Seaside, FL Day One

Day one of our family vacation of 2011 at Seaside, Florida began at the only place it could have; the beach. We spent all morning swimming, boogie boarding, and digging in the sand. The girls have been so excited for this vacation. They actually starting packing for it months ago. We would find boxes of toys, videos, or other misc. things packed away with Abigail telling us she was "packing for the beach". She also described to me how she was going to hide Moonlight (our new cat) into her bag and bring it with us.

Now that we are here; they are elated! What a fabulous way to end our Summer.
Abigail with her goggles. She loves to go under water and see what's beneath, just like her Daddy and snorkeling.

Our beautiful Abigail
Emily getting water to help Daddy fill the "water hole" he dug for them.

Emily and Mommy taking a break from the waves. The girls really enjoyed boogie boarding and were actually very good. Several times they made it all the way to the beach on one wave and neither of them wiped out.
After going back to the condo, eating, and taking a nap. We went back out to the beach. We did less swimming and more muscle finding. The girls loved watching them burrow into the sand and Emily was convinced we could take them all home and care for them since they all lost their mommies and daddies. We would put them in our fish tank(fresh water) and feed them the snails from there.
At the end of the day, we went to a little pizza shop, Angelina's, for dinner. I don't think the girls have ever eaten so well without us having to keep on them.

Interestingly, Abigail does not eat pizza, which is extremely weird since that is both her parents' favorite food. So, she opted for plain spaghetti onto which she emptied the parmesan shaker contents.

Big Cedar Lodge

The family went to Big Cedar Lodge for a "Summer has FINALLY Begun" celebration. The lodge was beautiful. We spent all of our time at one of the many pools around the lodge, shopping in Branson, or participating in come of the activities they provided. We made s'mores at a bonfire (bandfire as Abi called it), went fishing, and walked around to see the beautiful views of the lake. It was a wonderful way to begin our summer together.

Emily at one of the children's pools.

Abigail relaxing in the pool.

The "Crazy River" (Lazy River). Emily couldn't quite get the name right, but loved floating around and around.

Our lodging.

Swimming at the pool at Devil's Pool.

Gone Fishin'

The girls went fishing for the first time on our trip to Big Cedar Lodge this week. The couldn't bait their own hooks, cast correctly, or have the patience to stand still and wait for a bite. But, what they could do was reel in a fish.

The guide caught a fish and was nice enough to let the girls reel it in after he let it swim back out a ways. The girls both felt as if they had actually caught the fish.

NSU Graduation 2011

Mommy and Daddy graduated with their Master's Degrees last night. The girls were in the audience to watch. They did so well and were very good during the commencement. We feel very privileged to have had them there with us to share in the exciting ceremony and to witness the value of an education. We look forward to watching them walk across the stage in a few years.

Circus

The family went to the Saturday 6:30 PM showing of the 100th Akdar Shrine Circus. I beleive I was more excited about it than the others since it was my first time also. The girls rode an elephant at Daddy's suggestion while Mommy just held her breath until they were safely back on the ground.

Emily's favorite act was teh small dogs performing tricks.

Abigail's favorite part was riding the elephant.

Both girls were very distracted by their glowing toys.

Blizzard 2011

We finally took advantage of the 14" of snow we got on Tuesday. We were only able to spend about 10 minutes out there due to the freezing wind, but the girls took advantage. Abigail wanted desperately to build a snowman, but the snow was too powdery to even make a decent snowball. The girls went all the way up to their bottoms as they tried to climb the 4' snow drifts.

Abigail's favorite thing to so in the snow is throw have snowball fights. Even if the snow wouldn't sty compact, she just threw handfuls at Mommy and Daddy anyway.

Emily trying to make it back to the garage. She wised up about 5 minutes into it and went into the garage and played in the snow drifts without having to fight the wind.

Little Gym Show Week

We were so proud of our girls as they participated in their first one stage performance. It was show week at the Little Gym and each student performed a floor routine, balance beam routine, and an uneven bars routine. Neither girl showed any signs of stage freight and went through all three performances beautifully. We want to thank Nana, Aunt Tracie, Lorelai, Momo, and Pa for coming to watch. I think having people to perform for helped. Emily was first up on the floor routine. They started off with a backward roll.

At the end they were to stand on the spot, raise their hands, and wait for applause. Emily did all three pretty quickly and was ready to go sit back beside her sister.

Abigail was next and did every move wonderfully. She is such a little perfectionist. She practiced most of her moves at home frequently.

Abigail on the balance beam standing on one foot. She was the only student the teacher asked to do an arabesc before jumping off the end and going into a forward roll.

Emily starting her routine. She came such a long way during their time at the Little Gym. Before they started this class we went to a coule events there and she was pretty scared to attempt the high balance beam. Now she is able to do several tricks on her own.

The uneven bars were last and the students were to hold themselves up, do a front roll over, and then put their feet on the bar while holding on upside down. Both girls were great!

She finally got the hang of the landing and stayed a little longer to get her appause from her adoring crowd.

Ms. Olivia allowed the students about 10 mintues to just play on the equipment to show their families other things they enjoyed doing at the Little Gym.

The Medal Ceremony

Build-A-Bear 2010

The girls' 4th trip to Build-A-Bear, our annual Christmas tradition, was much different than the previous years. This year they were so much more into warming the hearts.

Emily still didn't like the noise the stuffing machine made, but she was tolerant while she was pushing the pedal. We were just happy she didn't choose ANOTHER puppy. Washing and drying their animals is Emily's favorite part.
Emily chose Clarisse from "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" while Abigail chose Rudolph himself. They both loved their new animals. It was very cute because the two animals would interact with one another. Clarisse would start by saying, "Hi, My name's Clarisse." Rudolph would respond. They would have a whole little conversation.

Not long after we had the animals, Rudolph short circuted. Needless to say, Abigail freaked out so we had to take him back. She went through the whole process again and his nose stopped working before we got out of the mall. Soooo, we went back and got a new one that worked.