The Rehearsal Dinner and the rest of our beach pictures

The Rehearsal Dinner was at Fort De Soto Park. It was rated the #1 beach in the US a few years ago. Nice water and the soft sand like the Caribbean. Hayden didn't feel like walking down the aisle and practicing so that didn't look to good for the actual wedding the next day. And it was really hot. The picture above is of all the bridesmaids (the groomsmen seemed to forget to show up so no pictures of them!) I look like a frickin giant!!!


Aren't these pictures of Hayden and Kennedy just the cutest!


All of the happy couples (and Paige and Bailey). Doesn't Amanda look great?!

We enjoyed pool and beach time everyday. We were so lucky to have such nice weather. And I can't say enough how nice everything at our hotel was. We got a great deal and had an apartment type place(living room, kitchen, etc), with a nice pool, a deck, and right on the beach. (Under $100). I kept saying all week to mike, "I sure did a good job finding this place". I could have been a travel agent in another life.

And if traveling southwest it pays to have someone in a wheel chair in your party. If you haven't ever flown southwest it is first come first serve boarding. You get a number when you check in and when it is your turn you get on the plane and choose your seat. If you have someone in a wheel chair you get to board first. So on the way home b/c we had Great Grandma we got to sit in the first row with all of the extra room. So nice. We had a much better flight home then on the way here. We love Southwest and have racked up enough points for some free flights soon.

Florida Vacation Day 2

Day 2
Hayden slept in until 9:30am. Of course I did not get to enjoy it. The smoke detector in our room must have had a dying battery so it kept beeping really loud. Gram and Hayden didn't even budge. They were pooped! I did some reading while they slept.

We went to the pool and beach again. The weather was great. We also had Quinn's Rehearsal dinner. I will post pictures for that in another post.

After the rehearsal dinner Hayden and Kennedy played on the beach together before bed. Kennedy had some little wagon that Hayden was obsessed with. He pushed it around the entire time and wouldn't get in the water or share it with poor Kennedy.

Florida Vacation Day 1

We went to Florida for my sister Quinn's wedding (lots of pictures on that to come soon). We stayed in North Redington Beach area. We had a great time.

Airplane ride -- pure Stress! First of all we had to leave the house at 5am b/c Mike picked an early flight. I got Hayden out of bed and he never went back to sleep. He was wide awake. I knew this would not be good later. We were also taking Gram to the airport with us so we had Hayden, all of our luggage, a car seat and a wheel chair. But we managed.

I was excited to find out that the flight wasn't full so we could put hayden in his own seat in his car seat. Well that backfired. Kids under 2 fly free but...Hayden is bigger then most 2 year olds. So I put him in his car seat and his feet were up against the seat in front of him. So he was kicking the seat in front of him. so I had to take him out and put him in my lap. It was stressful. He needed lots of entertaining and he just wanted to be put down. He doesn't understand yet. So some ear piercing screams were let out a few times and I am sure we were hated by the business men in front of us. And of course he cried a little and wanted to go in his car seat but I couldn't let him. He probably would have taken a nap too.

But we made it thru the flight. Luckily the pilot was quick and we made almost 20 minutes ahead of time. Oh and it is not fun changing a huge toddler on a tiny changing table in a tiny airplane bathroom. Just in case you were wondering!

So we arrived to this view from our place...



It was great. We got an early check in and immediately hung out at the pool. Hayden enjoyed it much better then he did at Erie. We ate lunch then headed to the beach. Nice clear water and warm too. Perfect for Hayden (and wimpy Mike).

We had some napping issues (2 small ones for less then 1/2 hour each) so we had some rough, cranky periods. But who isn't a little cranky after traveling?

Hayden at 18 months

I can't believe Hayden is 1 1/2 already.

He is now officially off the charts for height. He is past 100 percentile! He is a tall little boy. :)

He mainly wear 2t clothing. But it is too wide for him. He is pretty skinny for how tall he is. He is all torso. His legs actually aren't that long.

He has weighed about 25 lbs since he turned 1 year old. So his weight is staying the same but he keeps getting taller.

Loves blankets

He is the worst at waking up from naps. Whether he gets a 15 minute nap or 3 hours. He is miserable when he wakes up most of the time. But in the morning when he wakes up, he is happy as can be.

