W.C. Day 3

Lazy Sunday

Sunday morning was for PJs, coffee and lounging around as much as possible in our house.

Dad & Giraffe Dax

 

Eventually the time came for Chad to head off to the airport to return to reality, probably a welcomed reality after the exhausting chaos and lack of comfortable sleep - we gave him Kaiden's twin size car bed to sleep in over the weekend - HA, shoulda snuck a picture of THAT sight!  As seems to happen when you are having fun, you forget to get the group shots to include everyone - so this time before he left we decided to each take a picture with Chad before he left.

Dad & Chad and 'Wild Man' as Dad calls him snuck in too.

 

I'm pretty sure Chad's laughing about hogging ALL the genes for height!

 

As days go it was a pretty laid back, easy day.  The BIGs helped Dad with his Sunday paper - it's quite entertaining to watch that each time Dad visits.  We played some in the playroom and outside, when possible and then since it was going to be Grampa Dave's last night we did a Family Movie Night and it just happened that the Disney Movie "Teen Beach Movie" was on - HA it is a special kind of torture that movie.  Dad endured it like a champ, we were all exhausted from a very fun and busy weekend and we called it a night.

 

 

Monday - Another Day of 'Ta Ta For Nows'

 

My Dad had a recipe for crock pot monkey bread he wanted to attempt with the boys - easy enough just cut or, if you're Wild Man, tear biscuits from the can, then add copious amounts of butter, brown sugar, white sugar and probably cinnamon then cover and walk away for a few hours.  They were wonderful!  I mean especially for the boys - it was like donut holes in carmely, cinnamony, amazing glaze!  Ha.  I knew another favorite place to grab a bite is Schlotzsky's Deli, and there just so happens there is one sort of close to us.  So after the sugar high of the morning had worn off, we went and picked up some "circle sandwich" as P calls it and came back to the house to do a picnic of sorts with Dad.  Since we had snacked on monkey bread all morning and eaten a late lunch we decided that our best bet would actually be to take Dad up to his hotel before either we had to sit in 5:00 traffic OR we would have to wait and go after dinner.  And since Dad actually had some work to do and emails to catch up on, up to his hotel we went.

 

Good Byes are Never Fun after SUCH a Fun Weekend

 

Dad Saying Bye To Dax.

 

Kaiden giving big hugs

 

And Pierce saying good bye and giving big love too!

 

 

After we waved our farewells to my Dad, everyone was sad.  And I must admit I had a few tears come to my eyes, cause I had SUCH a great weekend and it was so wonderful to have my family close and enjoying the time together and making such treasured memories.  BUT, when you are part of a circus, the "show MUST go on"!  As we were fighting traffic back home K remembered that we forgot to take a picture with all three boys wearing their animal visors that my Dad had brought them.  So once we got back home, I had each boy chose their hats and snapped a bunch of pictures and this was the one we sent Dad of all his "wild" grandsons.



 

They are wild animals I tell ya!

 

 

It was a GREAT weekend and I am so happy and thankful that all three of our World's could collide on this weekend together!  Love Dad & Chad thanks for endearing the Cat5Kirks!

World's Collide Day 2!

Saturday - On A Pontoon!

Dave and I have wanted a boat since we graduated college.  Back before we had kids, we used to spend our weekends going to different boat showrooms around Atlanta, and climb up in and imagine owning some sweet little inboard ski boat, but for some reason we never bought one.  Now looking back, we seriously have NO CLUE why we never went ahead and bought it.  But, we didn't.  So now with three kiddos and a Bass Pro World just 2.5 miles from the house, we have spent time again walking the "docks" inside the building, with the boys trying out all kinds of boats.  We were thinking buying a pontoon could be fun, it wouldn't be the sweet inboard ski boat, but IF the boys did well with it, learned to swim, and boating safety, than in a few years we could sell the pontoon and buy the ski boat so we could go fast!  Only problem is - HOW will the kids do!?  NO point in committing to another monthly payment obligation if we never get to use it cause it causes too much stress or the boys can't behave on it!  So for my family's visit we decided to rent a pontoon, give it a test run, there would definitely be enough adults to help with the kiddos in the even they don't behave and IF they did well then we could move forward with our idea of buying a boat. 

