Memorial Day Weekend

It is so hard to believe how fast long weekends go by. My system at work is down, so I have been unable to work...darn right?? Friday night was a refreshing to me because I was able to enjoy my time with Maddy and not stress out about getting my time in. I decided to get us a special (to me) treat for dinner. We ordered pizza to bring home. I have fallen in love with the philly cheese steak pizza from domino's so I got me that and Maddy a small cheese pizza. I don't know how many pieces come in a small, but Maddy ate all but three pizza's of it. I was quite amazed!

 Because she had a normal day of playing at school, she didn't really stay up much later than her normal bedtime. She went to bed around 7:45 p.m. and that gave me the rest of the night to do whatever. I almost didn't know what to do with myself. I thought about working out, then cleaning, then watching tv but I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I think I ended up sitting on the couch and watching tv. Me and a friend decided to watch the same movie on Netflix and talk about it through text...that is actually very fun to do lol. We watched Somebody Help Me and it was one messed up movie. Afterwards I ended up falling asleep. Saturday I was going to try to take Maddy swimming, but other plans took over and we weren't going to be able to. We just stayed home and played outside and boy was it ever so amazingly hot. Within five minutes of just standing outside I was dripping with sweat. We only got to play outside for maybe an hour before we went back inside for a little break. By this time it was around 2:30 and Maddy had not had a nap and her attitude was showing it. I put her down for a nap and then I plopped down on the couch once again to watch some tv. It took Maddy a little while to go to sleep, but when she did she stayed asleep for a while. She didn't wake up until 5:30 p.m. so I knew bedtime would be delayed. When she woke up we went to Sonic to get me a drink and her some dinner. I love that she can tell me what she wants now instead of me trying to guess what she wants. At first she wanted mac & cheese. I asked her if she wanted to eat mac & cheese from home or get something there. She said, "Ummm...hot dog!" I read her the menu and she still chose hot dog. I asked her one more time and she changed her mind to hamburger. I was amazed at how fast she was eating. She normally plays with her food, but there was no playing involved...she got right down to business and ate the entire thing before we got home.

I love watching her eat!!!! When we got back home we just played and watched Caillou. I put her to bed a little after eight and cleaned up a little. Me and my friend decided to watch the sequel to the movie we had watched Friday...Somebody Help Me 2. The sequel was much better than the first, but they are still strange. After the movie I watched some more tv...I really don't get to watch THAT much tv so it was a treat for me lol. I went to bed sometime after midnight. I was surprised Sunday morning because I actually woke up before Maddy. That hasn't happened since I've had her. I woke up at 8:15 a.m. and decided to clean up the rest of our mess before she woke up. She woke up at 8:30. Her dad visits on Sunday so I pretty much just stay in my room. We did run to the store and back to sonic to get me a drink and Maddy some ice-cream. The rest of the time she played outside.

Can you see the pure joy on her face??? This girl is just head over heels about her car and that just makes me so happy. Out of all her toys I'd say her car is by far her favorite, besides baby lol. She still doesn't really have the concept of driving it yet, but she had gotten to where she would turn the wheel if you told her to. She hasn't gotten to ride it in a while with us being on vacation, so we will have to work on that again. I did forget to mention in my vacation posts here, here, here, and here about Maddy's potty training! Before we left on vacation, which by the way, we are leaving on OUR vacation in just 19 more days (only 13 work days) Maddy had been doing so good at school in using the potty all the time with only one time in her diaper. I noticed two nights before we left on vacation she woke up with a completely dry diaper. While we were on vacation each morning she was dry I asked her if she wanted to use the potty. She was so happy to use the potty like a big girl and she did each time. She had to tell her Nana and Pops what she had done. She had gotten to the point to where she would tell me each time she had to potty. While we were on vacation I felt like she was pretty much potty trained lol. Once we got back home it has seemed to go backwards. She isn't dry in the mornings anymore and she doesn't always tell me she has to potty and she even has reverted back to her little potty. I know these things take time and this is all normal. She is doing super well with the potty though. I had a reason for putting that right here, but now I forgot where I was going with it so please excuse my random potty training story lol. Monday she helped Pops mow the grass and Nana do some laundry. I fed her lunch, which of coarse was mac & cheese per her request. After lunch it was time to hit up the pool. We live 10-15 minutes away from the pool and right as I pulled in I found her like this:

I drove around for a little while because my car sometime overheats if you let idle for a while. After I circled around twice I decided to just park and turn the car off. I was going to wake her up once an hour had passed, but she woke up on her own just a few minutes shy of the hour because it was getting so hot. We stay at the kiddie pool and it was so unbelievably crowded. Both pools were so crowded you could barely move. I am upset with the management of the pools because they let things happen that really should be addressed. Kids that are really too big for the kiddie pool come in and fight each other and try to dunk each other and splash other people and are just kinda unruly. I know the point of a pool is to get wet, but when you have a two year old who is already afraid of the water and doesn't like water being splashed in her eyes, it just makes you wish the lifeguards would monitor the pool a little more closely. Towards the end Maddy got splashed in the eyes one too many times and she decided to fight back by splashing back. Up until that point I wouldn't let her splash other people because it's a respect thing, but when they kept splashing her I just let her go for it. We did have a good time despite the rudeness of the people there. I hope now that the holiday is over the pool will not be as crowded as it was on Monday.

