Friday, June 29, 2012

Tuesday, June 12, was our last full day of vacation. And, unfortunately, it was rainy. We did manage to get a little bit of beach time in, and still had lots of fun.

Our day began semi-early, but Addison and Fischer did "sleep in" a little bit. And by sleep in, I mean they slept until about 7. We woke up to pouring rain so we weren't sure about sticking to our plans for the day. We ate breakfast in the room, got ready, and headed toward Huntington Beach State Park.


Our plan was to play on the beach for awhile, have a picnic lunch, then explore the state park. The kids were very anxious to get to the beach and the ocean!



We did get to do this, but it was a little soggy, and not from the ocean. :) We did get to play on the beach, but we could see rain all around us, and we just waited for it.



The kids had a great time here because there were a lot of little shallow parts along the beach, so they could play in the water without worrying about the waves knocking them over.


When lunch time came, we decided to try out our original plan and eat on the beach. As soon as we got the sandwiches made, it started raining. The kids and I took off with our lunches and headed to the closest picnic shelter, while Scott stayed behind and packed up our wagon of beach stuff. The rain eventually stopped but we decided to just change clothes and go explore a little more of the park.

We found the nature center, where the kids got to look at some cool stuff and even touch a few things in the touch tank.



Then we headed out onto the boardwalk, where we saw tons of crabs! The kids also enjoyed climbing the railing every time we stopped. As you can see, Scott and the kids are all wearing plaid shorts - apparently I missed the memo that day. :)

We loved this state park. The beach was great, and not crowded at all. Totally worth the $5 entrance fee! We can't wait to go back. Oh, and on our drive out, we saw an alligator!



We headed back to the hotel to do some restaurant research. All I wanted was an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner. We ate at those when we went to the beach on vacation when I was a kid, so I wanted to go back to one! And it was good - especially the crab legs. Since it was a little early for dinner, we first went back to Broadway at the Beach so the kids could play on the playground some more.

We got nervous when we pulled into Crabby Mike's because there was a huge crowd outside waiting for tables. But the wait was only 20 minutes and they had a DJ set up playing dance music and an area with hula hoops to keep kids entertained. It was great!



Addison enjoyed a lot of what the buffet had to offer (crab legs, all styles of shrimp, raw oysters, rice and cake), while Fischer stuck to hush puppies and fried shrimp, with some chocolate ice cream for dessert.

After dinner, we headed back to the room to relax a bit before bed. We had an early morning ahead of us because we had to squeeze in some beach time before checking out and heading home!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Monday, June 11, was our first full day of vacation.

We were up early, as usual. Addison and Fischer don't understand that vacation should include sleeping in. Hopefully they will learn that as they get older. :) So after some breakfast, we headed out to the beach! It was sunny but not too hot, so it was great beach weather.



We had a lot of fun playing in the sand, ocean and even flew a fun kite.  The 3rd picture down is Scott and Fischer walking into the ocean while flying the kite!





After quite awhile at the beach, we headed to the pool. Our hotel had 2 pools - one of which was just for families. It was only 2 feet deep, so it was perfect! Then, after some pool time, we headed back to the room for a shower and lunch. We had hot dogs, which we ate in front of the TV. We very rarely eat with the TV on, so it was a special treat. It took Addison and Fischer awhile to finish their food since they were so into watching what was on.


After lunch, it was time to go to the aquarium. The aquarium was fun, but I definitely liked the one in Atlanta better. The kids had fun though, and got to see lots of cool animals.



Addison even got to meat a "real life" mermaid, but we weren't allowed to take our own pictures. The one they took was funny, but it was also $15! She had a good time showing the mermaid all of her boo-boos though. :)







After awhile at the aquarium, we went to walk around the rest of Broadway at the Beach. They had playground that was on the water, which was cool. There were even a few ducks on the playground.




We had a great time, but we were tired and hungry so decided to head back to the hotel to figure out where to eat dinner. By this point, it was pouring, so our timing worked out nicely. We decided on an italian restaurant, and it was really good!

Then it was time to head back to rest up for Tuesday. Luckily, the kids went to sleep pretty quickly - they were worn out from all of our fun!


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

On June 10, we headed to the Pawley's Island/Litchfield Beach area for a family vacation! I couldn't wait to go. The kids had been to the beach before but not recently, and 3 just seems like the perfect beach age! 

So on Sunday, we finally "hit the road" (Fischer's phrase when we travel) after lunch. We were eager to leave but couldn't leave too early because the hotel had a strict 4:00 check in time. We did end up getting there about 30 minutes early, so we parked and headed to the beach. We weren't in bathing suits but the kids couldn't wait to see the ocean! They loved it, got soaking wet, and I didn't have my camera. :( 

We finally got our room key, unloaded the car, had a quick snack and changed into bathing suits.