 Since we are sorta LAST MINUTE kind of people, there were slim pickings of available boats for rent on Saturday - since I'm 99% sure Dave booked it on Friday! Ha!  Anyway, with it being last minute the available boat was NOT at a marina by the lake we live on, but rather an hour or so East of us at Lake Tawakoni.  We had never been to this lake before but were assured finding the boat rental place would be easy enough.  So we put on our suits, grabbed bags of snacks, a cooler or drinks, towels and sunblock and all 7 loaded back into Minnie and off we went.

Lake Bound!

Now, as you know, in general, whatever the most ridiculous, outrageous, unpredictable, unexpected outcome is happens for us.  Well this is NOT my phenomenon it was actually passed down from my parents, my Dad specifically.  I could go on forever about how when he is involved in anything the MOST hilarious things happen.  It never fails to crack Dave up either, he is always laughing about the IG in full effect!  Sorta like the Ingersoll gene (IG) to ensure that my life will NEVER be boring! (In fact now that I am thinking about it, I may try and dedicate an entire blog post to incidents when the IG had to be in full effect).  So getting all of us together just sort of summons ALL the powers that be to swing into action.  So when we accidentally passed the marina the first time and had to back track we got a better view of it - basically it was a shack with a small 'convinence' store attached to the front that sold miscellaneous outdated snacks and fishing lures, and live bait.  Then in front of the shack there was a bathroom shack - which CRACKED me up cause whomever had the ONE job of constructing the stalls did so with ZERO consideration to the height of the toilets.  Basically even if you were squatting above the toilet, EVERY part of you was visible under the "stall".  And then the cherry on top, was the kindly country folk who presumably have some affiliation with the shack, selling their homemade BBQ out of crock pots attached to multiple extension cords running back to the shack.  They were yelling at us to come buy some to take on the boat, best BBQ in three counties and NEVERMIND the stray cats who were ON the table with said BBQ, licking the buns and sauce from around the tops of the crock pots!  HAHA! Oh man.

Our Chariot Awaits

Once we had signed the waivers and unloaded our gear the kind gentleman said our pontoon was the one at the end of the dock ready and waiting for us. Sounds normal enough - till of course we turned around and saw that the end of the dock was about ten and a half feet above the water level and therefor about eight and a half feet above the boat.  Yeah.  THAT HAPPENED!  I can NOT make this stuff up!  Wouldn't got no need to!  Ha!  Here is a very POOR quality zoomed in screen snap to try and help illustrate what I am telling you.

Can you see it? All the way to the left of that picture is the 'shack' and the dock is the long wooden thing in the middle of the picture.  The END of the plank dock is that part which looks as though it ends in the bushes, and then you'll see the lake water which is about ten feet below the plank dock.  With a real fancy-like ladder they had attached to the end of the dock to reach the boat.  NOT stairs but a straight ladder.  PERFECT! I still do NOT know why, but Dave and the two BIGs chose to walk the plank and navigate down the ladder WITH the giant cooler or drinks!?  I know right!?  Dad and I chose to walk across the icky silty mud with Dax and the bags of snacks, towels and sunblock.  It was NOT worth it to mess with the plank and the ladders. 

FINALLY Setting Sail
I am both impressed and delighted to say we ALL made it ON the boat in one piece.  It was a beaut of a boat too!  I would wager a bet that back in 1975, when this vessel was christend, it was a sight to behold!  Now a few decades later, it left a little to be desired from a more updated boat.  BUT either way, it was the ONLY boat we had access to so we loved it!

Uncle Chad is thrilled! You can see the plank dock over his shoulder!

How Many Kirks does it take to Captain this vessel!?

 

My Dad and I

 

Grampa Dave and the BIGs

 

Uncle Chad and Daxie

 

I'd like to note if the faces on Dad or Chad seem somewhat distressed or put off, here's the deal: where we had parked the water was only about 5ft 7in deep and it was the WORST sort of mucky, soft, sticky, lake sludge.  IT was awful.  Ugh, even remembering it now makes me cringe.  The video is quite hilarious watching each guys reaction to treading around in it.  SO - yeah, just to keep you filled in on why & what!

 

Some lake cruising

The 'Sunning Deck'

My Brother Man Taking The Helm!

 

A lake FIRST, Longhorns just hanging on the shore! Ha!

