Florida!

We made it! We survived a road trip all the way to Destin FL and back home again. I must say the girls did great in the car, I think Dan and I got more antsy than they did. We only managed to get two family photos and by the time this one was taken Ella was done smiling. Please try to refrain from focusing on my huge belly. Being 6 months pregnant, swimwear was not my ideal dress of choice, but there's not many options at a beach :(

At first glance I think the ocean was overwhelming, yet exciting for the girls.

Ava ventured out slowly as long as there was someone to hang onto.

Ella didn't venture out quite as far, she loved jumping in the shallow water.

When it came to sand, Ava loved shoveling then throwing the sand back into the water.

She dug "caves" and she also enjoyed writing in the sand, which I uploaded a picture of but now it seems to be gone?

Ella also enjoyed digging in the sand, but it was never long before she realized it was stuck all over her and she wanted to be washed off.

Back at the pool there was a great water fountain area for the girls to play in.

Here again I had a picture of Ella with her favorite fountain, but somehow it is gone? This is Ella with one of the taller fountains...she is trying to be brave, but definitely keeping her distance.

Ava was much more daring with the water and over came a lot of issues, like water in her face. Here she is dancing in the fountain.

This is the fountain that Ella loved to play with and of course Ava liked how much control she had over such a small one.

This was the biggest fountain and while Ava ran in and out, Ella wouldn't dare go near it.

Although she had more courage she still took precautions to protect her face/eyes from the water.

She wasn't a big fan of water in her nose either.

Something Ava did do for the first time is swim in her water wings. Last summer she would float in her tube, but didn't like the freedom of the wings. This year she's doing much better at getting out there on her own!

Ella would float in her tube for a little while and maybe jump off the ledge a couple times, but her ideal spot was sitting on the chairs with a nice snack.

Ava went for piggy back rides

while Ella watched from the steps with paw paw.

And then found her way back to her cozy chair.

Ava tormented everyone she could with a water gun, but of course wasn't thrilled with being splashed back.

One night we managed to go for a beach walk after dinner and planned to stay clean to avoid taking yet another bath.

However, once finding "jaws" we had to jump in and play in the sand.

Luckily, this is the closest we ever got to a shark!

We made it out to dinner one night as well and after eating the girls couldn't get enough of this telescope....even though they couldn't see anything through it.

On the last day there we decided to take some more last minute pictures before heading back home. Because the tide came in so far the night before the sand formed quite an edge and after G-pa fell....

and G-ma fell...

Ava showed them how to jump down successfully. I'm sure they'll appreciate me posting those pictures, but I couldn't resist.

We tried to get a picture of the girls together and due to Ava's death grip on Ella's neck, Ella wouldn't smile...

and then she had had enough!

Me and the kids...all three of them :)

And although Ella was totally done and wanted to go inside we managed one quick pic with G-ma and G-pa.

Ava did much better during the photo shoot.

Ella wouldn't let me set her down and the only way she would smile is if we played with her sunglasses.

The picture below sums up the trip pretty well. We had a crazy and great trip. A big thanks to G-ma and G-pa Carron for a great vacation in a beautiful place!!

The next week is going to be another crazy one. We have Ava's first dance recital this weekend followed with a big 2nd birthday next week! Only a day after being home we were right back in our routine, including getting into everything! Here is what happened when Ella apparently forgot how to use crayons and decided to color all around her mouth with a brown crayon. This is her "what's the big deal mom?" face.
I'm sure she'll get into even more and I'm sure we'll have plenty of pics to post by next weekend!