The boys had a fun morning as well.  They get new balls, squeaker toys, and big bones.

We ate breakfast, played with all our goodies, and began packing the car to come to the beach to see my parents, sister and her family.  We arrived late afternoon, just in time to open presents and eat a yummy dinner.  Mom always cooks a big Christmas dinner every year.  Ham, turkey, the works.  It’s like a repeat of Thanksgiving!   And guess what happened that night?  Ashley walked for the first time!  I mean, she walked…far.  Much more than just a couple steps.  She walked and walked and walked.  When I first started counting, she took 5 steps.  But then she kept going farther.  She went as far as 15 steps at one time!  I bet those squeaker shoes had something to do with it.  I was hoping they would encourage her to walk, and I think they did!  She would fall down and get right back up again.  That’s my girl!  What a cool thing to do on Christmas Day!

We had a wonderful Christmas.  I am so thankful that I have a healthy family to spend it with.  We are all very blessed!

We had lots of fun and Ashley enjoyed meeting them.  She had her moments, but I think that’s because her top teeth must be cutting.  Teething makes for a cranky and clingy baby!  But for the most part, she was her usual happy self.  We went out to eat, walked on the beach, and relaxed by the pool.

The boys had a blast!  Pat and Ritt have a yellow lab at home, so they are also lab lovers.  Ritt played and played and played with them.  He swam with them in the pool, threw ball for them on the beach, and gave them lots of attention.  They soaked it all up!  They were so tired when we left that they ended up sleeping the whole way home.

Meanwhile, Van and I took the boys to the beach.  Since it was getting dark, my pictures didn’t turn out very good.  But the boys had a great time!  We threw their bumper in the ocean for them to fetch.  They love jumping through the waves!  It makes me so happy to see them having fun.  I love my boys

On a sad note though, there is a lady here on vacation who lost her dog.  She is from Atlanta.  Her dog got spooked by fireworks and ran away.  It’s a Bernese Mountain dog.  So she has posted fliers everywhere and people have been searching for him.  Someone came up to us last night as we were walking to see if we had seen her dog.  I feel so bad for her.  Since I almost lost Blake 2 years ago in the same circumstance, I know that lump in your throat feeling.  It just breaks my heart.  I really hope her doggie  finds his way back home!

You know how when things go smoothly it’s not really that memorable; but the things that don’t go as planned, those are the memories that really stay with you?  Well, our beach trip was certainly a memorable one.  First off, it took forever to leave the house.  After we got Ashley fed, changed, and lathered up, we packed the truck full of umbrellas, chairs, a tent, towels, a cooler, drinks, koozies, toys, and watermelon.  We unloaded everything at the public access and unpacked on the beach.  Van carried Ashley out there and when he arrived where we were sitting, his shirt was soaking wet.  Apparently, those Huggies Swimmers aren’t worth a darn.  I didn’t know this until now because when Ashley is in the pool, she is always wet so I had no way to know that the diapers leaked.  Not only did they leak all over Van, but we also found out she had left a deposit in there.  And these aren’t regular diapers either.  They are pull-ups!  How do you get a pull up off a baby without spilling the contents everywhere?!  Well, with the help of your Mom and sister of course!

Actually, let me back up a bit.  After discovering Ashley’s wetness, I had the brilliant idea of just putting her in the ocean to clean her off.  Ha!  Seriously?  Yea, I’m an idot.  I just held her while I stood in the ocean (didn’t even put her in) and she hated it.  It didn’t help that it was rough water yesterday.  She cried.  So I tried putting her in some water that had puddled up on the sand.  She cried.  I put her feet in the sand.  She cried.  We changed her diaper.  She cried.  Tried to put her suit back on.  She cried.  So we just left her naked with a clean diaper on.  She took about a 5 minute cat nap laying on my shoulder, and when she awoke she was good to go!  It was so funny.  Like she just needed to re-charge.  So from that point on, she was fine.  She ate some watermelon in her mesh feeder, lots of watermelon actually.  Played under the tent and entertained herself for quite a while.    When she began getting tired again, we packed it all up and came back home.

Man, it was exhausting.  She hated the water.  Hated the sand.  She was content just playing on a blanket under the tent.  So I don’t think we’ll be making another trek to the beach anytime soon.  All that work for such little reward.  Some would say it wasn’t worth it.  But having this story about Ashley’s first beach experience…priceless!

And I’m not the only one who has problems with fireworks.  Toby can’t stand them.  He barks, pants, and runs around the yard in circles. He gets all worked up.  There is no rationalizing with him.  It’s like he is in a trance, another state of mind. This year we locked Toby and Blake up in the garage under the house.  A few of you may remember the story a couple years ago when Toby was going bizerk at the fireworks so Blake thought he would “stop” the fireworks for him.  Blake proceeded to jump in the waterway, during the pitch black night, and swim up the waterway towards the fireworks.  Long story short, we barely got him back, and it was a nightmare I will never forget.  So tonight, Toby is on anti-anxiety medication and they are both locked up downstairs.

Anyways, it was a pretty chill day.  We really didn’t do much.  Perfect for a vacation huh?  Played ball with the boys, they swam, and I read a book sitting by the pool (I’m just now getting in on the Twilight craze!).  Played with Ashley and gave her some watermelon.  Van relaxed and enjoyed himself.  I don’t think I saw him open his laptop until tonight – which is a first!  And even then, it was just to download pictures.  We watched the fireworks from the waterway.  Very pretty.  And Ashley did good.  The noise didn’t bother her and she really didn’t show much of a reaction.  She was pretty indifferent to the whole thing.  Well, until you tried to put her to bed.  But overall, a wonderful holiday!

Here are some pictures from July 4th 2010…

Sun, fun, family, pool, boat, beach, Angelo’s pizza, Provision’s shrimp burger, steaks, pepper jack cheeseburgers, hot dogs, cold beer, strawberry cake, key lime pie, and homemade ice cream.

Humm….yep, that should do it!