We're spending New Year's at the beach with friends, which has been a yearly tradition for us. Aden is very happy to be back at the beach house, he has been asking to go for the past week. We have to drag him out of the house whenever we have to go anywhere, all he wants to do is hang out at the house. Our friend Matt and his daughter Aaliyah is also staying with us. Aaliyah and Aden has been having a lot of fun together, they play so well together even though they are 2 years apart. We told Matt that the 2-year gap wouldn't matter that much when they're older; Aden loves them older girls :)
Our friends Denise & Brent came over with their baby, Jace (who is only 6 weeks old) last Sunday. Aden enjoyed having them over and even let Jace borrow his Bumbo. Aden tried hard not to be too rough around him, but couldn't resist patting him on the head a few times. I don't know if that's his way to show him that he's the alpha dog, or letting him know that he'll show him how to get into trouble! 
We had our good friends, Craig & Jenn over for dinner last night and Aden was all over them. They are definitely one of Aden's favorite grown-ups. And of course, Craig had to show Aden a new fun trick, they were both giggling so much, we had to take some shots of the two of them...
We drove to the beach Tuesday after the big storm (2 weeks ago), after they opened the roads to get to the beach. We checked on our house to make sure it is still there and to check for any damages. We lost 2 trees, one in the front and one in the back. We were very lucky, both trees barely missed our house and our neighbor's house. We did lose a bunch of shingles, Darin had to get up on the roof and do some repair work. I think we're up for a roofing party soon. 
Two days after his actual birthday, we had another birthday party for Aden, this time we had his friends over. He had such a fun time playing with his friends, he's getting used to all this partying! He also had his first dose of sugar, I think he didn't know what to do with that cupcake.
I can't believe how fast 2 years went by. It seems like just yesterday when we brought the little guy home. Now he's talking in full sentences, singing songs, memorizes his books and is becoming more independent as each day passes by. Pretty soon, he'll be off to college...we better not blink!
Two days after we got back from Fiji, Aden celebrated his birthday with our family. I made him a semi-healthy cake (aka not a lot of sugar in it) and Darin & I decorated it with trains since he loves trains. Aden never had cake before, and we were a little concerned about giving him a cake with chocolate icing. But after he blew out the candles, he forgot all about the cake and moved on to presents. He had so much fun tearing the wrapping paper that we couldn't even coax him to have some cake. 
We were sad to leave, we had such a fun time. Fiji is such an awesome place and Aden proved to be such a great traveller. We don't know if we'll be back there again anytime soon, there's too many other places we want to travel to. But it's definitely such a special place for us. Aden & I caught a cold the last day in Fiji, so it wasn't the funnest time on the plane. But Aden still loved being in the plane and seeing the other airplanes upclose. He even showed the airplanes to his friend, Monkey. 
On our last day in Fiji, we had lunch one more time out on our patio. It's definitely one of our favorite spots; we had such a great view of the pool and ocean from our unit. That's definitely what we miss the most. 
pression on Aden's face was quite funny. We probably overextended the kids a lot during the trip, with the long days and late dinners, but they'll get over it. The boys were definitely troopers for hanging with us, Tristan was even reduced to having a makeshift crib to sleep in during dinner. One of the perks of staying out late with kids is that the resort (Westin) where we had dinner at, offered to take us back to our resort in one of their cool golf carts, for free!
