Spring Break 2017 Part 3

 On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to get a visit from the Staffords!  They were about an hour north of us and they were heading to South Beach so they decided to spend a day with us.

There was so much to do, especially with Uncle Kev there! Lots of building to be done.

 Then the big kids headed out to the ocean and the littles stayed on the shore.  Diane and I got to spend about 4 and a half minutes of peace where we could talk about adult stuff until we had to help one kid with sand in his eye and another was throwing a tantrum and one more was crying about who knows what.  Ahhh but there were a few moments of peace.

The kids got along so well that we HAD to take a group photo.  We have the cutest kids EVER!

 Then we had to take a full group photo.  Yay for vacation! I think Charlotte looks the happiest here.  She was into it!

 Then Uncle Kev helped the kids build a spider.  It was an AWESOME spider.  Great work kids.  I think absolutely everyone ended up helping.  It was quite a project.

 We came back to the rental house.  (My parents hightailed it out to eat that night. They were smart.) Andrew, Diane, and I assembly-line made up dinners for all the kiddos.  Oranges, hot dogs, and chips.  Dinner of champions.

 While we were doing that, the kids and Kev swam in our pool. Then Andrew rode his bike to Yo! Tacos and got the adults tacos and burritos. They were delish.  We all had a GREAT time!

Then it was time to say goodbye after Tommy swallowed too much water and puked and then Charlotte somehow went #2 in her swimsuit.  Yikes! So the Staffords packed up and the kiddos said their goodbyes.  Assembly-line hugs in the car!
The adults and kids had so much fun together that we decided we need to do that more often, fo' sho'.

 The next day was our last day.  We walked to Time Square again to get some lunch.  The hostess let the kiddos ride the lift instead of taking the stairs.  They thought that was super cool.

 Then we went to the candy store and Tommy got a gummy gator.  He was so excited.  It didn't last long.  He scarfed that down quickly.

We spent some more time on the beach that day.  Charlotte was beached out. I built her a fort to stay out of the sun.  Tommy was at his bravest point when it came to water.  He wanted to go out deep in the gulf and it seemed like there was a riptide so we had to keep a really close eye on him.  A little scary.
That night we went to the beached whale for dinner.   A girl sitting with her mom at a table next to us fell unconscious.  I ended up helping her come back to consciousness until the ambulance arrived.  So that was crazy and there was definitely another margarita needed after that.  Sheesh.  Make sure to also drink WATER while drinking all that alcohol on spring break, people.  It's HOT.  The waitress was so funny.  She was like Oh yeah, this happens all the time.  She'll snap back soon.  Yikes!

Anyway, grandma and grandpa were nice to take the kids again so we could go out for another date night.  No arrests to watch this time! Just people watching.

 Also, look at this bathroom situation that I discovered in the bathroom at the bar. I don't feel like this is safe.  I don't know who thought this was a good idea?

 Friday we loaded up the van and headed to the airport.  We had to eat lunch first so we stopped at Cheddars on the way.

 After a food allergy mix up (which happened a lot during the week, ugh), we ended up with a gigantic plate of fries because they had to redo his chicken.  Tommy couldn't have been happier.  Fries are his absolute favorite.  Can't you see the excitement?

 Then when they finally brought his chicken, they brought it with MORE fries.  HA! That kid ate the crap out of those fries.  He was so stoked.  He ate almost ALL of them.  Can you even believe that?

 It was time to board the plane home. Waahh.  We had a great flight though.

 This is what Charlotte thinks about being back in Indy.  :-)

 She was so tuckered out from the long week of no sleep that she fell asleep after being in the car for about 3 minutes.

Tommy, on the other hand, STILL COULDN'T STOP EATING. He ate everything I packed in the lunch bag for all 4 of us. Is he already a teenager?? Holy moly.

What an amazing vacation.  Thanks to my parents for watching the kids and putting up with our shenanigans. We had such a great time.  I wish we could have stayed longer.  There's just something about being on the beach.  Memories made!

