watch!

This kid is driving me crazy with "Watch me Mommy!"

I try to act excited when she shows me how she twirls. It was really cute the first couple times she showed me. The 658th time is still cute, but man! I am having trouble getting anything done.

Other things she is very into these days that prohibits mommy productivity:

"I have to show you something very important!" (and it is a ball she put in a corner.)
"Follow me!"
"You're it!"


God bless her. I know these days are fleeting and I try to remember that. Michael J. Fox said in an interview that anything his kids want to show him is 100x more important than anything he is doing. I try and remember that too.

It does drive me crazy some days though.

Beach Vaca - Part 4 - Misc.

So these are the pics that don't fit into any other category...

We stopped at an awesome rest stop. Here is E stretching her legs.

At lunch. I had a fried green tomato blt. I really miss the south.

Giving our best "t-rex" stare. This is the look Ellie gives to scare away T-rex's. We are huge into Land Before Time still.

A carosel ride...on an elephant!

and a seahorse!

Our pet hermit crab, Sandy McCrabster. Poor thing died in the car on our way home from vacation. Didn't even last a week. We had a nice service for him and buried him in the backyard. Ellie now likes to tell everyone she had a crab, but he died.

Love this shot. I like to call it "2 guys, 2 babies, 2 giant beers."

On a walk after dinner. Hello!!

We love each other.

She pooped out.

Having a serious conversation with Jeff on the front porch.

This is why I wanted Megan as the godmother. Would you do this? Neither would I. She rocks at stuff like this.

Family shot at dinner.

Chris channeling his inner pirate (thanks Molly!)

and finally, Ellie totally loopy on the ride home. It was a LLLOOOONNNNGGGG day in the car.

Had a fantastic time. Hard to get back to the daily grind. Miss everyone.

Beach Vacation - Part 3 - After hours

God Bless Ellie and Michael. Those little dearies went to bed every night around 9 and slept through a lot of loud, raucous, adult behavior. Ellie did pop up once around 2 am telling us that we were being really loud. After that we put a towel in the dryer (that was right outside our room) to drown our the noise. We are so classy!

Yeah. We drank A LOT of beer. A LOT. I am not going to post specific numbers (even though we did keep tabs) because it is staggering. Mostly it was Bud Lime, because it is such a good beachy drink. I also drank a lot of girly Mikes, but I am the only one. Every one else was all beer, all the time. Except for the wine and margaritas and gin and tonics. Oh! And the one Boone's Farm Blue Hawaiian. Blech.

Most of the beer drinking was due to Caps. For those of you who have never heard of this game, let me explain. There are 2 partners on each team. You sit about 20 feet across from your opponents and take turns throwing quarters, trying to get it in the cups of beer between them. If you do, and they don't counter, they have to drink that beer. First to 5 wins. There are "be a sports" and "supersports" but I won't go in to all that, because I don't think you really care.

Me and my poor partner Julie. I am not a beer chugger, or an anything chugger for that matter, so my partners always got extra drunk because it took me too long to down the beer. They usually just took over. Notice our backboard. A diapers box. Did I mention how classy we are?

Lisa lost. Drink up Lisa!

Chris took my spot. I think Julie was relieved. Chris is a good chugger.

Chris with a quarter on his head. This is obviously towards the end of the night...

Me in a Jones-Pesler sandwich. Just a little cuddle time.

The dudes. Kevin might have lost that game of Caps. He would be the one on the floor.

Surprisingly, no one got unruly. I mean, we are somewhat responsible people, and there were 2 kids to think of. I don't think there were even any terrible hangovers. But boy did we have fun.

We did play other games besides ones that involved drinking. We played euchre, Pit, and Boxers and Briefs.

And then there was the night we were all asleep by 10 pm.

Beach Vaca - Part 2 - Beach Fun!

I noticed in my last post that I didn't mention where we had been. Duh. We went to Holden Beach, NC. This is not the place to go if you want a million things to do. You should go to Myrtle Beach for that. It is really a quiet little beach community and we LOVED it.

Ellie was in hog heaven with the beach. She could have stayed down there all day. We usually went down in the mornings and stayed til nap. And let me tell you, nap she did! What is it about sun and water that makes kids so tuckered?

I was terrified she was going to burn, but besides a small spot on her face I missed the first day, not one single burn. She actually tanned. WTH? I don't tan. I burn and peel. Plus, my skin does not tolerate the sunscreen, salt, sun combo well. I always get splotchy and gross. It is so unfair. So anyhoo, here are some pics of our beach fun.

