Brandon, Barb & Maya too!

Well, it was really her first day the beach. We had been there one time this past winter with her (February, I believe).

But it was her first day in the Ocean! And definitely her first day when she had some idea of what was going on around her.

To view photos, please check out our Flickr Page (click here, and bookmark!).

She certainly enjoyed it. She LOVED the sand, running her little toes through it, getting it all over her. She really enjoyed digging her feet into the beach.

The whole 'blue water crashing into you' thing though? Well, she wasn't as sure about that (as you can tell in the pictures).

It was definitely a fun day. The first of many trips to the beach with our little girl.

She's just getting cuter by the day.

A couple of days ago she was overly playful. Barb brought her into our office (it is in the front guest room now) where I was working. Maya just looks at me, gives a huge grin and screamed at me in a playful way. A simple AAAHHHHH! And then she smiled once again.

I smiled back and she screamed again -- AAAHHHHH! So, I figured she might want to play. I screamed back at her and she started laughing so hard! She screamed, smiled...I screamed back, she laughed. This went on for a few minutes until she was laughing so hard that she ended up with a horrible case of the hiccups!

Yesterday was Maya's first softball game...well, first one out of the womb that is. Mommy joined her old team (the Semper Fi Bulldogs -- the coach is a former Marine Sgt.) and did really well. Barb was a bit timid in the OF at first, but then really got into the groove. I'd argue she did better last night than at any game or practice at any point last season! She was sore though at the end of the night, as that was the most exercise she's had since sometime last September, I guess.

Things are going well here though. I'm all done with my MBA and was named Graduate Student of the Year (woohoo!). Work is still work. I love the challenge of taking an organization that was arguably 10 to 15 years behind the times and in just 18 months now I have them on the leading edge of all non-profits anywhere. We are far ahead of the times at this point in our operations, fundraising, etc....very rewarding and quite frankly, some amazing experience that I would not gain anywhere else at this point in this economy.

Barb was notified that due to her chairing the University assessment committee (basically a whole additional job!), she will only have to teach one summer class and be chairperson to receive full summer pay -- that is GREAT news!

And she has put in to teach in Europe next summer. It will either be Paris or Bonn, I believe. I'll take either one. I miss Europe badly :-( I got Barb to agree to spend at least one week's vacation in Europe every year from here on out. Nice!

Hope everyone reading this is doing well!

-BTC