South Beach

So here we are in Miami. Brad called yesterday afternoon and said he couldn’t come home until the end of the week. So within an hour and twenty minutes I had me and 2 kids packed and we made the 5-hour trek. We rolled in to South Beach at 11PM.

Let me just tell you, Madelyn cried more on our little road trip than she has cried combined in the last 10 days. Mainly, thanks to her big brother. She would dose off to a pleasant slumber and then he’d ‘boop’ her nose or start singing incredibly loud. All to wake her up. And he succeeded. And she through a fit. This happened no less than 5 times. And, oh my, her protest lasted 20+ minutes EACH time!

Then my little chatter box. For the first 45 minutes he talked incessantly. Talked about his dad. Talked about the hotel (he LOVES hotels). Talked about the time PopPop and MiMi took him and SoSo to the lazy river hotel and he squirted someone with water. Then wanted to know if we were at the hotel yet. Then wanted to know if it was getting dark. Then back to dad. Where was he? Where are we? “I want my daddy.” Yes, buddy, I want your daddy too!

With all the TALKING and crying and 5 hour drive . . . we arrived. It’s so nice to be together as a family. Even if it is in a hotel room. We’re with Brad.

And the day has been so nice. William swam for 3 hours. Never tiring. He sort of made friends with these 2 grade school sisters. I say ‘sort of’ because they didn’t speak English and W doesn’t understand the language concept. I tried explaining how he learns Spanish in school and we speak English. But, you know, he’s 3. The older one kept saying, “I don’t speak English”. It didn’t stop him. He kept talking to them and following them around. Somehow they figured it out. The talking ceased and the copying began. One would jump a certain way in the water. The other would copy. One would do a trick in the water. The other would copy.

Do you know where I got to be (excluding the first 45 minutes)? Sitting in the sun stretched out on a beach chair. Oh, yes. Tanning. It was so nice. Maddie asleep. William capable in the pool and fully occupied. And me, I’ll say it again, tanning. 2 hours of South Beach rays made the 5-hour trek all worth it. I even got some reading done.

Brad got back and we had dinner by the pool with the ocean crashing into the beach behind us. It was beautiful. Then the boys swam and the girls cuddled under a pool towel. Just lovely.

Tomorrow?
Hopefully a repeat of the same.

Young Love

This past week 2 friends announced their engagement to wonderful women. We could not be happier for these guys! One of them was telling us how he proposed and as he recounted the event he was noticeably flighty and shaky yet smiling and excited all at the same time. How wonderful young love is. Not to be confused with their age - I'm not saying that - just that new fresh love. Hearing their love story and their excitement while talking about their future life mates makes me nostalgic.
I think back to when Brad & I met. The butterflies. The nervous sweat. How exciting it was just to talk on the phone with him. The first time we held hands. Our first date. Our engagement and how he 'popped the question'. Our perfect wedding day and incredible honeymoon.
I wouldn't go back. Our life is great. But those were good times that I don't often sit around and daydream about. I went through a bunch of old photos and loved reminiscing. Here are some highlights.

Skiing in CO on a Singles Trip while we were dating.

Magic Kingdom day trip while we were dating. I kept expecting him to propose while at Disney. Thankfully, he didn't. I thought his proposal site was perfect.

Brad proposed on a boat trip in Naples. At sunset.

Our wedding - 6 weeks later.

another wedding pose.

Honeymoon Photos - 5 years and 11 months ago . . .

Trevi Fountain in Roma.

Colosseum in Roma.

Pisa. That would be the leaning tower.

Great times. But nearly 6 years later - we've had even more memorable ones. Just to name a few . . .

2005 - Rockefeller Center, NYC

2006 - our new found friends from cooking school in Tuscany

2006 - Tuscany

2007 - Sunrise at 10K feet above sea level on top of Haleakala in Maui

2007 - Maui

And, of course,





I said I was feeling nostalgic.

To our soon-to-be-wed friends: We wish you many wonderful moments that you too will blog about!!! We can't wait to see what your future holds (though William is praying for 'baby Moses' for the Fall bride & groom. I know, a bit premature. No baby prayers for the Summer couple . . . yet.)!

Blink

I blinked.

What happened? Where did the time go?

My little boy is now telling me where to stand when we're kicking the ball back and forth.
He tries to negotiate and bargain with me to get his way. I'll tell him the plan for the morning is to take a bath, then he can watch TV. He'll respond, "Mom, here's the plan. First we watch TV, then we'll take a bath."
When my dad picks him up to go to dinner, my dad will say - Hey, let's go to Chick-fil-a. William responds with, "No. No. No. I wanna go to Macaroni Grill!" (Where do you think they end up?)
He has full conversations with my parents or Brad on the phone. Often communicating, in no uncertain terms, that they need to return home NOW.

