday morning, so I could go to a mediation in Jacksonville that afternoon. Jeff stayed at my mom's with Jacob and Jacob truly wore him out! He's into everything! We semi-babyproofed mom's house using pillows to block off the dangers. On Friday morning, I had a mediation in Wilmington, and Jeff took Jacob down to see his mom in Ocean Isle Beach. Jacob had a lot of fun with his Grandma and Jeff reports he liked riding their black lab, Sissy. Jacob was so dirty, Jeff had to give him a bath before he brought him home! I had to put stain stick all over his outfit before we washed it!

On Saturday, Jeff and I went over to my dad's pool and swam for a bit. It was a nice and relaxing afternoon. That evening, we went to Heather & Jed's for a cookout. We had some wonderful steaks and baked potatoes! It was like eating at a steakhouse, but better! Thanks guys!

On Sunday, Jeff and I had planned to meet some friends at dad's pool, but Jacob had other plans to nap during that time. He slept the morning away, and finally we went over to dad's for around an hour to let Jacob swim a little bit. He loved it. We'll post those pictures soon!

Sunday night, Jeff and I checked into the Wilmingtonian. It's a quaint all-suite hotel in downtown Wilmington. We last stayed there on our wedding night. We didn't have the exact same room (it was booked), but we did have the room right below it! We did some walking around downtown that afternoon, and to our surprise, Front Street Brewery had reopened. This is one of our favorite places to grab a beer, and we haven't been in two years. In the meantime, they had closed for 8 months and just reopened last September! We love the Raspberry Wheat ale! After a little browsing around downtown, we found the Little Dipper, where I REALLY wanted to eat dinner. It's a fondue restaurant, and the menu looked wonderful! We made a reservation, and went back to our suite to rest up and shower. We went back for dinner around 8 p.m. and started with wine on the deck overlooking the river. Then, our table was ready, so we moved inside. We had a Tuscan Sun-Dried Tomato cheese fondue, which our waiter aptly described as "pizza-dip." It was very good. We both had the chef-salad, also very good and rather big! For dinner, we shared the Dinner for Two - Surf N Turf, with filet mignon, shrimp, and lobster-stuffed ravioli. It was so much food, we could not finish the filet mignon! For dessert, we had the "Half-N-Half" - one half smooth peanut butter and one half dark chocolate. This was the best chocolate fondue I've EVER had. They even give you a cinnamon-sugar-graham cracker mixture to dip your dippers in after dipping in chocolate. Delicious!!!! I can't wait to go back!

On Monday, we leisurely slept in until 8 a.m. How wonderful! We went back to mom's, and had planned to meet the Prince William Tall Ship. My dad is the President of WHET in Wilmington. He and other WHET members have been working for a couple of months on getting the ship to stop in Wilmington. About a week ago, the captain of the boat invited my dad and other WHET members, as well as the media to board the ship in Morehead City on Friday and to sail around for the weekend, arriving in Wilmington on Monday. The ship arrived around 12:30 p.m. We made it downtown a little after 1 p.m. and met my dad and his wife. After spending a little time with them, we headed on home.

It was a great weekend all-around. The best part is, we kept Jacob on a great "sleeping schedule". He slept great at my mom's in the pack-n-play. Jeff gets a lot of credit too for putting Jacob down for naps in the pack n play right away on Thursday! Her house is just two bedrooms, so Jeff and I actually set up camp in the living room, so as not to disturb Jacob's slumber! It worked though!!! For several weeks now, he's been sleeping 10-11 hours a night! Knock on wood!

Live from Wilmington!

Whew.... we made it here. Finally!!

Last night was a rush to do laundry, pack, in addition to all the normal evening activities - feeding Jacob, getting him to bed, etc. I didn't even have time to go work out! So, I planned to go at lunch today, but it was not to be... I'm on the criminal appellate brief rotation at work and I have a criminal brief due next week. I had to get things organized for that and ended up having to meet with my supervisor on the issue, etc., which took up the time I would have been working out at lunch.

Jeff came to the office around 3:00 p.m. and we took Jacob around to see my co-workers. This was the first time they have seen him since he was about 8 weeks old, except in pictures of course... many many pictures. We finally got on the road about 3:30 p.m. We brought both vehicles since I've got to go to Whiteville tomorrow. So, this necessitated stopping half-way on a two hour journey to feed the fussy boy. This turned into a THIRTY minute stop... So, a trip that should take 2 hours or less, took nearly 3 hours!

Jacob was very happy to see his "Gram-Gram." He gave her hugs and his open-mouth kisses where he tries to eat your face. Gram-Gram bought him the Hallmark talking bunny rabbit. He didn't know quite what to think of it. He slept the last 45 minutes or so of the journey down here, so he was full of energy and stayed up until 8:00 p.m. I honestly cannot remember the last time he was up that late. He's been pretty consistent with a 7:00 p.m. bedtime lately. Even at 8:00 p.m., he did not seem sleepy, but we knew he needed to go to bed. He's sleeping in his "new" Tot-Block that we bought last weekend. I'm sure Jacob will wake us many times tonight, since we are in the same room with him!

Tomorrow evening, my best friend Heather is coming over with her daughter who is about 16 months old. Friday, we'll go to Ocean Isle Beach to see the other Gram. Saturday, I think we are going to my dad's. Sunday, we'll probably go to the service at the church where we got married, Grace UMC. And, in the meantime, I need to find time to go work out, and to write this criminal brief!