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We traveled down to Birmingham (in "Alabana" as Molly likes to say) to spend Easter with my family.

It didn't take long for the girls to get started on some cousin play. We spent lots of time playing on the back porch.

On Saturday morning, we all went to a nearby playground for some fun.

Making oatmeal cookies was a must-do for Saturday evening.

And the Easter Bunny did manage to find us in Alabama.

After church, Uncle J organized an Easter Egg hunt in the backyard.

It was busy day, but Leah found a great spot to relax and listen to Uncle J's music.

The day after Christmas we headed to Mooresville, NC for the Batson Family Christmas. We exchanged gifts with my immediate family at the hotel before the larger family gathering. Molly was jazzed about her new Disney princess slippers.

Emmie checking out her new felt bracelets.

Leah's ready to play with this wooden puzzle.

Everyone checking out Emmie's new baby stuff.

We all got together to give G'mom and Grampa a new camera. It's a Canon S90, and it's very snazzy.

Leah looking super cute in her new towel from Aunt 'Chelle.

Aunt 'Chelle, you look a little yellow!

The fam

Our last day, we ventured to the Rio Camuy Cave Park, the third largest cave system in the world. They have a small part of the system open for tourists, so here we are with our walking tour headphones with the cave behind us.

This is taken from inside the cave looking out one of the openings. There are actually a lot of openings to the cave, meaning that it is slightly naturally lit.

This is the cave as seen when you first enter it. It's really huge. At its tallest, you can fit a 13 story building inside it.

This is apparently the world's largest stalagmite (and it is huge).

The cave was very cool to look around.

We rented a car to drive to Camuy caverns. That was an adventure in itself! Puerto Rican drivers are very aggressive (turn signals are nonexistent and red lights are optional!), the driving lanes are very narrow, and on our way to return the rental we had trouble finding a gas station that (a) wasn't boarded up and (b) actually took a credit card! It's nice to be home.

Our biggest adventure was in the San Salvador rainforest. This was my #1 reason for going to Puerto Rico! It began with a hike up a mountain stream.

Taking a little break to cool off in this little pool along the way up the stream.

We had some fun guides. Two of them can be seen here helping me (or not) climb up this rock face. That's Jorgito at the top and Andres at the bottom having fun.

Chad's favorite part of the adventure came next - rappelling down a waterfall. This picture really doesn't do it justice - it was a pretty long way down (80 feet!). Very, very fun.

I was the next to come down the waterfall. Here I am near the top just getting started.

A little further down...

A view of the top of the waterfall.

After we repelled down the waterfall, we had a short snack break of fresh mango, wild bananas and oranges. Then we moved on to the last part of our excursion - ziplining! If you didn't catch it already, here is a video Chad took while he was on the zip line, then of me zipping toward him.

After the ziplining, we trekked back down the river where we had lunch waiting on us. One of the local families in the rainforest village cooked us an excellent authentic Puerto Rican meal. It was really outstanding! This is the view from the lunch area.

We booked both our kayaking and rainforest adventures through EcoQuest. If you are planning a trip to Puerto Rico, I highly recommend them.

In researching activities to do in Puerto Rico, I came across information about a bioluminescent bay. So, our first night included kayaking at night through canals from Fajardo to Laguna Grande.

The reason for kayaking at night was because Laguna Grande is one of the few places in the world where you can find bioluminescent microorganisms near the surface of the water. These dinoflagellates glow (like a firefly) in the water when you move it. We made the mistake of going on a clear night with a full moon, but our guides brought a tarp to block out the moon to make it easier to see them. It was really cool. They're virtually impossible to photograph and look more like lots of tiny sparkles than this blur of glow, but this gives you an idea of what we saw.

Seeing the glowing particles was amazing, but we really enjoyed the nighttime kayaking too. When are you ever going to get the chance to kayak by moonlight?!

For my 30th birthday/our 8th anniversary, I wanted to go on a big trip sans kids, so we've just returned from spending the past few days in Puerto Rico. We stayed at the Marriott Resort in the Condado area of San Juan, right on the beach.

