Beach Week Part II

So things seemed to get a little better once the dads got there. On Thursday, all 6 of us headed to the pool (I forgot to mention that the pool was a community pool for the area that we were staying in and it was about a 5 minute walk from the condo). The kids loved splashing all around and seemed to be in a better mood/feeling a little better. We stayed there ALL day and had a great time.


That evening we all got dressed and went to my favorite restaurant at the beach. We were a little risky taking the little ones, considering that it was a quiet, white tablecloth type of place. There were a few other kids there, but they all were silent. Ours on the other hand, were a little more well behaved than they had been the whole trip, but they were making noise/throwing food-Oh well! We also walked around some of the shops in the area and made our first trip to the actual beach.






Friday morning Future MIL and I went and got the most delicious doughnuts for breakfast. Everyone loved them! I then went shopping a little on my own while the little ones took a nap. After that we got ready for the pool and headed over there. Unfortunately, someone had pooped in the pool and so it was closed for the rest of the day (I also forgot to mention that this had happened to us when LL and I tried to go over there Wednesday....not fun once you have gotten yourself and a little one ready and all lathered up with sunscreen)!
So, we decided to head out to the beach for a little while (until we were rained out)! LL didn't know what to think about the sand at first, but then she dove right in it, tasted it, rubbed it all over her, etc.








LL also loved the big bathtub that she took a bath in every night (as well as a few extras when we needed to get the sand off of her).


After we were rained out, we all got ready and headed out to dinner. This place was a little more kid friendly and the little ones enjoyed the ride over there together. (Notice boyfriend holding her hand)

Saturday, the mister and I decided to take LL to the beach one more time to get a few pictures.






After that, we went to the pool to spend our last few hours.

We then, headed back to the condo, got all packed up and headed back to my parents house. We had originally planned to stay until Sunday, but we decided to go back and head to my high school reunion Saturday night. Although I was disappointed in the turnout, it was great to see all of my friends, many who I had not seen in a while. On Sunday, we packed up everything, including the two sons, and headed back home.
Hopefully next year's trip will be just as fun (without all of the sickness of course!)

Beach Week Part I

We made it through our first beach trip! We started the week off a little rough and continued to have a few obstacles throughout the week, but we made it through and will have some great (and some not so great) memories to look back on.

The rough patch started the evening of the 24th (last Friday). Shortly after the mister got home, LL started throwing up all over the place. This was our first experience with this and we weren't sure if it was something that she ate,a stomach bug,etc...

After battling with that all evening,we finally all went to bed. LL woke up bright and early and was acting like her usual self, so we had a feeling that it was something that she had eaten. We packed up the car, picked up boyfriend and future mother-in-law and headed south.

We started the trip at my parents house celebrating the 87th birthday of my grandmother. We were able to visit with a lot of family, many who were meeting LL for the first time. We also dropped off the two sons since pets aren't allowed at the beach.

On Sunday, we headed to Florida to start the trip.
The place was a nice 3 bedroom,3 bath. However,the first place that I toured was the bathroom b/c I ended up catching the now confirmed stomach bug. We took it easy for the rest of the evening after unpacking was seemed to be a semi-truck load.
During the night, future mother-in-law came to let me know that boyfriend had caught the bug. LOVELY!! What a way to start what we thought would be a relaxing vacation!
Monday, we all seemed to be feeling fine, so we headed to the pool for a few hours. We all had a great time and the little ones seemed to enjoy it.


It was also nice that we had a covered area with fans right behind our chairs/the pool so that we could let the little ones rest once they became tired.

We headed out for ice cream/shaved ice that afternoon which was YUMMY! LL was able to try it and she LOVED it!

That night we made tacos and hung out at the condo.
On Tuesday,we enjoyed another day at the pool.



That night, we decided to try dinner with just the four of us. We finally decided on a place and I was thrilled to order one of my faves--a shrimp po-boy. Right after we started eating, boyfriend started throwing up ALL over the table. Needless to say, the excitement of the po-boy was very short-lived. Our waiter was kind enough to help us get everything cleaned up and we decided that we should call it a night. As soon as I tried to pick up LL from her highchair, I noticed that she had obviously had a major blow-out explosion. It was ALL over her precious smocked dress, her brand-new monogrammed bloomers, the highchair cover, and the highchair. Not knowing what else to do, and not wanting to pick her up for the entire restaurant to see (at this point we figured that we had grossed everyone out enough), I picked LL up highchair cover and all, put her in her stroller and headed out. Is this a guilty face or what?!

On Wednesday, we decided to do a little shopping at an outdoor mall/shopping center. It was SUPER hot, but we kept ourselves semi-cool by going in and out of shops.

