Friends on a Farm

Hey, long-time readers - remember back in 2010 when Matt and I visited a farm and had so much fun that I wrote EIGHT blog posts about it?  Well, this past weekend, we finally got to go back!  

We have been trying to plan an adults-only weekend with some of our friends for a while and finally picked a date and lined up childcare for the long MLK weekend.  After our initial plans fell through, and then our backup plans fell through too, my friend Allison suggested we just visit her folks' farm for the weekend.  A brilliant idea!  

Don't worry, I plan to wrap up the whole weekend in this one post instead of splitting it into eight.  :)

At the last minute, one couple had to back out of the weekend so we ended up with just four couples going.  It was about a 5-6 hour drive and, since most of us didn't get on the road until after lunch, we didn't arrive until dinner time Friday evening.  Chris and Allison had already been there for a few days and had grocery shopped for the weekend.  A delicious dinner of grilled chicken, roasted vegetables, and fancy rice was already prepared for us!  I didn't have my camera unpacked yet so the only pics I got that night were from my phone.  After eating the main course, we celebrated Darrin's new American citizenship (that he'd gotten just that morning!) with an AmeriCanadian cake.

After hearing about the questions he had to answer and the oath he had to take, Darrin just might be more American than the rest of us now.  I would've failed for sure.

Matt and I camped out in the same upstairs apartment that we stayed in last time.  You can see lots of pics of it and the rest of the farm in this post.  "Camped out" makes it sound like we may have been roughing it.  I assure you we were not.

Saturday morning started early for Matt, Chris, and Sarah as they headed out for a run.  They ran 5.5 miles on hilly gravel roads.  They can only be described as crazy.  I sat inside and stayed warm and cozy.  When they returned, Allison had baked oatmeal and bacon cooking.  (This is a recurring theme from the weekend - we played and lazed around and then Allison fed us delicious food.)  I'm still thinking about that bacon...it was so delicious!

After getting dressed, the boys headed out to a field to shoot skeet and us girls went to the barn to visit the alpacas and llamas.  At the farm, there are 8 female alpacas and 4 boys, and two llamas.  The llamas are the protector animals.  If a coyote or something tried to sneak in and attack the alpacas, the llamas would stomp all over them!  

LLAMA

ALPACA

The llamas are my favorite.  They love to nuzzle up close to you and put their nose on your cheek for some kisses.

We hung out with the female alpacas.  Because alpacas live for so long, Jack and Jan (Allison's folks and the farm owners) don't want anymore babies so there's no mingling between the two genders.  

I guess it gets lonely though.  We got to witness a little girl-on-girl alpaca action.  

Pretty friends just hanging out in an alpaca pasture.  

After awhile, we hopped in the farm truck and met up with the guys down by the water.  The War Eagle Creek runs through the property and there are several flat spots where you can walk down and fish.  Or, in our case that morning, just take pictures.  Even with boots, boot warmers, and a pair of socks on, I could still tell that water was COLD!

Allison, Sarah, Jenny, Me

Chris, Charlie, Darrin, Matt

Here are two comparison pics of me and Matt.  The one on the left is from our first trip in 2010, and the one on the right is from last weekend.  Do we look older and wiser now?  Or just heavier and more sleep deprived? 

We left the water to go back to where the boys had been shooting skeet.  Jack has what they call the "War Wagon" for skeet-shooting.  It's a big trailer that's fenced in and has cushioned benches for sitting when not shooting.  

The guys were kind (and patient) enough to show us girls how to hold the shotgun so we could all take a turn.  This was my first time ever doing something like this and it was a little harder than I thought!  I wasn't expected for such a kickback from the gun.  I think hitting just one clay is the only thing that could've made the weekend better.  I tried three times and missed every one!  I think I could've gotten it though with just a few more tries.

Action shot!  See her shell casing flying?!

Check out the smoke from that barrel!

Another shell flying!