 

 

 

Day On The Lake

 

So after the first stop, where we all had to deal with the horrible lake bottom, we decided to load back in, cruise around some more, find a new, deeper spot, get back in swim around, cool off, then climb back in, cruise some more, find a new spot and so on.  We are REAL big on patterns!  So as we cruised we would pass out drinks and snacks and we would float and snack, enjoy the sun and get hot enough to need to jump back in.  Fresh sun, water and of course the exceptionally late night the evening before meant after three or four hours we were done.  And in the distance we could hear thunder moving in and lightning and water is nothing to mess with.  SO with our fill of the lake for the day we cruised on back to the plank to return our gorgeous vessel!

 

The BIGs Trying A Handshake Which Turned Into MMA Wrestling

BUT if you look you can see the darker clouds moving in.

 

Sweet Daxie was ZONKED!

 

 

Round Out The Day

After lots of fun in the sun and all that went into that we thought we would do a Dad & kids dinner to a Mexican restaurant and let Dave hang with the boys at the house, so they could go to bed early.  A week or so ago, when I got the call from Chad about his visit, in my head I added "take Chad and Dad to the dueling piano bar" - however I never mentioned it to either of them thinking I would surprise them with it after our dinner.  BUT the thought got loss in the abyss of my mind and we did not make it to the piano bar, but between our margaritas and the lingering 'swaying' feeling from being on the boat earlier left all of us happy to call it an early night and just enjoy each other's company and sleep!



World's Collide

Which Made For An Awesome Surprise!!

July is one of those 'grin and bear it' months.  It is SO hot, and the days are SO long, and other than my birthday there isn't a LOT to look forward to for the month.  But this year it was gonna be different!  My Dad, who does a lot of traveling for work, always tries to use his "free tickets" to come see his Grandbabies.  He usually either schedules to come out for work around a weekend or takes a vacation day to make it a long weekend.  And this summer, as luck would have it, the week after our collective birthday week, he had a conference out in Dallas, SO, he decided he would fly out Thursday night so we could have a full three days together and then at some point Monday afternoon we would drive him to his hotel for his real work.

We were PUMPED!  Everyone loves a visit from Grampa Dave!  And we already had some good ideas of things we could do with him while he was out here to help fill in the hours.  My Dad LOVES the drive-in movies, and we have an AWESOME one not far from us, that shows double headers and we try and visit them often.  It's basically the ONLY way we can DO a new release movie.  So we knew FOR SURE that we would take him there.  And since on his last visit in January we took him to the zoo, we decided a trip to the Aquarium was in order.  And since it was July and the only way to beat the heat is by being on or in water, we decided we would look into renting a pontoon boat and getting out on the lake.

The plan was all set, the tentative schedule was made and we couldn't wait for Grampa Dave to get here.

A Twist In Plans

WELL, as these things seem to do in my life, things changed, amazingly, for the better!!  I got a call from my brother, Chad, and he said that he had just been told that he was needed in their Austin client's location to do some work on their network and as luck would have it, he would be done in Austin Thursday evening and would be able to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday with us.  He had booked a Sunday evening flight back to GA which meant that he too, would get to participate in the fun-ness we had scheduled for Grampa Dave.

The Element Of Surprise

SO, I thought I would be sneaky about it and NOT tell Dad.  I couldn't WAIT to see his expression when we pulled in the driveway late Thursday night from the airport to see Chad-Boy sitting on the couch waiting for us.  Chad of course already knew Dad was going to be out this week so he was in on the 'don't tell Dad' plan.  BUT as these things go, Chad's Thursday afternoon/early evening plans turned into a late night, and since he was 3.5 hours away and had enjoyed a cocktail or two we decided it would be best if he just slept peacefully in his hotel and then head up our way first thing Friday morning.  He had to be there before 9:30 so we could beat the crowds down to the Aquarium.

The boys knew when they woke up Friday morning Grampa Dave would be in the house, so the two BIGs were up before the sun.  Luckily my Dad knows the drill - you do NOT come to the Kirk house for rest or relaxation, so he was ready for them.  Pierce was in there first, REALLY early, Dad said he just sorta stood next to the mattress and looked down at him for a few seconds, so my Dad scooched over and let P climb in with him.  He amazingly fell back to sleep for twenty or so minutes, but then Kaiden woke up and sprinted up to see him, and once both BIGs were in bed with him any hope of calm or tranquility vanished and really in order to save yourself from being kicked or punched you basically have to stand up and get out of bed all together. 

