Nanny's 95th Birthday

Nanny, my dad's grandmother, turned 95 years old today!! Her party was at Aunt Ashli's house this year. The party was so much fun! We got to see everyone from my dad's side of the family except our cousins, Gaines & Lauren, who just went back to college in PA. Nanny seemed to enjoy all the festivities, which were highlighted by releasing monarch butterflies. All the kids got to let their own butterfly go and it was amazing to watch them fly away. Tyler spent a good chunk of the party playing outside with his cousins. The kids fed the horses carrots, pet the dogs, blew bubbles, and kicked the ball around. Tyler carried around 2 brightly colored, foam sticks all day. They are in almost every picture. Sometimes he would wave the sticks through the air - it looked like he was using them as batons to marshall airplanes.

On the way home we stopped by Brian & Anna's house for a quick visit. Amazingly enough, Tyler got to see all of his cousins in one day. He was wiped out by the time we got home, but still anxious enough to investigate the new toys from Shauna & Trent that Kaleb had outgrown!

Boating with Bo & Erin

Ben, Tyler, and I enjoyed boating on Lake Hartwell with Aunt Erin & Uncle Bo today. We went out on an older ski boat, which was overheating, and in traditional Johnson style we had to get towed in. Even though things didn't go perfectly we still had fun spending time with Erin & Bo. We felt badly for the nice gentleman who towed us in, but were thankful he offered to help us. Bo & Erin brought their dog, Reagan, so of course Tyler was happy about that! I wore my Duke t-shirt since Bo just started his MBA at Duke and Erin and I were twins.

Greenville Drive Game

On Friday evening we met Ryan, Jennifer, and baby Austin at the Greenville Drive baseball game. We had good seats, the weather was pleasant, and the babies were happy.....what a fun night for everyone! The Drive's mascot is Reedy Rip'it, but Dada kept telling Tyler his name was "Green Elmo" and sure enough Tyler kept his eye on Reedy who he called "Melmo". Tyler & Austin even got their picture taken with Reedy! Oh, Ben caught a t-shirt that was thrown out into the audience of fans. We had such a good time and always enjoy our time with the Harrises!

Dinner @ The Lowe's

Ben, Tyler, and I went over to our friends', Tyler & Paige's, house last night for a delicious dinner. Another couple came too and they have a 3 year old daughter, Lawton. Lawton was so funny and she and Tyler played together very well. Tyler & Paige have a dog named Lily so our Tyler was saying "dog" all evening. At first he was a little frightened by Lily, but after a little while he was petting and chasing her.

Hami & Talkin

Most mornings Tyler, Chloe (our cat), and I are greeted by our neighbors, The Hamilton's, cat. We call the cat Hami. Hami comes up on our back deck to get a drink out of Tyler's baby swimming pool.....which he thinks is an enormous water bowl. Hami is sweet and loves to peer in the window to see if Tyler and/or Chloe are around, and usually they are. Anytime Tyler sees Hami he immediately says "kitty cat" which comes out as "itty cat".

In the last several weeks Tyler has been talking a lot. I Guess he got that straight from his parents; we aren't exactly known for being concise ;-). Well, Tyler will pretty much attempt to repeat anything we ask him to say. Sometimes it sounds like the real thing, sometimes it's no where close, but either way it's always too cute. My absolute favorite word to hear him say is "stinky". Appropriately enough Tyler debuted this word during a diaper change. Tyler drops the 's' and says "tinky". It is to die for cute!

Tyler is getting really good at saying some of his family's names. He just recently started saying "LuLu" for Lucinda and even has his own version of "Aunt Shauna" which is adorable. He calls my dad "Papa" and it comes out as "bop pa". Tyler loves to point to things so that we'll tell him what it is called. Tyler's favorite word to say is "dog". Anytime he sees a dog, a picture of a dog, or hears the word dog he just has to repeat it about 10 times in a row.... sometimes more. He has 2 angel dear blankies that he adores; one is a blue bunny named B-bop and the other is a yellow duck named Dabo. Tyler calls Dabo duck "Bo" and he either calls B-bop bunny "B" or "Bop" but never together, lol.

"OHHH MAN"

Here is a video of Tyler being cute and doing some of his tricks. My favorite part is when he says "oh man".

The Happy Berry & A/C

As many of you already know, Monday was a very hot day here is SC!! Around 4 pm on Monday our upstairs air conditioning quit working. Thankfully, we still had a/c on the main level and in the basement. My super smart husband decided he was going to try and fix it himself so he went outside and tinkered around with the a/c units for a little while. Ben came back in about 20 mins. later and said "I think the capacitor needs to be replaced". The next morning, Ben called the repairman and luckily he was able to come take a look and bring a new capacitor. The repairman said, "your husband was right.....you guys just need a new capacitor". He replaced it and was done in about 5 mins. I was impressed....I guess I can call Ben a mechanical engineer too.

We decided to go to The Happy Berry later that evening and pick some blueberries before the season was over. As the owners said, it was "poor pickin" but we still managed to get enough good ones for me to make something. Tyler wasn't really into picking berries....he was having way too much fun playing in the gravel road and dirt - boys will be boys!

Playdate and Lake Day

Two of my best friends, Heather & Melissa, came down this weekend for a visit. On Saturday we had a playdate at our house with Melissa's family and Heather. Melissa & Jason have a little girl, Rylie, who is 2.5 weeks younger than Tyler. Heather just got married in June to Ben, who wasn't able to come down from Boston with her this time. We had a great time watching the babies play. That evening Heather, Melissa, and I went out for a girls night and had dinner at Copper River then went to see the movie The Ugly Truth.

On Sunday, we went out on the lake with our friends Gerald, Megan, Ryan, Jennifer, and Austin. We went swimming, skiing, tubing, and we set up a little camp on an island. Tyler and Austin enjoyed playing in the tent with a bunch of toys. The weather was beautiful and none of us got sunburned!!

Boating and Baseball

Well, for starters I created this blog last October (as you can see) and finally decided I'd give it a shot and see how it goes.

Ben, Tyler and I went out on our friends', Gerald & Megan, boat about 2 weeks ago. Tyler enjoys being out on the lake and riding in the boat. Gerald & Megan are wonderful hosts and we always have a good time. Ben thought he'd give water skiing a shot, after a long hiatus, and he was great. He is such an athlete....just popped right up on the skis and skied around on the water for what seemed like forever. Then, he dropped a ski and slalomed too.

Last night we went over to the Seneca Recreational Dept. to watch some of the Dixie Boys World Series. We watched Seneca beat South Carolina to advance to semi-finals!! Tyler sat contently in his stroller and watched the young men playing baseball as though he understood the game. He seems to be really interested in baseball so far. Tyler's Great Grandparents Johnson gave him a t-ball set that he adores.....so I'm wondering if baseball could be in his future. After all his Great Granddaddy Gaines played for Clemson University.

Here are some pictures from our latest adventures. Please bear with me as I get more accustomed to blogging.