Marco beach pics

Some pics of our family at the beach on Marco (compliments of Susan).

Vacation

See below the video post for the rest of our vacation pics.

Happy Birthday Pop

Happy Birthday Pop. We love you and can't wait to see you next week.

Vacation - Part II

We had an amazing time cruising to Key West and Grand Cayman with some of our best friends, Tracey and Jeremy, and David & Lindsey. It was 5 glorious days of laid back (KIDLESS) fun! We enjoyed it guys and look forward to doing it again in a few years.

Here we all are on the ship waiting to leave the Miami port.

Me, Lindsey and Trae with our fruity umbrella drinks. I love me some pina colada!



Stephen and I the first night before dinner.

Our boat (that's Stephen leaning on the rail) - Celebrity Century in Key West.

Another shot of the boat.


Southernmost Point.



Maybe I shouldn't put this picture on my blog....but I couldn't resist.

The girls before dinner.

The servers singing "Happy Birthday" to Stephen. He was completely embarrassed (no, it was not his birthday).

Our self portrait on the jet skis heading to sting ray city in Grand Cayman.

This is still a happy Trae before we hit the choppy waters on the seadoo....

A scared Tracey in the waters with the stingrays. (I'm proud of you T for getting in the water!)


Feeding squid to the stingray.

I was amazed how friendly they were. Seriously, at one point, I was standing in the water and this stingray just came and jumped in my arms.

Snorkeling Stephen.

Outside of Margaritaville in Grand Cayman. I am in my swimsuit because there is a water slide inside Margaritaville and the girls went down it.

My sweet husband and myself another night before dinner.

Stuttering

Please keep Allie in your prayers. She is really struggling with stuttering. It really confuses me because she has always had a large vocabulary and talked well for her age. So, I know the words are there, she just can't get them out. The thing that breaks my heart is she realizes what is going on. When she struggles saying something she says, "I can't find my voice". We are taking her to see a speech therapist starting March 16th.

Vacation - Part I

Where to begin? We are home from our cruise.

Pappy and Grammy kept the kids for us. (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! Can we do it again tomorrow?) We returned to their home Sat. afternoon to a new arrangement of their furniture. It seems while we were gone, Gabe decided to crawl and pull-up (not to mention his 2 teeth popped through)! He has turned into a completely different kid these days. He gets so frustrated when his legs won't get traction on hardwoods. I've found his favorite pastime is to crawl around the house after me and cry when I won't pick him up. He is wearing me out! Also, his night schedule is crazy right now. He is going down between 7:30-8:00 and starts stirring around 5:00 am! On to the next kid.

Pappy and Grammy kept Allie very busy and her mind off of us while we were away. From what I hear, she went swimming, to the beach to build sandcastles, to the park, to the spray park, to the zoo, on the boat, to McDonalds to eat and play, etc. She had a wonderful time in FL and is looking forward to her next visit.

Below are some pics of the kids I took before and after our cruise. I will post the pics from our cruise soon. Stay tuned....




Marco has an awesome park - complete with pirate themed playground, swings, basketball courts, toddler basketball courts, shuffle board, soccer field, spray park, walking track around a pond, and so much more. We actually now have the Parks and Rec. Director who made this amazing park come to life heading up Parks and Rec here in Greenville. Dana - hook us up!



Allie has her name on a board on the fence surrounding the park.

Allie trying to get up the courage to brave the cold water in the spray park.

Running under the the bridge of water with daddy close behind.


Water break.

Here fishy fishy...

We managed to squeeze in a family boat ride before we left on the cruise. This is why I never post family pics anymore. Allie ALWAYS does something like this!

I could not get enough pictures of our little man in his life jacket. This is a big difference between he and Allie. He was just chillin'.....

Makes me laugh everytime!

...And the close-up.





Searching for seashells.

No fear. Allie walked right into the ocean fully clothed. So, she was pantless riding back to Pappy and Grammy's house.

Marco Island

We are now in Marco and have survived our 12 hour car ride down with the kids. We wouldn't have made it in our record time without my mother-in-law who rode down with us to help out with the kids. Allie is having a blast here. She especially loves Pappy and Grammy's bathtub...complete with jets and a ton of bubbles. She has loved playing outside on her scooter and even playing with the much older neighbor kids (which scares me!).

Gabe, on the other hand, has had better days. Little guy is cutting 2 bottom teeth. One has barely popped through and the 2nd one is close behind. He really is pitiful. We keep pumping tylenol in him every 4 hours and rubbing orajel on his gums. He started running a fever tonight and fell asleep on my shoulder at 6:00 pm. I love this picture....he is holding the tylenol in his hand..."thanks mom".

Gabe news

Gabe loves to eat fruit in this.

He's standing well on his own.

...and starting to pull up on some things. He mostly just pulls up on his knees right now. But, I did find him like this the other day.

This is his belly flop position.

And lastly....with no picture proof yet....Gabe has a front bottom tooth popping through.

allie