SO, we are all hanging out down stairs drinking are morning GO juice and Kaiden, king of blurt it out, says "guess who is coming to surprise you this morning Grampa Dave?  Uncle Chad, he is coming to surprise you this morning!"  HAHA, man, gotta love kids, Dad looked at me with a puzzled look and said "really?"  So I explained to him how the last minute trip had worked out and how Chad would be joining our weekend of adventure. 

Friday - Day One of Fun!

Chad made it on time - not that I was worried, but I did make sure to send him an early morning wake up & drive text!  I think we let Chad come in and say hello, drop his bags and we were OFF!

Future's SO Bright!

The BIGs were ready to GO!

Look At This Crew - HA! The Aquarium did NOT know what was coming!

Me & The BIGs - guess who did NOT want to take a pic!

 

The otters, my FAVORITE - aside from the manatees!

 

Two Generations for Dad

 

Everyone's favorite the shark tunnel!

 

Special visit from the Jaguar!!

 

 

We have been a dozen times and NEVER seen him!

 

 

I like knowing the plan, just a general idea of how things will go, so on the drive in I tried to explain to Dad & Chad that this place is super cool, but loud and overwhelming for P (of course it didn't help that he didn't yet have his glasses, so in addition to all other stimuli he couldn't SEE anything) and that we would be in and out in an hour.  They both sorta chuckled but I think they thought I was exaggerating, that with one adult for each Kirk Boy, we would be able to slow down and enjoy everything more - yeah - um NO, I think we were sitting in front of the exit 47 minutes after waiting in line to enter! Ha - at least THAT much I can predict!

 

We Deserve A Prize!

Sometimes it is called liquid courage, but after this trip, this 'hurry, hurry, there he goes, NO Pierce don't throw that, in and out in 47 minutes' trip, we needed some liquid relaxation!!!  Plus Dad lives in Minnesota, and although now (9 months later) they have just opened a Chick Fil A up there, at the time he could only get the deliciousness that IS the original chicken sandwich, waffle fries and lemonade, when visiting the Cat5Kirks.  AND since I have a mental map of where every CFA in the city is, I knew there was one on the way home.  I ALSO knew that liquor stores are only in Dallas city limits, and I happened to remember where the one Dad and I found the week we moved here was.  So we stopped at package store first, then hit CFA drive thru, the boys would have preferred going in, but being over-stimulated already, and the indoor playground was packed did NOT make for good outcomes with my kiddos, one in particular.  PLUS, I'm thinking CFA patrons may have felt uncomfortable watching adults take their CFA cups out to a minivan and adding a little hooch to their cups! HA!  When you are not used to kids sporadic, hyper, and unpredictable behaviors in general, but then adding external stimuli PLUS other people, 47 minutes in the Dallas Aquarium into a completely new and overwhelming stress fest - I bet if I called Dad and Chad right now, they wouldn't remember many of the animals there, but they would probably both remember P losing it when we told him he could no longer stand at the top of the escalator and do happy hands at the repeating patterns of stripes and stairs.  Ha.

 

Rested (sorta) Refueld And Ready For Drive-In!!

Remember my Dad had just gotten there the night before and the boy's had woken up very early, plus the aquarium, so after we got home and everyone ate their CFA, I put Baby Dax down for his nap and the other two sorta rested where they fell, Dad, Chad and I, watched some TV, shared a toast to all of us being together again for the first time in years, and just enjoyed each others company.

 

The second plan on Friday's agenda was of course, the Drive-In, and since Minnie was maxed out in terms of seats and space, we decided we would just order a couple pizzas and eat at the house, then load up and head down.  Now to understand the next picture you need to know that when Dad comes he hits up some little toy stores or the dollar bins at Target and gets little things for the guys.  This trip he had found assorted "Magic" trick toys and they had enjoyed attempting the ten or so little tricks, and practicing to put on a little show for the rest of us.  Well one toy in particular, the hidden ball trick, was a HUGE hit with the boys, Dax specifically.  The little jar has three parts and a removable blue ball.  It SHOULD be a one person trick but in this case Uncle Chad was helping with the ball part and Kaiden was controlling the lid, hidden ball insert and base.  EVERYTIME the ball would disappear from the apparatus and appear somewhere else Dax would crack up.  Then K would say "Abracadabra" and BACK at the little red jar the ball would reappear. Dax would be MESMERIZED, the video is hilarious - here are a few screen grabs from it.

