The Little Man

Braden was a little fussy the last day or two of our vacation and has been fussy off and on since we got back.....now I know why! This last weekend his two bottom teeth started poking through! I had my suspicions but now I feel better about all the Tylenol and Orajel! I'll post pics as soon as they are more visible...

June went...

(view from our balcony)

We finally went on a relaxing family vacation! It was awesome to have absolutely no agendas...no time restraints (except we only had a 7 night reservation)...and no body to see. We just took it an hour at a time, which made the vacation last so long! We (Matt, Grammy and myself) drove through the night (which by far works best with kids) about 14 hours to Panama City Beach. We each drove about 1/3 and slept about 2/3 which worked out pretty well. AND, we did get it all IN my Acadia! (5 people, 5 suitcases, camera/camcorder bag, packnplay, double stroller, beach stuff (buckets, toys, towels, floats and life jacket), 2 tub/containers of toys, activity table, food basket, blankets, 5 pillows, table hook-on chair for Braden and a bouncy seat/chair...think that was about it!)

We spent most of our time at our condo's two pools and some time at the nice beach. The pool area was the easiest place to keep the kids and stuff corralled!

(our balcony view from the 12th floor - there were 2 pools, 2 hot tubs and a fountain for Aly)

Aly didn't really care for the sand as you can see....and Braden didn't seem to mind, but at first, the loud water did scare him.

Matt did get Aly to help make a sandcastle. It didn't last very long, so this was it! Braden sat in his new sundome and was amused by it all!

We did do a few things around town. We visited/frequented the new outdoor Simon mall (Awesome!)...Aly enjoyed these mirrors. (Note: These could also represent our before and after vacation profiles! We ate a lot!)

We played miniature golf at two different places. The animal place was Aly's favorite because there were several animals around and there was a big elephant squirting water into the pond. We played there twice because it was cheap to do 24 hour unlimited play. We played once during the day and once at night.

The course wasn't stroller friendly, so Matt did have to carry sleeping Braden and putt one handed for 9 holes. He then woke up and wanted to play :)

Lastly, I couldn't go without blogging about Aly's hole-in-one! My dad would've been so proud of her! Matt's dream of raising a Tigerette just might come true! This is her pose on the hole...

They also had a human maze that we ventured through ( it took almost an hour - harder than you would think!). You have to find your way to each of the 4 checkpoint platforms and then back out. You even get try and "map" out your plan to and from each checkpoint from the top of the platforms (which you'd think would make it easy).

Lastly, we went to many of the local establishments including a family favorite Sharky's! They have great food, excellent entertainment and a playground on the beach for the kids. Aly enjoyed dancing with other kids to the live music! She kept requesting to go back to the "Shark Place"!

Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville

And...There's not many road trips with kids that doesn't include a stop at "Old McDonald's" (as Aly would say).

Everyone had a great time but after being gone almost 10 days, we were all glad to get back home and sleep in our own beds!

Now that we're home, unpacked and the laundry is done the month is now passing us by. Hopefully July won't be as busy and will take it's time passing so we have time to enjoy it. I don't even want to talk about what comes next! :)

June came...

June came and our busy summer began! It started out with a trip to Michigan, back to my family's hometown St. Joseph. Our main purpose for the trip was to watch my youngest cousin graduate from high school. We got to spend special time with family and at the beach with the kids. (We were hoping that we would conquer Aly's fear/issue with sand before our trip to Florida.)

5 Random Things....

Here we go...Here are 5 random things about me!

1) I'm sure most of you know, but the first thing that comes to mind is that I'm left handed.

2) I have selective OCD in regards to organizing....especially my kids stuff - clothes, toys, etc. I spend a lot of time organizing and reorganizing (b/c I'm not the only one in the house!). I say selective, because my husband always likes to argue about the areas in which I'm not so organized! Besides my kids stuff, the last area I reorganized was our medicine closet. I used kid sized shoe boxes and lids to organize and label each area (sunscreens, bug repellents, Tylenol/ibuprofen, etc.). It was long overdue since we have wire shelving in our linen closet and none of the bottles like to stay put!!! At work, I've always been made fun of for my color-coded filing system. :)

3) Many people have misspelled my first name (Meghan - with an "h") and not many have correctly spelled my middle name (Ayn). It wasn't as bad as most people think. At times, it actually felt kinda special to have a unique name. So, what did I do? I passed it on to my daughter (Alyson Lyn).

4) I am a "doer", so I spend little time kicking back. Because of that, I don't watch movies. I couldn't tell you what the last rented movie was that I watched (or when) AND until about a week ago, I think it had been a year or two since I had been to the theater to watch a movie. It's usually my husband or a girls night out that usually gets me there. Now with kids it makes it happen even less than it use to!

5) I have no family (my side) that lives in the state of Indiana. My parents are both deceased, therefore my closest family is in Illinois, Michigan & Wisconsin (all my dad's side - mom's side is mostly in Arizona).

I'm going to tag the following 5 people: Jen, Laura, Cindy, Kerri and Kelli

(I'm not sure any will do it, but we'll see... and I know you don't all have blogs, so just include me in an email, or get with it and make one!)

Not a creature was stirring...

Our household has been rather "quiet" the last 24 hours. Braden has actually been napping well the last few days and I am wondering if it's because he might be fighting a small cold. Today we found out that Aly has been "laying low" because she has come down with strep. She'd been running a fever for 24+hours and was acting rather exhausted. To my surprise, she doesn't have any other side effects or even a sore mouth/throat. (The doctor said that infants don't usually get strep and I hope she's right!) So, we are fighting the germs with antibiotics and staying inside (good thing it's pretty dreary out)!

Family Fun!!!

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I know that we were blessed with beautiful weather and we took advantage of it! During the one time-block we had "open" this weekend, we decided to go on a family outing. We decided at the last minute to go out to eat, play miniature golf and go out for ice cream. It was a great time!

The course was beautiful.....full of trees, water fountains, waterfalls, etc. Here are some pictures of the "Pros". However, I do have to add in that I got 2 (yes two) hole-in-ones!

Here's the official!

We hope that you had a fun and enjoyable weekend with your loved ones!