Razorback Weekend

We took Blakely to her first Razorback game this past weekend.  Lonnie and I haven't been in a few years and we have always looked forward to taking Blakely.  The only way this happened was that Brenda (who helps me around the house and with the babies 2 days a week) came up to babysit the twins while we took Blakely to the game.  

My Dad has a condo there (and season tickets) so it all worked out perfectly!  Fayetteville is about 3 hours away from us so we packed up and headed that way when Lonnie got off work Friday.  The drive was not fun at all.  For some reason Emery decided to absolutely hate the car seat so I had to sit on the floor beside her for most of the ride.  Blech.  

But once we got to the condo it was great.  There are about 8 food trucks across the parking lot from the condo so Lonnie and I picked up dinner there and headed to bed pretty early.  

The game was at 11 the next day.  We got dressed and I even dressed the babes in their gear and Brenda took a pic of all of us.  I know this made my Dad so very happy.  All of his grandkids together in Fayetteville and taking his first grand baby to her first game.  So fun! 

We got to the stadium early and walked around, chatted with people and then headed in side early.  Or they headed inside early and I went to the car to pump.  

Her favorite part was calling the Hogs!

The game was AMAZING.  Our Hogs have been known to let us down but they played great and the game went into FOUR OVERTIMES.  Blakely did great even though she was definitely over being in one place for so long.  She ate the entire time we were there.  We ended up pulling out the victory and it was super fun.  So loud and everyone jumping around and freaking after the game.  I basically sprinted to the car to pump again.  

She's not asleep but just didn't want her picture taken.

When we got back to the condo the babies were getting sleepy.  We let Brenda go and Lonnie and I strapped the Benton and Emery into the stroller and took off to walk around campus.  Blakely was excited to see "Daddy's college".  The babies napped for the hour and a half while we walked around.  We showed her Lonnie's fraternity house and he took her inside.  I wasn't about to stroll 2 infants in there!  We took her picture in front of Old Main....just in case she decided to go to school there one day I thought it would be a neat picture to have. We showed her Lonnie's name in the sidewalk and she thought that was pretty cool.  

I had to take a picture of him by the Kap.pa S.ig house (even though you can't really see the house for the trees...we didn't want to walk back!  But those cars are the parking lot for members) with all his babies.  Crazy how things change!  

When we got back to the condo Blakely was worn out.  She passed out on the couch and we put the babes to bed early and enjoyed a bottle of wine.  It was a great way to spend the weekend and I can't wait to do it again!  

The fair!

Last Friday we took Blakely to the county fair.  I have been meaning to take her for years but something has always come up.  Usually we don't go because I am too freaked out about germs.  Last year I know it came to town right before I left for Denver so that was a no.  Then the year before that the flu was already showing up.  Not to mention it is still 100 degrees here and that just never sounds fun!  

Anyway, we wanted to take her this year so she could ride some rides because we are going to Disney in March and I wanted her to have some ride experience!  

I wasn't sure how she would do.  On the one hand, I knew that she would love them but, on the other hand, I thought she may be a little cautious about doing some of the things by herself.  

Well she loved all of it.  The first thing she did was a little obstacle course with a ball pit, rope ladder and a huge slide.  She pretty much wanted to do that over and over again and we had to remind her that there were other things to ride!  

She rode the teacups, some little motorcycles that go in a circle, some airplanes that go up and down and another little fun house all by herself.  She wasn't scared at all and had so much fun.  We went on the ferris wheel, the merry-go-round and the big slide together because she couldn't do those by herself.

She literally made this thing spin the whole time she was on it.  I was nauseated just watching her!  

She could have done this one herself but they wouldn't let her.  We rode it about 10 times.  

 We took a ton of selfies on the ferris wheel.  IT WAS SO HOT PEOPLE.  

It was a great night spent with just our girl.  She had a ball and keeps asking to go back.  I'm pretty sure Disney is going to be a super hit ;)

Florida 2015

About a month ago we took our annual Florida beach vacation.  We usually go in May but since I just had the babies that didn't work out.  My family goes again in August without my little family so we just decided to go with them then.  

