home away from home

I love nothing more than spending vacation with my family.  Life could not get any better than being able to spend my undevided attention on our fam, (and have a beautiful place to do that while vacationing...) starting the day waking up to my precious girls snuggling between my husband and I (after they have run in from their room), followed by a warm cup of french vanilla cream with splenda and a hint of coffee while watching the sun rise with my girls from our balcony. This is the most breathtaking moment I have as I try and answer the "why's" to a three and (almost) two year old about the sun rising.  Not only are they curious, but they too are just as amazed as I on the beauty of the colors painting the clouds and reflecting on the ocean. 

Chaysie watching the sun rise... note the scratches on her nose where she fell yesterday off the bed, onto the corner of the table, and down 3 feet to the floor- (her nose bleed for quite some time after- which in the end looked as though someone had been masacred- and with all the crying, i'm sure the neighbors thought the same) poor little thing!

We enjoyed this moment as long as we could until reality hit that they would only last so long before becoming bears without any food in their bellies... so the sun rose, we ate, and the day went on...

and what a day we have had!

Chayse has an obsession with airplanes... so we took her on the Blue Angels cruise, which goes over to watch the Blue Angels practice. And she was not the only one mesmorized!!! You'll see why...

they were so close! and right over our heads!!

some dolphins surfaced up to see what all the racket was!

and of course, it wouldn't be a vacation (for us) if we didn't go to the beach or pool...
in this case, the beach was a little too hot, so we opted for the bay instead!

and of course, we felt right at home with the usual "streaker"...

I'll be back with more from the beach!

fun with the fams

First and foremost... CHAYSE DID GREAT WALKING INTO HER CLASS TODAY!!! YYAAYYY!! No tears were shed at all!! (which made it harder on me than I thought it would, when I realized she didn't need me anymore...) but at least she did great!!

On another note...
This weekend was jam packed with family- on both sides of ours.
First we had a family reunion where the girls enjoyed making new friends, seeing family, and swinging like always!

To top off the family filled weekend we took pictures with Ryan's side of the family.  This turned out much better than expected knowing the girls were extremely exhausted (which always translates to terrible cooperation)!
These pictures were weeded out of the several (more like hundreds) we took... and these shown are as good as we were able to get!!

These are some of my favorites I was some how able to capture!

And of course I had to take advantage of the extra hands and probably the only opportunity (for a while I'm sure) to get some good pictures of us and our family!!

and finally a good picture of Ryan and me!!

I love this one of Chayse! Its probably the best picture I have that sums up her wonderful personality! She loves accessories (this necklace she snagged from Gigi's neck), being dressed up, climbing on things (like this stool which was being used as my camera's tripod), and best of all, she's always laughing and so happy (for the most part)! I love this picture! I just want to gobble her up!

 So, now, just to entertain you with what all we had to go through for some decent captures! It's amazing they turned out as well as they did!

and that's all she wrote... it was all over after sloan took off! Although, they did do very well under the circumstances (and all the bribing, reasoning, distracting,...)
Take a long look because we will probably not have any more family photos taken for quite some time!

Day 3 and counting...

Well - The school year has officially started...

Gone are the days of enjoying the peaceful morning all to myself: starting off with my shower (without the girls peeking behind the curtain), sipping my coffee while catching glimpses of  'the today show' and skipping off to work while everyone is asleep is only now a distant memory. Our new routine has started - although it is still in the works on running smoothly.

The first day was great!  The gals were super excited about all the days activities...

cinnamon rolls to complete a well balanced meal!...

lookin stylin with their backpacks, skirts, twinkle toes,(and Chayse's need to always accessorize)...

and especially their cupcake surprise when they were picked up!

As for the rest of the week...

Today is Day 4 of Sloan's absolute bliss!

She asks to go to school first thing every morning and walks right into her class with a big smile. She gives me a big hug and kiss, waves by (all the while, her grin has yet to leave her face), runs off with her friends, and never looks back.

All the while, she leaves me standing there feeling the lump in my throat start to rise...

Instead, I fight it off, cling to Chayse on my hip and try to forget that it's her turn next...

Reality sinks in and we head for the daycare.

The first day's drop off was OK- The cheerios won her over, so... out the door I went.

The second day was not so great. Snack time was not until an hour, so I had to leave her standing there, arms reaching out for me, face bright red, cheeks soaked by her huge tears... and just like that I was gone.

and then it was my turn- I broke down the second I sat down in the car.

and today... well today is day 3 and 22 hours, 16 minutes and 23 seconds of Chayse's utter misery!

It's been the worst so far! She started crying once we walked into Sloan's room, (thinking it was her daycare) and only stopped when we kissed and hugged Sloan good bye. She was safe!... so she thought...

 

Then she saw the door leading to her room... and the crying began... followed quickly by the kicking once I handed her off. I said my good bye's and I love you's, and that's when I saw it... "The Typewriter" as we call it. Her head moved from one side while she cried, and then to the other as she caught her breath, and repeated the motions. She looks just like an old typewriter, and that's when we know she's hit rock bottom. I said "I love you" one more time, pulled the dagger out of my heart, opened the door to leave, and broke down all the way to the car. I didn't even make it inside the car before my mascara was running. Next week I'll put that on after the melt down!

Needless to say, when I check in on her throughout the day (from Pa-pa peeking his head around the corner when he's there for lunch), and me calling and checking (I know, I know, I'm one of those parents!) they say she's having a good time. So I'm hoping it's a lot worse on me, than it is on her.

The good news...

Sloan is the only one who goes on Friday's- so tomorrow should be much easier for everyone!!!!

School already!

So, we've been super busy lately trying to get ready for the first day of school, and getting organized and into a routine... much easier said than done!
It completely snuck up on us as yesterday was the big day!
It was the first "go to school day".  Although, it was only orientation of meeting everyone and staying for only an hour.  So, our official first "real school day" is on Tuesday.  But, don't worry... I do have pictures!
We tried to get a picture of both girls, and this was our best one...

We had better luck with individual pictures, and ones at school instead...

In the mean time... (while sloan was in school), we went to Chayse's school (daycare) to meet all the teachers, all Chayse's friends and try to ease in the transition for her when that time actually comes...

She loved all the little different centers to play with....

her new boyfriend...

and of course, all the attention - when all her new friends opened the window and waved "bye bye" to her!!! (that made my day too, and made me much more comfortable with the entire idea of baby Chayse going to daycare!!!)

Then we went to go pick up sis...

She had a great time with her new friends, especially her best friend Sarah.  (Which we are still trying to figure out who Sarah actually is- there's not one in her class... so.... hhmmm...?)

And of course we had to celebrate with a delicious breakfast where Aunt Bugs works... That was a huge hit!!  But any food for Chayse is hit!

Today went over great- we'll just have to see how the 'official' day goes- especially with Chayse not having Gigi and I there to play with her!!