Memorial Day

Tropical Storm Beryl was in full effect for the Memorial Day Weekend, but we decided to get out for the few hours the storm had let up.  Being Memorial Day, my aunt and I had the bright idea to buy coordinating outfits for the kids and try to take family pictures.  Best laid plans, huh.

Makaela like the idea of family pictures...gave her more reasons to hug people

Unfortunately, some people didn't want the hugs, nor the photo ops

In fact, they couldn't wait to flee

At least they got one good family picture

Nana and Nate

 Then we headed out to a park in St. Augustine that had a carousel and a cute playground.  I couldn't get Mia off of it. 

Just some pics

Sisterly love

Rain Day

The Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, our community was supposed to have a Memorial Luau.  I had RSVPed for our entire family and extended family.  While the flyer promised to serve pulled pork (not Kailua pig??) and chicken adobu (adob-what??), I was never one for Hawaiian cuisine (even the authentic kind).  I did want Makaela to see the hula dancers to hopefully soothe some of her homesickness for the islands, but Tropical Storm Beryl had other plans.  With the storm closing in, the amenity center cancelled the luau and shut down the pool.  Problem is, when you have a street with 26 kids on it, a closed pool is not a good idea, especially when you are anticipating 2 days of constant rain.  The parents needed a way to tire out their kids before the rains came.  So, my cousin and I blew up the pool and the kids went to town in the kiddie pool.  They had more fun jumping into 1 1/2 feet, pushing eachother, throwing red solo cups full of water and then chasing each other around yard.  It was good fun, that is, until it started raining and I had 5 kids soaking wet on my lanai.

Night time antics

I don't know what it is about throwing cute babies in tubs, but it makes for some great pictures. Having two one year olds in the tub led to lots of giggles but little room for Makaela, so the big girl had her first shower (aside of the ones we did kicking and screaming at the beach).  She fell right into the big girl role, while the babies splashed around.

 After bath, it was family movie time...okay, kid movie time.  After a day at the pool though, these kids were beat (and so stinkin cute).

I think this family has some sort of oral fixation thing going on.

Meeting new cousins

My cousin Rob, his wife Nicole and son Nate live in San Diego. Nate was born 2 days before Mia, but because of the distance, we hadn't gotten to meet Nate yet.  Rob is temporarily stationed at Quantico for the next six months and while he was relocating East, he thought it would be a good opportunity to spend some time together.  So after a bit of planning, we ended up getting the our families together plus our grandma and his mom.  My Aunt Deb was loving all the kiddos.  Makaela just loved her new cousins (especially the adult cousins who played board games with her) and see goes ga-ga over her great nana.  Mia and Nate...well, they were frenemies right off the bat.  Loved to play near each other as long as the other kid didn't attempt to take a toy of interest.  Sharing was an interesting battle.

Aunt Deb and her grandson Nate

Nate feeding Mia: these kids eat non-stop

Mia hamming it up

A rare moment when they were sharing

and again, Mia being a ham.  I love her "cheese" face

Safari

At Wild Kingdom, we went on the safari and that was the highlight of the day. Closest I will ever get to an actual safari, but it was so fun to see the animals roam free. Makaela had a great time pointing out the animals.

Disney's Animal Kingdom

For mother's day we headed to Disney's Animal Kingdom. This was the first time we had ever been to this park so we were pretty excited to get started. The tree behind us has animals carved into it.  It was interesting trying to pick them all out.

Originally I has asked to go to the zoo for Mother's Day, so this was even better.  We are working on teaching Mia the animal sounds.  She definitely has the lion roar down.

 The park has the different continents and the animals that live there so we had a great time in Africa.  Mia was dancing to a street music group and then we went to watch the Lion King show. It was amazing- the singers were just as good as if they were on Broadway.

Makaela rocking on the African drums

 In Asia we got to see the tigers and Makaela got her face painted :-)

 Loving my mother's day

Magic Kingdom

I loved watching Matt walking through Disney with the girls. So precious.  Luckily we walked into Magic Kingdom just as a parade was going on so walking down Main Street was fun because the girls were shimming and shaking to the music.

 Matt and Mia in the parade conga line.

Mia and I on the Disney Railroad

Makaela and Matt on Alladin's Magic Carpet Ride.