Florida Part 2: Beach, baby!

I loved our mornings and evenings in FL. They began and ended in a very similar fashion: air mattress follies. :) Holden slept on an air mattress in the living room each night. Aunt Allie was supposed to be sleeping with him, but she quickly learned just how much he kicks and hogs the bed, so she ended up above him on the couch each night. Holden loved his special time with her, watching Disney channel or movies and chatting before he drifted off to sleep and she talked on the phone with her boyfriend. :) Hunter slept in a pack n' play that I stuck in the walk-in closet in the bedroom that Jay and I were in. But he thought the air mattress was his own personal bounce house! He would go crazy when he saw it, leaping and climbing, giggling and drooling, bouncing and shaking his head back and forth like a wild animal. He is my wild child. Sometimes Holden found this amusing, and other times not so much, like when Hunter would attack him. I also included a shot of them in one of their many sets of matching jammies.

We loved the time we spent on the beach! The pictures below are comprised of several different days there. And yes, this is after I minimized. I am not very good at it, clearly. Hunter loved the sand, just like Holden did when he was this age. There is not much I can think of that is cuter than a diaper-clad toddler bear-walking across the sand. He got it everywhere: face, hair, mouth, diaper...a hot mess by the time we had to clean up to go back to the condo. Thank goodness for the spouts to rinse off up near the beach entrances! Which he did not appreciate. I love how concentrated his little expression is in some of these pics. He would pick up sand/shells and just sift through it with his fingers, or try to figure out what was going on with the sand between his toes. Little beach bum.

Grammy and Papa and Aunt Teresa bought the boys shovels and pails and other beach toys for their bdays, which were perfect gifts. They got put to good use during the week! Holden loved running to the water, filling his buckets, and dumping the water out in the sand to create moats and castles. He also loved to dig. One hole was so deep I said he must have been trying to get to China, which is a phrase my mom and dad used to use. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Mommy, China is NOT near the beach!" Ha! He was a very busy boy.

Our friend, Jason, who is 15, was wonderful with the boys, especially Holden. They built castles together, played, and he even let Holden bury him AND tolerated the fake boobs we made him while he was buried! He is such a great kid. Holden really misses him now that we are home.

Jay being Jay...love the one of him multi-tasking by feeding Hunt-man a bottle while talking on the phone. Great arm-rest with the beach ball. The modeling of Hunter's hat could make a GQ magazine, don't you think? ;) He did tolerate an awful lot of sand...all over him...as the boys climbed and dug and used him as their beach decoration.

Holden's "best friend," Aunt Allie. She is so wonderful to the boys and was a huge help during our vacation. She is young enough to be a lot more fun than Mommy and Daddy, but old enough to help take care of the boys. We love you, Allie! As Memaw says, "Holden and Allie go together like peas and carrots." To quote the great Forest Gump.

My boys and me. I was in HEAVEN with them on the beach. I could move there tomorrow and not think twice!

Busy little Mr. Holden. I loved watching him enjoy himself. I don't think he slowed down once...except maybe for a Dr. Pepper break like the one in the collage below. :)

Hunter generally stayed put near the towels, playing in the sand. But on a few occasions, he would just take off all of a sudden in a mad crawl to explore! He was so determined to get wherever he thought he was going. Once he invaded a couple of cute teenage girls laying out. Jay was the one watching him, and didn't realize quite how quickly he can go when he puts his mind to it. Let's just say the girls were awakened from their tanning slumber with some wet, drooly sand on their tummies and a curious little guy grinning at them! Luckily they thought he was cute. :) He really wanted to crawl all the way to the water, but we had to stop him because there were so many seashells that they might have cut his hands and feet.

Some miscellaneous beach moments.

Finally, I had to include Mike and the seagulls, although it was way funnier if you were there. Holden and Allie decided to put Cheese Nips around him while he was relaxing, so that the seagulls would come prey upon him. (You can see them doing this in the collage of him and Aunt Allie.) He was very good-natured about it, and started throwing crackers to the birds himself. He did not realize that Allie had also perched a cracker on his hat! You can see it in the picture below to the left. The birds got bolder and bolder, and he had no idea that it was there until a seagull actually landed ON HIS HEAD and snatched it!!! You can see it coming to roost in the picture below to the right. We were all laughing SO hard at his bewildered face when he turned around and said, "Did something just hit my head?!"

Florida Trip 2011: Part 1!

Our Florida trip this year was absolutely wonderful. Sunny and mid-80's every single day for the entire 9 days that we were there. As we were driving home and the temps kept dipping lower and lower, we again asked ourselves, WHY do we live in Illinois?! As usual I have taken enough pictures to last an entire year, so I will be breaking them up into several posts. Our Internet is down at home at the moment, so I am working on this from school as I get the chance. We headed out on Wed, March 16th. I took the Thurs. and Fri. before spring break off, so Jay and the boys were waiting for me in the "parent pick up lane" right after school, and we were off! Here are the boys in our loaded down car. Look at those innocent smiles...they had NO idea how long 18 hours was going to be!!! ;)

Here are the suspects!

Jay's parents and sister, Allie, were also driving close behind us. We all agreed to stop for dinner together, and wanted to wait until we got a few more miles behind us so it was a little later than the boys usually eat. Hunter finally resorted to chewing on his toes, which cracked Holden up!! He did not believe me when I told him he used to do the same thing. :)

All I have to say is, thank goodness for McDonald's! About the time that we were ready for a full melt-down mode from Hunter, there were the golden arches. This one had a Play Land, and as you can see, the "big kids" got in on the fun, too.

