Beach Vacation and picture OVERload!

I don't have time to write much, but most of the pics speak for themselves. Maybe some videos tomorrow! :)




ZZ and I took a taxi to the airport. Brian was meeting us at the other airport.

No, he doesn't have a child seat. :( But, my other option was the city bus, where there wouldn't even be a seatbelt, so this worked for me. We are only like 12 miles from the airport! And boy, did ZZ think it was COOL to wear a Big Boy Seatbelt.


ZZ did great on the flight. He was nervous at first, but once we took off - he was completely speechless! He LOVED it!!!! We had SO much fun on this flight together.


We flew above the clouds and he says, "Mommy! It looks like a thousand pillowcases!!"

Zac loves staying in a hotel. He loves the whole experience, from opening the doors with a card to sleeping in a sofa-bed.

He really wanted to play hide-n-seek on the floor under the bedspread, but neither Brian nor myself was willing to play that game. (ugh!)

This was the view from our first hotel room. (lol) Nice windows, eh?

Vacation means you get to jump on the bed ALL you want. Even with a gun in your hand.

Time to walk down to the BEACH!!!!! We were ALL very excited!!!

He looks ready to go!

Doesn't look like we'll have any trouble with swimming this year. ZZ jumped right in and we could hardly get him out of the water!

We were just steps away from the BEAUTIFUL beach!!!! It was gorgeous!!!!!

Mommy and ZZ in the pool (we kept switching back and forth!)

Floating baby!

He was quite the jumper! He just LOVES the water this year!

I wonder where he gets it!

More jumping!

I love that they have the same expression here. We always get told how much they look alike. :)

The boys made several sand castles - which always ended in huge destruction with big buckets of ocean water. (boys!)

Making the moat, which didn't end up holding water. But we put seashells in there instead. :)

Mommy's cuties!!!!

One of the sand castles before the destruction

Every time the waves rolled back, it revealed thousands of little shells that would bury themselves back in the sand before birds would swoop down to eat them.

We found lots of them with our sifter.

If you click on this pic, you can see the little creature crawling out of the top of this shell. Cool!!

Finding shells with my big boy (and my BIG BELLY!)

I love this picture with the backwards Z. SO CUTE!

He ran back and forth, back and forth - into the waves, away from the waves. Wish we had that energy!!!

He loved "karate chopping" the waves as they came in

And he loved spashing Mommy, too. ;)

More running! He was a ball of energy!!

On our way to the next hotel - we got to take a FERRY!!! It was very exciting for everyone in the car. A CAR on a BOAT - ZZ just couldn't get over that! lol

The view from our next hotel. Much better!!!

Sunday morning, we went to IHOP for breakfast. It's a ZZ favorite. :)

Our next hotel (also on the beach) had an indoor playground, pool, ping pong, shuffleboard, etc. Good times!

Zac got very good at Ping Pong. :)

Our family beach pictures!!

Mother's Day makes me feel so.....skinny

We just got back from a PERFECT beach vacation! This has been the most awesome Mother's Day/Week!!!


We stayed in Corpus Christi, at two different hotels (just for fun, to change it up a bit), and had an amazing time together.


Zac is such an angel to travel with, and my sweet husband is just more than words can even describe. I am SO lucky to have my beautiful wonderful family!!!!!!!


We took so many pictures, including some where I drug them both out to the beach in matching outfits to try and get a self-timer pic of the family. :) Our new camera ROCKS. And although, we are still trying to figure some things out (meaning I need to fix a few of these in photoshop before they are ready), it has been a great investment for our family.


I wish I had time to download and post them - and trust me - I plan on boring everyone with every single minute detail - and of course - every single CUTE ZZ story (!!!!) - but not tonight. :)





Well... okay okay.





I'll just have to leave you with a little snapshot. I guess Brian must have taken this when I didn't even realize it. Probably after my morning 5 mile jog. Silly guy.

The Daily Battles

It's hard to be in charge of so many subordinates

Making sure they know the rules of combat

And that they can stand up on their own

Hey you - back in line

Everyone prepared for battle?

Shock and awe baby!

So many cute pics (more than 300 today!! I'm camera-crazy!!),
and I got to end with this one.

Seriously Mom. If you take one more picture.....

Wow. Happy Mother's Day to MEEEEEEEEE!

I seriously have the BEST husband. In. The. World.


He's put up with my complaining and whining about my broken camera.

He's tried to fix several elements of the darn thing.

He's graciously given me his old Kodak, even though I am very mean to it. Especially when it shuts off on me.


Well, this weekend, I came up with the awesome idea to go to some Pawn Shops to see if I can find a good camera.

He gave in, until we were actually driving in the car. Then he refused.

And I was so sad.

He said it was a terrible place to buy a camera.

So, instead we went to a camera store with the pink camera to see if we could send it off to be repaired.

(and of course I wasn't still pouting about the pawn shops - which I still think sound terribly exciting...)

Have I ever mentioned I paid almost FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS for that pink camera? Well, it was going to cost $250 to send the pink camera off to possibly be repaired.

Possibly is not how this guy spends money.


So, being the amazing husband he is - he asked me to look around for a new camera.

And, after I picked up my jaw from the floor, I happily obliged. :)


Friends: I am now the extremely PROUD owner of a brand new Nikon D40!!!!!

And Brian totally hooked me up. I even got a cute bag. And that's not ALL!!!! I also got Photoshop!!!!!!! And new memory for the computer to be able to hold Photoshop!!! :) :)

I am in photo HEAVEN. It's SO FUN!!! How did I EVER live without this camera?!?!!!


It even makes my trashcan look so pretty. :)



I followed Brian around while he worked outside to figure out how to focus capture his every sing one of his amazingly wonderful and exciting landscaping efforts.



Yes, honey... I am still following you. :)


What crazy pregnant lady? (Honey! Act natural!!)

There. That's better. Ignore the clicking.

Atta boy. You just worry about that trash. You look fab.

He disappeared into the alley (surely not to escape me), so I moved on to still objects.

Behold. My glass of Crystal Light. (and you can't even tell the sink back there has dirty dishes!)

And the beginnings of my upcoming project for Zachariah's bible study teachers (stay tuned for how these will turn out super cute!)

I know what you're thinking - where's that cute little 40-pound bundle of LOVE?!?!?

Here he is!!! Showing off his muscles!

We interrupt this blog for a parenting lesson for the rest of you.


It is highly important that right before bedtime, your home should be a place of peace and serenity.

Because, you know, the best thing to do right before a preschooler's bedtime...

Is to speak quietly and ....

And move calmly...

Give gentle hugs...

Then tenderly tuck them in.

Aaaah... the joys of boys. :)

(and doesn't this camera ROCK?!!??!?!?!?!?!)

Flashback Friday

Yesterday, ZZ wanted to wash my car for me

...reminded me of when we use to wash my car years ago...


...when he was barely 18 months old...



...so focused and determined...

The bottom of my car got so clean in those days.

omgoodness... I remember making that peanut butter and jelly sandwich...



...excuse me while I go suffocate my baby boy in hugs and kisses...