Allison's hair is flying from the kickback!

Shell flying!  My timing was spot on!

Chris was the only one to hit his clay while us girls were out there.  He hit four in a row and then I climbed up in the wagon to push the trigger and messed him up.  Turns out I am not a skeet-shooting lucky charm.

Clays and beer.

We rigged up my camera with the timer for a group picture on the War Wagon.  Maybe I should frame this for Jack - I think this was the inaugural run for the wagon!

Did you ever ride in the back of a truck when you were little?  I feel like I did all the time, but I can't really remember why other than I wanted to.  Even on city streets.  Sometimes with my legs dangiling off the back.  We talked about how we all did that but our kids will probably never get to what with all the carseat and seatbelt regulations these days.  

Boys and their toys!  This ranger lives at the farm and is very handy for getting around the 300+ acres.

While Allison warmed up lunch (tacos and nachos!), a few of us stopped back by the barn to give the alpacas and llamas a snack.

Sometimes the alpacas get a little mad at each other and do some spitting.  Poor Darrin ended up in the middle of one of the crossfires and got a little spit on him  !He was a much better sport about it than I might've been; he just kept on feeding them.  

My camera and I went inside while the others went to visit the chickens.  They collected four pretty eggs that we had for breakfast the next morning.  

Is there anything better than boys in the kitchen cooking?  I don't think so.

After lunch, we grabbed some chairs and went down to a different part of the river to do some fishing.  Sadly, the fish weren't biting but we still had fun trying.  Matt and Chris built a fire since it was starting to get a little bit cooler.

My fisherman!  We were hopeful that he would be the one to reel in a fish, but alas, there wasn't even a nibble on his line.  

I think Sarah may have had enough with the three of us.  Or maybe she was about to sneeze?

This is much better!  Sure do love these girls.

Just when we got the fire really going, it was time to put it out.  We made sure every little piece of wood was soaked before leaving...no forest fires from us!

The boys piled into the truck and went to put the War Wagon back in the barn.  Us girls took the ranger and went to explore the cave on the property.  

At first glance, the cave my not look very big, but it has small tunnels in the corners that you could crawl through.  Jack and Jan had a spelunker come out and go through them and apparently they run the length of the whole crest above the cave.  You could not pay me enough money to go in one of those tunnels!  Sarah was the climber in the group and checked them out for us.  (I did climb up there on my first visit, though.)  

After leaving the cave, we went on a mission to find the cows.  Jenny was the designated gate opener every time we came up on one.  

We were just driving down the road when we came up on a bunch of white tailed deer!  I could barely grab my camera fast enough.  They ran across the road right in front of us and several of their friends were still hiding in the woods.  So cool!

We passed the boys on our way to find the cows and had our picture taken.  

Finally, just past the house, we found the guys (actually, gals) we were looking for.  

We continued on to go see where the cows are weighed and the original well.  The cows didn't want us to go!  They ran after us for a little while.  

They evenutally stopped following us as we went on our way.  But we had to turn around and go back the same we came and...they were waiting for us.  A herd of big, black cows is not exactly what you want to see blocking your road!

Oh hey there, 140C.  Don't mind us, just passing through.  

As we approached the house, we could see that the boys were sitting outside enjoying a fire.  

For dinner that night, we had a great meal of steaks, baked potatoes, and salad.  The guys grilled the steaks outside and they were delicious! 

Matt made bananas foster for dessert and it was great, but would've been even better if we hadn't let our ice cream melt into a bowl of soup.  Oopsie.  

I didn't take any more pictures that night, but we had a fun evening of playing pool, watching sports, and working on the world's hardest puzzle.  

We reconvened the next morning for our last meal of the weekend together.  Allison made eggs and sausage and biscuits to go with the fruit and leftover baked oatmeal.  Once again, we stuffed ourselves silly.

We couldn't say goodbye and go our separate ways without one last group picture!

