Memorial Weekend, Day 1

For Memorial Day Weekend, we planned a short, two night trip to Solomon's Island, about an hour and a half drive from where we live.  We were anxious and excited for this trip because it would be our first family vacation with just our little family, and it was also an experiment to see how sleeping all four of us in a room together would work.  We really enjoyed our vacation together and had so much fun just hanging out as a family.  As for all of us sleeping together in a room...well, we forfeited our second night in the hotel...does that tell you how well that went?!  (more on that later)

We left Saturday afternoon right around naptime, hoping both kids would have more of a chance of sleeping on the way there (my kids, especially Leah, do not fall asleep easily in the car).  The drive there was smooth and there was such a feeling of excitement being on our first family trip (Dallin had come down with a cold and pink eye two days before our trip, so there was a slight fear the trip wouldn't happen...thankfully, his pink eye cleared up after 48 hours and his cold was mostly gone by Saturday).  

The first thing we did when we arrived was walk along the boardwalk and enjoy the hot, hot sun (we were all perspiring a lot by the time we got back to the car...especially since Leah insisted on being carried quite a bit of the way, which didn't help with the heat).

Dave had worked in this area for a couple years in his previous job, so he was slightly familiar with it.  He had driven the two-lane bridge in this picture numerous times (and it always scared him!).

Sometimes Leah has such a knack for making Dallin laugh

Chasing the duck

Heading back to the car ("C'mon, Mom!")

In such a hurry...

Run, Leah, run!

Must. Not. Stop.

Finally tired.

LOVE this girl.

 

After walking a bit, she decided it was time for her to push Dallin in the stroller.

She pushed him quite a ways (I was there to help steer the ship).

After arriving tired and sweaty back at the car, we headed to our hotel where we planned on settling into our room and then getting out to the pool as quickly as possible.

Leah insisted it was for her to pull around this bag.  Everyone we passed commented on how the bag was bigger than her.

  

We had to assure people that she wanted to pull the bag because you couldn't tell from her actions.  She was grunting and groaning the whole way to our hotel room.  It made for a very long, slow walk.  But every time I tried to help her, she got very put out.

Finally in the room and resting from her hard work.

Dallin had to get some refreshment, too!

Dressed and ready to go to the pool!

Love the glasses askew

I love this picture of Dad taking care of his girl

Here we go! (always love the ruffle bum)

It took her awhile, but she finally warmed up to it.

In the end, Dallin and I had to leave Leah and Dave at the pool.  Leah did not want to leave (her favorite thing to do was walk laps around the pool and interact with everyone).

After getting cleaned up and dressed, we headed out to dinner and then to Target to get another pack and play (the hotel had promised us a crib, but didn't end up having one when we got there...we had one pack and play with us, but decided to purchase another one just in case it didn't work out for one of the kids to sleep with us - we were so glad we had it!).  We also went to the grocery store to get some breakfast food for the morning and found they had a grocery cart with a kid car in the front - and the kid car had two steering wheels.  Perfect!  I don't think Leah and Dallin have ever enjoyed a shopping trip so much!  That was arguably the highlight of their trip...they love those cars.

So the plan for that night was to go through the regular night time routine and then just relax on the bed and watch some family favorites (mainly re-runs of "Good Luck, Charlie").  I mean, they had to drop at some point, right?  I'm sure at SOME point they would have, but after a couple of solid hours on the bed as a family, things still looked like the pictures below:

 Leah and Dallin kept getting each other fired up and would NOT calm down.  Finally, around 11:00, we gave up...we couldn't figure out how to calm them down on the bed, and we were too tired to wait for them to totally run out of steam.  I put Leah in her pack and play, Dave put Dallin in his, and we stood watch at our respective posts until everyone quieted down for the night.  It took nearly an hour before Dave and I dragged ourselves into bed and crashed...but not for long! Leah and Dallin both woke up multiple times during the night and woke each other up, so basically anytime anyone woke up, Dave and I both had to get out of bed to quiet down both kiddos.  Then around 4, Dallin got up and decided he wasn't going back to sleep right away.  In order to keep him from waking up Leah, I pulled him out of his crib and just held him until he was finally asleep again.  It was about an hour and half before I crawled back into bed for another few hours.

What a night!

Aaaaaand we're back!

After a torturous week and a half, we have finally had the internet connection restored to our home.  You have no idea how much your world relies on the internet until it's gone.  Sheesh.  It's slightly pathetic.  But now I can post again and get caught up on our blog!

Also, you may have noticed that we went private for a bit....but I think we're going BACK to being public because so many people were having issues with signing on.  So, yeah.  We're flip-floppers.

Anyway.  On to tonight's post:

We feel so blessed to have some family "in the area" for the next couple of months.  My cousin Tyler (my only cousin my age) and his wife and daughter are out here while he completes a summer internship nearby.  They are actually living about 45 minutes away, so it's not like it will be easy to get together every day (which I would definitely have been tempted to do had they moved in closer!!), but we're going to try to take advantage of having them close as much as possible.  ESPECIALLY because they have a daughter who is 9 days older than Leah, and they are pretty cute together.  They are just about the same size, and have similar curly hair and have a lot of similar little mannerisms - it was so fun to see them interact, loving each other one moment and needing their space the next.

 Pretty cute, huh?

Last month we met up with them at Andrews Air Force Base to see the air show.

Leah loved sitting on the bench on the bus (she kept rolling her arms - the action to "The Wheels on the Bus")

Even though there was a lot that we would have liked to spend more time seeing (but couldn't because of short attention spans), it was still such an impressive thing to see all the different airplanes.

My favorite was the harrier (which could fly like a regular airplane, or it could hover and move from side to side or backwards, or any way in slow motion...it was surreal to watch), which I didn't get a picture of, but this one was pretty cool, too...it could function as an airplane or a helicopter.

Sharing snacks

More love!

The helicopter/airplane up close...so cool.  There was a very patriotic atmosphere to the whole experience.

Tyler kindly bought a lemonade slush for the girls to share.

The Golden Knights...parachuters!  This was just a single jumper, but later we saw a bunch of them jump at once and do some formations on their way down.

Watching the Golden Knights...Leah's attention went in and out of focus the whole time.  That girl does not know how to stay put.

Good-bye hug

We also met up with our friend Jeff and his girlfriend, but we sadly didn't get any pictures with them.  Better next time!

Internet down

I have so many things I'm anxious to post about (whether you'll be anxious to read about them is another story!), but our internet has been down since the weekend and it's up in the air as to when we'll get it back...so keep checking back! We're looking forward to a fun, busy weekend with our first ever yard sale and Grandma Briggs coming to town. Hope you all have a good weekend, too!