The Stank Eye

We talk a lot in our house about sharing.  We encourage Riley to share her toys with Jude.  We explain how mommy and daddy share different things too.  Leave it to Riley to take it to the next level.  She got pink eye last week.  After a doctor's visit and pharmacist visit, we were $200 lighter and one little vile of eye drops heavier (by 0.5 ounces, but who's counting?).  Getting 1 drop into her eye 3 times a day was very challenging, but we did it.  We really thought we were in the clear on the 7th day, her eye was healed and no one else in the family had woken up with the crusties. 

Yep, you know what's coming. 

Then Riley got it in her left eye. The next day, Jude had it in both eyes.  Two days later, Woody has it.  Riley has fully conquered "sharing".

On a different sharing note, my mom took us out to lunch today at Chick-Fil-A.  Both kids love their chicken strips.  Jude drank all of his juice halfway into the meal.  Riley volunteered to share her juice with him (with no prompting from us).  What a sweet and thoughtful little girl!  I had to choke back a tear or two as I was pouring some of her juice into his sippy.  I'm so blessed to be the mommy to those two precious babies.

Look at who's walking!

And we're off.  Jude decided it was time for him to get with the bidpeds (or hominids) this week rather than crawl with the quadrupeds (four-legged creatures).  He isn't roaming free yet, but he is taking several steps at a time.  It was Monday morning and we were all in our bedroom.  Woody was playing the guitar and Jude was "dancing", or bouncing on his feet with the security of the bed next to him.  Then he just walked to Woody who was several feet away.  I'm go glad that we were all there to see his first steps and encourage him.  Funny how God works those little things out for us.

Riley-isms

Riley's Memaw and Pepaw bought her some new shoes.  The next time she saw Alex, she promptly said, "Alex, look at my new shoes.  They cost a hundred dollars."  Where does she get this stuff from?  Although very nice shoes, they were not $100, nor did we tell her that they were.

She got her first case of pink eye this week.  When she woke up, I saw the yuckies on her eyelashes.  I told Woody she had pink eye, she told me, "Mommy, my eyes are blue eyes, not pink."

After dinner one night, the whole family (the four of us, my parents, and Alex) was walking up the stairs to get in the house.  Riley said, "Nonna, you love me very much."

Nonna and Poppi's

Every summer we spend a week at my parent's house in Benton.  The kids love it.  Not only do they have a pool to play in whenever they want, they usually get whatever they want when we're there.  Riley had a great time in the pool this year.

Jude went between the first step, and the concrete all week.  Riley did the same thing last year.  I love this picture. This was one of the few times he wasn't fussing.  I'm blaming new teeth and swollen gums on his unhappy attitude... 

Nonna and Poppi also have a super neat staircase that both kids thoroughly enjoying playing on.  If we didn't hear one of them talking or babbling for a few minutes, we knew where to find them. 

They spent several minutes of each climb watching themselves in the mirror across the hall from the staircase.  My "vision" for this picture didn't turn out as cool as I would have liked...the story of my photographic abilities.

Close up of Jude talking to himself in the mirror.  Yes, he is just in a diaper and a swim shirt.  Don't judge me, I was picking my battles.

With 11 acres to upkeep, dad hires Woody to help with random odds and ends jobs while we are there. It's a win-win situation, work gets done, and Woody makes some extra money for us!  When he wasn't working, he was working on his tan (and another important job he spent lots of time doing: holding down the pool toys).

Did I mention I love the swim shirts (or rash guards as the tags say)?  With that and the fact that Jude keeps his swim hat on, he hasn't gotten close to getting a sunburn this summer...and we have spent LOTS of time in the sun.  Besides the practicality of the swim outfit, he's so cute in his get up.

This turtle floaty has lasted for 3 summers.  Both kids loved it again.  It's the perfect way to cool off in the water AND play with pool toys! Look at that face.  I tried not to get many pictures of his mad face, but it was kind of inevitable.

In an attempt to make him happy, I started throwing him up in the air and he LOVED it.  We did this until he got tired of it.  Fun for baby, workout for mommy, another win-win situation.

We don't get many pictures of me with the kids because I'm usually the one behind the camera.  Woody snapped this one for us.  So cute, I think I wanna frame it!

