vacation

things i want to remember from vacation ...

elijah and hayes were super cute tonight on the beach wearing nothing but their undies. what made it even cuter is the fact that elijah accidently had a pair of hayes' undies on and vice versa so one was a little too big and the other a little too small, nothing but cuteness :)

madelyn and addie hold hands on a regular basis. they love each other so much. they wear whatever clothes and pjs they have that match. they are each other's sister that they don't have.

i got to see my julie b. after about 4 years. she has 3 kids now and the day was just too short frankly. i love her so much and our kids loved each other so much. saying good-bye to her again was sad because i know if we still lived close to each other we would still be good friends and our kids would play regularly. they were all really cute together. of course i kept forgetting my camera so i didn't get as many pictures as i wanted to.

the weather was gorgeous during our week at the beach.

we have a screened in porch at this house and my mom sat out there and read most days. we started calling it the library because one day nick said, "why doesn't your mom just get a week at the library each summer?" we all cracked up.

we got to see the wilsons twice this week too. that was fun.

elijah rode the swing ride and every time he would come around to where we were he was making a different face, had a different pose, etc. dan and i were cracking up :)

hayes was in a super naked stage and elijah was in a super modest stage so every time hayes would be somewhere naked elijah would quick cover his eyes and yell for hayes to get some clothes on. it didn't help that hayes was elijah's constant shadow so when elijah went to go potty hayes was close behind. poor elijah didn't get much alone time.

we were at my aunt's house for my mom's retirement party and hayes walks in the room and dumps his clothes on shannon's head. she was quite surprised to turn to see a naked hayes. apparently he was ready to go swimming again, but needed help with his suit.

i saw kerry twice in one week!!! what?? i did. so fun. we met at aunt elaine's to go swimming the one day and then she came up for my mom's party too. good times. good times indeed. what made it even better is she bought me a 31 bag for an early birthday gift :) i love it!

poor addie threw up the day they were supposed to leave. too much junk food the night before. sadly, hayes threw up last year on the day they were leaving. i hope this doesn't become some kind of weird tradition because it looks like shannon is next on that list. yikes. their flight got canceled so they ended up staying another night.

one night my kids and i went to ihop to eat. madelyn and i like the butter pecan syrup, but elijah likes the maple. i don't typically say "maple syrup," but i did that night. well, the next day he was so excited to tell addie that at ihop "i had maple syrup and you could actually taste the maples!" he wasn't sure what those were when we asked him :)

poor addie was sad to not be able to see simon and samson during her visit this time, and she's afraid they won't live through the year until her next visit. poor thing. apparently she and madelyn had a heart to heart concerning the kitties.

simon is actually doing really well now that he is on the meds. dan did a fabulous job of staying on top of that while i was away. even now that i am home he will still give simon his meds. it's sweet.

this was the first time i left molly for a whole week. she did okay i guess. but she was super clingy when i got her back. leaving the animals and making arrangements for them was a HUGE stresser this year. ugh. remind me that i said no more cats after these ones are gone, please.

Ahhh, hello beach ... we definitely need to get together more often

We are here. Our house is great. We are just a few houses away from the beach and the tail end of the boardwalk which in my opinion is the best location. You don't get the noise, but you are within walking distance of the fun of the boardwalk.

We have a house sitter. So far my newest dog Molly is not taking to her. She is earning her money this week. Poor girl.

Elijah and I were up at 4 on Saturday morning, not the best start to our week. I realized he had only eaten a banana on Friday night for dinner. With all the kids and family it's easy to overlook these things I guess. I know I don't win a mother of the year award with that one. Let's move on.

We were thrilled when the realtor had food available for us so we had lunch there before getting to our house to unpack. So yummy too!

We hit the beach after unpacking. I actually fell asleep on the beach. I NEVER do that, but I had been up since 4. I even missed the excitement of our umbrella blowing away down the beach into the ocean. Oh, and did I mention it was wall to wall people? The crowds were nuts on the beach and boardwalk. We saw the fireworks on the beach. That's the best. So relaxing.

Sunday came and my stomach was sick so I spent the morning in the bathroom. Ugh. There should be some kind of law against getting sick while at the ocean. The good news is that I got to take a 3 hour nap. We also got to see Dottie's (my stepsister) mansion at the beach. Okay, it's not a mansion, but it is HUGE.

Last night we went out for ice cream. Elijah can't eat ice cream, but we thought he should be able to do sherbet right? Wrong. He threw up this morning. Hence still being at the house and not at the beach at 10 a.m. Poor little guy. I knew something was up when he was still sleeping at 8:30. Then he just could not wake up. He still feels a little funky. It's so sad because he's my morning person, full of energy right away and to see him all sad and icky feeling is awful. This is partly how I knew he had issues with milk as a baby. Any time I gave him dairy he would end up throwing up. His body just rejects any kind of milk product. It's definitely an allergy though and not just an intolerance. It's crazy, and makes feeding him super hard.

So, here we are. I think I need to live at a beach one day. Dan and I both feel this way. Knowing the big vast ocean is just minutes away brings peace to my soul. There's just nothing like it.

Hayes is super cute with his little 21 mos ways about him. He doesn't talk. He makes noises, but he gets so excited and words pop out like Elijah and ribs. He was running through the house looking for Elijah and was saying his name. He wanted more ribs last night and yelled, "Rib!" But, when you ask him later on to say words he just mumbles, grunts, etc. He is such a little show off. He is so adorable. Addie and Madelyn are "like sisters" they keep saying. They are cute. They have a couple matching pairs of pjs and outfits and they love it. Elijah goes between the girls and Hayes. He got confused at first and asked for his matching night gown as well. He also wanted pony tails. I think he gets it now though that he's not a girl.

Cousins are the best.

I think that's all for now. Stay tuned for more stomach issue stories ...