Home Again

So, here we are a week later and still trying to unpack all of our stuff. It was nice to be home. Ruth put flowers in the front of the house while we were away. What a great homecoming present! Gwen and Ailish promptly tore into their toys, having missed them greatly. I was surprised to see that the kazoo was the first thing they picked up. Gwen ripped all of their books out to read. Ailish was itchy from her sunburn, so she was rubbing her back on the doors and furniture. When she resorted to rolling on the floor, I gave her a wooden spoon to rub her back. Ha Ha! With the dust settled and us back into our routine, we have time to reflect on the great vacation we had and how we hope to do it again next year. Hopefully, we'll have some time to go to the fair in August to meet up. Lots of love to all of you!!!

Beach Vacation

The view from our deck was great! We didn't have far to go to get to the ocean!

We went to the Virginia Aquarium for a day off from the beach. We saw sharks, turtles, and skates. Gwen found she liked to push the buttons on all the displays to make them talk. Ailish liked looking at the turtles with her Uncle Jake. She even went into a shark head with him! They had a great nature walk where the girls loved looking at the flowers. At the end, Gwen happily sat on Uncle Jake's shoulders to look at the otters who were lazily laying in a shady spot in their home.

Later in the week, I snapped a couple of really cute pics of the girls. Gwen didn't like the water so much but she did like digging in the sand. Ailish liked to play in the surf and chase the crabs that would pop out of the sand to check us out.

We spent an afternoon at the Virginia Beach Boardwalk. They had a nice place with an ocean view to ride on several amusement rides. Daddy and Ailish went on several rides. I was surprised that she wanted to go on the ferris wheel. Of course, we have some pictures...

We had such a great vacation!

We wish that there was more time to spend at the beach to watch the waves come in. There is something that is so soothing about it. The food was amazing! (Diet starts Monday, I swear...) The time spent with our families is worth so much to us. No matter what, that is the most important thing.

Family Vacation

Hooray for a week of vacation! We made it safely to Virginia Beach after a 9 hour trip (we made several stops along the way). We went through the Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel. I think it's scary but very interesting. While we were going into the second tunnel a very big naval ship happened to be going over the tunnel at the same time.

First day: Woke up and hit the beach at 8:30 am. We spent the entire day on the beach today. We flew kites and dug in the sand. The girls were coated with sand by the end of the day. We hauled half the beach sand up to the house in their shorts and had to hose them down. Baths for everyone!

Oh Nooo! There's a hole!!!

I thought I'd share the fabulous pics of our new house 'hole'. From my understanding there was quite a puddle of water hanging out in our ceiling so when they opened it up it poured out of there. We got a picture halfway through the job when they had to go get another part when they dropped the one into our wall and couldn't get it back. LOL! The second pic is the finished plumbing. Next comes the lovely attempt to hide a big white tube next to our front door. *sigh*





On a nicer note, I love this recent pic of Gwen catching a nap. (Note: she IS sleeping on top of her 'pets'.)

Memorial Day Weekend

Great food, great family, and great memories were made at our picnic on Memorial Day weekend! Of course, the pool was in full use while we were there and it was a hot day for a good swim. Ailish went in to the pool and swam with Daddy for a while! Nothing was more surprising than Ailish being able to walk across the shallow end of the pool. Don't believe me? Here's the pic...

Gwen got a pedicure the day before and we painted her nails for the first time. She is so proud of her "blueberry" toenails! She went in the pool, the next day, for just about half a minute and decided that the water was just too cold for her, so she spent the rest of her time playing in the fountain. She'd take the water out and hydrate the ants that had the misfortune of being in her line of sight. Though Gwen didn't swim she got plenty wet and collected the toys that were supposed to be in the pool.

Oh, and I promised that this pic would be put up for the world to see...if you want it down, you'll have to pay...

Weekend Update

There isn't much to say these past couple of weeks have been pretty unremarkable. But just so y'all don't think I'm slacking, I took a couple of pics to share of the girls.

Gwen surprises us with her vocabulary. Though sometimes her meaning can be confusing. If you are around her for dinner, she will ask for "hoppy" after she has cleaned her plate. That actually means she wants some chocolate for dessert. Too cute. Oh, and yes, she IS wearing two pair of shorts at the same time in the one pic. The other picture is a self portrait. She took it with my camera, her finger is over the flash. (She has a black eye from last weekend when she launched herself off of the chair and into a table.)




Ailish is on the quest to look like Sharpay from High School Musical. So when we are picking up clothes, she likes the ones that look like her dolly. The good news is that she is wearing dresses. That wasn't a priority before. Yay!

Mother's Day Surprise

Ailish came home today with a gift for me that she just couldn't wait to share. It was bagged and stapled shut. She wanted to open it as soon as she got home, but Grammy convinced her to wait. When I got home, she danced to the door to tell me she had something for me and I have to open it now. Awww, my first Mother's Day gift from her. She helped me pull out the flower and told me to smell it and that we have to water it. When I asked her if she made it for me she said "I don't know." (Her favorite answer to anything we ask about when it comes to school... What did teacher read today? "I don't know." Did you play with blocks? "I don't know." What is your friend's name? "I don't know.") Anyway, I just had to take a picture and brag a little.