Florida 2009 (again!)

Okay, let me try this again. Thank you, first of all, to my sister for sending me all of our pictures!

Our trip to my parent's house this year was so much fun. Ty and Lucas are at an age where they entertained themselves for most of the week, and there were a lot of extra hands to help with Mary and Ellen, so I felt like I got to relax a little bit. To say that Lucas enjoyed himself is an understatement. He loved, loved, loved every minute of the trip... especially the pool and ocean parts! So, here is how the week went...

We would start each day at the pool with the beach...

Even Ellen enjoyed playing in the sand and the shallow water...

After the beach pool got boring Lucas would start begging for someone to take him down the waterslide. Loved it. Before his feet hit the water at the bottom of the slide he was screaming, "Let's do it again!" I bet he went down this slide 30 times (always with one of us).

The two baby girls were troopers. Since we were at the pool and beach for most of the morning, they just had to fall asleep in our arms. That's Ellen's favorite place on Earth, so she wasn't complaining! And it doesn't look like Mary minded either...

One of the few pics I have of Ellen with her pacifier. Sleepy girl...

After the beach pool and the waterslide, we'd usually end up at the beach. My dad took him the first time and sat with him while the waves crashed into them. Lucas could have sat there all day with him. After the gentle introduction, he was ready to run and rip in the ocean all by himself (you'll see in later pictures).

Oh, and Lucas didn't slack on his big brother duties. If Ellen got too close to the water he would grab her and say, "No Ahllen! You stay over here!"

I was so worried about Ellen's fair skin, but she shows no signs of being in the sun so much, thanks to the cute little hats and sunscreen.

At this point Ellen had had enough, but Mary was still going strong...

They looked so tiny next to the ocean...

After 3 hours of so in the sun, we'd head back to my parent's house for lunch and some down time for a couple of hours. We moved one of the air mattresses in front of the t.v. the first day thinking that Ty and Lucas would take a nap together, but we had to separate them because they were arguing over a truck and wouldn't fall asleep : )

Two of the four nights we were there my parents watched the kids while we went to dinner with Jenn and Neil. It was SO NICE to have a couple of hours to ourselves (and a few fruity drinks!)

THEN, after dinner we would all go to the beach one last time each day. We never intended to go "swimming", but each time we'd end up taking Lucas home in just his soaking wet undies. Here are Ty and Lucas, the little three year olds...

And here is Lucas with his mommy... I actually got him to slow down for a few minutes to take a picture...

Here is Lucas with my dad again. My dad gave him so much attention and Lucas soaked it all up. He loved the games that my dad would make up with him and that he played so rough and silly with him...

After playing in the ocean that night, my dad buried both of the boys!

Oh, and we didn't forget Tyson. He got to join us each night on the beach and loved it...

In this picture I think my dad had buried his feet... I could hear Lucas giggling the whole time.

I really enjoyed spending so much time with my sister! They left a few hours before we did on Sunday and our trip to the pool just wasn't the same. I'm so thankful to have a sister with children the same age as mine. We talk at least once a day and probably always will!

My dad also spent a lot of time with the babies. He is in love with little Ellen. He wanted to take her out in the ocean for her first time. She was really enjoying all of the attention...

Lucas had never really built a sand castle before this trip, but he's a pro now. This was his first castle that he and Jeff built together. Each day that followed he built many more...

Here are my parents taking Ellen out in the ocean for the first time. She didn't really care... just another pool day for her! My dad wanted me to take a picture of just Ellen so that it looked like she was out there alone... he is goofy like that.

And here we are... The Schroeder Family : )

This was our second night of dinner with no kids...

Later that night I wanted to get a group picture. We had to take a second one because right before the flash, in the first picture, Tyson jumped up on the table to see what was going on : )

Lucas looks like a little country boy in this picture, which reminds me of a funny story. One morning Ty was asking Neil for some milk, but his little Georgia accent pronounced it as "mee-ilk". Lucas looked at him for a second and then said, "Mama, I want some mee-ilk too!" He had no idea what he was asking for, but figured that if Ty was getting some then he wanted some too.

Not sure if you can tell in this picture, but Lucas was having the time of his life here. I had Ellen on the beach and we were taking turns going in and playing with Lucas. The water was pretty rough and so we made him wear his life vest and we held onto this rope that attached to it. He'd die laughing when the waves would crash into him. At one point it hit him so hard that he rolled under water. We heard about that story for the rest of the night, complete with visual effects of Lucas rolling on the floor.

I didn't realize before this trip how much 9 month olds can interact! One afternoon I just sat and observed them and they were really communicating. The main points of interest were two blue balls and Lucas's shoes. They would sometimes exchange items as if they were sharing, but then other times they'd jerk something away from the other one and scream. So cute!

And here is one final picture of the two turkeys having their OWN conversation over some mac cheese and cucumber slices one evening...

Florida 2009

We just returned from visiting my parents in Florida. We had such a fantastic time! Jenn, Neil, Ty and Mary were also there, so there wasn't much down time with two 3 year olds and two 9 month olds in the house. Jenn and I are already missing each other so much and have been trying to convince each other all day to move closer. Ty and Lucas were of course buddies all weekend, but we were surprised that Ellen and Mary interacted so much.

My sister will laugh when she reads this in the morning. We are not having good luck with our pictures from our Florida trips. Last year Neil accidentally deleted all of Jenn's pictures on the last day of our trip. Well, you'll never believe it, but this year he did it again! Actually, poor Neil, we think it was the computer's fault this time. Anyway, I sat down so happy to blog tonight and realized that one of the discs is blank! So I will have more pictures in a few days when I can get my mom or sister to send me the rest of the pictures.

On our last night there we had planned to take some pictures on the beach, but then a thunderstorm rolled through and we were bummed. THEN, the sun came out and it was a beautiful evening, complete with a rainbow.

First we made sure that we got some family shots (minus Tyson and Lulu)...

And then we made sure that we captured the rainbow...

Then we tried to get a good shot of Grandma with the kids, but Tyrus was not interested : )

And a couple of Jeff and me since we always forget to take these...

And maybe one of my favorites, Lucas moving Ellen to another spot. See, I told you that she can show her disapproval now!

As you can see, Lucas was not thrilled with the photo session. He was dying to run and play in the waves...

But Ellen was happy-go-lucky and was excited to show everyone that she can stand up and squeal at the same time...

Jenn and Mary enjoying the waves...

My mom and me...

Tyrus running...

The funny thing about this picture is that you can see crazy Lucas acting like a crazy boy in the ocean all by himself in the background. His daddy was close by, but this makes me a little scared to look at it now!