Look At Daxie's Expression!

 

He Is SO Impressed!

THERE IT IS! Ha

At This Point K Says "This IS REAL Magic!" Ha, So Cute!

 

After our pizza and our magic show, all 7 of us loaded into Minnie and down to the Drive-In we went.

 

Sung As Bugs!

 

All Set For The Turbo/Despicable Me 2 Double Header

 

Thumbs Up To You Too Dave!

 

Who Is READY For Some Movies!?

 

The summertime double header was yet another spectacular happening as if a gift for our awesome weekend.  July + Texas + Drive In = miserable, USUALLY, but this night it was PERFECT, almost cool towards the end.  It was perfect weather, the movies were adorable and even though it made for a LATE night, with just about everyone falling asleep in Minnie on the drive home, everyone had a really good time.  Now hurry up and sleep we have yet another full schedule tomorrow!



Finish Out June

Filling Hours

It's what makes a Mom's job both exceptionally challenging AND completely MUNDANE all wrapped into one!  NOT everyday can be an epic fail like the rainbow sprayer, but just about everyday comes with the task of having options for the boys to partake in, including LOTS of outside play so we don't melt into puddles in front of the TV.

Luckily we have a lock on where all the best parks and playgrounds are, so we usually try and get out the door EARLY on days we are going to the park.  And since my boys are generally all awake by 6:00 we are done with breakfast and out the door by 8:00 or so no problem.  That way we can have a few hours of outside time before the oppressive heat of mid-day sets in and renders outside play impossible unless water is involved or until the sun starts to set.

Taking It To The Trails

Kaiden learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels late last spring, so he enjoys taking his bike with us to parks to ride the trails when the playground doesn't have any big kids to play with.

K, riding ahead and waiting for the rest of us

 And Pierce, in his delightfully bull headed way STILL refuses to actually pedal the bike so he just straddles the bike and tippy toe pushes himself along - it takes FOREVER for him to cover ANY amount of ground.  BUT we are here to kill time, so bring on the tippy toe bike riding!

Bringing Up The rear - at snail's pace - P!!

Back At Home Base

Then once we decide it has gotten too hot to enjoy being outside, which is usually between 10:30 & noon depending on the day, we head back home and rest in the A/C and rehydrate and refuel.  Each day is different what we do with our 'inside time' some days we will have 'picnics' upstairs, I will carry up our picnic blanket and we will all sit on the floor and eat our lunch while we watch a show or just pretend like we are somewhere else.  Sometimes we will take a trip to redbox or hook up the wii and go to Netflix and make it a "movie time" afternoon.  And other times one boy will watch shows, the other will play some electronic game device and baby Dax will just nap!  Exciting stuff I know!

Water Play Time

Once inside time is done OR I have heard enough screaming, yelling and MMA death match wrestling, we will head out back to the splash pool and the back deck.  We get good shadow from the house so the boys are not in direct sunlight, and I can sit in the shade on our comfy chairs, OR drag a cushion out and set in the sun and dip my toes in the pool with the boys. 

Dax's eyes MATCH the pool - gorgeous boy!

 

P bringing it in for his cute boy smile.

K was 'too busy' practicing swimming to give me a good close up shot

Kirk Boys In The Splash Pool

 

 

Not necessarily glamorous but it's how my day to day went for most of the summer.  It was as June came to a close and we were spending our weekends the EXACT way I spent every weekday, that I BEGGED Dave for another vacation or some other option to help us 'pass our time'.  Cause I would no doubt slip the slope into madness if something didn't give soon.  HA!

 

 

 

Good Intentions And Good Outcomes. . . .

Rarely Seem To Be Found In The Same Place!

Summer had officially started - we welcomed it the right way by taking our trip down to the beach and really having a good time, so surely all that effort and energy would be enough to keep the boys 'chill' for the rest of June, right?!   Yeah, who are we kidding, kids are kings of instant gratification and completely unaware of things like time spent planning, or money spent on vacations or even having a decent grasp on time as a unit of measurement. 

SO, it's third week of June, and the temperature is just going to keep on climbing till it finds triple digit days, and we still have not gotten an access key to be able to use the pool - so like the Army commercial taught us years ago, "if you don't have a bridge.  Build One!"  So, that is precisely what we did.  We built a bridge!  Errr, I mean we went to Wally World, and bought assorted inflatable summertime yard water toys, as our peace offering to the boys.