And since we were already in position and already had the timer and tripod set up, we took a few fun shots.  My camera was set up with a ten second timer to allow me to get into place, and then it would take four pictures in a row.  The pictures were quick, like 1-2-3-4, not like 1, pause, 2, pause, etc.  And the only way you could count them was to listen to the shutter since we weren't using the flash.  The instructions given for this first set of four was regular smiles for the first three, and then opened mouth smile on the last.  Click the picture below to see all four images in a row.

The last set was open mouth smiles for the first three and then a serious face for the last one.  Darrin and I failed miserably on the serious face!

And with that, we loaded up our cars and headed home.  Such a fun weekend!  Thank you to Jack and Jan for letting us stay on their awesome property, and to Chris and Allison for hosting us there!

Palm Springs, California

The first week of December, Matt and I were lucky enough to head out to Palm Springs, CA for a few kid-free days.  We planned this trip before Thomas was even born and have been looking forward to it for a while!  Matt had work commitments on two mornings so his travel was all paid for and I just tagged along for the ride.  :)

Palm Springs was nice, and we very much enjoyed our time away, but it's probably not a place we'd pick to vacation to again.  The area was inland - so dead smack in the middle of the desert instead of on the coastline like LA or San Diego.  There were no beach views but plenty of older people enjoying their retirement.  There was lots of new development too so plenty of shopping areas for this gal!

We technically stayed in Rancho Mirage right outside of Palm Springs in the Westin Villas.  It was all decorated for Christmas which was pretty but what I was most amazed by were the colorful flowers that were still in bloom.  You know I like some happy flowers!  I actually took lots of pictures of these so that I can hopefully have a flower bed of my own to match them this summer.   

These were our neighbors.  Lots of ducks!  They wandered around everywhere.  Even on our front porch, apparently.  We didn't see them there ourselves but let's just say we had to watch our step when coming and going.

We arrived late on a Wednesday evening and had a chill night after a day of traveling.  We only had two things on our agenda for the whole trip: see two movies and I wanted to get my nails done.  Two things we don't get to do often at home with two small kids underfoot!  

We knocked the first movie off the list Thursday afternoon and saw Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.  I think I liked it more than Matt did, and I definitely liked it more than the first two movies.  I think since I was further away from when I read the books, I didn't remember any of the details and so didn't know what they left out.  l made the mistake of re-reading the first book the week before seeing the movie and learned my lesson!

Every Thursday night in downtown Palm Springs they have a street fair of sorts.  It was a much bigger deal than we were expecting - I bet it was a mile long!  We walked up and down it and perused lots of homemade wares before sitting down outside at a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  

Let me tell you about the absolute best part of our trip: cheesecake for breakfast in bed.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It was the most gloriously gluttonous thing that we did, and we did it not one morning, not two, but THREE mornings in a row.  Just trying to get a head start on the holiday weight gain I guess.  :)

What happened was that Wednesday evening we ate at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner and were so stuffed that we took our cheesecake dessert home with us.  We forgot to eat it that night before going to bed but we remembered it when we woke up on Thursday and knocked out half of it!  Friday morning we polished off the other half of it and then were so distraught that we wouldn't have any for our last morning there that we had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory again and brought home another piece.  You only live once, y'all.  

Friday morning while Matt was speaking to a credit union board about something boring, I'm sure, I headed to the spa for a relaxing mani/pedi combo.  That afternoon we saw movie #2 on our list - Gone Girl.  I had read the book and knew what to expect, but Matt had no idea.  He loved it!  I usually don't love movies if I've already read the book but I agree, it was a pretty darn good movie.  The only things I can think of that were left out are completely insignificant to the story line.

With everything on our agenda already done, we decided to get up Saturday morning and drive up the mountains to a small town called Idyllwild.  When we got in the car and out on the road, it looked like we were just going to drive straight into the bottom of the mountain.  I couldn't see any roads.  But the road is there and it is curvy, I tell ya.  I usually don't get car sick at all but I definitely had to keep my eyes on the road during all the twists and turns.  