It didn't matter that it was drizzling and a bit chilly! We got about an hour of beach time in before we needed to get changed for dinner.

Our first dinner was at a fun restaurant that had a pirate ship playground outside. While we waited for our food, we relied on technology to keep Addison and Fischer entertained...and so they wouldn't eat weight in hush puppies (they only ate half their weight). :)




Please note that Addison's hair is in a ponytail... this is a big deal in our house. In fact, during our vacation, she let me put her hair up THREE times!!

After dinner, the kids played for quite awhile. And, as an added bonus, on our way out to the playground they each received a pirate hat and sharks tooth necklace. They were beyond excited! In the picture below, Fischer is doing his best pirate pose while saying "argh!" So funny.



Then it was back to the room to rest up for a full day of fun on Monday. It took Addison and Fischer quite awhile to settle down and go to sleep. They had their own beds but they were in the same room. They kept jumping into bed with each other and playing. Eventually they tired themselves out and fell asleep. :)




Monday, June 25, 2012

Happy 9th Birthday to our fur baby, Bo!  I can't believe he is 9 already!

We are having a little party for him tonight... we got a few little special treats for him and a new toy. When the kids get up from napping, we are going to make a vanilla cake, and Bo will get to have a small piece tonight!  I pretty much look for any excuse to eat cake. :)


Friday, June 22, 2012

I mentioned that we had some family pictures taken on June 1. We had them done at Jim and Dianne's house, right down the road from us. We spend a lot of time there, and the kids love playing there so I thought it would be fun to get some pictures done there!

Despite their moods, Nixie managed to get some good shots of Addison and Fischer individually. Unfortunately, we didn't get any great shots of the two of them together or family shots. Oh well, there's always next time! :) Here are some of my favorites.










Thursday, June 21, 2012

To say that Addison is attached to Lucy would be an understatement. She thinks she's her mommy and does not like leaving her side. Lucy has to tuck Addison in each afternoon for nap and each night before bed, and Addison always requests that I bring Lucy up to her room in the mornings and after nap to help wake her up! :)

From the beginning, she has carried her everywhere. She might be a little disappointed when Lucy is too heavy for her to carry, in just a few weeks!



She also likes to sit by her crate...


And she cuddles her. A lot!


Lucy seems to be tolerating all of the love quite well, but she's found a few places to escape when she needs a little break from all of the mothering. :)

Every once in awhile, Fischer gets a turn to love on her, but Addison is definitely a little Lucy hog. :)


Wednesday, June 20, 2012

On Saturday, June 9, we made our weekly trip to the local farmers' market. As we were walking around, the kids spotted the bouncy house that is sometimes there, so they went over and got in. Right next to it were 3 little black lab puppies that needed homes.  I held one of the females and was attached instantly. I'm not sure why because I've held plenty of puppies recently when we go to the shelter and take donations.  Maybe the time never felt right.. I don't know. We've talked about getting another dog ever since losing Sassy in September 2010. I think we are definitely a 2 dog kind of family! But, like I said, the time never felt right.

Anyway, I held the little girl for awhile and then put her back into the pen. Addison and Fischer held her too, of course. We talked about how we couldn't get a puppy because we were leaving for the beach the next day. So, we left with the phone number and said we'd call when we got home from the beach to see if she was still available.

We went about our day but we kept thinking about the puppy. We wanted to see her again that day to see if we still felt like we wanted her. So Scott called and we ended up going to see her again that afternoon. However, she had already gone home with someone else. But there was 1 female left, and she was just as cute and I was just as attached to her right away. :) So, the lady said she'd keep her until we got home from the beach if we wanted to pick her up then. So, we paid our $50 and said we'd see her on Wednesday, when she would be 7 weeks and 1 day old!

She was the smallest (and apparently the calmest) of the litter, so it was good she'd be spending a few extra days with her mom anyway. The woman isn't 100% sure who the daddy dog is (this is what happens when dogs are kept outside and not fixed!!) but most of the dogs around there are black labs so we are all fairly sure she is pure lab. But if she isn't, we don't really care. We weren't in search of a lab, specifically anyway! Here she is on June 9, when we decided that we did want her.



I had a few second thoughts on our vacation but none big enough to change our minds... Here we are a week later and things are going pretty well! It took our entire vacation but we finally decided on the name Lucy for our new addition! I will post more pictures of her soon, but here are a few from her homecoming day, on Wednesday, June 13. Scott took her to the vet that same afternoon and she weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces!