Texas Beach Vacation

We went with Jason's family to Crystal Beach this past week.  Jason and I went down Tuesday and came back Sunday. We have to cross the ferry to get to Crystal Beach, so that added a little to our time, but I think it took us about 6 1/2 hours to get there (shorter on the way home since we didn't have a ferry wait).

We shared a 5 bedroom house with the rest of his family and had a really good time.  There's always varying opinions when you have that many adults in one house for that long, but overall it went pretty well! 

Here's a few thousand pictures to document the trip!

Long car ride = short nap :)

Super excited to get on the "big boat" aka the ferry.  We ended up taking the ferry 4 times and she loved guessing which color we were going to get. 

First day on the beach.  Daddy built her a big hole, but she wouldn't get in it....and didn't want him to either.

On Friday, Jason and I took Olivia into Galveston and went to Moody Gardens.  We thought she might enjoy the small waterpark they have there.  We thought wrong.  We thought very wrong.  I think we spent about 20-30 minutes there, then dried off and went to see some other exhibits.

We went to the Rainforest, the Aquarium & we saw Dora & Diego in 4D.  That may have been the highlight of the trip!  She LOVED it (Jason and I enjoyed it too).  In addition to the 3D experience, there were bubbles in the theatre, and our seats vibrated and we got splashed on when Diego and Dora went thru the waterfall.  We only wished it had lasted longer!

More random beach pics....

Olivia wanted a BIG sandcastle.  I was unsuccessful in getting ANYONE to participate in helping build it, so this was all I came up with.  I'm sorry Olivia.  Maybe next time!

Her favorite thing about the beach was finding seashells.  This morning, she saw them all on the counter and said "Oh mommy!  You brought my seashells home!!!".  It's the little things... 

We had a photographer come take our pics on the beach.  I'm anxious to see how they turned out, but I loved this one of Olivia and her daddy (and of course Griffin who refuses to look at the camera!)

Emily & Wayne

It rained Saturday, so we spent quite a bit of time indoors.  Olivia had to "read" the directions to Hi Ho Cheerio to me.  She was so funny.  I have it on video, but figured a picture will suffice for the blog :)

This was as close as Olivia would get to the water.  She was TERRIFIED of the ocean (and to be honest, I'm kind of ok with that).  I am not a big fan myself.  Sharks DO come in close sometimes.  Not often, but stranger things have happened and I'd just assume play it safe.  That being said, I did want her to at least let the water come up on her feet or sit and play close to the edge to cool off, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it.  These pictures are from the last night there.....it took us 4 days to get her this close to the water!

Love these two running.  I might have a little runner on my hands!!!  She ran about 1/4 mile down the beach and back...going full force!  She was like "Let's run!!!" and take off.



On our last ferry ride (with Emily and Wayne).

We saw lots of dolphins on this ride. Several were really close to the boat.  I wish I had known to look for them on the other rides!  Oh well!

Our vacation was a good start to what I hope to be a great summer!

Blog Catch Up

Life has been a little busy lately...but wanted to let you know we are alive!

We were on vacation last week, so I'll do a post later on that.

A couple of little things to document from the previous couple of weeks...

Olivia always had a "mean face" as a baby.  It always cracked us up.  Well, she has recently developed mean face again and she thinks it's so funny.



(Baby Olivia mean face)

The week before vacation, Olivia's school had "theme week".  Each day they dressed as something different.  One day was cowboy day (we forgot).  One day was "Sports Day".  One day was Pajama Day.  And the final day was Super Hero Day.

Sports Day

We went as a cheerleader.  I didn't really know what else to do.  Most kids just had on TX Ranger T-shirts or something.  Oops...thought we were going in costume. HA.

Super Hero Day

Super Hero Day was Friday.  On Thursday morning, I told Olivia about it.  She said (very pitifully) "but I don't have a super hero...." then she said  "oh, I know!  I will just use my blankie" (because sometimes we tie her blanket around her neck and it's her cape).

Ok, way to guilt me into figuring out something for super hero day! 

So I decided to make her a cape.  During lunch, I went to Walmart, bought fabric & ribbon and came home and made a cape.  It wasn't the best made cape....it had a few issues to say the least, but she was proud of it and was so glad she got to be Super Olivia for the day! 

Girls Only Weekend

Jason had a weekend away with the boys, so it was just Olivia and I from Friday thru Sunday.

We had such a great weekend....we didn't do much.  For the first time in a while, I didn't feel rushed to get errands done or to get the house cleaned.  We just "hung out".

On Saturday, we went shopping for a new purse and new running shoes.  She was so well behaved the entire time even though we were in places that she'd rather not be (she normally is pretty good when we're out...I can't complain at all, but she seemed especially pleasant)! 

After shopping, we went to eat lunch and to get frozen yogurt.  Yummy.

We ended up going to church Saturday night (our church as a Saturday night service in addition to 2 on Sunday....they are all 3 the same formats).  Anyway, we figured we'd go to church and leave Sunday to do whatever we wanted.

When Sunday rolled around, Olivia wanted to go play at the big kids' playground.

So I changed into my running gear, loaded her up in the jogging stroller and we took off.  We went the long way (to get in some extra mileage).  She kept telling me "turn there mommy!" cause she knew I was going the wrong way. Smarty pants.

The second we got to the park, Olivia saw this:

It was huge.  Like the size of my hand.

We were the only ones there, which kind of made it creepier! Where's daddy when we need him?!?!  Olivia wanted me to kill it with my shoe.  Um, negative!  (and this just a couple of weeks after I got in trouble for killing a small tiny spider in our house because it was God's creatures and we don't kill God's creatures).  Rest assured, she didn't care a bit that this big guy was one of God's creatures.  "Get him mommy!  So we can play!".  Um, no.  I'll watch him and you can play.  She said "no, I just want to go running some more".  And so we did just that.

As we were leaving the park, she said "Oh, I know!  A bug will eat him and we can come back later to play".  Um, yeah, ok!  :)

So off we went to run...which I must say is MUCH more difficult with a 30 pound child and a 20-25 pound jogging stroller with basically 2 flat rear tires.

After our run, we came home and had spinach smoothies.

No milk mustaches here!

Hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing weekend!



End of the Year Program

Olivia's school had their Graduation Program last Thursday.

A few days prior, I began questioning Olivia and asking her what they were doing.  Apparently it was top secret stuff.  She just kept telling me "You will just have to come wisten mommy".  I would tell her she needed to practice, and she would say "NOT HERE!".  And then she would tell me again that I would just have to "come wisten to it"  (yes, the "l" sound is actually a "w" sound, and while I'm sure I should correct her more on it, it's so cute).

Her class sang a fish song.  The fish brushed their teeth, combed their hair, took naps....all kinds of things.  Then they would say "WAIT A MINUTE!  WE'RE FISH!  Fish don't _______!  Let's go swimming!" (or something like that).  Then they'd go run around the stage "swimming" and go back and do it again.

It was really cute.

Olivia and her best bud Evan

This one cracked me up.  They are all three doing something totally different.  LOL

After everyone's individual class songs and after the pre-K class graduated, everyone went up on stage together for a couple of praise songs.  They had hand motions too, but there were approximately 30 or so kids on stage and I'd guess maybe 3 of them were doing the correct moves.  It was just a fun time for them to sing and act a little silly!

  

I can't believe my baby is getting so big!

She tells me ALL the time "Mom, I'm growing UP".  She tells me the things she has to grow up for...so she can cook, drive, wear makeup...you name it, she has to grow up to do it.

It's hard to imagine that she will be in that graduating class in just 2 years.  So proud of her yet my heart aches at how fast she is growing up!

Memorial Day Weekend

We began the three day weekend with a day trip to the Austin area (about 8 hours round trip) to see Jason's grandmother, Me Mommy.  Olivia was so sweet. She colored a picture for "daddy's grandma" Friday night and made sure we took it with us Saturday.

On Sunday, we went to church, took naps, then went to the zoo for a while.  We were given season passes at Christmas and have loved being able to drop in for just a couple of hours at a time (oh, and free parking is nice too)!

She was pretty interested in the snakes this trip....that was new!

We didn't have anything planned for Memorial Day.  We were suppose to have swim lessons at 6pm, but they cancelled at the last minute, so we ended up going over to Gram E's house to swim and have dinner.



My Little Baker

This weekend was pretty uneventful.  Ours usually are...we don't tend to do much but manage to stay busy at the same time!

Olivia started running fever Thursday night.  So I kept her home Friday and took her to the doctor.  We knew it would be either an ear infection or a virus.  This time we got the virus diagnosis.  So we came back to home to wait it out!  Luckily by Saturday, she seemed better. She was still running a little fever, but nothing extreme.  Saturday evening I was scared she was getting a stomach bug, as she got sick on the couch, but it was a one time deal (thank goodness!!!). 

We planned to go to the zoo Sunday after church/nap but decided against it since she'd been sick.

After nap, Olivia woke up and requested we make cookies. Her daddy had recently been complaining hinting to the fact that there weren't any cookies in the house as well.  So I did what any good wife/mom would do and made cookies (the flourless, sugarless bean cookies...I know you are totally jealous). 

We make these cookies at least every other week, if not every week.

With each week, she becomes a bigger and bigger helper.  I'm convinced she will be making them completely by herself by the end of August....if only she were allowed to use the food processor and oven!

Swim Lessons

Olivia has her first swim lesson yesterday.  She was SO excited about it.  I decided to get her private lessons since she is a little bit nosey.  I didn't think she'd pay as much attention in a group as she needed to (but who knows).   She'll have four private lessons, then we may put her in a group session afterwards.  Since she is only 3, I know we can't expect her to be a little fish, but she definitely WANTS to be one!

We got there early.  I figured it would be good for her to see others in the pool.  She was very patient waiting until it was her turn.  There were some bigger kids in the pool with swim caps on.  She was a little concerned because we didn't have a "hat" for her. 

 

At the beginning, after everything the teacher told her, she would turn and look at me like "is it ok mom?".  Luckily she warmed up and trusted her after just a couple of minutes. 

Here she is getting the "pool rules".

Mommy's Day 2012

Mother's Day weekend was pretty uneventful.  Jason worked Saturday, so Olivia and I spent the morning running errands and doing our usual thing.

Sunday wasn't much different. We went to church, ate lunch, napped, then went to my MIL's for dinner.

 I requested that Jason NOT buy me anything, as I've been setting up my office and already spending a little extra money on a few things I want in there.  Having a nice room to sit and work all day is gift enough for me!  They did each give me a card, and Olivia made some things for me from daycare.

On more than one occassion, Olivia asked if it was Mother's Day.  I would reply with yes, and she would say "But you not a Mother!  You a mom!  You my mommy!". 

I'm sure in due time she will be calling me "Mother" on a regular basis....definitely something I am NOT looking forward to! Until then, I'll take "Happy Mommy's Day"!



Weekend

Nana came to visit this past weekend. We didn't have any plans, as we usually don't when she comes!

We did go visit the "hidden falls".

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Olivia was being SILLY.  She insisted on closing her eyes for most pics.

We kept the nature theme going thru the evening.  We went to dinner on 7th street and stopped by the duck pond to feed the ducks.  All I had with me was my cell, so no great pics here.

On Sunday, mom was trying to get pics of Olivia before our trip to Target.  She wasn't having any part in it.  She is SO into giving these big fake smiles....ones where her eyes are huge and crazy-looking!

We played Santa during bathtime Sunday night.  She was saying "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!".  We're alraedy ready for winter to come again!