He loves to be outside. He stands at the door and waits. Or sometimes tantrums.

He is the most polite boy ever. He always says thank you. On his own.

He is super pale.

He is very coordinated. And pretty tough. It has to hurt pretty bad for him to cry.

He loves my ipod.

Does not like when you hand him food or open it for him. He is stubborn and likes to do it himself.

He still likes swinging golf clubs and hockey sticks. He also likes trucks and playing in dirt, rocks or sand. He loves swings, slides, and just running around.

He wants to run up the driveway all of the time.

He sings his own version of happy birthday.

He is really beginning to babble/talk incoherently. He is getting frustrated when we don't know what he wants. I guess he will be talking soon.

He has learned the word no and says it all of the time. Even when he means yes.

He likes to help mike work on things in the garage, cut the grass or do weeding/yard work with us.

He likes to help make scrambled eggs. He can crack the eggs himself.

He loves dips. Especially hummus and guacamole. He also likes to dip fries and stuff in ranch.

He has learned to move chairs to help him get to things he can't reach. When I was making dinner the other day, he was playing nice in the hallway (or so I thought). Then I noticed it was too quiet. I found him in our office. He pushed my chair up to the scrapbook desk and was sitting on top of it playing with all of the scissors!

When cars honk their horns he thinks its so funny. If no cars are near me on the road I will honk ours to make him laugh.

He thinks that when he cries/is upset he is supposed to say mommy in a whiny voice. He just started doing this b/c kennedy does it. The other day he cried and whined "mommy" but he really wanted his daddy. Silly boy.

Loves to point out bubbles and water to people. He says both of these very clearly. He loves to play with bubbles.

He also has learned to say ball, golf ball,love you,banana, bye bye, night night, pretzel, baby, water and a few more new words.

He can jump now. Both feet off of the ground.

Hayden loves Baby Ella (the new baby my sister watches). He is constantly giving her kisses and nice touches (rubbing her head) or giving her his dirty finger to suck on. He also likes to take her bottles and pull of her socks.

He can see the park when I am putting him in the car to go home from my sisters house. He asks EVERYDAY to go. So far he has taken it well.

I think he has moved to Grayson being his favorite cousin. But he does enjoy all of them.

Loves little kids or bigger kids. Will laugh, smile, point, etc.

Love dogs and pointing them out and yelling doggy. But once you take him a little closer he is scared and doesn't like them anymore. Actually petrified most times.

Likes dips. He really likes guacamole and hummus right now. He also loves to eat popcorn with daddy.

He actually likes spicy foods like wings, hot sausage, salsa, etc.

More rain and flooding

We got some more rain early this morning and the front yards flooded. It eventually drained out. Around dinner time we had a huge storm. We were out to dinner. When we came home we found both sides of the yard flooded. And some more water in the basement. Sigh...

What a storm!

(hail hitting my car. All the white balls on the side are not rocks that is hail!)

We have been having really nice weather lately. 80's, sunny, etc. Today was no exception until this evening. We had a crazy storm.

It was hailing huge chunks at our house (apparently it did not do this everywhere). Toward the end they were the size of the palm of my hand. WE had some flooding. Water was pouring at a fast rate down our hill and the french drain couldn't handle it. So it then went past it and poured up against our house and then went out both sides of the house. It ruined my stone path, flooded the back yard a little and some water ended up in the basement.

Our driveway was flooded from both directions and we have a whole in it. And both yards on the sides of the driveway are completely flooded pretty deep. Just like a fe years ago when we had all of the floods (but not quite as bad).

Of course Mike was not here at the time to help with anything!!!

Our power was on and off which bothered Hayden. He sat and snuggled with me (after I finished running around, trying to unclog the drain, panicking etc). He just sat cuddle up to me for an hour. He is usually not a cuddler at all. It would have been nice but it was soooo hot. He is sweat ball!

At one point I thought we was asleep b/c he was quiet for 1/2 hour (which is not like him) so I said Hayden are you awake, and he did this little pathetic "no". It was so cute.

Right now the back yard is finally better. Most of my pictures of the backyard are after everything slowed down and drained. But man before that water was racing. It was scary.


Our back yard after it finally drained.

Our porch swing filled with left over hail.

the yard on the right side of the driveway. the water is higher now.

I tried to get a picture of the right side again but it was too dark out.