Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Back to Normal

We survived (just barely!) last week without Joel. Let's just say it was good to have him home Friday night! Just about everything that could have happened last week did happen, like both kids not sleeping, both kids getting ear infections, a bomb threat at our CVS that caused us havoc in getting prescriptions, and the dogs being SO sick too on top of all that. It was not a fun week at times, but we did have some good moments too, like not cooking AT ALL, eating a great dinner on Tuesday with the Reed's with fresh veggies from the garden, me being able to finish a book (I read Fifty Shades--not sure how I feel about it, but I am going to read the second one!), and having a fun day off with the boys on Friday and having a good lunch at Moe's all by myself with them (and it was relatively stress free!). So, it wasn't all bad!

I did manage a few pictures last week. Harrison is pulling up on everything! He is even starting to let go a bit and balance. Didn't he just start crawling a couple of weeks ago???

Hudson is SO silly! Poor baby has the absolute worst ear infection I have ever seen. It is so bad that it was dripping all over the place last week--awful!
Harrison's ears were fine on Thursday at the doctor (Dr. C. checked them too while we were there), but lo and behold, he woke up with them draining on Friday indicating another infection for him too. That is our luck with these things. I emailed Dr. C. to let him know and he responded by saying we have the worst ears in America.

Friday, we also went to see Hudson's new preschool. He LOVED it and wanted to stay so that made me so happy! Only problem is that he has to be totally potty trained by August 6th. That gives us less than 2 weeks to get him to go #2 in the potty! He's fine on #1 and has been for a while now, but he just won't go #2 in the potty! We've done little treats and that just isn't working. Friday, I went and let him pick out a big toy that he has been wanting for a while now and we put up a potty chart with stickers on the wall (with the toy sitting under it, still in the box, but out in the open so he can see it) and when he fills the potty chart, he gets the toy. I think he understands--at least he acts like it! So far, it's working, but I'm still not convinced this is going to stick for him. I'm afraid he's going to get the toy and go right back to where we were. He's smart. I used to be optimistic on this process--it is quite frustrating to say the least. Recommendations welcome on this!

Saturday, Joel had to work all day so we went to the zoo with some of our friends. We had a great morning out!


The splash pad is always a hit! I wanted to run through it too because it was so hot, but I thought I might get some looks! :) The zoo is always a great place to go. It pretty much guarantees good naps in the afternoon too!


It ended up being a pretty laid back weekend, which we all needed. Glad to have the fam back together again! Can you tell I'm not used to Joel being out of town? I absolutely hate it.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Another Beach Trip and an Engagement!

After being at home only 3 nights, we hopped back in the car for another beach trip. This time, it was with Joel's family (I think we counted 26 family members or something like that) and we went to Tops'l in Sandestin. I was fun staying somewhere different since the only place I've ever gone to has been my parent's condo in Seagrove. The original plan was for us to not come home in between trips, but it just didn't work out with our work schedules. We had plenty of vacation, but too much work to do. Blah! Oh well, thankfully the boys did great on all car rides so it really wasn't too bad. And I just love the beach so I didn't really care what we did as long as we got to go!

Attempt at a family picture--at least everyone is looking!
Dinner at Mitchell's...

Hudson dug lots of holes with Pops!
Thursday, the weather was perfect. Friday and Saturday, it was kind of rainy off and on. We still got good beach time though so it wasn't too bad.
Friday night, we all gathered for a family picture on the beach. Imagine 26 or so people all dressed in khaki and white. We definitely got some looks! Here is the Reed fam...
All the grandbabies of the group (we were missing one).
I love this picture of Hudson and Uncle Jordan!
It's empty, don't worry! Ha!
Here are Anna and Jordan--little did she know that she was about to get proposed to!
And there they go on their walk!
So there was a little bit of an alterior motive for the family picture. It was a reason to get everyone dressed up and down on the beach because Jordan (Joel's brother) wanted to propose to Anna on the beach. Thank goodness the weather cooperated! It was a very sweet proposal and very well thought out. Joel's parents had scoped out a place on the beach earlier in the trip that was private and away from the crowd and just absolutely beautiful from what I could tell in the pictures! They had set up a blanket and a little table that had roses and champagne on it, and candles as well. There was a really cute basket that had several gifts in it about their relationship and of course the last gift was a beautiful ring! It was so sweet and the ring is gorgeous!!! We are so excited for them. It was hard for everyone to keep the secret, but we all did and she didn't have a clue!

We all waited at the pool for them to come back before having a celebration.

And here they come!

Jordan had one more surprise for Anna. Her family came down to be with her that night and this was her reaction when she saw them. I'm not sure anyone had a dry eye!
After hanging out at the pool for a bit, we headed up to one of the condos and had a little gathering with champagne and cake! 
It was a fun night and we couldn't be more happy for the two of them. I'm getting such a great sister in law and it will be so nice having another girl in the family!
The rest of the trip was filled with more hole digging and more swimming. I'm proud to say that Hudson didn't wear his puddle jumper at all in the pool this trip and he did great!
This picture about sums up the end of yesterday afternoon. Hudson threw the biggest fit! He was SO tired!
The rest of the family headed to a nice dinner late last night, but we just didn't think our boys could handle it, so we just went over to Baytowne Wharf and played for a while and ate an early dinner at Hammerheads. We had such a fun time!
Sweet sweet boy!
I can't believe Hudson did the jumpy thing. He used to be my cautious child, but now he is fearless! He loved it. He even wanted to do the zipline, but Joel wouldn't let him. Maybe next year!



