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We went down to St. Mary's College of Maryland to see Aunt Caroline graduate on Saturday. We sat so far back, and outside the covered seating, that all we could see were the silhouettes of the graduates. Thanks to Chad's photography, these pictures were like seeing Caroline graduate for the first time.

Going in for the shake and the diploma.

Congratulations Aunt Caroline! You've just graduated from college with more honors than anyone else in your family (Major, 2 minors, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). Well done.

Big smiles for a happy day!

Hooray!

The Sellers family.

Caroline and Charles, very decorated.

After graduation, we went out to lunch at Nicolletti's (which was excellent). They also had a kid's play area, where Molly found this hat and thought it went well with her smocked dress.

A quick picture before we headed back to Caroline's apartment for the most furious 2 hours of packing imaginable (sorry, no pictures of packing).

We spent part of Spring Break in Birmingham visiting with my family. It was possibly the shortest time between visits with G'Mom and Grampa that the girls have ever had.

It's always fun to see what Grampa sees.

JJ loved his first ride in the Cozy Coupe. Leah stopped to chat along his route.

We went out to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack where the servers dance. Molly took that to mean that she should dance as well, and she spent much of the evening dancing and dancing and dancing.

The reason for our visit was to attend JJ's first birthday party.

The birthday boy is a happy boy as he waits for the party to start.

Who needs cake? The icing is the good stuff.

Emmie loved sitting with Uncle Chad. And Leah's always wanting to share in Daddy's love.

There's always time for reading with G'Mom.

Leah loves "baby JJ."

Grandma Dot came over for a post-party visit. Here she is with her four great-grandchildren.

JJ loves playing with his trucks.

Molly was super sweet with JJ. Every time he was fussy, she was right there trying to cheer him up. She even sat with him a few times and played trucks with him.

While in Savannah, we had a lot of family time that included playing a bunch of games. Aunt EA, Molly, and Leah (and many of the rest of us) got into Where's My Water?.

After the funeral, Uncle J, Aunt 'Chelle, and Emmie were happy to entertain Molly and Leah with a fun game of What's in the Cat's Hat?

Grandaddy imparted some wisdom to Leah, of course.

But he didn't just teach the little ones, he learned from them too. Here's Molly showing him how to play Cut the Rope on her iPhone. (The huge black eye is courtesy of tripping and falling at 3am the night before the funeral, requiring a trip to the ER and 17 stitches around his eye!)

Another fun game was "Let's wear Aunt EA's shoes." Leah was surprisingly good at walking in them - so good in fact that Chad had trouble taking her picture before she had sped across the room to him.

Of course, Molly couldn't let Leah have all the fun, so she grabbed another pair of Aunt EA's heels. Apparently, wearing heels causes kids to make ridiculous looking smiles.

Not a game, but something else Leah loves…Scott! We've been telling her that when he and Aunt EA get married in August, he'll become Uncle Scott, but she got confused at some point and started saying he'd be her Ankle Scott. Very cute. Sadly, Molly is too pedantic to let that slide, so she quickly taught Leah how to say it properly.

G'Mom's birthday is later this month, so we had an early birthday celebration. Chad was impressed with my fast baking skills when I decided to whip up some cupcakes during nap time and they were baked and decorated in 1.5 hours.

JJ sure likes hanging out with Aunt Jen - especially when he's wearing the snazzy pajama pants I made for him.

We also checked out the excellent Children's Museum of Memphis while we were there. It has a a tons of fun stuff for kids, including the cockpit of this FedEx jet that Leah is flying for us.

Leah and Emmie are ready to fly this jet wherever we need to go. Emmie said we were going to New York, though Molly radioed from flight traffic control saying we were supposed to go to South America.

The museum has two areas with green screens where they show the kids on TV screens superimposed over some other video feed. The band here is rocking on the beach to Surfin' Safari.

Emmie selected Justin Bieber's Never Say Never, and the younger girls filled the role of his backup dancers. (Chad clearly had a bit of fun with these green screen pictures!)

Molly and Leah decided to soar through the sky a bit as well.

We also played at the toy river they had set up. Apparently, the little toy shark is very exciting.

We visited Grampa at his office before having lunch at the Bar-B-Q Shop (which was outstanding). The girls wanted to go to Grampa's office so they could draw on the whiteboard.