What do you do at a lookout point when you've got nothing but deserts and mountains behind you?  These days you take a selfie.  

After 22 miles of curvy roads, we finally made it to the mountain town.  We hopped out and were excited about the potential that the street full of stores had to offer.  I was excited to buy some unique Christmas gifts

After going through every shop, this sign was about the coolest thing we found.  Sadly, all the stores were more like junk/thrift stores (in a bad way) or just had tourist stuff.  We both bought shirts to remember our trip by but that was about it.  Matt commented that the mountain people of Idyllwild kinda looked liked they wanted to eat us.  They must not get a lot of preppy southern visitors.   

We took a different route down the back of the mountain (still curvy, still twisty, still car-sicky) and passed by a huge wind farm.  I thought this was so interesting!  And kinda weird.  Just rows and rows of different sized wind mills, some turning but some not, to create energy.  Definitely not the kind of farming we do where I grew up.  :)

It was nice to get away with hubs and get some good sleep and unwind, but we kinda missed our favorite little people!  We are so incredibly grateful to Matt's parents for keeping them safe and entertained for us, and most of all for sending us pictures every day.

How cute are they reading books together??

Jumping on Poppa - I can just hear the squeals of laughter in this picture!

Donuts for breaksfast!  I'm sure she was in heaven.  Is it just me, or does she kinda look like she's wearing a wig?

Playing on the floor with Lala.  We got a video of a dance party from this night too!

Opening one of her nightly Christmas books to read before bed.  

Thomas got to go on a road trip with Poppa to the grocery store. 

Matt and I both agreed that seeing him sitting on top of Lulu the Ladybug made him look WAY too big!

Dressed and ready for church.  Aren't you impressed with Lala and Poppa for going to church with two little munchkins?!

After being spoiled by Lala and Poppa, we were probably way more excited to see these two than they were to see us.  Katie Wynn did immediately eat the tangerines we hand picked for her though.  

Some quick pictures before dinner on Daddy's birthday!

So I think this post can easily be summed up like this:

• Palm Springs is ok.
• Cheesecake for breakfast is amazing.
• Time away from kids is good but we still missed them!

Labor Day Vacation

For the long Labor Day weekend, we decided to pack up the kids and head to our beach house for a relaxing vacation before I head back to work.  Wait, did I say relaxing?  With two kids under two?  No, that's not right.  It was fun, yes, but definitely not relaxing!  

We invited my parents along for the trip so that they could help with the two littles.  Having the extra sets of hands made it worth it - I'm not sure we would've gone with just the four of us!

Matt and I made the genius decision to leave Thursday evening after dinner and baths.  With the two kids in cozy pajamas, we drove the first 5 hours to Montgomery and it was so easy!  After watching Frozen, both kids fell asleep.  We had to stop once to feed Thomas but other than that, it was smooth sailing.

This was my first time in a hotel with the kids!  It was Thomas's first hotel visit period.  Katie Wynn had stayed in one with her daddy one night, but not with me.  Since we only had one pack-n-play in our car, she got to sleep in the king-sized bed with us.  She was glued to her daddy's side the whole night!

Both babies slept great at the hotel, especially considering we had to wake them up at midnight to bring them in.  Katie Wynn loved the breakfast and having so many things to choose from!  Thomas is just happy to eat any time we let him.  :)

We hit the road again around 9:45 and both kids napped during the 3 hour ride.  It really was the best way to travel to Florida!  

We stopped shortly before arriving at our house for lunch at Whataburger.  Do you ever have those moments when you look at your child and just get overwhelmed with how much you love them?  I think Matt and I both had one of those moments at Whataburger.  Katie Wynn was such a doll and just so sweet and cute.  I could just eat her up!  And it helped that she ate a really good lunch.  I love it when she does that.

