Family Vacation!

My parent's treated our whole family to a wonderful week long vacation in Destin, FL.  They rented a big, beautiful home for us all to stay in.  We had a fabulous time and the only things we would change would be to have a little more sun and a little less seaweed.

Loaded up and Ready to Go...

Our daily routine was pretty much to wake up and take the boys for a walk down to the beach or take a golf cart ride around to explore the area and the playground.

After the first morning we got smart and dressed Alex in his swimsuit anytime we went near the beach....on this day we had to use Daddy's shirt as a cover up on the way home...

After breakfast we would head out to the beach for the morning.  Alex LOVED LOVED LOVED the waves in the ocean.  There was a riptide and strong current most days so Eric and I would take turns watching Alex in the ocean.  He would get knocked over and get pummeled by the waves and just come up laughing then get right back in there for more. I think I aged ten years watching him in those waves! Brodie was a little unsure of the ocean and the waves and generally took a little time to get warmed up to it each day, but by the end of the morning he would be running in and out of the waves too. 

 


Alex in action:

 Brodie was pretty much constantly eating this trip.  Either a growth spurt or all the fresh air and energy burned just made him always starving!

 

They both loved playing for hours in the sand as well.....

 








Grandma spent hours walking Brodie along the beach and running in and out of the waves - back breaking work, but he always wanted Grandma to do it with him.

 After lunch and naps we would head over to the pool in the afternoon...

 Chicken Fights :)...

Thankfully when we had a little rainy time inside there were cousins to play with!

Nights consisted of dinner and sometimes games, but more often it meant a lot of exhausted people reading and heading to bed early!

On Friday night, our final night, we headed to HarborWalk.  We had dinner at Harry T's, enjoyed a beautiful sunset and walked around the docks.

Post Vacation Exhaustion....




Thank You Mom and Dad for a wonderful week.  It went too fast and we are sad it is over.  As Alex so perfectly put it on the last day, "can we please stay for a hundred million more days?" : ).

Alex is 4!

A little bit belated on this post, but decided to wait until his well visit today and just post everything at once.

Alex was pretty convinced that he was already 4 after having two birthday parties in Michigan, but we still had a little low key celebration here on his actual birthday.  Eric took him golfing to the "real" golf course on Friday night and then he had a couple of friends over to swim on Saturday.

 Sweet girls....

 Got a nerf gun - thought his head may explode with excitement.  Eric spent about 8 hours the next day "hunting" with him.

 Spiderman cake....

I interviewed Alex by asking him the same list of questions that I asked when he was three:

What is your favorite color?  Blue
Who is your best friend?  Chandler  (so cute how much he adores his older cousin)
What is your favorite show to watch on tv?  Word Girl and Wild Kratts
What is your favorite thing to eat?  Cake
What is your favorite thing to drink?  Milk and Juice
What is your favorite thing to wear?  Police Outfit
What is your favorite toy?  Spiderman Costume
What is your favorite book?  Little Critter
What is your favorite song?  Dino Dino Dinosaur
What is something you like to say?  Hi
What is something you like to do with Brodie?  Chase each other
Where do you like to play?  Jumping Place
Who loves you?  Chandler
What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Play Adventure
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Policeman

Four Year Old Stats:
Weight - 38 lbs (50-70th %)
Height - 42 1/2 inches (90th %)

We are thankful and blessed to have a healthy child.  He recovered pretty quickly from the trauma of getting four shots and earned a visit to the miniature golf course for his bravery!  Although when he woke up from his nap yesterday his leg was really sore and he said "I told you shots hurt for a long time not just a little bit' :).

We love you Alex Jon - you are one amazing little four year old!

Brodie 19 Months

Brodie is a happy sweet boy.  He is truly easy going, but has a definite mischievous streak which makes him downright adorable!

Brodie is talking up a storm.  He is saying new words every day and starting to use more and more two word phrases:
A few of his favorite phrases:
"want insert whatever he wants at that moment (mommy, daddy, down)"
"see bee" (Brodie is currently OBSESSED with bugs.  He finds every little ant, bug, etc. and he calls all bugs "bees", so we hear him say "see bees" about 100x when we are outside. 
"MINE"
'wawnmower"  - lawn mower.  He and Alex fight over pushing the play one constantly and Brodie can hear any lawn mower within a mile radius of our house and will ask to "see wawnmower" over and over"
"I throw" - a warning before he throws whatever he has
"running"
"where go?" and "find it"

Brodie is definitely in the imitating phase.  He loves to imitate all three of us.  He likes to help with household chores:






Brodie loves trains "choochoos" and "diggers"

Brodie loves to play outside.  He loves to push the lawn mower around and he loves anything to do with water.  He is very happy in the swimming pool and has no fear!


Brodie continues to be a great eater.  His favorite food is cheese.  He also loves fruit.

Brodie loves his "pac" (pacifier) and teddy.

Plays more and more with Alex.  It usually involves wrestling and rough housing and someone crying, but they are getting there.. and there are definitely some precious moments as well!


 
 
 
Well Check Stats;
Weight - 27 lbs (50-75%)
Height - 36 inches - OFF THE CHARTS!!  The doctor showed me the bell curve and Brodie has always been on or slightly above the top line of the bell curve, the 97% line.  Today he was a half inch above that line.  Granted there is always some human error in the nurse doing the measuring, but the boy is obviously TALL!
Head - 49 1/2 cm

For comparison, here are Alex's stats at this age:
18 Month Stats:
28 lbs - 75th percentile
34 1/4 inches tall - 97th percentile

 And in keeping up with his big brother, he is a total dare devil!

Randomness

I still need to do a phone dump from my phone and am working on Brodie's 18-19 Month Post, but in the meantime, here is a little random catch up.

Father's Day:  We had a belated Father's Day celebration since we were driving back from Michigan on the actual Father's Day.  As part of Eric's gift I had Alex complete an All About My Daddy form I saw on Pinterest.  His answers are the underlined portion:
(the only part that may need explanation is the "go to the hospital" part.  Eric walks the boys to the hospital near us. It used to be a construction site when they were building it and is still some vacated land that they search for tracks and snakes and other "boy adventures".)


Last week Rachel and I took the kids blueberry picking.  It was a great small little farm and the kids did great.  They of course ate about as many as they picked.  Even though I had to make sure Brodie was only picking and eating blue ones and had to chase him between the rows we actually got a few pounds picked.  We froze some and made some blueberry muffins and will definitely be heading back to pick some more.