Our vacation finally happened! We'd been looking forward to it for a year.... and we finally got to go! Here are a few of the 500+ pictures on my camera, it really was a fantastic trip.
Me & the kids flew out 5 days before James came out, so needless to say he wasn't on the plane with me... but my parents and grandmother was. Rest assured I would have not flown alone with my 3 kids. They are really well behaved kids, but just getting through security was the most challenging and stressful thing ever. Seriously, nightmare.
Anyway, the older two got along famously on the flights, with one minor mishap in the Chicago airport. We were all running to catch our next flight and Capri took a nose-dive right into the tile floor and got a bloody nose and bruised her forehead. I felt TERRIBLE. JUST TERRIBLE. I promised her we would never run in the airport again, especially in those stupid tinkerbell flipflops that we eventually trashed because they kept causing her to fall.
Anyway, the older two played with the new toys I stashed in their backpacks. Tella bounced from lap to lap before settling in with my dad for a snooze.
Here's us on the plane....
We finally made it, and got to Aunt Desiree's house just in time to play roller coaster with her son on the blow up mattress. I L-O-V-E my kids' imagination.
Later on we headed off to Uncle Aaron's soccer game, where I introduced my favorite treat to my kids - Rita's Italian Water Ice. They of course loved it! I think I got them each cotton candy flavor, but JD flipped for my mango flavor too.
Later that night we caught ourselves some lightning bugs, it was the first time my kids had ever seen them. They loved it! By the end of the trip Capri could snatch a lightning bug out of the sky faster than anyone.
One of the reasons we went on the this trip was to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday. So we had a nice party with family where we all wore matching shirts and took a family picture, which I don't have.. sorry.
It was a tad stressful without James. But we made it.
This is my dad and brother with Tella and my nephew Tristan.
Astonishingly Capri wanted to sing too, so she copied my mom by holding a paper and sang "Jesus loves me" for the whole crowd. Capri doesn't like anyone to pay attention to her really, so this really threw us all for a loop. Both my mom and I had tears in our eyes, and it was incredible. In my opinion, it made the party. See Mom Mom in the background?
L-R Drew (brother), Me, Tricia (sister), Shelly, Betty, Tina, Jimmy, Chrissy, Aaron
My cousin John is missing, and my sister Gabby.
On the way home I visited my best friend from High School Brandy and her new baby Cheyenne. I forgot to take pictures, but she did and they turned out beautiful.... so you'll just have to believe me on this one.
Because I made a stop on the way back to the shore and didn't tell anyone, I got locked out of the beachouse. No good. JD had to go to the bathroom so bad, so I put him in Tella's diapers and he did #2 standing on the porch at our shore house.... he thought it was hilarious that he was baby JD.... I was panicking about what I was going to do next, especially now that I was out of diapers.
So to keep my sanity, we headed to the beach to wait it out. And then, after a 100 phone calls to get a hold of someone I ran out of minutes on my prepaid phone. Fortunately my brother and SIL were headed back to the house and knew where I was. They let us in, and we got settled.
But, I did get a few great beach shots and clearly the kids had no idea what kind of stress I was under - they thought it was just part of the plan!
Fortunately, the next day James flew in! Stay tuned for Part 2!
Oh Larissa I soo enjoyed this. I just can't imagine how wild it must have seemed to do this without James...but you did such a good job. Poor Capri at the airport...and JD standing on the porch...I am surprised he would do it...haha....And Capri singing like that? WOW...I can't believe she did it either..soo out of character...I wish I had seen it...believe it or not I remember catching lighting bugs. I must have been all of 4 but I do remember it. Soo fun...You've gotten some great pics...Abby has gotten soo big. I LOVE the look on that last one on Tella's face. Looking forward to part 2. Prayed for your grandma this morning, hope all goes well...
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