Vacation Finally!!

Our vacation was finally here!  We have been talking about this since January and we have looked forward to it for the past 3 years.  I love getting together with my family at the beach and this year was no different, except Quin unfortunately wasn't there.  We went down a day early and stayed with Phillip's sister so we could visit for a little while.  My kids LOVE playing with her kids so they were excited. We also got to see Phillip's mom, his brother Kevin, his sister Stephanie and his grandparents.  We had so much fun just hanging out with everyone.  

Shawna had baby Hyrum just 10 days before Haven was born but they couldn't be more different!  Haven is smaller than average and Hyrum is bigger than average so it's hilarious to see them together.  They look months apart, not days!

They are so cute!  He kept sticking his finger up her nose and she kept sucking on his fingers.  It was so funny.

Even their head sizes are so much different!  It will be fun to document the different sizes as they get older!

LOVE this picture!  So cute!

The next day we headed to the hotel to unpack.  it took about an hour to get there from Shawna's house and every kid passed out on the drive.  Im glad they did or they probably wouldn't have made it through dinner.  you can even see Haven in the mirror above her seat.   

The next morning we hit the beach! I wasn't sure how Haven was going to like it so it was fun to see her reaction to everything.  She didn't quite react to the beach really.  She just kind of took it all in.  Didn't love it, didn't hate it.

Girlie and Uncle Trav

I love how tiny his watering can is compared to the giant size of the ocean

We haven't seen Tali since Christmas and the kids were practically rabid over her.  Would not leave her alone! It was cute how they fought over her.  

Addison and Tali building a moat

I almost died laughing over this.  Tali was walking to the ocean and Cooper kept trying to stop her so that she wouldn't drown.  Every time Tali took a step, Cooper blocked her.  We had to assure him that her parents were watching her and that she was fine.  So cute how protective he was over her.

My cute girls in their matching bonnets courtesy of Shannon.  They are so cute!

First experience of the ocean.  She didn't really react at first but after a few minutes she really hated it.  Every time after that for the whole weekend, she screamed as soon as we put her feet in.  Oh well!  Maybe she'll like it better next year!

Cooper was SO brave this year.  He just jumped in the waves with no fear.  He loved it!!

Luckily baby girl napped pretty well every day.  That was definitely something I was worried about but it worked out just fine.  

The kids loved flying the kite as usual.  They let the string out all the way.  It was crazy high.  About 200 feet over the hotel which was pretty tall itself.

We spent every morning at the beach and every afternoon at the pool.  This girl is a fish.  She could swim 24 hours a day if we let her.

Her favorite pool was the lazy river.  I don't know why but she would spend hours in there.

The pool was definitely what miss Haven loved.  She just sat back in her floatie and chilled all afternoon.  I guess she'll be a fish too!

Every time Haven got a little fussy, we just got into the hot tub.  It wasn't very hot at all but just warm enough to calm her down.  About 30 seconds after we sat down, she would fall right to sleep.  She slept for 2 hours in there on the last day.  

On Monday, my dad taught Addison how to boogie board.  She loved it!  She did it over and over again for about 2 hours.  She did really well and got the hang of it really fast. 

Her very first wave!

Riding the waves with daddy

This picture is so sweet

Here's a quick little video of Addison boogie boarding

Their famous drippy castle.  They love building these with grandpa

After getting ice cream one night, we walked over to one of those souvenir shops to look around.  My dad found this crazy hat for Cooper.  So cute!  He was just so happy about his rock candy.

Addison loves collecting sea shells so she was amazed by all the shells here. For 99 cents, she got to fill up a cup of whatever shells she wanted.  She spent about 20 minutes picking out each shell and loved doing it.  When we got back to the hotel, she lined them all up, spent an hour organizing them by color, etc...  Pretty good for less than a buck!

Sister love, getting ready for bed after a long, fun day.  They love each other so much!

We went to see Pirates Voyage on Monday night and it was amazing.  I've been wanting to see it for a few years and it was great to finally do it.  We had front row seats which were awesome and the show was so fun.  It was so well done and the dinner actually tasted really good too.

After the pirate show, we took one last dip in the pool and hot tub before we left in the morning.  

We got up early on our last day to feed the birds.  When we first got out there, we only saw 2 birds.  In about 2 minutes, there were about 50.  It was crazy.  

After we checked out we started to drive home.  We were supposed to get home around 2 and I really didn't want to sit around for the rest of the day since Phillip already had off work and Addison already missed school.  So we turned around and went to Broadway on the Beach for a few hours.  I love Broadway.  There's so many shops and fun things to do.  We went to Johnny Rockets for lunch.  Phillip wanted to take the kids there since he worked there when he was a teenager.  They loved their milkshake and the waiters dancing.  

My cute girl making super cute faces ; )  Phillip's mom met us at Johnny Rockets and luckily she had her phone because we left our camera in the car.  She got some really cute pictures!

When we first started walking around Broadway, we passed a Claires and I jokingly said that we should get Addison's ears pierced.  We told her that we would take her for her birthday in February so she's been looking forward to it.  When I said it just joking around, she got really excited so we just decided to do it since it was something fun for her.  She did amazing!  She was a little nervous but she didn't cry and said it barely hurt.  

She picked out cute little "diamond" flower earrings.  They look so cute on her!

After that, we took the kids to some little kiddie rides which they loved of course.  

Phillip's sister came to meet us too so her son Porter got to ride with the kids too.  He loved them!

Addison thought this was funny so she just had to get a picture.

We had an amazing trip.  Loved spending time with both of our families, we had great weather and the kids were great.  Couldn't have had a better vacation!