cHoCoLaTe MiLk

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Last weekend, after the fair, the Skinners came over for a chocolate milk tasting competition.
Who knew they all tasted so different? Chad won, as he proved to be the best at distinguishing between organic, nesquik, two different store brands, and homemade (hershey's syrup in milk).

It was a lot of fun. Good idea Jeremy and Hannah! While on the subject, please end the constant debate in our house by answering the poll to the right...

The Howard County Fair

So, typically I don't really like to got to the fair, but yesterday was a beautiful day with nothing to do, so I loaded up the hand sanitizer and we went. We actually had a really, really great time. Parker loved the baby animals, and watching all of the big rides go around and around. Chad and I each took him once down the big super slide. People were a little surprised we would take him down it, but the little dare devil wasn't even phased by it. I think I was more scared than he was. The fair food didn't look too great, so we shared an ice cream to hold us over and stopped at Pei Wei (PF chang's take out) on the way home. YUM!

6 month pictures

Here are a couple of pics taken of Parker a couple weeks ago when he turned 6 months. The mit he is holding usually hangs in his room right above his changing table. It was love at first sight... he adores the thing, so we had to have a picture with it.

We miss Dadda

Chad has been in this crazy 5 week long rotation at the Naval hospital in D.C., and we have literally not seen him for more than 10 minutes every day. He wakes up at 5am, to be in D.C. for morning rounds with the docs on the oncology unit, comes home at around 5pm, gives us each a kiss, and works on stuff for his patients till he goes to bed around midnight or later. So, Parker and I have had a lot of mommy/son time lately. Good news.... the 5 weeks end TODAY!!! We can't wait to have a 3rd member of the family again! Finally we can have a fun weekend together before the next rotation starts... on Monday. We are so proud of you honey! You are so smart, and are such a hard worker. You are doing such a good job. We love you!!!

six!?!

I can't believe little Parker is already 6 months old! The time has FLOWN by. Our little man is now sitting up, can't get enough of his baby food... he LOVES the stuff, and is learning to drink juice from a sippy cup.

His first tooth started coming in yesterday... crazy. We love our little Park. It is so fun to watch him grow up. He is the happiest baby in the world, and NEVER stops smiling. I took him to the mall the other day to get his pictures taken, and boy, do I have a little ladies man! He would try to flirt and smile with every woman that glanced in his direction. What am I in for with this kid?

Zwick Trip to Florida

We spent the week of the 4th of July in Florida with the whole Zwick clan. My parents rented beach condos on the little island, Siesta Key, just off the coast of Florida. We had so much fun being together. The white sand beach was AMAZING, with perfectly warm water. Lots of time was spent laying out at the beach, great pools, restaurants, really late nights talking, and we even got to see my Grandpa and Grandma Stevens, who live down in Florida. Parker loved being with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We celebrated my mom's birthday on July 3rd... so fun, and then celebrated the 4th of July all together. I have never had a better 4th of July! We layed on lounge chairs right on the beach, and watched a great fireworks display over the ocean, as well as all the hundreds of personal shows people were lighting all around us. People bring BIG stuff to the beach. It was awesome, and our little dare devil Parker loved every second. Can't wait to go back next year!
Park and I stayed a few extra days with my mom at my grandparents house and we were really spoiled. It was really fun to have my mom to myself for a few days too.
Thanks mom and dad for a great trip! We love you!

Hopkins on ABC

If anyone is interested in what I did before I was a mom, tune into the new Hopkins show on ABC this Thursday night 10:00pm/9central. I worked as a nurse in the PICU (pediatric ICU) which will be featured this week on the show. Yeah, it was craziness. I tried to avoid the cameras, but who knows, maybe I'll make an appearance.

It's kind of bitter sweet now, not working there. It was probably the hardest thing I ever did, and you seriously had to put your entire life into each of the 12 hour shifts working there, literally trying to save lives 24/7... it was a whole other world in the PICU, but it was so worth it. I saw lots of miracles, and grew a ton during the hard times. In a way, it really prepared me for being a mother, which is the best job in the world, and a LOT less intense and crazy than the PICU ever was! Phew!

New York City

Chad and I absolutely LOVE going to NYC, so we thought it was about time to take Park up to the Big Apple for his first time, and visit my little sister, Tia who is nannying up there for the summer. We drove straight to Yankee stadium to watch the Yankees take on the Padres. Yankee stadium is so old and so cool. Then we rode the subway into the city, and entered the Wicked raffle...(we are only a little bit obsessed), but Chad won!!! (this means we got to buy front row tickets for only $25) Tia met us in the city and Chad and I each saw half of the play with Tia, while the other person walked around the city with Parker. Parker LOVED New York, with all the horns, people, lights and music. He was in heaven. The rest of the trip consisted of train and subway rides, New York pizza, central park, cute little Maplewood New Jersey, shopping, oh, and I almost forgot.... Front row lottery seats at "Hairspray, " which we decided might even be a better "Front Row Musical" than Wicked. (yes, we had an extremely LUCKY, but fabulous weekend).

Our First Family Vacation

A few weeks ago (I know... the post is a bit over due), we went on our very first family vacation, just the 3 of us. We drove to Atlantic City and stayed for 5 nights. (For all you west coasters, Atlantic city is like Vegas on the beach, add a boardwalk, add us). We had a great time and didn't want to come home! Highlights include:
1. Parker... he was the PERFECT kid, and loved every single second of the vacation.
2. the sweet beach... loved it.
3. the mall on the pier with great stores, and great restaurants
4. watching the Laker/Celtics game at "game on"-- great sports restaurant
5. funnel cakes and ice cream on the boardwalk
6. Chad and Park finding huge seashells on the beach
7. our AWESOME hotel rooms
8. shopping the outlets
9. the merry go round on the pier
10. spending time all together and watching our little boy love it all!

We loved our vacation. It made us so excited to keep doing things like this with our kids in the future.
Check out the pictures in the slide show below...

Check out my Slide Show!