As soon as we arrived at our house, we wasted no time at all getting in the pool!  In fact, we were in the pool when my parents finally arrived.  Katie Wynn was hesitant to get in at first but after a few minutes was jumping in and even going under water!  It makes me very proud and very nervous all at the same time.  I don't want her to be scared of water but I also don't want her to be brave enough to think she can jump in when we're not around.

We ended the day with dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Cocina.  Rain was in the forecast for the next day (Saturday) so we had decided it would be our shopping day.  As luck would have it, it didn't rain a single drop!  But we shopped til we dropped anyway.  :)

When we got home that afternoon, the weather was perfect for sitting out by the pool.

We were enjoying our time out by the pool so much that we decided to have dinner out there.  Who doesn't love an impromptu picnic?

By the time dinner wrapped up, Dad decided he wanted to go for a dip in the pool.  And you know who has to get in the water any time someone else is in...Katie Wynn!  There was no time to bother with swimsuits so Dad jumped in in his shorts and K-dub went skinny dipping.  She thought it was extra fun since I turned on the light in the pool!

Katie Wynn has a bad habit of sticking out her tongue when she swims.  She drinks a LOT of water when she's in the pool.

This girl's got a little bit of junk in her trunk.  I just love that booty!  And that she needed to check on her little brother...

We had cereal for breakfast the next morning and Katie Wynn got to pick out her own (enormous) bowl.

Thomas only got to have milk but he was ok with it.

Sunday morning the boys had a scheduled golf game so Mom and I decided we'd take the kids to the beach before it got too hot.  We gathered up only the essential items since we weren't planning on being there long and knew we'd each have a kid in our arms during the walk.  It ended up being a big flop!  When we got to the top of the stairs that led down to the beach, we could see that the sun was out in full force and there was not a speck of shade for my fair-skinned baby boy.  We were hoping to "borrow" one of the beach rental umbrellas for a few minutes but they weren't even finished putting them out yet!  So Mom and Thomas sat up on a bench in the shade while I took Katie-bug down to the beach.  Aaaaand...she still hates it.  I sat her down so I could lay out our towel and she didn't move an inch.  She wouldn't dare walk near the shore with me!

After carrying her down the steps and across the sand, I was already sweating my butt off.  I decided it wasn't worth being out in the sun if she wasn't going to enjoy it, so we packed back up and headed to the enormous community pool instead.  And, just like the first day at our little pool, she was nervous to get in at first.  She is also a big-time people watcher and since there were other boys swimming nearby, I couldn't get her attention for anything!

Mimi and Thomas eventually joined us at the pool.  KW swam with Mimi while I got to hang out with my favorite little guy.  

My favorite little guy doesn't respect his Mama very much...

Crying at the beach plus swimming in the pool equaled a good afternoon nap for Katie Wynn.  Mom and I were able to sneak out and do some window shopping (don't worry, the boys were back from golf and stayed with the kids).  They met up with us later in Rosemary so we could have dinner at another one of our favorite places - Wild Olives. 

Katie Wynn is still pretty obsessed with pockets.  

She and I played chase while waiting for our food to come out.  

When we got home that evening, we hung the baby swing up on the balcony.  Turns out Thomas is a really big fan of the swing!  He sat happily in it (and eventually fell asleep) for an hour, which is a really, really long time for him!

Matt, Katie Wynn, and I all went for an evening dip.  It's so nice to have a pool in your yard - wish we had one at home! :)

Betcha didn't know I had legs that long, did ya?

Katie bug got to swim with her parents right before bed and then woke up and went swimming with her grandparents.  Must be the life!

After we got cleaned up, I couldn't help but take pictures of Dad with the kids since they all matched.  Katie Wynn was being difficult and wouldn't give up the paci.  

At lunch, Katie Wynn used a celery stick as a spoon to eat her ranch dressing.  I can't say I blame her, I've wanted to drink mine before!  (Matt just threw up in his mouth reading that...)

