I'M SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE YOU, SPRING!!!!!!!!
Remember how on February 1st I was all, "Yayyy, it's February, I love February!"? Well our February ended up SUCKING!
We were sick... practically every single day in February. There were maybe three or four days the whole month that nobody was sick. Eden and Ila had upper respiratory infections the first week and needed to do some breathing treatments. The second week is when Ila had the incident with her eye. Two days after she had recovered, Eden woke up with a red, crusty eye. She had conjunctivitis, and when I took her to the pediatrician, I picked up strep throat. (I SWEAR that's where I got it... I FREAK out every time I have to take one of the girls to the pediatrician when they're actually sick and we have to sit in the sick room with all the sick kids! And sure enough, two days after our visit to the pediatrician, my throat was on fire and I had a fever so high that I was worried I was cooking my baby!) I gave the strep throat to Dustin who gave it to the girls who managed to both get double ear infections at the same time they had strep throat. We were all miserable and on antibiotics, and by the end of the month, I was so worn out from taking care of sick kids and a sick husband (while being sick myself), and I went around like a crazy person trying to disinfect every surface of our house.
Then February became March, and (fingers crossed) no sicknesses so far this month!!!!
Last week Eden was on Spring Break, and we spent the first part of it in San Antonio. Let's see how quick I can recap the week so that I'm finished with this post before Ila wakes up! :)
We stayed at a Hyatt Resort near Seaworld, and it was AWESOME! SO kid-friendly! There was a table set up with colors and coloring pages right by the front desk so the kids could color while we checked in, and the resort had a playground, a face-painting tent, a soccer field, swimming pools, a man-made beach, a lazy river, and a waterslide. They had bicycles in all sizes laying around outside for anybody to just pick up and ride around on. Every night at 7:00 they have a set-up for s'mores at the outdoor fire pit, and on the weekends and during holidays and the summer, they play a movie on the lawn each night.
We went with another family that Dustin knows through work. The guy is one of Dustin's clients, but they've become good friends, and he and his wife have two daughters just older than Eden and Ila, and last year they just had a little boy! We're right behind them!
On Monday, we went to Seaworld. That morning, we had tickets to "Breakfast with Sesame Street".
Conversation we had with Eden the night before...
Dustin: Eden, do you want to have breakfast with Elmo tomorrow morning?
Eden: No (She said it like he was crazy.)
Dustin: Why not?
Eden: Because he's not real! It's just a COSTUME! (She said it like Dustin was stupid.)
Dustin: laughing
Me: Okay, well please don't tell Ila!
Dustin was THRILLED when Zoe came in and took a seat next to him!
Ila, when she spotted Elmo
for all Eden's "big talk" about Elmo not being real, once all the characters came in,
she was just as excited as everybody else!
Y'all, these next picture of Ila... I just can't! :) :) :) Unlike the last time she saw Elmo, this time, she had nothing but love for him. He sat down next to her and held out his arms, she went right to him, and her little face just radiated love and happiness!
After breakfast, games and toys were set out for the kids, and then at the end, all the kids and characters had a big ol' dance party.
Then, on to the actual Seaworld part of Seaworld!
We saw all the shows...
We were front row at the sea lion show.
Thanks to "Finding Dory", all beluga whales are now known as "Baileys".
I'm very upset that I did not choose to train/ride beluga whales professionally.
Both girls agreed that Shamu was their favorite.
The older girls (everyone but Ila) rode this Ferris Wheel, and at one point, they got stuck at the top while some people got on on the bottom. I was a little worried about how Eden was handling that, and afterwards, they told us that they were all scared so they decided to pray to God! HOW SWEET IS THAT?
dolphins and sharks
That evening, we headed back to the resort for playground time, bike-riding, and s'mores.
I love this picture so much!
We woke up on Tuesday morning to see Eden using Ila as a pillow. And Ila was just sleeping away.
That morning we went to The Alamo. In Texas, we like to teach our kids about Texas history young! TEXAS PRIDE! REMEMBER THE ALAMO!
Unfortunately for Ila, when we announced that we were going to see the Alamo that day, she thought we were saying Elmo. I didn't know that at the time, but the poor girl thought we were going to see Elmo again, and when we were like, "There's the Alamo", she was prettttyyy much like, "What the heck is this stupid building, and where is Elmo?" I felt so sad for her when I realized she thought we were saying "Elmo" all morning!
Eden and Ila begged Dustin to pick up a duckling for them to see. Good thing he didn't; later we found out that that's illegal!
We made sure we got back to the hotel early that day so that the girls could take advantage of the pools and waterslide. Now, I know it's Texas, but it's still March, and that water was COLD! Some splashed on my leg, and I almost died! But it is AMAZING how kids DO NOT CARE how cold water is. Every time Eden got off the water slide, she was visibly shaking, but she just kept going again and again and again!
The resort also offered a "kids camp" in the evenings for kids ages three and up. So on Tuesday night, we put the older girls (everybody but Ila again, poor thing) in the camp while us grown-ups (and Ila, and the baby boy) went and had dinner at the "fancy" restaurant. The girls got to go eat s'mores again, and then they watched "Finding Dory" on the lawn. Eden said it was "SO AWESOME! AWESOME ALL THE WAY TO THE SUN!".
We left on Wednesday morning, and Eden INSISTED that we play on the hotel playground one more time because I guess she forgot that we have playgrounds where we live too.
On our way home, we swung by the Natural Bridges Wildlife Resort - one of those places where you can drive through and see a bunch of wild animals. It was fun, and we saw a lot of animals, but I feel like the pictures advertising the place were VERY misleading as no giraffes stuck their heads in our car and none of the animals were close enough for us to pet. Hmmm... But still, Eden loved looking out the window at all the animals with her binoculars, and Ila loved throwing the animals the feed we were given out the window, even when there were no animals anywhere close to us. And also, sometimes she missed the open window completely and animal feed flew all over our car.
Thus wrapped up our mini-vacation.
We relaxed on Thursday, and by "we", I mean everybody but me. I did a thousand loads of laundry and caught up on all the "house stuff" that I missed while we were gone.
On Friday, we celebrated the heck out of St. Patrick's Day. My kids were so full of green food coloring by that night! Green pancakes, green rice krispie treats with lucky charm marshmallows (which we enjoyed with green milk for an afternoon snack), and face-painting. Eden told me it's her favorite holiday now!
I spy a little leprechaun trying to get a rice krispie treat!
Eden's only green shirt is her yucky, stained fishing shirt!
On Saturday, I took Eden to the movies to see "Beauty and the Beast". I love it when I spend one-on-one time with her. I get plenty of that with Ila while Eden is in school, but it's rare for me and Eden to be "just us" these days. And we both give the movie two thumbs way, way up!
And that's it! That was our Spring Break! And yay, I finished before Ila woke up!