Estuarium

Dauphin Island has a really neat "Estuarium" which is a very small version of an aquarium and features sea life found around the island.  We thought we'd give it a go since all six adults and four kids were ready to get out of the house for a bit. Here is daddy giving the kids a lift so they can see the turtles and frogs.

This was the first big tank and contained several fish from the movie "Finding Nemo" which is Riley favorite full feature film.

Then we found a small room that featured a little boat.  The kids loved this area and constantly wanted to go back to it, regardless of what the exhibits held.  Here's cutie patootie Macy.

Riley driving the boat while Jude is not doing his job as the look-out.  :)

Octopus!  Or is it octopi?  What is the plural form?

All three girls in the boat.  The captain, the skipper, and the first mate.

Poor Jude, always on the outside looking in.  "What are you girls doing in there?  Can I come in?"

Ooohhh, sharks!!!  Well, there was one nurse shark, the rest were larger fish that I can no longer remember the names of.

And this place wasn't just fun for the kids, it was fun for the adults too.  We spent entirely too long at this ancient scuba-diver helmet.

I love Woody's head at the bottom of the picture because he had to hold Riley up for us to get this shot.  So for a whopping $14 for the whole family, we had a great time here.  If we vacation here again, I'm sure we'll return.

On a side note, let's talk food.  You know my love for food.  Dauphin Island was a small island with not much in the way of restaurants.  We researched trip advisor and Urban Spoon and found unfavorable reviews for most everything.  There were 5 restaurants to rate and only one have great reviews, it was the Lighthouse Bakery.  We tried it out on our last day and it was awesome.  I have a soft spot in my heart (and possibly in my mid-section) for baked goods, especially the pastry kind.  I had the cheese danish which was by far the best I've ever eaten. Woody got the cinnamon pecan roll and Riley got the croissant.  There was nothing left by the end of breakfast.  Part of me is glad that we tried this on our last day because I definitely would have lightened my wallet and loaded down my waistline had we discovered this earlier in the week.  But part of me thinks, hey we were on vacation, isn't that the perfect time to indulge?

Either way, we had such a blast on the beach with our friends.  We are so excited to plan the next excursion with these dear friends.

Frame-able

We have hundreds (not even exaggerating) of pictures from our beach vacay.  I won't post them all for fear of beach-overload, but here are some framers.

Sand in my toes

After what seemed like a baseball season that lasted for 2 years, summer FINALLY came for us.  The Skordals, Smiths, and Woody set out on an early Saturday morning for Dauphin Island, Alabama.  We had a full week filled with sand, sun, and fun. Relaxation came in very small amounts after all the babies had been put down around 8:30 each night, but when there are 4 babies in the house, we knew this wouldn't be a very relaxing-do-nothing find of a vacation.

The beach.  The water wasn't exceptionally clear, but we learned that it was "shrimpin' season" and the boats never stopped passing by the shore.  It was fun to watch for the first few minutes, but sheilding ourselves from pelican poop got old quick.  But still, the sand was warm, the waves were washing up on the shore, and we loved it.

This was our home for the week.  It was the perfect size for us.  There were 3 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths.  I thought we might feel a little cramped with 10 people in there, but it really was a great space.  Did you notice that the house is literally on the beach?  Awesome.  Did I get tired of having sand in my toes almost all the time?  HECK NO.

When we arrived at 6pm on Saturday night, Riley wasn't too sure about the water and sand.  It took some convincing to get her to put her feet near the water.  Millie helped us out though.  As soon as Riley saw that Millie loved the water, Riley had to follow suit.

Jude, on the other hand, had NO fear.  He walked right in (with a little help from me).

He loved the sand.  How cute is that sun hat?  The guys set up our Razorback tailgating awning for the kids to have some shade.  They all loved hanging out in the shade and playing with the plethora of sand toys we had.

She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini.

There were 2 kites at the house.  The girls flew one the first morning we were there.  Woody got this great shot of Millie.  I love this new camera.

Besties, waiting for the mommies to get everything ready to walk down to the beach.  I love that they are both eating fruit snacks, leaning against the door, and wearing their sun hats.

I have TONS of pictures that will slowly emerge on the blog, but for now, there are two dirty kids in my house that desperately need a bath.  :o)