Most afternoons, Thomas and Poppy could be found snoozing on the couch together.

After lunch, Katie Wynn took a pretty good fall and skinned up both of her knees.  We patched them up with band-aids (and new love of hers!  Can't take them off; they have to fall off...) and kisses (another new love - every tiny booboo gets a kiss) and she felt much better.  Mimi felt bad for her though so she bought her a new puzzle as an afternoon happy.

While dinner was being cooked, Mom and I sat out by the pool with the kids.  We tried so hard to get a picture of me with both of them.  It may be years from now before we get a decent one.  

That evening, we decided to try the beach one more time.  I really wanted to try to get some pictures of the kids on it and thought with the guys' help, maybe we could survive it.  Plus, waiting until the evening meant no harsh sun.  I dressed the kids in their matching outfits and we loaded up in the car to drive closer to the beach steps.  

Surprisingly, there were no tears when we got down there!  Maybe because KW knew we wouldn't try to put her in the water if she didn't have on a swimsuit?  Who knows.  But then...the worst thing ever happened.

My camera fogged up. 

This has happened numerous times before.  I know taking my camera out from the air conditioning and into the heat will cause it to fog, and usually it clears up very quickly.  But that was not the case this time.  Instead of clearing up, it just kept getting worse and worse.  

I just can't even tell you how broken hearted I was.  I mean, look at how precious Katie Wynn looked!  Here we were, down on a beautiful beach with the perfect lighting, both kids dressed in cute clothes and in good moods, and my darn camera wouldn't work!  I broked all the rules, too, trying to fix it.  I used my shirt to clean the lens.  I even took the lens off and wiped down the inside of the camera with a very linty towel!  But it didn't help.  In fact, it got so bad that the camera just stopped taking pictures all together.  I was certain I'd completely ruined it.  

I was going to just take pictures with a phone but, as it turned out, NONE of us had brought one.  Seriously?!? Between four adults, how could none of us have our phone??

It may have been a little over-dramatic, but I was near tears when we left.  They don't stay this little forever, you know!  Matt knew I was sad about it so we did the only the we could do to fix it - we extended our vacation another day so that we could have a do-over!  Isn't the fleibility of maternity leave nice?  I don't want it to end!

Since we had another day, it gave us another opportunity to try the beach with Katie Wynn again.  This time we didn't even bother inviting Thomas - he stayed at the house with my parents - and Matt went with me so he could help hold her in the ocean.

We called the beach tram to give us a lift so we wouldn't have as much of a walk.  K-dub loved riding on it and getting to tip the driver! 

She still was not a fan of the sand AT ALL, but she somewhat tolerated being in the water.  Mostly she thought it was hilarious when the waves crashed into me and nearly knocked me over.  

Please note the bandaids on the knees!

When Katie Wynn woke up from her nap that afternoon, Mimi and Poppy had another surprise for her!  Mom and I had admired this collapsible wagon at the community pool and they stumbled upon one at Dick's Sporting Goods and bought it right away.  We love it already; it's so handy!  We immediately took for it a spin around the neighborhood.

The wagon came in handy that night as it was much easier to pull all of our stuff to the beach than to have to carry it!  This will be a required item to bring on future trips to Florida. 

Can you guess who was not very excited about taking pictures?  

But hey, at least my camera lens wasn't fogged up!!

Should I even be surprised that when Thomas finally looked up, Katie Wynn looked away?

I handed my camera off to Mom so that I could slip into the pictures too.  The kids weren't into looking at the camera, though.  

KW's attention was fixed on something so Mom shifted over to try to get her to look at the camera.  Close, but not quite.

How 'bout these of me and my cutie?

And my other two cuties!

Mom and Dad took a turn in front of the camera too.

The picture below is probably the best one I took that night. ;)

These three people are my whole world!

