Helen Jeanette climbed in our bed this morning around 4:30. I sleepily sang her happy birthday and she responded ‘I’m just going to sleep a couple more minutes.’ After cuddling her while dozing off Chris and I both got up to get ready for work. When I got out of the shower she was sitting sleepily in bed and said ‘Is today my birthday?’ Her sweet smile when I told her yes was so heartwarming.

She wanted to eat Cheerios with a big spoon while we waited for Oma Leni to arrive with the doughnuts. We sang happy birthday before giving her a doughnut and she grinned ear to ear the whole time.
After breakfast we let her open presents in the sunroom. My favorite was after she opened her Cinderella dress when she said ‘This is my dress. My brother gave it to me.’ She was so happy and sweet.

We spent 3 nights in St. Lucia celebrating our 3rd anniversary. We sprung for a resort with rooms open to the view and a private pool. The view was incredible and we saw a rainbow every morning. We didn’t spend much time at the beach but we did take a SNUBA tour and Chris went 20 feet deep checking out fish, lobsters, and octopus. We also hiked Gros Piton (4 miles round trip, 2000 ft elevation change) and the picture of Chris pointing to the mountain in the distance is him indicating which mountain we climbed. We spent time in the hot tub and at the spa and overall had a very nice, relaxing trip.

Helen Jeanette’s response to the break dancers was ‘I can do that.’

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Next weekend we celebrate our 5th anniversary.  I’m taking it really seriously since it’s our first “milestone” anniversary and Chris and I will be going on our first trip away from the kids.

Every year on our anniversary we get family pictures taken. It’s a tradition I love and Chris tolerates. This year we went with our old neighbor from Durham to the Eno River State Park and we are so happy with the results. Her website is http://www.hollydwanphotography.com/ She is very talented, got us the pictures very quickly (we only took them this morning), and willing to use Creative Commons Licenses. It was a win, win, win!

Oma Leni came along to help keep the kid’s attention and we also got some good shots of her with the kids!

I think this year’s pictures are my favorite yet. You can check out our old post https://covicovey.us/2015/07/20/family-pictures/ for a compiled peek at our family over the last 6 (it includes engagement pictures) years.

We’ve joined a pool in our neighborhood and are enjoying going in the evenings.

Least said, soonest mended! Both trips were tough but the important thing was that Bangkok was wonderful and the transit pains were worth it!

The takeaway lesson to share is that if you are connecting through Bejing make sure you have at least 2 hours, preferably 3.