Crabs, anyone?

Perk #33 of living in Northern Virginia:

The crabs!

To celebrate George's and his mom's Birthdays this year, we bought a bushel of crabs and spent the afternoon talking and eating.

The kids thought the crabs were crazy!

Daddy teaching them how to shuck a crab...

(Is "shuck" even the right word? Peel? Crack? Tear limb from limb?)

Might need to work on your cracking skills, buddy.

Harvesting the meat is truly an art and takes a lot of patience. It takes a handful of minutes per crab to extract the small amount of meat, but it's so worth it!

Grandmom has it down to a science and can pull out huge chunks of crab meat in one go.

Peeling his own under the watchful eye of Grandmom.

I think Jude decided the crab meat wasn't worth the effort.

Still trying to crack the top:

Lance has been spending every weekend with his Dad and Abbey over the summer. Scott recently got a job working for the DEA and commutes to DC Monday through Friday while they try and sell their house in Charlottesville. We missed you, Lance!

The Birthday girl and boy!

I probably ate at least 10 crabs. It was so, so good.

Snuggle time with a 4-week-old baby Lexi.

Lily, Cole and Jude had fun picking tomatoes from Grandmom and Pop Pop's garden. Lily LOVES tomatoes and ate this one like an apple.

Wanna see something funny? Everyone in George's family has told us since Jude was born that he looks exactly like George did when he was little. Guess what?

It's true! I saw this picture hanging up and did a double-take. Jude is George through and through. Not just in looks alone, but in personality as well. He's like a mini-me.

Time for cake!

Grandmom getting her snuggles in:

See the trophy Jude's holding? He found that in George's old bedroom and insisted we bring it home. It's the trophy George received his Senior year of High School when he won Virginia's State Debate competition.

Happy Birthday, George and Mom!