Spring Break 2017 Part 1

 We decided out of the blue to go on spring break this year.  It had been awhile since the kids were on a plane so we thought, why the heck not?

We boarded our plane (with a baby bottle lollipop) and headed out.

The kids watched movies throughout the two connecting flights.  We got to our hotel very late that night and scarfed some late night Wendy's.  The kids were champs! Obviously exhausted, but they did great. 

 The next morning before we checked out to head to our rental house, we hit the pool.  We also hit the breakfast bar but they didn't have any food that Tommy could have.  They didn't eve have FRUIT.  Are you serious?? Oh well.  At least the pool was awesome.

 The kids definitely didn't forget how to swim (with floaties).  Charlotte was an instant fish!  

 It took some time but we finally convinced Tommy to jump in the pool.  He jumped onto this raft because he's still not too cool with water on his face.  Might be time for swimming lessons! ;-)

 We arrived at our rental house and unloaded all our groceries (from Target, duh).  Then we walked to the beach! Hooray beach!

Charlotte fell in love!

 I wasn't kidding.  She was overjoyed!

 I was overjoyed to see the joy! Two lady strangers offered to take our picture and after some edited, I got this. Yay! They also asked me to take their picture and Charlotte decided she needed to be in their picture.  She stood directly in front of them.  It was so funny.  They rolled with it well at least.

Charlotte told us she got some "beach" in her hair.  :)

 We were only there for a couple hours but the kids had a ball!

 Impromptu hugs!

 Must! Throw! Sand!!

 Charlotte and I had to reenact our last Fort Myers Beach selfie.

 Why is sand such a great toy? I love it too and I can't explain it.

 We tried to take a family picture before we left.  An instant classic!

When we got back, we had to rinse off all the sand.  Shower dance time! 

 Then we decided to get in the pool. We had a perfectly sized pool with screen over it to keep out the lizards and bugs.  It was awesome.  Tommy decided to learn how to swim by himself.  (No floaties!)  We really aren't good at teaching someone to swim so it didn't go well but he can almost tread water now.  I call that a win!

 The next day it was back to the beach, early this time.  The kids picked up where they left off.

 The weather was beautiful all week. Perfect for playing in the only slightly cold Gulf.

 The ice cream man walked by with his cart.  We had to partake! Yum-o Popsicles!! A Rocket Pop and a Jolly Rancher popsicle.  Great choices.  So messy!

 It got cloudy that afternoon so we decided to go to the IMAX and see Beauty and the Beast.  It truly was my childhood brought to life.  I had very low expectations but Disney knocked it out of the park.

 After the movie, we lost Tommy because he disappeared into the arcade section.  He really wanted to play the shooting jurassic world game.  I wasn't too excited about this but as you can see, Andrew definitely was! :)

We tried to leave but realized Charlotte was upset because she wanted to play the motorcycle game.  She was throwing a major pity party.  I just couldn't say no.

 She was so happy to be hot rodding on that thing.  Haha!! I just wanted to get through it so I pressed a bunch of buttons to get it started.  Turns out, I had selected a hot rod leather clad dominatrix biker babe.  HAHA!!

 She finished the race somehow (with a little help from dada).  This is her 9th place award.  Lovely. :)

But you couldn't beat that smile when she was done.  She absolutely loved it.  Worth the wait!

Stay tuned for vacation adventures in part 2 and 3!

Chicago Getaway Weekend

 For Father's Day, I decided Andrew needed a quick getaway for the weekend.  I found a groupon for a hotel in an awesome location and we booked it for the following weekend.

 One of the reasons that really attracted me to the hotel was the rooftop pool! It was on the 5th floor and the kids loved it. We spent the afternoon there Friday. 

 Tommy practiced jumping in the pool.

 The sun came out occasionally.  It was beautiful.  It wasn't too hot or too cold.  Just perfect!

