A-MAY-zing!

A-MAY-zing (see what I did there? Get it? May. I'm hilarious.) May 2013 may go down in the history books as the best month ever for the Bellows family. We had so much fun visiting with friends and family and Camden started sleeping 6-8 hour stretches at night- what's not to love?!

We kicked off the month with the Bailey Family Beach trip to Nags Head, NC. It was divine.

We flew into Virginia on a Thursday and spent a couple days with Grammy Pam before heading down to North Carolina on Saturday morning with the Baileys. After a five hour drive, only stopping an hour for lunch- yea for a baby who will take a bottle in the car!, we arrived at the beach house. There are pictures of the house in Lindsey's slide show. It was awesome. There was even an elevator in the house.  Love.

 The weather started out a little iffy with a storm blowing in on Sunday, but things just got better and better as the week went on. We went to a cool aquarium, the men went hang gliding, the adult kids snuck away to see Iron Man 3 one night, we went mini golfing, spent time in the pool and the hot tub, played MarioKart on the Wii, and of course spent some serious time on the sand and playing in the surf. The beaches were empty and we pretty much had the place to our selves. One day, however, there was a wedding at the house next to us. I'm sure we are in the background of some of their pictures. Haha. Oops!

 The boys enjoyed having so much family around. There was almost always someone to play with. My sister in law Rachel has a baby just three weeks younger than Camden so it was fun to have two newborns in the house with so many helping hands. I don't think Camden was set down for that entire week!

 We went to a mini golf course that I took Ryan to two years ago. It has a little train that takes you up to the first hole. The boys loved it!

 By Friday, things had warmed up enough to spend the afternoon in the pool. The boys are getting very confident in their floaties. Brady was even swimming around unassisted!

 Camden gave us some pretty great faces out by the pool. I think he loves the beach too!

 Brady and James got to play  this trip more than they ever have in the past. They were such cute little buddies. I love this picture of them with their matching shirts from Grandma Jodi.

The party didn't end after Beach Week. We headed back up to Virginia the next Saturday and spent a week at Grammy Pam's house. Rachel and her two boys and Lindsey stayed in VA for the next week also and it was so fun to spend time with family! We made a trip to Frying Pan Park, had fun playing in Grandma Jodi's backyard on her trampoline ande even made a trip to the National Zoo. We got to spend Mother's Day with both of our moms and got to see some of our very best friends, the Colletts, at church on Sunday.

On Friday, May 17th we flew back to Utah so Zach could start work on Monday the 20th. I was so looking forward to our beach trip that I was nervous about a let down once we got home. It didn't end up that way though!

Pops was in Utah when we got back into town. He even picked us up from the airport. He spent the week with me and the boys and he was such a huge help! He took the kids to the park Monday morning so I could get some unpacking done. On Tuesday he and I took the boys to Bridal Veil falls and went on a little walk, then we ate lunch at Purple Turtle. On Tuesday night we met the rest of Zach's family in Salt Lake to play at a park and have dinner together. On Wednesday Pops and I took the boys to the Kangaroo Zoo. It was great to have Pops here. He kept up with the dishes, picked up dog poop (!) and gave Roxy a bath all while keeping Ryan and Brady entertained. They sure idolize Pops and they loved the time they got to spend with him! Thanks, Doug, for all your help!

The very next weekend our friends, the Colletts stayed with us after spending a week at their family reunion in Park City. The kids were so happy to play together and the grown ups were so happy to be reunited (and to watch our kids play together- life is crazy!)

Camden and his future partner in crime. Alice

 The Poultons joined us for dinner on Saturday and we went to their house on Sunday. Kids were everywhere! It was a great weekend!

 The Colletts left early on Monday morning, which was Memorial Day. We were anxious to reunite with our Utah friends, the Smiths. We spent the entire day together. We started out at the new splash pad in Provo, went back the Smith's house for a BBQ lunch and watched Mega Mind in their basement theater. After the movie, we grabbed some Little Caesars pizza for dinner and headed up Provo canyon for some fishing. It was a fun filled day and the boys slept very well that night. (Holly does a great job summing up the day on her blog.)

On Tuesday, Zach went on his first business trip to the San Jose office. This was not exactly the highlight of my month (or year), but we survived (with lots and lots of help from my sister Lindsey!) 

May was one awesome month. You might think that June will look boring in comparison, but it's not turning out that way! We are only 3 days into it and we've already had a fun outdoor birthday party for Ryan and Camden's baby blessing. Ryan's real birthday is this Wednesday. I can't believe my boy is going to be 5. Five! Ah! 

Future posts to come! Stay tuned!