Beach trip take two

(Fair warning, this post has a lot of pictures)

Last week, we had a fun adventure and trip. Mike's grandparents were kind enough to rent a beach house for his entire family in Virginia Beach. Unfortunately, we were not able to stay for the entire week but we did get some fun filled days down there with everyone. 

On the way, we stopped in Richmond for a night to see our good friends and break up the trip. Lynn and I grew up together, went to college together, joined the same sorority (pretty much did everything together) and now we each have two girls about the same age. We wish we got to see them more often but every time we do see them, it is such a fun time! It took the girls no time at all to find princess dresses to put on and then they enjoyed fudge sicles out on their balcony. (Note: Maddie with a fudge sicle is dangerous so she gets naked.)

(L:R, Maddie, Maddie, Caroline, Ella)

 Big Maddie (Madelynn) and Little Maddie (Madeline) Same name, same wild personalities, they are destined to be best buddies.

 We handed the phones over to the kids to take our picture and this was the best we got, a little dark but hey, we will take it!

 The beautiful sunset view off their balcony

 The next morning, we grabbed some breakfast and played a little more with our friends and then said goodbye and headed down to the beach. The house they rented was great and the best part was the backyard and pool. After vacationing at two houses this summer with pools, it is so nice to have your own pool.

 But of course we still had to check out the beach

 Chicken little still doesn't love the ocean water and prefers to have Daddy close by and swing her through the water

 The house also had this little pool house that the kids loved playing in. It had a fridge inside so we put all of our beverages in there and the kids played bartender. Teach them young we say! It also had a tv so when the world cup was on, the guys could sit outside and watch the game while Ella served them drinks!

 Morning breakfast (There were 7 little kids, 5 boys and our 2 girls)

 Cuddles with Grandma

 Backyard scene, yes, we had 21 total people at the house. It was a little wild at points but so much fun!

 Our final night, we hired a photographer to come take family photos (all those photos are below) but these are the ones we captured with our phones while we were waiting to be in a shot.

 These two were best buds all week. Our nephews live out in Seattle and we don't get to see them as often as we would like but every time the kids get together, they have the best time.

 5 out of the 7, only missing the twins

 Holding hands

 Our final morning, we walked down to the beach to check it out one more time before heading home.

 Until next time beach

 All the photos below are from the photographer 

 Side note: It was super windy on the beach so our hair was wild

 This little one was seriously the biggest ham during the photos. She fell in love with the photographer and the photographer fell in love with her. There were more pictures of her than anyone else, ha. Future model?? Pose, work it.

It was a fun couple of days and we loved seeing a bunch of family we haven't seen in awhile. Next trip is T-4 days and counting. Mike and I are off to Maine (just the two of us, hooray) for 5 days and we can't wait. Send prayers to Grandma so she can handle our two little monkeys while we are gone. More updates after our trip for sure.

Summer Loving

It's been a couple weeks since I have last updated this, partly because it hard to find time to blog in the summer and partly because our computer is acting up and it takes forever to upload photos. But I know this summer is going so fast and I want to remember all the fun (and not so much fun) we have been having.

As I mentioned before, we joined a new pool and tennis club this summer and we are loving it. We always just went to the Y pools before and they were fine but we are really enjoying the new pool. If we aren't in camp, we are usually at the pool most days. Ella is becoming such a fish and loves it and Maddie loves eating snacks at the pool, oh well!

 One of E's best buddies from preschool, Caroline turned 5 in June and had a huge Frozen bash for all the little girls. It was very elaborate and the girls got their make up and nails done by Elsa and then enjoyed making Olaf ice cream sundaes.

 Manicures and ice cream, this girl was in heaven!

 We had a great Father's Day celebrating Mike. After making him pancakes for breakfast, we went to the pool in the morning and got there early and practically had it to ourselves. 

These two girls sure do love their Daddy

 Ella started off diving off the blocks and loved it so much..

 this happened! No one was more surprised than me and Mike. This is the child who wouldn't go anywhere without her floatie last summer and barely would even jump with that and is now going off the diving board.

 She is doing so great and I love that she has gained so much confidence from her swimming this summer. We owe it all to our amazing instructor!

 All that swimming makes for two tired girls (They aren't really asleep here, just taking a rest but I do love that after swimming, they come home and take great naps!)

 Remember when I mentioned not so fun times earlier, yup, this is it. We were all in for potty training Maddie a couple weekends ago. We stayed home, did the same technique that we did for Ella and thought it would work like a charm. Well, let me tell you, it did not. It is funny how you can have two children of the same sex and they can be SO different. Ella was basically potty trained in 1-2 days and was fine. We tried for almost 5-6 days with Maddie and each day got a little worse, not better. I will spare you all the details but let's just say, she was not ready and I almost lost my mind several times that week so it is back to pull ups and we will try again later when maybe she is more ready to give it a whirl. Oh sweet child how you test me sometimes.