 Until Tommy swallowed a bunch of pool water and he decided to check out of pool time for the day.  Andrew was sure he was going to throw up.  I kept saying NO HE WON'T! HE'S FINE! I'm sure lots of people at the pool had their eyes on us.  Yikes. 

 Charlotte was jealous and wanted to lay with me too. Really blocked my sun but oh well.  It was pretty sweet. 

It was time to go inside and get ready for some Chicago nightlife.  

 So what did we decide to do? We were a block away from two large movie theaters so we decided to see Finding Dory.  We stopped to see the Ninja Turtle promotional statue first. 

 Then it was time to see the movie.  Andrew got a number one.  NEVER a good idea at the movie theater.  I swear it was a gallon of pop and two gallons of popcorn.  Sheesh. 
The movie was great and people actually clapped at the end.  There were some really funny scenes.  I really enjoyed Stringer Bell and McNulty from The Wire as the Sea Lions.  OFF OFF OFF OFF!!!

 We did not bring the stroller with us so we walked all the way down Michigan Ave to the Disney Store.  We really stretched the kids to their limits. 

 But it was definitely worth it for them.  Charlotte got a baby Dory and Tommy got a Jacquin.  He had never seen it before but it was basically a cheetah with wings so he loved it.  Looks like this:

He's a big fan.  So now we have to watch that show/movie/whatever it is. 

 We watched the boats on the river and took a selfie.  We stayed up way too late but it was vacation!! :)

 The next morning, we were up early of course so we headed to the Ohio St beach.  What a view, huh?? A beautiful beach too. 

 The kids were so excited!

 We took a lot of selfies that day.  :)

 Photo cred for this pic goes to Andrew.  Great shot!

 Hey another selfie! We actually thought to bring a bunch of snacks and sandwiches with us but you can still tell that Charlotte had a popsicle earlier that day.  It stained her mouth for most of the day.  Yikes, what was in that popsicle?

 We had a someone take a family picture for us.  Not too shabby.  I asked someone from the selfie generation so she knew what she was doing.  She and her friends were basically standing on the beach taking selfie after selfie so I knew I asked the right person. 

 Hey there they are in the background right there!

 After our beach day and a nap, we headed over to Navy Pier.  Charlotte HAD to ride the carousel, of course. 

 Tommy wanted to ride the Ferris wheel.  You can tell everyone is so excited to stand in line!

 The Ferris Wheel is pretty awesome.  It's so huge! We could see everything.  We went around 3 times.  We figured it would be a one and done type of thing. 

 We got to know the people in the car with us.  They took our family pic for us.  How nice!

 After Navy Pier rides and dinner, we went on a architecture boat tour.  Yay!! The kids did not know what they were getting into. 

 This is how we were able to enjoy the boat tour.  Some day they'll want to pay attention to something like that.  Today is not that day. 

 It was a great tour.  The views were amazing.  We really got an education!

 The docent was awesome. I kept looking at Andrew and saying, "Um is he making this stuff up? That can't possibly be true."  Very interesting stuff. 

 We had stayed out late enough that everything was closing in Chicago but we knew one place that wouldn't be closed... Whole Foods! There was one right by our hotel so we visited every night for snacks and desserts.  An almond butter and chocolate cup for Tommy and a cake pop for Charlotte.  I got a cannoli.  Oh man, it was amazing. 

 The next morning we got up and went across the street to the egg cafe.  Such a bad idea to go to an egg breakfast place with a kid with a milk and egg allergy.  But our waiter was an amazing professional and he found some granola cereal that didn't have any of his allergies in it and we brought our own milk so we were all set.  Plus they had their phones because they were NOT in a good mood after two late nights being dragged all over the city. 

Charlotte fell asleep shortly before we got home.  How is that comfortable to sleep like that?? Kids are amazing. 
But what a great spontaneous mini vacation we had.  It was so nice to get away and just hang together as a family.