Mommy and Me Monday

Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

We've had a busy weekend over here. I actually had my first paper due on Sunday and I cannot tell you how glad I am that it's done. Hitting a send button never felt so gratifying.
Sunday morning I took Aaron, just Aaron, with me to mass. The time before mass started was pretty hairy, but everyone else was talking, right? He was really good during mass though, even said "amen!" when he was supposed to. Naturally, like most kids, he fell asleep during the homily and woke up after the recession. Our pastor is on vacation this month so we have a visiting priest, Father Peter, from Ghana. Since yesterday was the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he was telling us about the sighting of the Blessed Virgin in the town that he is from. He said she was seen and underneath her a spring of water started, creating water for the town. Every year they go back, as a pilgrimage, to celebrate her. He said one year when they went two girls started shouting out to Mary and pointing at the sky. It was an amazing story.

After mass we packed up and headed out to the beach. This was one of the first days that it wasn't already pouring rain, and the radar looked clear, so we took advantage of the great weather. Now, I don't know if the kids just weren't in full on beach mode, or if it was just a terrible two's kind of a day...but....it was rough. Jill thought she could just swim out to sea and was mad that Scott was holding onto her while they were riding the waves. Aaron was mad that the kid next to us had a truck and he didn't and he would not let the subject go. So we decided to pow-wow on the blanket and decide what to do next.

Inevitably we left, after one terribly-two filled hour. The mission was accomplished though, those two slept the whole way home and went down almost immediately at bed time.

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I got my toes in the water.....

We went to Fort Desoto beach today with our friends Shaun and Jenn. This was the first time the kids really got to play in the water. When we went to Lido Key over spring break the water was still a little too chilly to swim in. Today, it was perfect! My kids are natural fishes, something they inherited from their father.

Aaron got plenty of sleep before we got to the beach and Jill, well she couldn't be bothered. The beach itself is gorgeous and split into 3 (I think?) separate sections. There's a Gulf side and a Bay side, we went on the Gulf side. I am happy to report there were no tar balls washing ashore. Not only was this a good thing for the pristine beach, but also for our kids since they seemed to have swallowed half of the water.


Beautiful, right? Aaron was really good at warning us when a wave was coming, it went something like this: "Mama, there da wave! Da wave is coming!". Jill spent most of her time sitting in the water practicing her poses for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. I think she'll get the cover one of these days in the very far off future.

The kiddos were pretty much non stop the entire time we were there. I think Shaun summed it up best by saying it's not so relaxing when you have to watch your kids running all over the place. Instead of being able to lay on your blanket with your eyes closed you're busy yelling "Hey don't go over there! Put that down! Where are you going?!".

The whole day was great and the ride home was even better:


Thanks again to Jenn and Shaun for coming with and helping out!

Life's a beach

Yesterday we went out to Sarasota to see our friend Bob and his girlfriend Vanessa. You never know what the drive out to the coast will be like, especially with spring breaks really kicking into high gear this week. But I have to say the drive went pretty well, Aaron even took a quick nap.

We hung out at Bob's place for a while and then had some lunch. Jill took full advantage of being between the two "rookies". We let the kids sit in booster seats, which I have to say they did really well in, but I think I'd only use them if we had to sit in a booth. Jill even made sure to "borrow" some of her Uncle Bob's french fries.

After lunch we went out to the beach. I didn't full on plan for a beach day, mainly because the Gulf is still pretty chilly and I had zero intention of actually going in the water. Hind sight being 20/20 I would have put them in suits with swim diapers. Oh well, live and learn.
The kids loved the water and wanted to go down to it every few minutes to let the waves crash against their feet and legs. Jill was also a huge fan of the sand, and boy did we end up with sand everywhere! Aaron was starting to get burned out by this point and every little thing caused a major meltdown. Thankfully, Uncle Bob happened to have a tennis ball in his car and that seemed to do the trick.

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This trip definitely set the bar for the summer! I was hoping they would love the beach, and they did! Can't wait to spend a lot of time on the beach! Hopefully when we go again both kids will sleep on the way home :)

Thanks again Bob and Vanessa for having us!