Katie Wynn was a pretty good sport until she got put down in the sand.  That wrapped up our photo shoot quickly!

I'll wrap up this post with a big cheesy grin.  We ate dinner the last night at the Cowgirl Kitchen - so good! - and in typical KW fashion, she knocked out a whole bowl of cheese dip using just one chip.  There was a mirror hanging behind our booth that she loved looking at her cheesy face in. 

We left for home by 7:30 the next morning and oh man, it was a loooong ride home.  Thomas, who usually loves being in the car, cried for about 60% of the trip.  It was exhausting but we eventually made it home in time for dinner and bed time.  

Even though it wasn't relaxing, I'm already ready to go back.  Maybe the next trip will be the one where Katie Wynn likes the ocean.  We'll see.  :)

Long Weekend Vacay

Last weekend (the weekend before Thanksgiving), we hit the road for a long weekend at our beach house.  I'd say it was a beach vacation, but we didn't actually lay eyes on the beach the whole time we were there!  We heard that would happen when we were building our house but I didn't believe it.  Sure enough, hitting the sandy beach just wasn't on our agenda this visit.

My parents left for the beach house a couple days before us so we met them there.  My dad only gets there once, maybe twice, a year and while there, all he does is home improvement stuff.  It's just in his blood, I guess.  He can't even enjoy our house without noticing a squeaky hinge or fried light socket or something that needs painting.  Whatever makes him happy, I guess!  My mom is very similar, but her work is in the flower beds.  She always spends her first day trimming plants and pulling weeds.  I'm just glad they had all that out of their systems before we got there, ha!

While we were there, our five days were focused on resting, relaxing, eating, and knocking out some Christmas shopping.  Oh, and a couple rounds of golf for the guys too.  My parents were nice enough to keep Katie Wynn so that Matt and I could go on an afternoon date to a movie.  We got to see the new Hunger Games movie...the last movie we'd seen was the first Hunger Games movie!

Rather than give you the play by play, here's a bunch of pics I took on my phone while there.  I'll include captions where necessary.

While Poppy napped, Katie Wynn "decorated" him.  You can't really tell, but he has five coasters and four twine balls stacked on top of him.  Oh, and the dog, of course.

Tiny speck in the middle = Katie Wynn

Holiday headgear at Target!

Target had holiday gear for pets too!  Henry got a new bow tie.  Isn't he just so dapper?

Lolli wasn't with us but she got to try on her holiday gear when we got home.  Doesn't she look thrilled to be Lolli Claus?

Probably my very favorite picture from the trip.  She was SO excited to get to carry my bag!

She played with our shopping bags ALL night long!

Christmas present was spotted...

...and purchased!

She had sweet kisses for her Daddy on our last night in Florida!

We had a wonderful five days away from home, but one of the best parts was that we had another five days off from work for Thanksgiving to come back home to!

Vacay: Days 5 and 6

As much fun as we had at the beach, I'm ready to wrap up these posts so I can move on to all the other fun things we've been doing!  So this is the last of it.  Days 5 and 6: here we go! Katie Wynn liked to start every morning with a little dance party on the bar while I prepared her breakfast. If I have anything to do with it, this will be the only bar she ever dances on. 

Day five started with a trip to the big community pool for Katie Wynn and Everett.  In typical KW fashion, she fell asleep on the walk there.

Everett, on the other hand, was ready to get his toes in the water!

You know I'm a sucker for things that match, and Allison did a great job of making sure their swimsuits coordinated!

He wasn't so sure about the water at first...

...but warmed up to it in now time!

After about a thirty minute nap, Katie Wynn finally joined the pool party.  While I love these little bucket hats for the sun protection they provide, they sure do make it hard to get pictures of her face!

I love, love, loved the community pool because it had a nice big wide step that was the perfect depth for Katie Wynn to sit and splash in.  We could've spent all day everyday there.