The boys fell asleep soon after McD's and slept the majority of the night, save for waking up at a few pit stops in the middle of the night/wee hours of the morning to get gas. About 3:30 am we were filling up, and Holden was awakened when Hunter started whimpering. He GLARED at me with beady little eyes and snapped, "Mommy, we just wanna go to the BEACH!" It was hysterical. Poor buddy. We stopped for breakfast, and then about 10:30, arrived at our condo. This was waiting for us:

Oh, how I love the blue skies, palm trees, beach scenery, and the warm sun! When we arrive in Florida from Illinois, the difference in the two places in March reminds me a bit of Dorothy stepping out of her house and saying, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto."

We wasted no time in heading to the pool. We spent a lot of quality time there during vacation. The pictures below are compiled from several different days during the week. The condo we stayed at is Jay's aunt's. It has two pools, a lagoon, a fishing dock, and lots of pretty scenery. It is only 5 minutes from the beach. Heaven. Love this one: so typical of Holden. Just floatin' along with his wings on, not a care in the world.

Hunter LOVED the heated pool water, and splashing his chubby little hands in it.

Holden walking over the bridge between the pool and the condo. He loved to look down at the crabs and fish. Hunter was so small last summer that he hasn't really experienced the outdoors when it is not winter, other than being covered in the shade. He was a big fan!

Our first day there was St. Patrick's Day! As a good Irish girl (on my dad's side; I owe it to them for my lovely pasty skin!) I had packed the boys' matching Irish shirts, and they wore them that evening. Here are some pics of them around the condo. Memaw's new beach hat was a big hit with both boys. Crack me up!

Our friends, Mike and Penny, and their son, Jason, were staying in a condo on the beach. We went to invade that evening. Here are the boys and I with Allie.

Holden got his wish of "just going to the BEACH!" Ha! Here is a group picture with Jay's parents and sister. It was a beautiful view with the sun setting.

Love this one of our little family! The beach was everything Holden had been waiting for. He LOVED it! Loved the sand, running by the waves to get his feet wet and then squealing and running out, finding shells, running after seagulls, you name it. He is such an outdoors boy. I thought he looked so cute in his little red baseball cap, running along the shore and digging around in the sand.

Some sweet moments with my baby boy during his first moments at the beach.

Daddy's boys

Everyone else. :)

Holden and his Aunt Allie, who he will introduce to people as, "My best friend, Allie." He adores her! Love how these turned out of them on the beach.

Hunter and his Pepaw

My big boy chasing the seagulls

Holden's feet next to mine. Sweetness.

I think these pics of Holden in the setting sun are so neat! He was dancing for joy by the water.

And thus ends the first post of many...as the sun sets over the water and dunes.

Sigh. Wish I was back in this moment.

The Boys' first joint bday party!

We survived the boys' first joint birthday party! It was funny to realize how much more laid-back I have become from Holden's first birthday to Hunter's. I still wanted to make sure we took pictures and had some video footage, that everyone was accommodated and that I made sure to at least chat briefly with each person. But mainly I just wanted everyone, myself included, to have fun! I think we accomplished that. I know that the boys did. Especially Holden-Hunter really had no clue what was going on. Next year will be different. :) And it was great to have it someplace other than my home. Amen to not worrying about a clean house OR cleaning up afterwards! Especially with the packing underway for our trip this Wed.

Holden was such a big helper filling the party favor bags this year. He sat down with me one night last week and helped me sort everything. I would tell him the name of a child, and he would fill their bag with each item, painstakingly selecting "just the right" color, type, or sticker for that child. He really thought about everyone individually. I did catch him trying to slip a few extra items in Brady, Colin, and Cade's bags. When I explained that we had to be fair and give everyone the same amount, he protested, "But MOMMY, they're my best pals!" (He gets that phrase from Woody on Toy Story.) Oh-and after all of this preparation and labeling each bag-guess what I left sitting on the kitchen counter? YEP, that would be the bag full of them. So we will be making some deliveries. I always forget something!!!!

My sweet birthday boys! I love the shirts that I got them at Carter's. Hunter was a little overwhelmed by everything and everyone. He wasn't fussy except for a few little moments, but just not his usual smiley self. I have pics of Holden making the same serious expressions on his first bday. I think the poor little ones just don't know what to make of everything.

Here are most of the cute kiddos at the party! We are so blessed with both friends and cousins the kids' ages. I think the only one I didn't get was our little neighbor, Owen. Which is too bad because he is such a cutie pie and was so excited about everything! He was just too fast for me.

Close friends and family. Like I said, we are blessed! I missed a few people but this is a lot of them. I even managed to get myself in one. ;)

The boys both took rides on the horsey. This gives you a good idea of their sizes at ages almost four and almost one.

Holden got to visit with his old pal, Chuck E. Hunter wasn't too impressed with the party and took a snooze on Papa.

The boys' Spiderman cake. Holden got to pick out the character and he was sure that Hunter would love it. :)

Family picture with our birthday boys

Chuck E. was really nice and came and sat with the boys during the singing of "The Birthday Song" and blowing out the candles. We didn't buy the birthday package this year because it was cheaper to buy things separately, so we had explained to Holden that Chuck E. wouldn't be coming out to sing and dance with him like last year. But Chuck E. happened to walk by and see us and I asked if he'd say hi-and he plopped right down and gave us about 15 minutes of his time. Such a friendly rodent! :)

Hunter was fascinated with him and not scared at all! He loved his nose and kept touching it.

Some pics with the boys' cakes and blowing out candles. Holden needed a little assistance-I love how Kylie is "helping" us blow them out in the background.

Sweet moments with Hunter and Chuck E. I love how Chuck E. touched Hunter's nose, too!

Opening presents! Hunter helped us for a little while and then had enough. Holden was very thorough and made sure we got every last thing opened. :)

Thanks to all of our family and friends that helped make the boys' party special. We love you!