LL was being quite fussy,so we decided that it was time to head back. Once we got back, Future MIL started feeling sick, so we took it easy for the rest of the day. LL and boyfriend LOVED spending time on our large super nice balcony (and so did we).


Later on, LL and I headed out for dinner and a little shopping on our own so that boyfriend and Future MIL could get some rest. LL was an angel at dinner and charmed everyone around her. She LOVES sitting at the table like a big girl and snacking/demanding food.

Once we got back to the condo, we were greeted by the daddys--thank GOODNESS!!!!
Next up, beach Part II

Happy Happy

Today, we are celebrating 2 things: LL's 10 month birthday and the mister and I's 6th anniversary! We are constantly reminded that things just aren't quite the same when you have a little miracle in your life.
Example:
Dinner on an anniversary before having a baby:

Dinner on an anniversary after having a baby:


But I promise that it is all worth it when you have one of these in your life:

Coming soon-beach recap!

Let me introduce you to my friends...

Mr. Crab and Mr. Turtle!

Every night LL looks forward to her bath. In fact, she will not go to bed for the night without one (I guess because she has had one EVERY night since birth!). The first thing that she does as soon as she is in the tub is find Mr. Crab and Mr. Turtle. These two came in a precious ocean animal tub set. There are SEVERAL brightly colored ocean animals, but these two are her favorite. She even takes them with her while she is getting dried off and putting her pjs on. Then, we throw them back into the tub and wave bye-bye!

The Story of the Owl

Approximately 60 years ago someone made my father an owl outfit. My grandmother had his picture made in this outfit when he was around 8-9 months old. She then passed on the outfit to her other two sons and had their photos taken in it as well. After that, she decided to further the family tradition and pass the outfit down to all 8 grandchildren and the 5 great-grandchildren thus far.
And so, here is LL's photo in the same outfit that her mother, her aunt, her grandfather, her great-uncles, and all of her 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousins have worn.
*Sorry it is blurry, but it is the best that I could do for the blog.

This weekend, we dog-sat and did a lot of things around the house. Today, we decided to make a day-trip and visit the great-grandparents since they have not seen LL since Christmas. We also delivered LL's owl photo to them so that they could hang it on the wall amongst all of the other owl photos and give them back the owl outfit so that it will be ready for whoever has the next great-grandchild. They LOVED being able to spend time with her and she even got to see some other family members, although we missed all of the ones that we were not able to see!
This week we will be busy preparing for our 1st family beach vacation!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Well, we made it back from the girls weekend! We enjoyed a weekend full of shopping, eating, and LL enjoyed the aquarium one day with her aunt and aunt's boyfriend while mommy did more shopping. We missed daddy while he was away on his fishing/beach trip. LL was such a good girl/little trooper the whole time! I guess her good behavior paid off b/c everything that I purchased (other than my delicious meals) was for her! Here are the great finds that I purchased (they range in sizes from this fall to next Christmas!) Two are even reversable-2 in 1 outfits-yeah! We can't wait to go again! Mommy even found a few small things to put away for my 1st bday (not clothing though!) I have also included a pic of her at the aquarium-she was SUPER excited!!

















We still don't have a tooth, nor are we crawling...but oh so close! We are looking forward to our big beach trip w/ boyfriend and his family in less than 2 weeks!!

Happy 4th, etc!

We have had a great time over the past week! The first pics are of LL in her new pool (not as big of a fan of this bathing suit as others due to the fit, but cute for the backyard)! We decided to get a pool of our own since she enjoyed the frog pool at her grandparents (and we are not as lucky as the other grandparents to have a big pool in the yard)!


Next, we have LL's boyfriend!! LL's future mother-in-law and I decided to take them to the zoo early this week. LL had her precious little "zoo" paci clip on her which is a pink leopard monogrammed button with zebra ribbon...attached was a hot pink paci. Well boyfriend decided that that looked far more appealing than his beige clip w/ bold stripes and red paci....so he took care of that! We heard LL start to fuss, turned around and saw this-

Lastly, this week we celebrated LL's 9mth bday and the 4th. Her grandparents spent the weekend with us and we had a great time! We went to the zoo, had a lot of good food--including some that we grilled using daddy's new Father's Day gift, saw the fireworks (which she loved watching) and swam in the pool again.









Whew! This week has really worn her out!


This week we plan on getting some things done around the house and doing a little relaxing. Early Friday morning we will head out for a girl's weekend full of shopping and yummy food! LL's aunt and future uncle will also watch her some while mommy shops and take her to the nearby aquarium! She is getting so close to crawling and hopefully cutting her first tooth! Maybe in the next week or so I will be posting pics of both of these as well as a few from the girl's weekend!