We spent one morning wandering around the Condado area of San Juan. Our main destination was the open air market nearby, which wasn't what we were really looking for, but the restaurant outside was perfect for lunch. I enjoyed a fresh pineapple smoothie (though Chad's fresh mango smoothie was better).

We actually spent very little time on the beach, as we're not big beach people. It was a nice beach, though, so we checked out the view and relaxed for a few minutes.

Our best meal was at a restaurant called Ropa Vieja. The below picture is of Chad's meal - Ropa Vieja Mofongo. Ropa Vieja is a Cuban dish of pulled beef (it's the top of this). Mofongo is a Puerto Rican dish made from mashed plantains. My Canoa Picadillo (like a banana split, except using plantains and ground beef) and our shared dessert - Flan Queso (like a cross between cheesecake and flan) were great as well.

Grandaddy's boats were in need of some work, but cousin David was kind enough to come by to give us a boat ride. Molly was excited (and a little wind-blown).

Grandaddy's descendants got together for a low country boil, and Lisa was quick to find the baby she hadn't met yet.

We were all finally together to capture a picture of Grandaddy with all 12 of his great grandkids.

While Molly is taking swimming lessons, she's still quite skittish when it comes to the water. We were surprised when she wanted to go swimming in the river. So, Aunt Caroline put on her swimsuit and in they went.

Swimming for Molly only lasted a few mintues, so she joined the boys on the hammock.

Molly went with her Aunts to pick out polish for a special pedicure. She insisted on red paint, and that Mommy paint her toes. So much for the aunt-niece bonding! She was so excited to have her toes painted. Though she was a bit worried when she got in the tub and in her bed that the paint was going to come off.

Grandaddy's house has a closet with a bunch of toys from before Chad was born. Molly eventually found it, and we didn't see her for a little while.

After a few days, it was time to return to Maryland. Molly and Leah kept careful watch for the arrival of our plane at Savannah airport.

You can see all the pictures from our trip here.

We got together with the Solana side of the family at Debbie and John's house. Amy brought her kids, and Molly was happy to have another little one to play with.

Leah and Jen chatted with Amy and Rose.

There was lots of socializing and eating together.

With the big kids otherwise occupied, Leah had her chance to claim the trains for herself.

We flew down to Savannah to see extended family. We stayed at Chad's grandad's house, as usual. Here's his backyard.

Here's a look through the trees down the bluff.

This hammock has magical powers. It can make even a 3-year-old relax.

The hammock can also be exciting when you get someone to push you this high.

Grandaddy's got a little scooter for going longer distances, and Molly loved riding on it.

Betty sang to Leah for quite a while, and Leah stared at her the entire time.

And she made sure to get the grown-ups making silly faces with her.

Stay tuned for more adventures from our trip.

We went to Highlands, NC to visit Grammy (Chad's paternal grandmother) for her 80th birthday. Molly was very excited to get to see Grammy's house, though she was confused when we arrived and she discovered we actually weren't staying in her house but rather in a rented house nearby (there are a lot of us, now).

Leah was enamored with Will (and Stephen Colbert) throughout the trip. I'm not sure which one she's interested in here.

We had a bunch of family over to the house Saturday to celebrate. At times, Leah was of course the center of attention.

There were so many people there, Caroline and I decided to make more room by squishing Molly.

Molly was responsible for the card on our gift to Grammy.

And Grammy thought the bag I made for her was a great surprise.

The house was pretty cool much of the time, which meant blankets were in frequent use. Unfortunately, though, we had a blanket thief occasionally stealing them.

It was so nice out we decided to have dinner on the back porch one night. Yes, that's the dining room table and chairs.

Monday, we went out to lunch at Wild Thyme to celebrate Grammy's birthday again on her actual birthday. They brought Grammy a big piece of caramel cake for her birthday, but she didn't want dessert. So, Molly ate almost the entire piece for her.

Leah didn't get any cake, so she seemed a bit bored.

Though she perked up when we pulled out a toy phone for her.

The drive down and back both went really well. We only had to stop 5 times each way and managed to make the trip in 11.5 hours both times. To maximize efficiency, we packed a lunch and ate at a rest area in both directions. Here's Leah hanging out at the rest area.

Molly preferred to run around during her brief break from the car.