Sophia started sucking on her tongue today. Hilarious.
This picture sums up her personality-HAPPY!
These are totally out of order...this is the drive home from Gulf Shores, Alabama. We spent the week with the Black family and the Mathias family. It was so much fun! The drive home? Not so much. Stella was crying and wanting to watch a movie. Josh found "Go, Diego, Go!" on You Tube and let her watch.
She held it so carefully.
She found her feet in between crying spells. It has to be annoying to be strapped in that thing. It would be so much easier to be able to move around on a road trip!
Sophia started sleeping like this last week-two middle fingers in her mouth and the other hand rubbing the back of her head. Too cute.
Dolphin cruise dancing
This was an amazing experience and the pictures don't do it justice. We went on a dolphin tour with the Mathias family on Wednesday. We were thinking we would see some dolphins jumping in the horizon...maybe a tail or two. Then, the boat started gaining speed and they were jumping like crazy! I started squealing like a little girl! They were literally right beside the boat and jumping over and over for an hour and a half. I actually teared up. I don't know what came over me, but it was amazing to be so close to them. I told everyone that I would probably spontaneously combust if I ever got to swim with them. Stella and Noah (her new best friend) had a ball.
We need a new camera. Every picture(Josh took a TON) was splashing water or shots like this.
Newman fam (minus Sophia)
Mathias fam
Noah and Stella
Noah was Stella's constant companion. He is such a cutie! I wish we lived closer.
Stella's other best friend-Jason. It seemed like every time Stella was not playing with Noah, she was bugging Jason to read a book, climbing on top of him or asking him to build something with her. He was a great sport.
Emma and Sophia
Oddly enough, the day the boys went to play golf, the kids had a sick day. We watched movies and chilled out.
Mandy gave Owen a lime to try...look at that face!
Beach day
Reading with Jason
Emma-cutest cheeks!
Look at Owen posing! When Owen wasn't posing for pictures, he was EATING! This kid can put it away. He was so funny-"Eat food!" was his favorite saying.
Sophia was not a fan of the beach. She could only take it for about 15 minutes per trip there. You should have seen our set up-beach awning, towels, toys, ice chests, snacks (mostly for Owen-haha)...we looked so funny taking so much gear to the beach.
First time to see the beach
As I said before, these are totally out of order. This is a picture before we left for the trip.
Our car was pretty packed
So....as you can see, we had a great time on vacation! We also learned that vacationing with kids has nothing to do with your relaxation and more to do with letting the kids have an experience. I am sure it will get better and better each year and there are so many memories to be made! Great memories from this vacation-Stella's delight at being in the ocean, jellyfish sighting, dolphin cruise, great food with great friends, listening to Noah and Stella's conversations on the monitor, girls' day out, and a lot of sun!
Updates on the girls-Stella's imagination is in overdrive lately. She is always cooking something for us-mostly beans and rice (maybe we should branch out on our restaurant choices). She also named her first animal. Everything up until this point has been "Bear" or "Dog" or "Cat." Well, now she has named a stuffed black bear "Teto" ("Teh-toh"). She also refers to it as her kitty cat. She is also seeing all kinds of things in her room. This morning, I had to say hello to several of her friends in her room. She will say gibberish words and tell you the meaning.
Stella: Mama, I gee boo.
Mama: What does that mean?
Stella: It means you jump up and spin around and then you paint.
Mama: Oh...of course.
