Our week with Grandma and Grandpa

 

My parents were down here for the past week.  Before I get into all the pictures and stories, may I just say it was a wonderful, fabulous, relaxing week.  It was really nice not to worry about anything for a whole week.  The only time I cooked was on Thursday.  I felt terribly spoiled (as did everyone else) and am grateful beyond words for it.  I wish the week wasn’t over so damn fast though.  

Sit back, get a cup of coffee, and enjoy reliving the week with me.  There’s TONS of pictures and stories to go with them all. 

We picked up Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday morning and went over to their favorite restaurant for lunch – Lee Roy Selmons.  I think we like that place as much as they do.   We headed back to the house after lunch and ended up going grocery shopping. 

We had to rent a van for the week since our van was still out of commission (and at the moment, is still not fixed).  It was fun driving a minivan for a week, but I really miss my car and hope it is fixed soon.

 

The girls decided they wanted to do a puzzle with them.

On Sunday I escaped without kids and took my parents over to Wiregrass Mall.  I really like going there when the weather is nice (meaning it’s in the 70’s and I can sit outside without melting.)  We stopped off at Starbucks in the bookstore.

The Christmas trees were really cute.

Palm trees and Christmas trees.  I still think that’s a cool thing together.

 

We decided after some shopping that it was time for lunch, but where to eat?!  We decided on Cantina Laredo for the sole reason that you could sit outside and eat.  I think it was the best decision of the day, their food was wonderful!  I could have sat there all day long, had a few margaritas, and lots of chips and salsa. 

We had made plans way before they came to go to Cocoa Beach on Monday and stay at the Doubletree on the ocean.  Monday morning we headed out and planned on meeting up with Mary there.  Yay!  She’s now on school break and will be home for 3 weeks. 

It’s amazing how much a place changes when you haven’t seen it in many years.  The last time I was over in Cocoa Beach, I was largely pregnant with Hannah.  She’ll be 9 in January.  Oh sure, the town is nearly the same, but it’s the little things that add up to big changes.  Thankfully Taco City is still there, owned by the same people, and the food was just as I remembered it.  I want some more today; who will go get some bean dip for me?

 

Uh oh, here with go with the “give mom our meanest look” pictures.  You pick the winner……

Yep, this is one mean look Kali!  But wait, look at Grandma!!!  There’s daggers in those eyes!  Who was she looking at anyway?

 

Oh no!  She’s looking at me!  This could be bad.

 

Grandpa’s giving his mean look.  Mary has daggers now, too.  Gee, we’re a fun bunch of people to eat with, aren’t we? 

 

Mary got her birthday gifts while she was there.  Grandma and Grandpa gave her a new camera.  :) 

Please excuse my blurry pictures.  I’m still waiting for the dSLR fairy to visit my house. 

After lunch we went over to the hotel to check in, but it was a little too early yet.  We headed off to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop to do a little shopping.  Good thing we went there when we did!  By the time we got back to the hotel and settled in our rooms, the fog rolled in and you couldn’t see more than a 1/4 mile.  It was crazy!  The ocean had pretty much disappeared in the fog. 

I did take some pictures by the pool and on the beach as things were starting to get foggy:

 

    

It’s hard to believe that they’re 10 years apart.  Pretty soon Hannah’s going to be taller than Mary!

 

Hey!  Who stole the ocean?!

 

Cute little Kali feet in the sand.  She decided that she needed two little round bandaids on her heel for some reason.  Not sure why, but she thought they were important.

We ended up eating dinner at the restaurant in the hotel.  The food was quite yummy!  I went to bed really hoping there would be no fog outside so I could run on the beach.  Sadly, I woke up to not only fog, but a migraine.  Oh lord.  So there went the run on the beach and the backup run on the dreadmill.  Thankfully, coffee and some excedrin seemed to help.  Phew!  At least I avoided the all day misery. 

We had some time to go and play on the beach before we had to check out.  The girls could have stayed down there all day. 

 

  

 

Headed off to the beach.  Enjoy the many, many pictures I took that morning.

       

          

                                                 

I’m ready to go back now.

 

After we stopped to eat lunch, we went to Downtown Disney.  Every year the girls pick out a new ornament for our tree; by the time they are older, they will all have lots of ornaments and memories to put on their own trees.

 

 

Where do I find these people?  Really, are they related to me?!

 

Kali just wanted to be left alone with her vanilla shake.  :)  She kept talking about going to Ghirardelli’s and getting some chocolate.  Of course, that was the day they were handing out their peppermint bark chocolate.  Yep.  The one with the peppermint pieces with red dye (however, these happen to be my favorite and I was happy for me!).  I let the poor girl have one and figured I’d deal with her later on.  Thankfully it never got too bad.  Phew!  Disaster averted yet once again.

        

   

We headed home after a long ornament search, got some Subway, and I think I passed out rather quickly. 