We were all sad to leave today, but it is good to get back home for a while. It's hard traveling with small kids. They did great, but I'm pretty worn out! Poor Joel is leaving for Vegas tomorrow for the week, so I know we will both be glad when this week is over and we can get back to normal! It has been a fun two weeks of vacationing. Thank you to the Reed's for such a fun trip! We can't wait to do it again next year!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

4th of July at the Beach

We just got back from a fabulous few days at the beach. It went by way too fast! Carrie and Andres joined us again this time and that made it so fun! We did have a bit of a hiccup on the way down. Andres couldn't come until Wednesday and Carrie really wanted to get there Tuesday night with us so she rode with us (in one extremely packed car--we took turns wedging ourselves in between the carseats in the back!). We didn't leave until 5 and at around 8:30, we realized that all of us forgot our keys to get in the condo. Thank goodness for Larry the Locksmith who met us there at 10 pm Tuesday night and got us in! It was pretty funny--Carrie had to work her magic on him, especially after the first person we called was going to charge us $125 to do it! She was the ultimate "damsel in distress" on the phone. How could he not help?!?! He ended up being really nice and we were very grateful that he drove 35 minutes to help us!

Anyway, my parent's condo has always had a big 4th of July celebration. Carrie and I have so many memories from our childhood of the 4th of July and now that I have kids, I was so excited for them to experience it too!

It started out a 9 am with a parade for all the kiddies. We met in the rec room where they had all kinds of stuff for the kids to decorate themselves in. Hudson even got his first tattoos! Ha! Then, all the kids marched into the courtyard and around to pool to patriotic music and it is always so cute! They have the "opening ceremonies" so to speak and then the games begin! Here we are right before the parade started!


Hudson didn't sleep the entire way down to the beach so he really didn't get to bed until 11 the night before and he was crabby. Phew. He was downright awful at times, but I guess it was expected with the amount of sleep that he had.
The games are for all ages. Each race had heats for kids ages 0-6, 7-14, and 15 and up (I think). The first race was the sprint race and Carrie and I both participated! Hudson was shy and wouldn't go in his age group, but he ended up running with me. I think we came in last. :( Oh well. I wasn't bitter or anything. Ha! When we were kids, there was a prize for the big winner of the day in each age group so it was really competitive. My mom even broke a rib one year when she was doing the sprint race and dove towards the finish line. I think now everyone gets a prize. Oh how times have changed! It is still fun though!

Once we got to the sack race, Hudson was ready to go. Of course, he chickened out once the race started. Carrie and I passed on the sack race. We weren't really dressed for a whole lot of up and down jumping if you know what I mean! :)

Then it was the donut on a string game for the little kids. They had to eat the donut without using their hands. It was so funny because it was quite frustrating for most of them, including Hudson. He just didn't understand why he couldn't use his hands!


Some hula hooping...
Then the beach ball race (Carrie will probably kill me for putting this one up!), but it was too funny not to share.
Harrison finally joined us after his morning nap. Someone was happy to see him!



I think Hudson's favorite thing of the morning was when he got to shoot Daddy's face with a water gun and get all the shaving cream off. He loved it! Daddy was a good sport!



It started raining right before lunch and rained until almost 3 in the afternoon. We got back outside just in time for the egg toss. This is THE game that Carrie and I always won as kids. We are serious about the egg toss (as is most everyone!). Well, we did awful. Carrie will say that I failed her because the egg did break on me, but I will say that she is the one that cracked it on the toss before when she dropped the egg. Whatever happened, we have vowed to practice throughout the year to be ready for next year's toss. We will win! Ha! I'm so kidding...

Later on that evening, they had a pinata and Hudson got to take a few swings. He did so good!
You try telling the kids to sit and wait patiently until everyone has had a turn and all the candy is out. They were like sharks waiting to attack the bait!
And then it was mass chaos and I think Hudson got knocked on the head. He came out crying! If you notice on the left of the picture, there is Carrie running in the mix of all the little kids and grabbing some candy. She says it was for Hudson, but I don't know if I believe her! :)
Hudson recovered and still got a full bag of candy! Don't worry!


We used the candy for bribing Hudson to take some pictures afterwards!






After we took some pictures, the whole place had a big cookout and then we had fireworks. Hudson loved the fireworks! I thought he might get scared because we were so close that we were getting pegged with pieces of the fireworks, but he loved it. It was a late night, but well worth it! We already can't wait for next year!




It rained one morning so we decided to take the kids to the Gulfarium in Fort Walton. I have to say that it was kind of a bust, but I think Hudson enjoyed it. Doesn't the picture below scream tourists?!?!?

We did see a sea lion show and a dolphin show, so that was kind of fun! And then we had lunch at AJ's afterwards and walked the dock and saw all the boats, so Hudson was in heaven! He is obsessed with boats and wanted to get in them all!




We were planning to go out to eat one night this time and as the day went on, we were afraid the boys just couldn't handle it. We let Carrie and Andres go on out without us and we headed to Seaside to grab something quick. They just happened to be having movie night and this little boy just couldn't leave without watching some of it! What we thought was going to be an early night to bed ended up being one of the latest nights out (and we actually stayed out later than Carrie and Andres!). We watched most of Puss and Boots in Seaside and had a great time!



This kid is all over the place now. Crawling, pulling up, you name it. He is trouble. But he sure is cute!


It was a great trip and we can't wait until next year!