G'Mom and Grampa took us to paint pottery on Monday night. Molly saw this castle piggy bank and fell in love with it. Now she says she needs some money to put inside!

Leah painted herself the perfect sized ice cream bowl.

With G'Mom and Grampa helping the girls, I was able to paint a piece too. I turned the girls' handprints into owls, inspired by this blog. And I left strict instructions for Mom to keep this one in Memphis. :)

We had a great weekend all together, but we did miss Uncle J who was on a mission trip in South Sudan. On our way home from the airport, we stopped for dinner with Aunt EA and Scott to avoid rush hour traffic. If you are local, you must check out Cheesetique in Arlington. Mmmm, it was so good!

Our county uses schools as polling centers, so Molly was off of school Monday and Tuesday for the election. We took the opportunity to fly to Memphis to visit with my family. Leah was thrilled to sit in the seat like Molly and we were excited to not have to carry her carseat through the airport!

G'Mom and Grampa took us to a giant county park near their house. It has a spectacular playground, including this extremely tall and fast slide.

Molly's favorite part of the playground was this teeter totter.

The girls had fun all together on this basket swing.

Emmie must have thought that G'Mom and Grampa's house was really frigid! Or it may have been that she was excited about her new gifts from G'Mom.

Molly loved her new sparkly clothes so much that she decided to cheer about them!

JJ was happy to watch all the dancing and cheering!

I couldn't resist making JJ a fleece monster hat. He'll be sporting a super fun hat this winter.

Emmie was the recipient of a cute monster hat too. She was also excited to model her new cherry corduroy jumper.

Saturday night we had an early Thanksgiving dinner. In preparation, Aunt 'Chelle needed to snap the green beans, so she enlisted some extra help.

You can never get enough holiday food, right?

The girls all enjoyed playing games together on any available iOS device. They were even seen playing old school board games!

JJ was sick over the weekend, but he did have some smiley moments.

Molly found that JJ's puppy played Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes, so she spent one afternoon trying to teach him all the moves. He was very entertained!

More to come tomorrow…

Our days got progressively more relaxing. On Sunday, we went on an all day island sailing cruise with Barefoot Sailing. The day began with a great sail for around 2 hours.

We got the best seats in the house - on the back of the boat. Much less spray and great views. There were only 8 customers on the boat, plus the captain and first mate, making for a great experience.

We arrived at Rose Island and went snorkeling before lunch (which was a delicious barbecue of chicken and ribs cooked on the back of the boat). Chad had a "bathing suit" for his camera (as described by a boat-mate), which allowed for some good snorkeling pictures.

We snorkeled along a lovely coral reef.

We saw a very large (perhaps a foot and a half across) bright yellow sea star (aka starfish).

I have no idea what they're called, but there were lots of these flat leaves in many different colors.

After snorkeling and eating our delicious lunch on the boat, we headed over to the island and climbed these steps cut out of the rock to get to the beach on the other side.

After climbing the steps, we followed a short path that led to this great beach.

Here's the beach at the end of the path. Incredibly clear, beautiful water and no one aside from our boat-mates in sight.

While I found some shade after absorbing some sun, Chad ventured out into the ocean to take a picture looking back at the beach.

Nassau has lots of places selling you trinkets and junk, but we heard about this place, Bahama Hand Prints, from a fellow scuba diver. They design and create screen printed fabrics that are fantastic. We got to talk to and watch them making this fabric (which will be used in a new line of bags they're working on).

They have a boutique where they sell clothing and home decor, but they also sell fabric. There's a bit of it in the boutique, but a lot more back in the work room. Chad allowed me to indulge in some fabric to make the girls dresses. It's a lot pricier than the discount stuff I get at home, but it is worth it after seeing the authentic Bahamian craftsmanship that went into making it.

We had a fantastic time being just "Chad and Jen." There are more pictures from our trip here on Flickr.

Chad and I spent 5 days in the Bahamas celebrating our 10th anniversary (a little early). We stayed in downtown Nassau at the British Colonial Hilton. The hotel is in a great location, just minutes (via walking, taxi or ferry) from lots of things. Chad took this picture out the back of the hotel after dinner our first evening.

The hotel's private beach faced the harbor where the cruise ships docked. Here was the first arrival we saw. These ships really are amazingly huge.

