7/30/2010

More of the beach. Ahhh...

My sister Callie took these pictures of my crazy Laney in the water at the beach. She couldn't get enough. Did I say this in the last post? She'd book it to the water every day we got there, and I'm running after her, barely able to get my shoes off before I catch her face first in the water, laughing. She was laughing when she got knocked over. Like, "Haha, isn't that big huge wave funny! Thinking I'll actually get scared."


Lexi's still a scaredy cat a little. She had to have someone with her every time she went in the water.
Laney on the other hand, would let go and get mad at me if I dared hold her hand.
I wish you could see her face in this one, probably cracking up. Me, well, it's VERY cold water, and I probably can't feel my feet here. I'm sure my teeth were chattering
She thought it was fun to feel the water tugging her in different directions and trying to fight it herself. Hence the refusing to hold my hand.
I can't wait to see her next year, when she's a little older and has more control of her legs. And sadly, the paci was in her mouth at all times during the trip. She was having crankiness issues...
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7/23/2010

Beach '10

Dear Beach,

Oh, how I love you. However, I do not love you when I have two kids and no husband. Family is really good about helping out, but when my kids are ridiculous about who they let help and hold them, it becomes not fun again.

Here are a few things I learned this year:

1) I will never travel without my husband again. I know I said that last year, but it was kind of like childbirth. I forgot the pain it was until I was there again. You know?

2) It's much easier with one. Lexi went to Sea World with some of her other cousins one day, so I only had Laney. That's when I took the following picture. We were having a lot of fun.

3) Lexi is much more afraid of the water than Laney. Laney bolts right into the waves as soon as we get to the beach. Lexi is much more apprehensive. Here's Lex playing in the sand holes.

4) Laney needs more sleep while we vacation. She would be much happier if she'd get a chance to take a long nap. Here she is hamming it up.
5) We have a lot of cousins. Here they are oldest to youngest, minus Jacob's kids. And the oldest is holding the youngest.
6) Although Laney is a total Daddy's girl, when Daddy's not available, she quickly becomes a Mama's girl. She clung to me the whole trip. Sometimes it was very inconvenient.
7) Lexi learned how to make dribble castles- one of the best activities at the beach. Here she is playing with Addie and Trigg.

8) Lexi has a serious 'tude when she doesn't get sleep. And let's be real, even in normal situations she has an attitude. She acted like a sulky teenager most of the trip. And she's only 3 1/2!

9) Laney sleeping was the best time at the beach. I got to relax and read my book. That was fabulous. I know she looks lifeless here, but rest assured, she was just sleeping.

10) Thanks to my Mom and every one who tried helping me during the trip, but I will not be doing it again unless Brandon is there to help. True to his fabulous self, he met me in Vegas on the way home, and drove the girls the rest of the way for me, while I drove in the other car and just listened to my book. It was very relaxing.

All in all, a pretty good trip. If I can afford to live in a beach house one day, I will so do it. I love the beach!
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Our mazda-aka- the Pickle

I got in a car accident today. I was at the Gold's gym parking lot, going straight, when I reached a sort of intersection, where another guy was going straight, we didn't see each other, and we hit. There were no stop signs or anything since it was a parking lot, and it was both our faults, in my opinion. I should have slowed and looked, and he should have slowed and looked, but neither of us did, and we hit. My front passenger corner of the car got hit, and his driver side front got hit.

The airbags deployed, ugh, and both cars had to be towed. The girls are fine. They were in the backseat, tucked and buckled nice and tight in their carseats. They were shook up of course, my nose hurts a little from the airbag, and my shoulder from the seatbelt, but other than that we're fine.

The other guy. You know how there are some people that milk situations? I think he might be one of them. First, he didn't speak any English, so I couldn't communicate with him in any way. That doesn't help things much. Then he complained about a head/shoulder injury and went away to the hospital in an ambulance. Personally, I think he's fine. He had an airbag, so I think he'll be okay. But who knows? I'm not him, so I can't say for sure. I don't know if he was wearing a seatbelt. I don't think he was...

In parking lots on private property, they split the costs 50/50 for the insurance. At least that's what they say. We'll see. At least we both have insurance. And we have good insurance through Allstate, so with accident forgiveness, even if for some strange reason I'm found at fault (even though like I said, with parking lots, they don't assign fault), our insurance rates won't go up. We have a deductible to pay, but that's it.

But our car, oh our car. Our nice little Mazda, in perfect condition, bought new in '07, is now hurt. It makes me sad. I hope they fix it up nice for us. And we're not planning on ever selling it, so we don't care if it has an accident on its record.

If I were destined to get in an accident, this was an ideal one to get in. The part of the car that was hit was the only part of the car that didn't have a passenger in it. I was only going 10mph, so there weren't any injuries, at least on our part. I'm so glad my car wasn't hit anywhere toward the back. My babies are in the back. I just don't even want to go there.

I've spent my morning crying and bawling, because that's what I do in any kind of emotionally intense situations. I'm mad that I have to pay the deductible, even though that really is a minimal cost. I'm mad that I spend most of my time trying to save money, and then this happens. Ugh. I'm done complaining.

Then I spent a lot of time hugging my kids, thanking my Heavenly Father that they are fine. You know there are some times where you are more relaxed about the carseat? You think, oh we're just going to the store. They don't need to be buckled. I'm so glad they were buckled.

There. The end. That's the story. We don't have a great history with the Mazda. Remember back in March when the crazy lady towed it and we had to spend $200 to get it back? This is not a good sign...