Memorial day is a time of reflection for the men and women who died for our freedom. I am very thankful to each man and woman who has/is serving our country.

The End

Our last day at the beach was a more relaxed one. Me and Maddy had trouble getting to sleep the night before, actually, we kinda had sleep problems all week. I love going on vacation with Maddy because we get to snuggle up in bed and cuddle...not something I get to do here at home. I had to snap a few pics throughout our stay of her in bed.

Yes, we were laughing hysterically over nothingness. These are the moments I will treasure forever...especially once she is grown and on her own. We woke up at 5 something and then got up around 6:30 a.m. I knew she was gonna tire out fast that day and I was right. We woke up to clouds and I was a little bummed since it was our last day there. I decided to look on the radar and found out there was a storm out at sea but luckily it was moving away from us.

Maddy's mood was up and down the entire morning. My mom had taken her in for a nap on Sunday to let me have a little time to myself. I was so thankful for that time too because I hadn't gotten to "lay out" in almost three years. I was not expecting any time to just lay out, but it was so refreshing. After hearing Maddy give me down the road my mom took her once again for a nap around 9 a.m. I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I sat outside for a while in hopes the sun would shine, but it never did. Around 10:30 I decided to go in and lay down myself cause I didn't sleep much the night before. When I woke up Maddy was still asleep and the sun was just a shining. Me and my mom walked the beach a little, then headed back in to see if Maddy was still asleep...she was. It was around 11:30 which meant Maddy had been asleep for almost three hours...tired much? I don't think Maddy woke up until noon or 12:30 and then we all headed down to the beach.

Maddy was real scared of the water, but she finally let my mom carry her down to see it. She got to where she was ok if it touched her as long as she was held. My step dad took her on out some and she just had a ball. After the beach we headed up to the big pool and Maddy just played on the stairs. The pool was a lil chilly for us lol. We then got ready to go to one of my favorite restaurants down there called Breakers.

As you can see it overlooks the water and is just a relaxed setting. I think Harpoon Harry's has bought them out or something and the menu changed from the last time we were there. It was a decent meal, but I don't think I would get it again. I got the seafood platter which consisted of scallops, oysters, stuffed crab, and the fish of the day. I substituted more scallops for the oysters. Maddy had the burger but she was having a meltdown due to being so tired so she didn't eat much. My mom intrigued her with her interesting stories she can make up, which I was able to catch on film lol.

All in all it was a great trip and I'm so glad my mom and step dad were able to see Maddy on the beach. I'm also very grateful to them for allowing us to go with them and crash their vacation. I can't wait to go back!!!

Vacation Day 3

Monday was absolutely the best day ever!!! Don't get me wrong, I was thankful to be at the beach and to stay in a wonderful condo. I had no idea however, there would be some extras along the way. When me and Maddy woke up Monday morning we did our usual thing of walking out to the patio to say good morning and to discuss breakfast. My mom asked me what we wanted to do and instantly my wheels started turning. I decided to ask what our options were and when she replied our options were limitless I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I really was just going to ask to go to Gulfworld because I wanted to see the dolphins, but I joked with her and said so if I said swim with the dolphins? She said the sky was the limit. We started talking and then I learned my mom was really serious about swimming with the dolphins. We got ready and headed out. GulfWorld is no seaworld by any means, but it was a neat place to go and of coarse the animals were just amazing. Luckily I do have my pictures from this trip along with a video. This post will have quite a few pictures on it because my mom bought the whole cd of pictures from us swimming with the dolphins.

I'm going to put the video here since it is of the dolphin show. I will warn you it's a little lengthy and at one point I thought I stopped recording, but it didn't stop so you will see people and then my legs and my arm and then I got back on track lol. I know not everybody shares my love for these animals, but they are just so amazing to me. The youngest one was only eight months old and I just wanted to love on all of them.

After the dolphin show we went to a bird show then grabbed some lunch.

Up next is our dolphin swim. Our time was at 4:00 p.m. and normally it is done in a group of six. My mom and I some how lucked out and were the only two. It was a bit awkward, but it really was a neat experience. My step dad took Maddy for me. I think this is an experience many people should have because it is just amazing!

This beautiful dolphin, Cajun, weighs approximately 250 pounds. You wouldn't think you would feel it due to being in the water but you could def feel it. I was thinking please hurry and take this picture because I'm about to fall lol. 

I was making it turn around. I was a little unsure because I was trying to do as I was told and not mess up and the trainer wasn't as friendly as they appeared in the show lol. We think they were mad because they wanted to get off early and here we come wanting to swim...we got paid back at the end lol

It was a wonderful day and Maddy did really well watching all the shows. We ate at a place called Montego Bay and I got scallops and fries and Maddy got macaroni and cheese. We headed back to the condo and went swimming since Maddy didn't get to all day and I told her she could.