 After literally being house bound for about a week with potty training failure, I told Ella, we could have some special time together since she was such a trooper about the whole thing. No surprise that she picked painting pottery so we went and did that. She picked the most elaborate butterfly to paint but she did great. Check out the concentration on her face!

 Finally, MG's hair was getting rather mullet like so I knew it was time for her second haircut. I got it cut in a little bob for the summer and it looks super cute. Her hair is rather thick so she looks adorable with a short do and E's is much more thin so she needs a longer do. Again, such different children in every sense, even their hair.

Hope to be back to blog again soon about our July 4th weekend and then we are off to the beach for a couple days with Mike's family. This summer sure is flying by!

St Simons Island Beach Getaway

Ahhhh, if I look at these pictures and close my eyes, I am back there again. We went to the beach with my family to St Simons Island, GA for a couple glorious days! This year was different since we normally always go to Mom and Dad's beach house in Seabrook but unfortunately for us and fortunately for them, it got rented all summer long. We knew we still wanted to have a beach vacation though so my parents rented a fantastic house in St Simons. We actually went there 13 years ago when my parents first moved to Atlanta but have not been back since so it was fun to go somewhere new. The drive however, all 5.5 hours was not as fun, we are definitely spoiled having Seabrook less than 4 hours from us. 

The house we rented was right across the street from the beach and had it is own pool which was HUGE! We haven't rented a house with a pool before and it was so fantastic. The picture below is from one of the decks that we sat out on ever night looking to the beach!

Ella checking out the view before bedtime

I have to brag for just a minute because I am so proud of my little fish. Mike and I used to joke that Ella's own kids would be swimming before she was. Not because she couldn't do it, because we knew she could but because she is our cautious child and boy did she love her floatie. But the rule that now she is 4 is no more floatie and we happened to take swim lessons from the most amazing swim instructor in Charlotte and after only 4 lessons, she had Ella swimming and diving on her own. The below sequence is what she did literally all day, every day at the pool. Get to the side, do a jump/dive combo...

And into the water she went. She would then usually swim to the noodle or one of us and then swim to the side and repeat. Literally, all day long she would do this. And then take amazing naps because she was so tired from all the swimming which was a real treat for us!

And this little one was a swimming machine also. I am so happy that Ella's old floatie finally fits her this summer. Last summer, I bought every single floatation device on the market but because she was so petite and tiny, none of them worked but this summer it fits and after some hesitation, she loved it and would also jump off the steps in the pool and float around.

This face kills me, this child is so expressive with her face! This is her "I'm so excited to go swimming" face

Just kicking and swimming around the pool on her own. So much better than holding her all last summer like I had to do.

Then, after all the swimming, it was time to relax. This is the life!

This is the deck where we spent every happy hour enjoying the nice breeze and amazing views. These two girls adore their Uncle Court! They love to play with him in the pool and cuddle up to him on the deck and we were excited that we were all together for his birthday.

Ella and her godfather

And of course, this little getaway was made possible by my parents and they sure enjoyed their time with the girls as well.

Someone loves to suck her thumb, like ALL.THE.TIME

We went out to eat for Uncle Court's birthday and while eating out is always a little crazy (ahem, MG, I am talking about you who won't sit still), this time was no exception but the girls did show Uncle Court the love.

The sky one evening, the picture doesn't do it justice but it was so pretty

One night while we were making dinner, Mike and my Dad took the girls to run on the beach and captured these sweet images that I love.

father/daughter selfie

My hope is that these two always remain close because right now they are best friends and it warms my heart so much.

Umm, can we talk about this little lady will be 5 in less than 2 months. Insert Mommy tears, stop growing so fast sweet girl.

And this wee one continues to make us laugh everyday (she was our comedy for the trip, making everyone laugh the entire time) with also a dash of some 2 year old stubbornness.

Off the beach in our hats and sunnies

The water at the ocean was pretty warm and shallow and Ella had the best time just digging and playing by herself. Wow the beach will be so different in a couple years when Maddie is her age and they can both just play like this.

Before we went to dinner for Court's birthday, we all got cleaned up early and attempted some family photos. Below are some good ones we were able to capture.

These girls sure love their DeeDee and Papa! Each morning, they would both get in bed with my parents and all we could hear was sweet laughter.

My parents will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary on June 29th and unfortunately we won't all be together on that day but Court, Mike and I planned a little surprise for them while we were together at the beach. We got a bunch of signs to hang and made them breakfast in bed. Then that night, made them dinner and I put together a video of old photos and then got all their friends and family to send in short video messages congratulating them or telling funny stories and put it in the video. It was complete surprise to them and they loved it. A lot of friends were ones we grew up with in Richmond who they haven't seen in many years so it was nice to hear from them. My parents and Mike's have both been married for 40 years and they are both such great examples for Mike and myself. I loved being able to celebrate with them!

Cheers to fun little getaway! We were all sad to leave the beach but I am glad we made such amazing memories that we will have for a long time to come.