It was quite the decision for me to go.  Lonnie DID NOT want to go at all but said that he would if I wanted him to.  I didn't really want to drive the 10 hours with 3 month old babies and Blakely without Lonnie.  But in the end I decided to just suck it up and do it.  He was going to have to do some major last minute trading of days off and that is nearly impossible for him.  I like to save him doing that for emergencies or when we REALLY need it.  I was just going to skip it altogether but we were going to stop in Alabama to see my brother and he had not met the babies.  Also, my grandmother goes and stays in the condo with me and she loves that time with my kids.  In the end I decided it was worth it to go for those reasons.  

My Grand had a great time being around the babies and Blakely.  She doesn't go to the beach so she spent a lot of time in the chair next to the babies who were on the floor.  She made them smile a lot and they started giggling on the trip.  She took a lot of pictures of them too.  Sidenote...My almost 80 year old grandmother had the best cell phone of all of us (me, my mom, my aunt, my cousin, Casey and Grand...I am the youngest by 25 years!).  The camera was amaze and I was constantly borrowing her phone because I had a crappy 4 (I got a new 6 the week we got back because seriously....)

But let me tell you, we will be flying next year!  The babies (and Blakely) did really well but it is a crazy amount of stress planning and preparing for meltdowns and I just don't care to drive that far with 3 kids again.  

Matt and the babes all have the same hairstyle!  

I was so happy to see my brother.  He is doing so well (fingers crossed) and he loves seeing Blakely.  I wish we had more days with him but we just stopped there on Friday night, hung out with him, then went to breakfast with him the next morning and then left town.  Too short!  But we did have a good time.  

chocolate covered marshmallows for dessert at breakfast because, why not?

Once we got to the beach Blakely was all kinds of excited.  She wanted to go play in the sand first thing.  I promised her we would but I like to get unpacked and situated first.  Finally it was time to let her go run free.  And boy did she.  She did cartwheels and forward rolls and jumps all over the sand.  We just went down before dark to put our toes in the water but it was hard to get her to come up and get ready for bed.  She loved it.  

The girl can do a cartwheel like a pro.  I took this from our balcony so not great but you get the idea.  

We usually go to dinner every night but since we had the babies we stayed in a some too.  Although they really did awesome when we went out!  

We played cards and games and Blakely fell asleep on the couch almost every night.  She NEVER does this at home so I kept taking pictures and sending them to Lonnie because I thought it was so cute. 

The babies did really good for being completely out of their environment.  I rented 2 pack n plays and that helped so much (so clean!  so easy!).  They slept well and napped well and we really started falling into a routine while there.  They played on the floor mostly or in someone's lap.  

I had a good time.  Vacationing with kids is just parenting in a different location but I did have a lot of help even though Lonnie wasn't with me.  My mom and my Grand would watch the babies while I took Blakely to the beach and then Jenni would would watch them some when I took B to the pool.  It was nice to have some fun time with her.  Honestly, I haven't had that much fun in the ocean since I was a kid.  The water was perfect and not too rough. I taught her how to body surf and how to jump over the waves so they wouldn't splash her.  We fell a lot and got knocked over a lot but it was oh so much fun.  I literally can't wait to take her to the beach again.  

It was also nice to get some time with the babies and let my family take Blakely to the beach.  I took naps with them and got to sleep in with them some too! 

It rained the first full day we were there and Blakely was so disappointed to not get to go play outside.  I decided to take her shopping and let her pick out some "treasures".  I took her to one of the little beach stores and she picked a ton of, well, crap!  But I let her and she had a ball doing it.  

I did take the babies to the beach one evening.  Only to get a picture and to say that I did.  This was the first ocean Blakely had her toes in and I wanted the same kind of picture with the babies.  They hated it of course.  It was too bright for them and they were hungry.  So I quickly snapped a few and got the heck back inside!  

I dreaded the drive home the entire time.  We weren't stopping and it is a 10+ hour drive with babies.  But we did it and it wasn't awful.  It was hard but it wasn't totally traumatizing!  One of the babes was in the third row with Blake and she was very helpful in putting a pacifier back in or dangling a toy for them.  My mom rode on the second row with the other baby and did the same thing.  I drove the whole time.  I am weird and won't let anyone else drive me (or the kids really).  

We missed Lonnie a lot!  He was off the following week so it was really like 2 weeks of vacation for us.