The Hopkins Family

Friday, February 4, 2011

One Year Later

....I know...way way way overdue...sorry. Well here is the express update:

We are all doing great!!!
Wisdom & Truth are poddie trained (just Pull-up's at night)
Shannon is still working on the final 5 pounds of baby weight, and she cut her hair off. Now she really looks like the day we got married
Bryan finished his MBA, and is glad to again be a part of the family :-)

This is a couple quick pic's just to show you that they have changed just a tad since the last update...and I promise the next posting won't be one year later.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

So so so sorry for the 6-month delay in getting any updates posted. As you know things change so quickly at this age (15 months now), so there is no way to catch you up on everything in one update....so we will just start at today, and do better going forward :-)

Wisdom and Truth are two amazing babies. Wisdom is still very independent, but also very social. She probably doesn't have a shy, nor fearful, bone in her lil' body. Speaking of her lil' body, she is a petite one. She has only gained about one pound in the last 4 months (now 21 lbs), so we want her to pick up a lil' more weight. Unlike Wisdom, Truth would be satisfied if we never had company. As soon as the doorbell rings, he starts headin' for daddy (or grammie). He loves to sing and he is really good at sign language. Together, they are a bundle of joy and energy. They could play, sing and dance together all day.

Shannon is doing well, just tired. She has started working part-time (styling at Amazon), so her mom (grammie) has been watching the kids in the day. Bryan is still busy with Intel and finishing up his MBA (June '10). But he is also on crutches for the next 5 weeks after his 3rd (and final) knee surgery.

"A drawer is no place for plastic bags"

Shannon smoochin' on Truth

Being a toddler is hard work

Gettin' their Rhythm Nation ON!!

Truth and daddy showin' off their new haircuts

Wisdom sportin' her snow outfit at Snoqualmie

Wisdom getting ready to hit the slopes

Truth sending a quick text

Wisdom chillin' like only she can

Can't sit on it...gotta STAND on it

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The 1st Family Vacation (Part 1 - Georgia)

The plan is to take Wisdom and Truth on a 3 week vacation to visit friends and family. We will fly into Atlanta June 23, rent a minivan, drive about 1000 miles, and eventually end up fly home from Louisiana on July 13. You ready??? Let’s see how things are going in Georgia…

23 June – Shannon’s idea of getting to the airport 2½ hrs early was brilliant. So we arrived in plenty of time to learn that Delta would be charging $45 for our 3 bags, and that two of them were over the 50 pound limit. Unpack…repack…weigh…(repeat)…finally, all bags are checked in. But since we both have a child in our lap, we can not sit in the same section of seats (not enough oxygen masks). Thankfully, the gate agents were able to sit us across the aisle from each other. We make our way to security with 2 diaper bags, one purse, one laptop bag, one stroller, 2 adults, 2 infants. After removing all food and bottles from bags, laptops, jackets, shoes, etc…the 2½ hrs had shrunk to 50 minutes. So we grabbed some Wendy’s and hopped the train to the south terminal. Wisdom spent the first 30 minutes of the flight entertaining the other passengers, but after that, we all slept the entire flight…Thank God...’cause we were exhausted (Herm warned us that travelling with kids was “no joke!!!”).

24 June – After a great flight, we arrive at ATL about 7:15AM. We pick up our luggage without incident. The plan was to rent a car away from the airport to save ~$600. Bryan catches a cab to downtown to pick up the car, while Shannon waits at baggage claim with the Wisdom, Truth, and the luggage (including our car seats). While in line at Hertz, Bryan noticed that the minivan reservation was for Tuesday the 23rd, instead of the 24th…uh-oh, is that going to be a problem???? U betcha!!! The downtown location had no vehicles available today and the agents confirmed that no minivans would be available until after the 4th of July. In the interim, Bryan called Hertz to rent a raggedy, baby blue, Mercury Marquis from Hertz at the airport (only until a better solution could be found). Bryan retuned to airport 2 hrs later…without the rental car. It would have been another 30 minutes (or another $30 cab fare) if Kat and ‘Twan hadn’t come to the rescue with a ride back to the airport. The other saving grace was that a lady in the airport made a Starbucks run for Shannon, about one hour into the wait.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip goes much smoother.

W & T on their first swim at Miles 8th b-day.
(Can't believe we didn't take a pic with the Garrett fam)