Our first excursion was scuba diving. We've never done it before, but thought we'd try it out. We did a resort course, which was a beginner dive that you don't have to get certified for just to give you a little taste. Here I am on the boat and ready to go.

We dove down to the bottom (~35 feet) of the Hollywood Bowl. It got it's name because of all the movies that have been shot there, such as Splash and Cocoon. Oh, and please excuse these pictures, as they were shot with a disposable underwater film camera.

I posed for a picture by the official Stuart Cove photographer. I was holding some sort of undersea creature, though we have no idea what it was.

While we went into it thinking of seeing lots of cool underwater stuff, we actually focused on scuba diving the whole time. As complete novices, we had to concentrate on making sure we didn't float up or sink down or forget to breathe the whole time. Combine that with being nervous about the whole thing, and it was a pretty intense experience.

This was a one tank dive, so we only had 30 minutes under the water. Time flew, and when we arrived back at the boat we were both shocked it was already over. Here's Chad ready to ascend back to the surface.

On Saturday, we hopped on a boat (and then another boat) and went to Blue Lagoon Island to have a Dolphin Encounter. We then hopped in the water to play with the dolphin (yes, that's incredibly clear ocean water, not a pool).

He then popped out of the water to give hugs.

I think I found a ticklish spot on the dolphin's belly, so I got splashed a bit.

After playing with the dolphins, we hung out on the island for most of the rest of the day. We found a secluded beach ocean-side to hang out. Yes, that's ocean water, despite looking as clear as a swimming pool.

We didn't stay in the water for too long, as we were looking to just relax on our little beach.

Our little beach was great, but it lacked any shade. So, after a while we headed back to the lagoon side of the island. Here's a look at the lagoon opening into the ocean.

This side had thatched cover and palm trees to escape the Bahamian sun.

A look at the lagoon as we leave it on the last boat of the day.

More to come…

While at the Birmingham Zoo, we happened upon this White-Handed Gibbon getting his daily swinging workout. While the zoo is usually fun, the animals are generally just laying around. It was great to find an animal really putting on a show.

Note that the HD version is also 60 frames per second, so the motion should be pretty smooth in it.

Last weekend, we flew down to Alabama to meet our new nephew/cousin JJ. Molly and Leah got to meet the pilots thanks to the very nice Southwest flight crew, which the girls were very excited about.

As soon as we met JJ, Molly wanted to hold him.

The girls could not get enough of their new cousin!

Beginning that aunt/nephew bonding…

Sunday morning, many family members were present for JJ's service of Christian dedication.

Sweet snuggles with JJ.

A dapper little guy modeling the jon jon I made for his dedication.

Chad even got to hold JJ occasionally when Leah took a break :)

We also took a trip to the Birmingham Zoo while we were in town. Here are G'Mom and Grampa with all 4 of their grandkids. And an elephant.

The zoo also had a little splash pad, so the girls donned swimwear and had some fun. As always, Molly didn't want to get too wet. The jets didn't stay on all the time, so Molly figured out she could fill her bucket by setting it down when the jets were off and waiting for them to come on and fill it. She seems pleased with her scheme.

There are a lot more pictures from our trip here on Flickr.

We flew to Birmingham to celebrate Emmie's 3rd birthday. It didn't take long upon our arrival before the girls all headed to the play room. Nice shoes, Leah!

Emmie is so intent on using her computer that she has no idea Molly is about to give her a trim.

Grampa was appointed head book reader at bed time.

Emmie was insistent on having a flower party, so Aunt 'Chelle got creative with the flower theme.

Naturally, Molly and Leah were eager to assist with the present opening.

Time for cake!

It was finger lick in' good!

Leah took a quick break from the party festivities to assemble the alphabet with G'mom.

Emmie also got a kite, which was then of course flown. Apparently it's just as much fun to run after someone flying a kite as it is to fly it yourself.

Molly flying with Tate chasing. An image of timeless childhood.

Leah thought the flower balloons needed a bit of love.

The girls were finally all together to wear the Christmas jammies I made them. It was like Christmas Eve in January.

Emmie may be one of the few kids her age that knows what a chalkboard is. For those who don't, it's an upright display you write on with chalk while you stick out your tongue.

Baby rings can turn into steering wheels when you get older.

And the post the baby ring comes from can become a microphone.