He takes breaks in the bathroom to "catch up" on reading.


This morning he and my dad went to McD for breakfast. My dad said that when they got inside, W shot off into a different direction than he. W apparently hollered over his shoulder, "You get the dinner, I'll get the table." Think he's heard that one before.

Potty training turned bad

W started potty training at 23 months. There were compromises we made to get him trained because he was so young.

We were very motivated b/c the childcare on the cruise we were taking when he would be 25 months was open to potty trained children. At least that was the quote on the website. It ended up not being true - but he was still trained.

So back to the compromises. We would allow William (at the time it was cute - to us) to potty outside if necessary. We'd be on our way somewhere, he'd have the urge - and we'd jerk to the side of the road and let him relieve himself. Well, the down side is . . . 18 months later, he's still doing it.

I'm torn between laughing and being completely embarrassed that my 3.5 year old 'whips it out' in public. The fact that I'm blogging about it must mean I find it more funny than embarrassing.

He's done it at Busch Gardens (though I caught him before he soaked a couple of moms in front of him).
He's done it a MGM on Main Street in front of Tammy & Kent who remind us of the event (I can't remember if we stopped him that time).
He's done it at the spray ground in Hyde Park (I pretended I didn't see him doing it).
He secretly exited at Patrick & Abby's one night because he didn't know where their bathroom was (she caught him on their back porch).

So a couple weeks ago, we had a play date at the park with a bunch of friends. The boys were running wild. The girls weren't. It was fun. Until a friend (William thanks you, Christina) saw the following taking place and captured it for eternity (well, at least until his wedding day).


I'm told it looks like I'm cheering him on. I'M NOT. But what was I supposed to do? By the time I got to him, I couldn't stop him mid-stream!
Hopefully we'll never see the people that were eating lunch just to the left of the basketball hoop again (totally not joking about that).

Fabulous

Can I hear a "Fabulous" from some fellow Floridians????? Was the weather not just perfect this weekend?
The temperature.
The clear sky.
The breeze.
All Fabulous.
We went to the beach again. Just can't resist it when the weather is so perfect.
Brad & W played softball. Maddie & I played in the sand. I can't remember if W liked the sand the first time he got in it - but Maddie sure did. I turned my head for 3 seconds and next thing I know - she had a mouth-full of sand. Now that's nasty.

Celebrating with a Sunset Picnic

Friday ended a long 4 week period of Brad being gone all week. For emphasis, I will repeat - it was a long 4 weeks. He was home on the weekends - but it was still tough. When we first got married, he traveled Monday through Friday. But he stopped that schedule after W was born. I didn't realize what an impact his extended absence would have on our family dynamics.
So when he got home this passed Friday evening, we decided to do something special as a family. We loaded up the car, picked up our favorite Italian entrees, and headed to the beach for a sunset picnic.
It was so nice. The weather was beautiful. The sunset was incredible. We all had a great time.
Scroll down for pics.
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VIEWER ADVISORY:
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For those of you not currently enjoying the beautiful Florida low humidity & 80 degree weather, you might want to prepare yourselves for some jealousy and envy. We are having beautiful weather right now & these pictures reflect that.
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Jealous? Sorry.
But come visit. :)

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Maddie's first swing experience.

Brad & M.
Brad is sporting his 'Daddy Shirt' with the kid's handprints.

William kept telling me 'push me higher'. If his smile is any indicator, I'd say he liked it.

Spring Fling

Every Spring our church does a 'Spring Fling'. Purely a family fun afternoon.

Lawn chairs & blankets under shady trees for the adults,
...... inflatables for the kids,
........... rock climbing wall for the brave,
...... ........... and BBQ for everyone.

Mom and Maddie on a blanket under a shady tree.

Me & W on one of the inflatables.

William, SoSo, and Uncle Dan on the inflatables.
Notice, William got a little impatient and went on ahead.

"The Brave"? We'll see . . .
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There he is.
Uncle Chad went up with him - you know - in case he freaked out.
He did get a bit confused with where his hands should go once he had on the harness - hold the cord? Hold the rocks?

Enjoying the BBQ.

People bring their dogs, their frisbees, their volleyballs. It's a great opportunity to catch up with people you haven't talked to in a while and chat with people you just see in passing. It's a lot of fun.

Being near the base, there are plenty of planes overhead for the kids (little and adult size) to get excited about. I think it was last year that a formation of 4 fighter jets raced by.

3 or 4 years ago, my aunt brought her Louie Vuitton purse. After a dog lifted its leg and peed on it and a friend made the comment, "Look the dog peed on the French purse!" - I haven't seen another Louie.

Blue faced SoSo after ice cream.

Orange faced William eating ice cream.