Beach 2010 Highlights

We just returned from our annual Bordman beach vacation after having a week full of good food, pool fun and wonderful family. It was particularly difficult this year to take photos of the children at the pool and beach this trip because they were constantly hopping from one to the other and I didn't want to leave my camera laying around while I chased them so all our pictures are from our outings away from the hotel.

Mini Golf at Cancun Lagoon

Owen cutting loose with some dance moves. Notice his left hand with the finger pointing going on.

My three favorite men

Heartbreakers

Dinner at Thorny's

We went to a Halloween store while we were down there and the boys picked out their costumes for this year. Owen is going to be Mario and Ethan is going to be Luigi (from Super Mario Brothers).

Eliza carried this one around but I had already purchased her a costume. She is going to be a strawberry. Of course, when I told Chris this his response was "isn't that a fruit and not a character?"

We went to Family Kingdom so the boys could ride some rides. There was a lot of talk about riding the roller coaster this year. I told them they could even though I suspected they wouldn't meet the height requirements. When we got there they watched it make one round on the track and then quickly changed their minds. Ethan said "actually, I don't think I will do it." Instead they decided they would ride this one. The Galleon. It used to be the Pirate Ship and it used to go upside down. This one doesn't, but it does go fairly high.

I think they were probably losing their stomachs at this point. After they got off they agreed they didn't want to ride it again. So we headed to rides that were more their speed.

The height requirements on these were greater than 36 inches and less than 48 inches. Ethan is right at 48 inches so next year he won't be able to ride these anymore. And I am not sure he will be ready for the bigger rides.

This roller coaster was more their speed.

Owen's first time on the log flume. And just as a wonderful father should, Chris rode it with him. When they got off he must have asked Ethan 10 times if he wanted to ride it with him. Ethan, of course, said no. Owen loved it!

And a few pictures of Eliza watching her brothers every move.

And just for kicks, I found these photos of the boys from 2007.

And 2008

Pretty cute that I have pictures of them through the years on the same rides.
We are home for a few days and then the children and I are hoping to head for the hills for a few days of WNC fun.

Sprinklers

We set up the boys new sprinkler today. They have been begging to play with it for a couple of weeks now and for whatever reasons we just hadn't gotten around to it. So today was the day.

It started out tame enough.

Well, I say tame. It didn't take them long to figure out they could make the water squirt down the slide and create a water slide.

And from there it didn't take daddy long to figure out that he could put the slip and slide at the bottom of the play set slide to create a longer water slide.

And there you have it

Extreme sprinkler'ing.

And of course, where you have water and dirt

you have mud. Mud that ends up in hair and faces and nails and ears.

After we came in and got cleaned up it was watermelon time.

We love watermelon! Well, all of us except one.

Chris really can't stand it. He asked me if there was anything I could put on it for him to make it taste better. Ummm.....well, some people put salt on it but I have never understood that. He didn't want to try it. The boys and I don't get it. We think watermelon is one of the best foods ever.

And baby thought it was pretty awesome too!

I realized today when I looked at the calendar that I completely missed the 13 month post for Eliza on Saturday. I started to do it tonight but didn't have many pictures of her from today. I will try to take some tomorrow and do a 13 month post, but don't hold your breath. My track record for posts during the week isn't too consistent right now.

Just Keep Swimming.....

Owen started swim lessons this week and is having so much fun!

I have held back on starting him until he started talking about it.

And since we returned from the beach, that's all he wanted to do.

He is not the least bit hesitant to put his face in the water or blow bubbles.

Which thrills me!

It also thrills me that this is only about him. He has to go watch Ethan all the time with t ball and soccer and finally - finally - it is his turn.

And he gets to do it while Ethan is at school. Which somehow seems to put the icing on the cake.

Good job little fish! I am proud of you!