Spring Break

I scheduled us a vacation through Priceline, not usually an issue, cause we know what area we like to stay in. This time though I added in Clearwater as an option. Had a total meltdown and booked for the wrong dates. Have you ever made a mistake with Priceline? When you call the recorded voice tells you about 1000Xs that you cannot get a refund for errors made etc. They did right though and refunded when I re-booked for the correct dates.

A few weeks later we finally realized it was at the same resort we had stayed at in Clearwater last August. Julie was less then pleased. She did not like that the resort is not ON the beach. The other issue we had last vacation was that the girls were NOT happy to be away from home and wanted NOTHING to do with the beach. We dragged them to the beach one of the days last vacation and it was the most miserable hour EVER! This fact stayed the same this vacation but everything else was different. Same hotel, but we ALL had a great time, even Julie! We did realize later though that the problem last vacation was that Julie brought Julie with us on vacation.

We opted to just go with it and not go to the beach. Instead we went to little beach (Cypress Point) when we got home. The girls were old enough to hang out in Lisa's Club house, the kids area where they do crafts and activities. They made tie dye shirts, stayed for a pizza party so mommies could go out to dinner, and made a bag full of crafts at Lisa's clubhouse.

The girls had a great time playing in the pool. One of their favorite activities was what they named the "Silly Game". Why? Cause Julie kept saying to them, "This is a silly game." So they asked her repeatedly to play the Silly Game with them. It consisted of them jumping into the pool, Julie catching them, Julie pushing them toward the steps, they get out and jump into the pool. Rinse. Repeat.

We also enjoyed "cocktail hour" the girls loved watching the bartenders make drinks. They got to sample some of the fun frozen drinks (virgin of course!)

Here are some of the photos from our vacation:

"Picnik Show"

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Vacation All I Ever Wanted...

This was NOT being sung by the LGs...

We went to Clearwater Florida for 4 nights. The first day we were there Avery kept saying she wanted to "go home". Um, sorry sweetie but this vacation is already paid for and we are taking it whether you like it or not.

On day two it was Emerson's turn to be homesick and continue her sisters anthem. We hung out at the pool for most of the day. The hotel was not ON the beach it was on the water but not on the beach. You had to take a trolley, car or hotel van to go to a beach.

Emerson not "happy" and wanting to go home:

Avery wearing her Mom's shirt:

We figured we would have a beach day on Monday. The girls had not taken a nap the day before due to us getting to the hotel so late. So when nap-time rolled around they were not happy about it. They were being crabby and ill tempered. After saying it was nap-time Emerson was saying she wasn't tired and did not want to nap and Julie said, "well, you sure seem tired cause your not happy." For the rest of the vacation whenever it was time to go to bed Emerson would start saying, yelling, screaming or (the best) crying, "I HAAAAPPPY!!!!" over and over again. Funny and cute the first time. Annoying beyond anything you could imagine the 10,000th time.

Emerson:

Mommy and Emerson:

On Monday we got up and started packing for our beach day. Avery promptly told us she did not want to go to the beach she wanted to go to the pool. We had it in our mind that despite her protests she would have a good time once we got to the beach...We have never been so wrong.

When we finally got to the beach Avery whined. the. whole. time. we were there. We only stayed maybe an hour before we decided it just wasn't worth it and went back to the hotel so they could swim in the pool.

On Tuesday we rented a cabana for the day and played in the pool most of the day. I think I only heard one or two "I wanna go home" statements on that day.

On Wednesday we told Avery, joyfully that we would be going home. She cried, "NOOOOOO!!!"

The best part of vacation was that Emerson potty trained herself while we were there. She told us she needed to "tee tee" so we set her on the potty and she went pee. We gave her a maraschino cherry (her favorite) every time she peed on the potty and since we have been home she has been wearing panties and has only had like 2 accidents. I'm so proud of her. I knew she would do it when she was ready and the weird thing is I remember thinking before we went on vacation that she would probably start wanting to use the potty while we were on vacation. So strange that I was right!

Avery:

Emerson swimming. You can always tell if it is Emerson cause she always has her goggles on:

Emerson coming up for air while swimming:

Avery swimming. This kid LOVES to swim!

July...already?

I Cant believe it's already the 9th of July and I have not blogged ONCE! I have a lot to catch you up on...

Well, lets start with the 4th of July weekend. First of I cannot remember such a bad weather 4th of July...ever! It rained all weekend. We had invited all of Julie's family up for the 4th. I was going to bbq chicken and corn. Ended up having to cook everything on or in the stove. Making for a hot house with lots of extra body heat as well.

We had a surprise visit from my relatives also. Brenda, Kevin, Amy, Lila, baby Kevin and his great grandma went to Clearwater for a short vacation. The girls and I met them Thursday night for dinner at Crabby Bills. Friday we went to the Aquarium, then they visited Saturday with us. It was nice to see them. Although, Avery and Emerson were angry when Lila was leaving. Neither of them would give anyone a hug or kiss cause they were mad that she was leaving. I think they would pack their little bags and move in with Lila if they could.

Baby Kevin and his mommy, Amy:

One of Emerson's favorite things is to water color. I discovered this when we would go to swim lessons. The instructor has a little girl the same age as the LGs and she has water colors and sea shells on a table. EVERY. TIME. we go Emerson makes a bee line to the table and water colors until I make her head to the pool. So the other day I bought them some water colors and Emerson will sit for hours and paint paint paint. She has also taken to painting herself....Thankfully the paints are washable so it comes off really easy.

Here is one of her master pieces:

Just cause Avery's so darn cute in this pic:

There was break in the rain so we thought we would try some fireworks. We had about the same luck as we did last year. The girls were scared to death of them. Before we set any off though Uncle Randy opened up the back of his truck for the little people to sit on. We were trying to get them to do the hear no, see no, speak no evil and it was a huge FAIL cause when you would tell one to put their hands over their eyes they would all do it. It was like a failed game of Simon says.

This is the best we could get:

Here is what happened when the first (and last) fireworks went off:

Nana came and stayed the weekend. This made the LGs VERY VERY happy. Emerson make a full body print on Nana's lap. She was Nana's cuddle bug all weekend.

For dessert the kids had cup-cakes and it cracks me up when they hit the sugar coma. This is a video that I had to watch twice before I saw what Emerson did when she dropped the little trinket that was the cup-cake topper she was using as a utensil to eat the icing.