We had a really great Christmas, so we'll just touch on the highlights. Halle asked for a CuddleUppet for her birthday, but they are just so ugly, and I thought it was one of those things she just saw on TV and wanted when she saw the commercial. Well, she continued to ask for it for the next 6 months, and when she can remember a present without have a commercial as a reminder, then I'm a lot more willing to get it. In this case I let my parents have the honor and boy was she thrilled. On Christmas morning we got through our presents very slowly; it probably took almost 4 hours. Eli played with each toy as he opened it. I loved taking our time and letting the kids enjoy all their new stuff.
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| Could this little girl look any happier? |
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| Apparently Halle saw these when she was shopping for me with Jared and just knew I would love them. |
The kids got a ton of Disney related presents and each one had a puzzle piece on it they had to find. Halle put them together and found this. We were going in 17 days. Halle's reaction? "You should have surprised me after school." Lesson leared.
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| Eli loving his new "sun dasses," wooden pizza toy, cookies, and a Mickey ball pit. |
Our 4 hour drive ended up being closer to 5 hours because we missed a turn off and the next exit was another 20 miles. We barely made it in time for our dolphin excursion. This company tracks dolphins and their activities. They all have names, so as you see dolphins you look through a book to find the data on the one you found. They track where they are. So really this is a method to fund their research, but it was totally awesome. They also make a stop on an island where we could collect shells.
Eli loved the beach and the ocean. At first I was nervous because he stepped on the sand and started gagging and saying "Ew! Feet dirty!" but then he stepped foot in the ocean and never looked back! It didn't matter how dirty he was. He LOVED the beach.
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| I love this boy. |
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| Santa brought gold fish and Eli ate all of them that morning. |
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| The triplets turned 3 (Amaya isn't in this picture), and at our family get together Joel made the mistake of making grandpa some popcorn. Obviously he had to share. |
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| Eli asked for one cheese ball. Then I forgot he had them and found this disaster. |
It was finally time for our vacation! On 1/11/13 we flew to Orlando and stayed in the airport Hyatt there on Friday night. Saturday morning we drove 4 hours to Marco Island for a work golf thing.
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| Excited to be on an airplane. |
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| Jelly Fish! |
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| Kisses |
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| It's baby season! |
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| After all the excitement it was time for a nap. |
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| Grandpa Jess needed a nap too. He always needs naps. |
While Eli was sleeping we went by a dolphin. Someone saw it, but then it didn't resurface as we were idling trying to see it. The tour people decided if they started to go that maybe it would come back up. Apparently all that dolphin wanted to do was play. As soon as we started going fast it jumped through the wake and was having a party. It was incredible.
Then it was time to chck into our hotel.
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| The view from our balcony. |
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| He LOVED the pool. |
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| We bougt Halle some swim shoes after she got a cut while walking in the ocean. She was certain they were the only reason she could swim without floaties. |
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| It was chilly in the shade when you're wet, so Halle enjoyed lunch in the sun. |
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| Nap time again. |
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| Look at those cute feet. |
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| He would sit and say, "Dig, dig, dig" over and over again. I imagine it was quite obnoxious to those around us, but was adorable to me. |
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| That's our hotel behind us. |
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| As we were getting all checked out of the hotel and getting the car packed Eli relaxed by the pool. |
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| Final picture from Marco Island. What a life. |
Then we headed to Disney World. I'll save that for another post. Hopefully it won't be another 3 months before I get to that.
