Happy Birthday Mama! Our weekend at Seabrook!

When Tom asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I said a vacation to the beach! Being such an awesome husband, he made it happen. We decided on Seabrook, which is a gorgeous and secluded beach community that is really new. You can choose from a whole bunch of different brand new houses, that have the feel of an East Coast beach town. The shingles on the sides of the house are real wood, the trim on the houses is red and blue, there are buoys hanging from fences to give it the beach feel. To make it even better, they have an AWESOME neighborhood park for the kids, with swings and a huge playset. Just across from that is a great dog park, which Charlie really enjoyed! Seabrook is pretty awesome. It is about 25 minutes to the nearest "town", which doesn't have any big chain grocery stores at all, so not really sure that counts :-). It is about 40 minutes to a town with a Target, Safeway and Wal-Mart, so you feel very secluded. Seabrook has it's own little market, its own restaurant and a soon to be indoor pool and spa! Couldn't ask for more. We stayed at It's a Shore Thing, which is a 2 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath house. It was very cute, and very beach themed. The back yard even had a hot tub! We brought all of our own food, and didn't eat out once!

The Washington Coast is unique because you are allowed to drive right on the beach, which is pretty cool. You can either walk about 5 minutes, and down a whole bunch of steps, from Seabrook, or drive on a mile down the way on Pacific Beach (a small and quirky kind of run down town, with an AMAZING beach and very friendly residents). We decided to drive since we had to bring along two kids, toys and Charlie. Lillian thought this was H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S! She was saying "dive deach, dive deach!", and "no dive wa wa daddy!". She was worried Tom might get crazy and drive our car on the water, which worried her. She loved to be on the beach, we all did! Elle slept most of the time on the beach, thanks to the sound of the roaring waves that lulled her to sleep. There are really no rocks to be found on this beach, it is hard, wet, packed in sand. This is perfect for sandcastles, so Lillian and Tom made a few. Elle got to try walking on the sand, and smiled everytime she saw the ocean waves. We had so much fun.

A memory I won't forget is the second night putting Lillian down for nighttime sleep. She is a very compliant sweet girl, but she knows how to escape from her pack and play. We talked to her a whole bunch about how she had to stay in. Well, on my birthday night, she wanted some mama cuddles. We heard a whole lot of talking and playing from her room, which is normal. All of the sudden, we heard a ker-plunk!, and then heard her door slide open. She stood at the top of the stairs, and said "Hiiiiiiiiiiiii, Dada!" with a huge smile on her face. Such a little sweetheart. I also won't forget when she figured out how to climb to the top of the playset in the neighborhood park on the rope ladder. She got to the top and turned around and smiled. I said "you DID it!, you DID it!", and she jumped up and down saying, "I DID it!". That is one of her favorite new sentences, which I adore.

I also loved how Elle was so laid back and enjoyed anything we did. She totally went with the flow, and was happy to be in Mama or Dada's arms. She is so verbal and so sweet. I was having her do her "tricks" for Tom (wave bye bye and hi, say more, say thank you in sign language, all done in sign language, please in sign language, say the word book and the word dog, say muah! and blow a kiss), and she was soon bored with that. She caught sight of a Lillian toy, the ever so popular plastic miniature Winnie The Pooh. Well, she wanted it. I gave it to her, and said Pooh, a whole bunch slowly. She kept trying to copy, saying Ba, Boo, and more, when all of a sudden, out came the word Pooh, perfect as can be! She was so proud of herself. Love how happy and carefree she is. I also won't forget when Lillian was taking a bath, and Elle was in the pack and play next to the bath (where she slept most of the time, minus the two nights she slept in bed with us!). They were kissing each other through the mesh screen, tickling each others hands, and giving each other love while cracking up. Those two are best friends.

I also got an AWESOME new camera from Tom and the girls for my birthday present. It is a Nikon D 3100 DSLR, which is one that actually takes a picture when you push the button! It is such a great quality, and I am so in love with it! We captured some fun beach memories on it, and I can't wait to capture even more.

We had such a great trip, and I had the most amazing birthday ever. I am so incredibly blessed to be married to my best friend who knows me better than anyone, and have two amazingly sweet and healthy little girls. I couldn't ask for anything more. I thank God everyday for the life I have, and sometimes I feel like it is too good to be true, but it isn't, God is just good. We can't wait to go back to Pacific Beach/Seabrook and have some more fun!

http://www.seabrookwa.com/

They were made for each other!

I love our little girls. They are such an amazing blessing and I am so lucky to be able to say I am their mama. I had a realization the other day.... Elle was made for lillian, and lillian for Elle. They need each other like peanut butter needs jelly. Already they balance one another out. They are very similar in that they are incredibly happy, laugh constantly, are daddy's little girls, smile at anything, love animals, love lillians dollhouse, and well, anything that is lillians, ha ha, and are just plain sweet to the core. I also love how their subtle, yet already noticeable differences allow them to balance. An example is that when lillian is in a new situation, it sometimes takes her a little to warm up to it. However, with dee dee around, she warms up much faster, and often sticks close to her giving her hugs and kisses. If lillian doesn't want to go down the slide at the park, I ask if she will go with Elle, and sure enough, that is all the coaxing lillian needs. Elle makes lillian comfortable, as does lillian to Elle. They are already best friends, which is amazing considering they are nine months and just over two. I love how when Elle and I go get lillian from her afternoon nap, Elle without a doubt squeals and jumps with joy to see lillian, and raises her arms out for lillian to hold her. Lillian responds with a warm smile and giggles, and says hole dee dee? Hole? Of course, I always place dee dee in lillians arms and their love and connection shines.

Pants off dance off!

Like always, we rushed out the door so we could make it early to our event of the day, library story time. Lillian was so excited to go, and after rushing her to the car, zooming to the library and practically running in, we made it. Early. That's just my style! I hate, hate hate being late, and think it is so rude when I am. Well, we started off with a boom. When I took lillian out of her carseat, I noticed her clothes were the slightest bit damp. I attributed it to a malfunctioning sippy cup, and we went on our way. I got both Elle and lillian inside for story time. They start out with about twenty minutes of free play. As Elle tried unsuccessfully to eat the raw oatmeal being used for scooping and pouring, I noticed lillians pants getting wetter and wetter. Upon inspection, I expected to see a sideways or very very full diaper. Nope. A sideways diaper would've been better than this. My barely two year old, who isn't potty trained, had NO diaper whatsoever. Instead of finding a diaper, I found a nakey little booty. I took her in the hallway planning on diapering and leaving, but upon her sweet little pleas of "pay, pay, pay?", and "peas?", I decided that if she didn't sit down we could stay. She stood the entire rest of the program, bless her little heart. She danced her little heart out, loved the books and gave Elle lots of little kisses. At the end, I thought we had survived another story time. The parachute was out and being wildly shaken by twenty or so exuberant toddlers. Lillian decided she wAnted to try, but as soon as she touched the parachute, it startled her. She ran to me, and attempted to climb up my leg. At that point I had on stretchy, workout like pants on. She climbed, and down they went, to expose my underpants to twenty busy, thank goodness, toddlers and their mama's. Only half of my pants came down, and only a few moms noticed. I noticed though. We promptly left, and when I went back the following day for a fun casper babypants concert, I wore jeans. With a button.