Splish Splash Time Baby!

How freaking fun is THIS going to be?! 

I man, Come ON! I Want To Play Too!!

 

The fearsome threesome and I scoured our options at the WM, we settled on this because 'technicall' we are on perma epic drought status here in TX and at least this way we could arc the rainbow OVER the little splash pool and then we would be catching said rainbow water and they could then play in that until the days end, and they all retire exhausted from their fun in the sun and sleep soundlessly through the night.

 

AS you know, that is NEVER how my stories go, so here is how we had yet another, memorable afternoon.

Patience Is A Virtue. . . On SHORT Supply When My Kiddos Are Concerned

 

Do you know just how mother loving long it takes to blow up not one, not two, but three flip flopping rings of the splash pool!?  Not quite long enough for Daddy to make it home and help but just long enough so you can threaten that if ANYONE whines one more time about how long it's taking Mommy to blow this up that you will WALK AWAY from it and make them wait till Daddy gets home.  My cheeks are getting sore just thinking about what a horrid experience that was, and then the torture that IS both biting down on the little valve and blowing hot June air into smelly vinyl yard toys isn't over yet.  Oh NO baby, we still have the 'piece de la resistance' the rainbow sprayer.

 

I started with the clouds, first the outer ring, and then filling the inner ring with water, per the instructions, to help give it stability and integrity as a base.  GOOD call makers of "Sun-Shine" products.  Then with EVERY ounce of 'give a crap' I had left, I inflated the blue, pink and yellow tubes.  We were getting SO CLOSE, the future of happy frolicking kids was SO close I could almost taste it!  I was sweating from the effort and stress of three anxious boys watching me take breath after breath and blow it into the valve, I was already fantasizing in my head how WONDERFUL sitting back with a cold beverage while the boys transformed themselves into the ridiculously happy kiddos from the cover of the boxes of said vinyl toys.  K, being both helpful and impatient, ran and got the hose and was standing at the ready, for me to give the signal once it was connected to the extended port valve on the rainbow.  I didn't want to already be doubting it's credibility, but the rainbow was having a hard enough time remaining in a 'bowed' position without any water flowing threw it or kids bounding about it's clouds. 

 

The Moment Of Truth

Much like the infamous moment in our family's FAVORITE Holiday movie where Clark W. Griswald has assembled the masses of his family to watch in splendor as he alights all 10,000 twinkle lights - I too had amassed my minions, and they were waiting with baited breath - having left while I was making progress on the rainbow to go help each other find swim clothes - the spigot was opened, water began to flow. . . .

. . . . and DOWN goes Fraiser. . . .

ERRrrr I mean, down goes the rainbow - down went ANY hopes of my boys turning into mindlessly happy little grass dwellers while I sat in peace in the shade.  IT was like a slow motion fail - the first of the water reaches the rainbow and it list forward precariously, with minimal water actually springing forth from the allotted holes.  Then the rainbow stumbles to it's side, the colorful tubes are now heavy with water, but at least from this angle SOME water is spurting out.  I'm trying to convince the boys THIS will STILL be fun to play with, all the while I'm not even believing the crap I'm spewing to them.  Then like a drunken swine, on to it's back the rainbow rolls, HEAVY as drunken pig too! 

 

I realize this is NOT what we wanted, but again I try to appease the complaints from the boys by saying, at least this way you can have it spray up, and walk OVER the rainbow - that's pretty cool, right?!  YEAH, um, NO they were NOT buying it either.

 

The Rainbow In All It's Drunken Swine Glory

 

The boys were PISSED, K especially, and I GET it, this is NOT what ANY of us wanted!  I certainly was NONE too happy that I had just spent the previous 2 hours inflating toys that were defective.  But it was, what it was and we could either make the best of it - OR he could go to time out!  HA!  I had to snap a picture, it was too funny not to - I mean, LOOK how swollen each of the colored tubes are.  I was laughing about what a waste it had been as I went inside to put my camera down and grab my beer.  I STILL had deserved it.  NOT long after I got back out the boys asked if they could slide down the rainbow (into a pot of gold.  And they'd be jolly friends forever more! - HAHA, you know you were thinking it!) and I said sure, it was going back to wal mart for being defective anyway - go for it.  And of course water had been pumping in these tubes for half an hour now, as SOON as the boys feet put any pressure on the colored part the burst open so fast - I WISH I had one of those super slow-mo cameras to watch what it looked like.  I imagine it was the tube essentially dissinegrating and a sausage of water hovering for a split second before crashing to the grass. 

