A few steps toward Independence

Claire got to celebrate Independence Day with a weeklong vacation down the shore.  She is officially a beach bum.  She spent at least 3 hours on the beach every day and loved every second of it.

Her favorite thing to do is sit by the water with a bucket and a handful of seashells.  She would put them in the bucket one by one and then take them out one by one....and then do it again....and again....and again...she literally played with seashells and a bucket for hours.  It was amazing. 

When she finally got bored with the shells, she would climb up and down on Daddy's chair for a little bit. 

Until she got too tired and needed a nap.

 Then she'd wake up for a snack...

And a swig from the cooler.

LOVE our little beach bum :)

After the beach, Claire had some fun climbing on the porch.  Grace was there to make sure she didn't get too crazy though.  She's always looking out for Claire...it's seriously the sweetest.  I think this picture says it all.

After a quick bath, we were right back out on the porch.

Chatty Kathy was yapping away as usual (and with such a Daddy face by the way)...

And hounding everyone for their food.

After dinner, us ladies squeezed on the couch for some self portraits.  Guess Claire didn't get the memo.

Then we were off to the boardwalk for some rides!  Claire was a little too sleepy (you can tell when she grabs her ears) so she hung in the stroller...

while Mommy rode some rides with Aunt Amanda, Grace, & Maddie.

She seemed to perk up though at the sound of ice cream.  Grace & Maddie were so nice to share with her.  They even taught her how to sign "more"....finally!  Mommy and Daddy have been practicing for 2 months now but she never seemed to get it...guess ice cream and 4 & 6 year olds do the trick. Now she does it all the time when she wants more of something...woohoo!  Thanks Grace & Maddie!

4th of July is by far my favorite day of the year down the shore.  I'm so glad Claire got to enjoy her first Independence Day in OC this year.  Fireworks on the beach are just the best!  Unfortunately they don't start until 9:30pm and Claire had so much fun at the beach that day, she fell asleep before dinner.  So we let her sleep for a few hours before waking her up to eat....she was in a surprisingly good mood for being woken up though.  Guess it's not so bad waking up to hot dogs.

After some good ol' American food, we headed to the beach.

We weren't sure how Claire would react to the fireworks.  She was sitting on Daddy's lap when they began...a little tired but she sat and watched them like a champ....for all of 5 minutes.

Then she had to get down to play in the sand! She didn't even seem to notice the fireworks after the first few minutes.  

As you can see we were having a little bit of trouble taking some clear pictures at night with our fancy camera.  Aunt Amanda seems to have figured it out though....she snapped this super cool pic of us while we were checking out the huge moon.  

It was a picture perfect night :)

Some other highlights from vacation:

Claire went shopping...

And hung with Nana on the boardwalk.

 She did some people watching...

 which is always entertaining.

 Couldn't help but check out those boardwalkers :)

Claire went for a ride on the carousel.  

It was her first time going on a horse that moves up and down.  She did NOT like it at first.

But finally loosened up the last go around.

Claire had some fun getting into the cabinets.

And the 'fridge.

She spent some QT with Mommy...

And Daddy.

She just loves her Daddy :)

She went for a bike ride.

And just as Mommy had hoped....the little stinker fell asleep!  This time I made sure to get a pic.

Needless to say, she was a little surprised when she woke up as I was taking off her helmet.

We did lots of hanging out on the porch.  

With Grace & Maddie (all in their maxi dresses :))

 While big cousin Luke relaxed with a good book.

The porch might be Claire's favorite place ever.

There's lots of room...and chairs...for her to walk around.  She especially loves the chairs that spin.  She grabs on to the handle and walks around in circles.

It's pretty funny.

All of the practicing has been paying off.  Our little Claire Bear is SO CLOSE to walking on her own.  She's taking more and more steps everyday.  She'll even take a few steps, stop and stand for a while, and then take a few more steps.  It's clear she knows how to do it, she just gets so nervous when she realizes she's not holding onto something.  She immediately grabs one of us, or will just sit on the floor. We've been trying to get some good footage of her first steps but it's been hard since she's not exactly a pro yet.  So here's the best of what we got so far...

I know it sounds so cliche but I seriously can't believe how big our little girl is getting already.  Ahh she's going to be 1 soon!!!