First step into the sea.

Ellie and Daddy checking out the pool first thing. Seriously, we weren't even unpacked. She just couldn't wait.

Shells! There were tons of shells on the beach. Fun!

Buried alive.

Ellie and Daddy discussing what a terrific and wonderful wife and mother I am.

Must be nap time.

It was 50 degrees for 2 days we were there. 2 flippin' days. Didn't stop us though!

Heading back to the house, freezing.

Climbing a sand dune. Did you know there was a $500 dollar fine for playing on the dunes? This stopped as soon as we learned that little tidbit. We are not beach people. We didn't know the rules!

Ellie watching a little beach bocchi.

Look! Sand!

Looks like nap time again.

A sandy snack.

The beginning of a fantastic sand castle.

I took a few precautions around the pool. She was not pleased. Next on list, swimming lessons.

Every morning there was a huge tide pool that we would play in. This was her favorite.

Slightly afraid of the semi-deep water you had to wade through to get to the tide pool.

Ellie and Daddy racing back to the towels.

Destroying all our hard work.

The ladies on the beach.

Tune in next for all the fun stuff that happened after the kiddies went to bed. It was total shenangins!

Beach Vaca - Part 1 - Surroundings

What a trip! So relaxing and just what we needed. I have debated the best way to blog about it, since so much happened, and have decided to do a 3 0r 4 part series. Aren't you excited!

First, so you can get a general idea, here is the setting of the vacation.

We knew it was going to be a good trip, when, on the way down, we saw this.

1303 Abel. Our lovely abode.

A few of the other houses on our street.

The view off our back deck. Yeah, you should be jealous.

Where we spent lots of time admiring view.

Stay tuned. There is lots to come!

2 posts in one

We are heading to the beach for a week so I am probably not going to be posting for awhile. So today you get 2 posts for the price of 1!

First, this morning. It is all rainy and cozy here today. For some reason, Ellie has been waking up at the butt crack of dawn lately. So at 6 something, we hear "Daddy! Mommy! I'm awake! Come get me!"

Ugh.

So I stumble in there, pick her up, tell her it's too early, and she is going to go back to sleep with Mommy and Daddy for awhile. That lasts about 30 seconds.

"Scratch Mom."

Ugh. In all his infinite wisdome, Chris started scratching Ellie's back. Now, she wants scratched all the time.

I half ass scratch her back.

"I'm not tired. I am getting up"

Me: "mmmphft"

Off she goes. A minute later. "I can't find my flip flops. I CAN'T FIND MY FLIP FLOPS AND I NEED TO WEAR THEM RIGHT NOW!!"

You really can't blame her for this one. Look how cute they are.

We think they are downstairs, so off she goes in search of them. "THEY'RE NOT DOWN HERE AND I NEED TO WEAR THEM RIGHT NOW!!"

Chris: (throwing off the covers and muttering expletives under his breath) "I'm coming honey"

They are found in the toy room and all is quiet for a few minutes. Meanwhile, Chris and I are all cuddled up in bed for a few last minutes of warmth and cuddles. Did I mention it is all rainy here today? Is there anything better than laying in bed listening to it rain? Next thing we know, Ellie is standing by our bed.

"Eat some." (shake shake) "Eat some!"

Apparently, she went downstairs, rifled through the stuff we are taking on vacation, decided on these, and brought them back up. (Did I fall asleep? How did I miss her going down the stairs?)

Fine. Do whatever you want kid, if it means I can sleep for 5 more minutes. So, the first thing she ate this morning was teddy grahams. Oh well.


Next post, the zoo. These are just a few pics from our zoo trip yesterday.

This is the face I get when I say smile. Isn't it nice?

Hugging a camel.

Walking on a log. I swear we walked on every single damn ledge at the zoo. I remember loving to do this too, but sheesh. Every single one? Really?

Trying to get a pretty shot by some flowers. This was the best of the bunch. She looks spaced out.

Feeding the lorikeets. We both had birds on our heads at one point. I wish I could have gotten a pic of ellie, but I was holding her when it happened, and she was not pleased. She went rigid and said very calmly, "I do not like this. Get it off Mom." Notice the distance she is keeping with one on my shoulder.

So I will be back in a week or so with tons of beach pics. I am so excited!!