Vacation is over :(

We went to Cocoa Beach last week to visit Grandma and Papa and the Florida Jansen's. Emily and Louie had a great time playing with their cousins and getting to know Auntie Stacy and Uncle Mark. They had fun with Grandma and Papa too.

Grandma took Emily down to the beach on Tuesday afternoon, when we got back to their condo from the airport. She was very excited to go and get her feet wet in the ocean.

Dan went deep sea fishing on Thursday, it wasn't a great day. He said there were 6-7 foot seas on their way out the 18 miles to the fishing spot. He wasn't fortunate enough to catch anything, big bummer. We were looking forward to a dinner of fresh sea bass or red snapper. Oh well.
On Friday, Louie went down to the beach. It was really windy so we were all covered with sand. Dan had to dunk Lou to get the sand off. We opted to spend the rest of the afternoon playing in the swimming pool out of the wind.

Mark, Jared, Dan, Juli and Emily went to the Ron Jon branded Cape Caribe Resort to swim on Saturday afternoon. We had so much fun. Stacy and Drew joined us later in the day. Emily enjoyed the pool and Dan and Mark took the kiddies down the Lazy River. When Emmy was done swimming, she walked around to EVERYONE in the kiddie pool area and said "hi." We estimated she said about 150 "hi's" that afternoon. It was a fun day!

Sunday afternoon, we met the cousins over at FishLips to watch the cruise ships set sail. Uncle Mark and Drew had seen them all arrive very early that morning, around 5:30. Emily said "bye" to everyone as they were passing by. The Disney cruise ship blew his horn on their way by, it sounded like "When You Wish Upon a Star."

It looks like Huey, Louie and Dewey are trying to escape the cruise ship!

It was a cool and windy day again on Monday, so we headed back to the indoor play area at the Ron Jon Resort. While we were there, a man came through with a baby alligator (2.5 years old) for the kids to hold. He liked Louie's zoo keeper outfit and thought he should have a chance to hold the gator too. Emily admired a possible future pair of shoes or perhaps a purse?

















Vacation ended on Tuesday morning when we had our flight home. It wasn't the best of times, but thanks to Jared loaning Emily his favorite puppy, the flight was better than many of the other families on the plane.







We had a St. Paul/St. Small moment on the flight home. The same crew flew us down there and the flight attendants couldn't wait to get their hands on Louie. One of them thought that I looked familiar. Turns out, she and I went to Highland Catholic together and were a year apart at Derham. Her name is Kelly and her brother George was in my class. Small world. . . .

Only one more day!

We're leaving on Tuesday morning to go to the beach. Emily's getting very excited to go. We've been telling her she's going to go on an airplane and she will sign "plane."
Hopefully, it will be a good flight down and back. I hate the thought of crying babies on the plane. Thankfully, we're flying SunCountry. We're on the preschool bus directly from MSP to DisneyWorld, with about 300 other families with kids. Should be fun!

Wow, what a beautiful day!

So much snow, so little time to enjoy it. The snow is melting fast and will probably be gone in a couple of days. It's 45 degrees (above zero!) today and it's beautiful. We went out and ran errands this morning. Emily got a new "goggie" from Ikea and she loves it. We named him Spot.

When we got home from errands, she took Spot for a ride in her doll carriage. It is too nice outside to not be out enjoying it.

Louie has been mastering his new mode of moving across the room. He can crawl but not too fast, it is faster to slink like a caterpillar. It's pretty funny. Emily was on the floor showing him how to crawl fast, it won't be long.

Today

Dan took Emily and Louie to story hour at the Merriam Park Library. Emily didn't sit and listen, she was too busy walking around saying "Hi" and "bye" to everyone.

She is really enjoying the doll pram that Santa brought her for Christmas this year too. She pushed it around the circle all day today, she told Dan she was "walk" and then hi and bye about 100 times.

This week in review

Well, things are moving around here, literally. Louie started to crawl this week. He isn't fast, but he's moving! Life is really over.
Emily is talking up a storm. She's also learning her A C B C's, she sings ACBC and then laughs. She thinks that she's really silly.
We went to the Albertville Outlet Mall last weekend with Auntie M to get some shoes and other odds and ends for our trip to Florida. Auntie M bought Emily a really cool girly pillow at the bedding store. Emily just LOVES it and has to have it in her bed when she goes in. It's her favorite thing right now. She had a lot of fun at the Stride Rite store, trying on shoes and sandals and walking around showing everyone in the store. She's really turned into a very social girl and says "hi" to everyone that is in her path. We bought some pretty white sandals and a new pair of tennis shoes. She's all set for the beach!
Louie is changing everyday also. Like his mom, he's got a true love for food. So far, there's nothing that kid doesn't like or won't eat. He is eating solids three times a day and enjoying every mouthful. We're starting the sippy cup now too, he doesn't really want to drink too much from the bottle anymore. He's a happy and healthy little boy. He's fairly predictable for naps and bedtime, unless there's too much going on and he might miss something. Yesterday, he didn't want to nap because Maria and Bella were over and he loves to watch what they are doing.
We're getting everything ready for our trip to the beach. Emily's been watching Curious George Goes on Vacation. George goes to the airport, on a plane and to the beach. She's really enjoying watching it and says "george, beach."