 

I just found two more pictures of the boys and the doomed rainbow - OH I know it shouldn't make me laugh but it does.

This Is When They Decide Maybe They Could Slide Across It

 

HA, LOOK at that mean mug K is shooting me, as if I KNEW this would be the outcome.

 

 

 

AHH, WHO doesn't love some awesome summertime memories.  

 

 



Now, THAT Is What Beach Vacation Dreams Are Made Of

Beach Trip Day 3-7

Yeah so it may seem a smidge lazy to clump the rest of the trip into one post, but this CRAZY thing happens when the sun is out and you get to spend all day at the beach - you enjoy your free time more and document your misery less! Ha!

Sun, Sand, Warm Breezes, Encounters With Sea Life & Blue Angels
SEE, this is why we drove ALL this way, once the weather cleared up it really has EVERYTHING you could EVER hope for in a family beach vacation.

Happy Smiles From A Beach Bound Dax

Much Better Start Than Last 2 Mornings

 

Now, THIS Is My Kinda Day!!

 

Pod Of Dolphins Just Past The Sandbar

 

What you couldn't see, was between the shore and the sandbar, in the warm tide pools created by the previous two days of storms, were TONS of little fish and schools of Manta Rays - which was SO COOL, but until you got comfortable with them brushing your legs and toes as they darted past, it was absolutely terrifying!  HA!

 

Every Morning Around 10 The Blue Angels Flew Practice Flights - AWESOME!

 



 

This Is As Good As It Gets! Happy & Entertained Boys & Bright Sun!

 

Dave  & The BIGs Boogie Boarding

 

Dax Took The Time To Get Some Sunning

 

Construction Of Beach Highway Begins

 

They Work For Hours Building These Beach Roads!

 

 

Those Are MY People - Am I A Lucky Gal or What!?

 

 

Dax's Firsts

So the fact that I started this blog as a documentation of Baby Kaiden's growth and development from conception thru, with almost weekly instalments, important details and updates and has now morphed into a hodge podge of collective memories and hilariously catastrophic stories of awesomeness is NEVER far from mind as I compose my posts.  I figure at some point soon I will invest some time into researching this whole "birth order complex" since I bet the fact that Kaiden's first word and age he said it is the only one I can remember, and therefore I will be FORCED to make something up for the other two so that they don't develop some lifelong issues - is a BIG part of what they say causes said lifelong issues - ha! 

 

Although Dax is a serious trouper, and has hung in there with the BIGs from the very beginning, this was his first (I'm 99.9% sure) trip to the beach.  It was also his first time getting to swim in a pool - which this kid is a FISH, he LOVES swimming and water and ALL sorts of outside time.  And as you will recall from earlier in the month the two BIGs took swim lessons, and Dax got to watch every one of them - so he thought he knew what he was doing, and although it is a smidge terrifying to watch your baby go under water, he popped up and took a big breath like a champ and LOVED it!

 

Practicing His Doggie Paddle

 

He Took The Plunge

Popping Up And Holding His Head High For His Breath

Satisfied Smiles! He Did It!!

 

 

First OREO

I'm not sure if it is a required "Baby's First" but in our family I think (95% sure) that I have captured each boy's first experience with the chemical deliciousness that is the OREO cookie!  I blame credit my Dad with the passed down love of the OREO, he LOVES OREO cookies but ONLY name brand, you get what you pay for and if it is not the real thing, than it ain't worth eating!  And surprisingly there is nothing REAL in the real OREO, so therefore Dax was not allergic to anything and could enjoy them worry free!  Bonus!

Hmm, What's This?



 

Oh, Yeah, I'm Liking This!

"Let Me Just Shove All That Back In"

It's Official - He's Hooked!! Another OREO Lover!

 

 

My Sister From Another Mister

Like I said one of my best girlfriends Mirela at last minutes notice agreed to schedule a client visit down near us so she could still be productive and brought her oldest boy Sam, who is 2 days younger than Kaiden, and spent a few days with us and it was GREAT!  We met my first official visit to UNA back in the day and have been close ever since.  No matter time or distance whenever we get together it's always instantly like we've not been apart - I'm a lucky girl I tell ya!

 

Me & Mir