The great thing about the pool is that it's just around the corner from our house, so we just had a short walk home for lunch.  After getting our bellies full, resting for a few minutes, and putting on dry swimsuits, we tried to load back up to go back to the big pool for the afternoon.  Sadly, we had to turn around due to a small "accident" that had occurred in the pool.  They had to close it down for an hour to shock it - I'm just glad my baby wasn't the cause of the accident!

Since the big pool was closed, we spent the afternoon at our little pool instead.  And once again, Katie bug fell asleep.

When she woke up, I snapped a few pics while she was still sitting in my lap.

Not so sure about these sunglasses.

This one is in the running for my favorite picture from the trip.

That evening, our family of three got cleaned up in an attempt to get some cute family pictures.  I totally forgot to pack us some coordinating clothes, so we had to work with what we had.  Big thanks to Allison for shooting these pictures of us...all while a huge storm rolled in!

Another one of my favorites.  This one will be in a frame soon.

We are working on learning how to wave bye-bye.  I guess she was practicing in this picture.

She is obsessed with noses!

Another HUGE thank you to Sarah who pulled up in her car right before the rain came pouring down.  We did get a little bit wet from our run into the house, but we would have been completely drenched if we'd had to walk home!

Gus was just chilling in his chair when we got home.

Everett and Katie Wynn did some playing while Gus ate dinner.

This picture is just proof that we did use the dining table.  In fact, we ate here four of our six nights.  I think this was fajita night.

Some quick pictures of the four couples while we hung out one night after the kids were in bed.  Me and Doc.

Chris and Allison.

Darrin and Jenny.

Sarah and Charlie.

Our last day there was the day we decided to venture out for the day.  Doc and Christopher left early in the morning for a six-hour fishing trip.  The rest of us decided to head out to do some shopping on our own, and then meet up in Baytowne for lunch.  That was much easier said than done since there was a huge car accident right by the entrance to Baytowne.  We all got stuck in traffic for a while but eventually met up at Hammerhead's Bar and Grill.

Everett and Katie Wynn spent most of the meal perusing the menus.

Thank goodness they kept them occupied!

Happy babies after lunch.

Remember those really cute pictures of the boys in the grass from Day 4?  I was really sad I didn't have one of Katie Wynn to match, so on the evening of our last day, I put her back in the bubble and had another photo shoot.  Unfortunately, she would NOT lay down in the grass, no matter what!  She popped right back up every time I laid her down.  But I did get some cute ones of her just sitting in the grass.

Have you ever seen a funnier blade of grass?!?!

While we were taking pictures, Gus was playing in the splash pad again.  He finally ran over to tell us enough was enough, it was time for Katie Wynn to play too!

Sitting with his mama just waiting for the right moment to run back in.

And he's off!

Driiiiip!

Katie Wynn was finally suited up and crawled right in.

Gus loved the spouts of water!

Hey Gus?  Crack kills, buddy. :)

With the help of her daddy, Katie Wynn got brave enough to stick her hands in the water too.

"Oh my gosh, this is so much fun!"

More bravery and splashery!

Whew.  Got a little tiring after a while though.

Katie likes to inspect my teeth on a daily basis.  I hope she's not disappointed that everyday, they're all still there.

When they were tired of splashing, we dried off and went to the nearby park.  How cool is this mountain hill that you can walk up?

Gus (and his mama) was a fan of the slide.

There were swings too!

Katie Wynn couldn't keep her eyes off her daddy when he sat down to swing beside her.

Love these pictures of Gus in the swing!

Doc and I tried out the zip line that was there.  It was a really cool playground!

Before long, it was time to head back home.  The evening of Day 6 was your typical last-day-at-the-beach night...packing things up and eating all the food in the refrigerator.

Quick photo after Katie's last shower before we hit the road early the next morning.

All in all, the trip was perfect!  We had such a good time with all of our friends.  Hopefully we'll get to do it again next year when Katie Wynn and Everett can join Gus in all the fun running around!