Wednesday was our Christmas Eve, and Grandma and the girls got to working on the annual gingerbread house.  I’m glad that none of them are in the construction business! 

One of the construction crew didn’t want to start work so early.

       

The construction foreman got frustrated with their lack of building knowledge and started looking for new hired on the ‘net.

 

We were hoping she could do a better job.  We were wrong. 

         

She didn’t like that I told her she had bad construction skills. 

   

What happened to the side windows?!?!?  Who ate the frosting that belong there?  Fess up now!

   

Maybe it was the little one on the right.  She looks a bit shady.

   

 

They are pleased with their work.  So am I.

   

The girls were eager to get to bed that night since the next morning was our early Christmas.  They were snoring in no-time flat!  Grandma and I spent some time putting the cinnamon rolls together for the next morning.  I only make them on holidays and birthdays.  I wonder if the girls are going to talk me into making them again on Friday morning?

 

Before I share the pictures, let me just say that Christmas was fan-freakin’-tastic.  We are all incredibly thankful for the great gifts we got.  I had already started using my laptop before they got here, but left the box under the tree.  :)

 

The cinnamon rolls were fabulous.  My rolls got a little bigger from these rolls!

 

This was Kali’s reaction to the majority of her gifts.  She’d just bowl over the person who gave her a gift with a huge hug.  She was giddy all day long.

 

Hannah and Kali had worked hard on their gifts to Grandma and Grandpa.  They made a tile frame at Home Depot, brought it home, and spent a week decoupaging it and drawing a picture for the middle tile.

 

 

Mary was just finally happy to get her Victoria’s Secret gift card!  I don’t want to know what she’s buying there. 

 

 

 

 

I guess Alex was trying to take a picture of my cleavage.  Silly man.

 

The girls had asked for some Wii games and we were happy to oblige.  I’m still waiting to play Toy Story Mania, but I can’t tear them away from Kali’s castle!

 

 

The only thing Kali said she really wanted was Cinderella’s castle.  She nearly fell over when she opened it up. 

 

 

Alex is a sci-fi NUT.  He got 6 of the Star Trek movies and nearly fell over like Kali did!  It runs in the family.  I can imagine on weekends I’m going to be in sci-fi hell. 

 

Mary got some much-needed money, we all got some clothes, and I got a new french press!  No more icky coffee for me.  We got a bunch of other stuff, too, but I might be here all day typing it out.  Let me just say that we are terribly thankful.  Alex, Hannah, Kali, and I also got a 1 year pass to the Disney water parks!  I cannot wait to go! 

Every year I look forward to Mary’s gift.  Two years ago she got me Celine Dion tickets and we finally went to see her in January.  I’m not sure she’ll ever top that one!  However, she came close this year, and once again, made me cry.

On February 27th, both she and I will be running the ESPN 5K at Hollywood Studios in Disney.  OMG.  I am giddy with excitement!!

Can you tell it was a Disney-themed Christmas at our house?!  Yay!

Grandpa made that beautiful checkerboard for the girls.  It is stunning and this picture does not do it any justice. 

 

Mama made everyone some new jammies, but this is the only picture I remembered to take!

 

 

It was rainy on Friday, so we took a ride to the mall for a bit and then picked up some Chinese food on the way home.

On Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa took all the girls to see The Princess and the Frog.  Alex and I were home alone!  OMG.  He put a new part on the van to see if he could get it working.  No such luck.  Then we hung out for a bit before everyone got back.  It was nice not having to have my ‘mom ears’ on for a while!  Saturday night we headed off to Red Lobster for dinner. 

I am in serious need of a very long run to get rid of all the yummy and fattening food I ate last week. 

Unfortunately, on Sunday they had to go home.  We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then came back so they could hang out for a bit and load up the van (we were using Mary’s van since we brought back the rental on Saturday morning.)

Grandma hung out with the girls while they were watching a movie.  Excuse my room, it had become the storage room for a week!  I was twitching madly by the end of the week and it’s much better now.  Phew!

 

 

I’m sure I left out tons of things that went on last week.  Hopefully you can all tell what a wonderful time we had!

I enjoyed a much-needed break last week.  The only thing I made was pizza and pasta on our Christmas day (oh yeah, and cinnamon rolls!).  My brain desperately needed that break and I will say that I’m very sad that it’s over.  My girls were spoiled and just happy to have Grandma and Grandpa here.  Kali was crying a bit this morning saying that she missed them.  Alex had some peace and quiet for a few days while we were in Cocoa Beach and was also delightfully indulged. 

At least I have Mary here for another two weeks!!

“Thank you” seems terribly inadequate, but thank you mom and dad.  Not only were were greatly overindulged during the week, but you made life a bit easier for us.  We hope you had as good of a time as we did.  And hey, you made it into the Jelly of the Month Club!  However, I seem to be a bit short on towels here…..hmmmmm….where did they go?! 

We are super glad all of your mail was there when you got home, too.  ♥