Ryan stayed home to get some work done around the house, plus he had to work on Monday. So my mom,the kids, and I left Friday evening for Norfolk. The trip down went better than I could have imagined. We stopped, hmmmm, let me think, ZERO times. Yes, that's right. Three kids, three and under, and no stopping. That's what pull-ups were made for, right? So what that they ate dinner when we got there at 9 pm. It was SO worth it.
Declan and Isabella fell in love with Hass' cats, even though Isabella was convinced that by dark, it was definitly time to go home. She was not okay with not sleeping at her house. Every evening we went through the same ordeal with her: "I want to go home now! I don't want to sleep in this hotel. I miss daddy. I want to hug him and kiss him. I want to see the baby chicks. Please mommy, I want to go home." It was kind of endearing actually. I appreciated that she missed the comfort of her home. Takes after her mom and dad, for sure. Declan was cool. He had three women to carry him around all weekend. He got to sleep with me at night. What more could he want? Poor guy did get sick towards the end. He's still not himself, and I am SO ready for him to be himself. Thirty pound toddlers that stick like glue when they're sick, make for one tired mama who would like to not lug around said toddler all day.
Saturday morning we headed to the Zoo. It was a beautiful day, the park wasn't crowded, the animals were all out sunning. And the only problem we had to deal with was Isabella and Declan fighting over who got to carry Gen's purse. Oh, and who got to hold the bag of lemon drops. You know, the important stuff.
We went on a train ride, which Declan and Quinn loved and Isabella almost fell asleep on.
(You can almost balance a kid on that bump!)
What an accurate picture. Declan is yelling. As usual, hands moving towards Quinn's face. There is always a magnetic pull toward Quinn's face. And Miss Sassafrass posing as usual.
On Sunday we headed to the beach for a quick visit. We were hoping for warmer weather. Isabella was convinced that beach=warmth. Try explaining that to an almost four year old. On Friday night when we got to Gen's house, we told Isabella to put her shoes on and she quickly replied "But, mom, I'm not wearing shoes. We're stepping on sand when we get there."
Declan wasn't feeling well, and as a result took pleasure in being loved on by two of his fave ladies. Rough life being the only boy in a family of girls.
Despite the look of disgust on her face, Quinn loved the sand. We first took Declan to the beach when he was about 10 or 11 months old, so just a few months older than Quinn. He hated, I repeat, hated the sand. As soon as our feet hit the beach, he curled up in whoever's arms would hold him, and fell fast asleep for the remainder of the stay. Quinn loved the sand. She actually buried herself in it. Picking up fistfuls of sand, watching it fall through her fingers, then dragging it up to cover her legs.
She was accidently born on the wrong side of Virginia. This is a total beach girl.
When her feet hit the beach, I felt total happiness. I can't describe the feeling she gives me when I see the smile that exudes absolute, complete and utter joy. I know how she felt--just watching her.
Isabella had her heart set on making sand castles. We were all just trying not to freeze.
And yes, she is wearing a sundress. It was work to convince her to wear the jacket over the SLEEVELESS sundress. Let me remind you, it was cold, not warm, not cool, but pretty darn cold.
"How big is Quinn?"
I wrote Isabella's name in the sand and then pointed it out to her.
She said "Aww, thanks mom. That was sweet of you."
In the hotel lobby. The hotel with a pool, that Isabella thought would actually be in our room. Not a bad idea. For the record, they did not forget their fish-like abilities.
Ohh, this water was cold. Sting your feet cold. Isabella was up to her ankles in it. I asked her if it made her feet hurt and she said "no mom, I love the way it feels." True love.
But at the same time, I'm glad she's there. One, it's a lot closer than Colorado. And two, what a great excuse to go the beach all summer. "Oh, kids, you want to go see your new cousin? Okay, hop in the car. Let's go to the beach!"
But it's oh so good to be home. We all missed Ryan, especially Isabella. And I'm pretty sure that 2 1/2 days away from his babies was plenty for him. It's good to get away. To forget about the day to day. But it makes the return that much sweeter.
Speaking of sweeter, this girl loves some watermelon. She's slowy but surely becoming 'one more mouth to feed.'
And speaking of one more mouth to feed, after a memory game with grandma, Declan carried the pizza cards around all day, begging me to make him pizza. If he didn't have a stomach bug that has left his belly empty for days, I probably would have caved.
Which reminds me. In Norfolk, we went to a Mediterranean food store/restaurant and upon walking in Declan starts sniffing the air (which smelled like basmati rice and spices) and said "Mommy, I mell somethin. I want rice!" Good call Declan. So I ordered him a side of rice to go since we really went to just buy stuff, not to eat, and the lady said "Is it for him?" I told her yes and she said "Oh, so you want us to leave out the spices and the herbs." And I said "Um, no, that's what he smells. That's definitly what he wants."
So we left, pulled the double stroller over to a little grassy area so the boy could down a cup of heavily spiced, basmati rice in about 3 minutes flat. This was after the night we got there and Hass started bringing out hummus flavored with cumin, kefir yogurt with olive oil and oregano, a fully loaded roast beef sandwich with the works, and other things that my kids ate like it was going out of style. Even Quinn who was sucking the hummus and kefir off of my finger. These kids can get down with some ethnic food. I just made sure to hide my baklava in the freezer...
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