Horseback Riding

The girls have been looking forward to Annie's birthday party for a long time.  In fact, so has Annie.  When I took her to school last year she would tell me about how her 8th birthday party would be at a horse farm.  I started hearing about it in August - 1 month after she turned 7! Guess the girl knew what she wanted! Anyway, Kayla and Macy were thrilled at the idea of riding real horses, and not just the little ponies that are hooked up to a carousel type contraption.  Last Christmas when Macy got on one of the ponies she was not happy and wanted OFF. We weren't sure if she would ride at the party, but the lady took extra time to talk to her about the horse and what to do.  She climbed on and had the best time!

Macy's horse was Mystery, and Kayla rode Amber.

Brooke enjoyed seeing all of the animals and petting the cat.  I had to keep a watch on her because 18 month olds aren't known to be gentle with animals. She would pet the cat and then stand up and giggle. So cute!

She didn't care for the puppy as much, but she did lift up her shirt for it to lick her tummy.  I don't know where that idea came from, but after one lick she was done with the dog.

Molly Marie Barfield

Welcome cousin Molly! My sister had her baby a little over a week ago while we were out of town.  The girls have been so excited to finally meet her.  Kayla would hold her for hours if we let her.

Nana and her 6th great-grandbaby.

Brooke LOVES baby dolls.  She thought that Molly was a baby doll and she was NOT happy that everyone else was holding her.  Of course we gave her a turn.

Four girls.  We wouldn't have a clue what to do with a little boy!

Cancun Part 3

Iguanas.  I forgot that they are abundantly found in Mexico.  We remembered that fact when we almost stepped on one. We never actually saw one walking around, so we like to think they are very slow moving creatures.  As one rested on the edge of a bridge we wondered if they could swim.  A couple days later I saw one that had fallen in the pool.  It kept trying to climb up the edge.  It was unsuccessful until it found an opening where debris collects.  Then it climbed out of the cover and dried off on a rock.

I really enjoyed having my kindle on this trip.  Towards the end of the trip I got brave enough to take it in the pool with me.  I was careful and didn't get it wet, but it was so nice to relax in the water while reading.  And of course, another tasty drink waiting for me on the edge of the pool.

Every night at 9:30 there was a show of some sort.  9:30 central time was late for us and we left early from both of the shows we went to.  The first one started with a fire show.  It was pretty neat.

It was followed by an Arabian show.  We had a hard time staying interested in this one.

On our way to dinner.

The Michael Jackson show was pretty good.  It was a packed house too! This guy could really dance too, but after a while everything looked the same so we went back to our room.

We had a great time on our trip and I look forward to our next trip when we take our girls with us.

Cancun Part 2

I'm a pool person.  Marc likes the pool and the beach.  I enjoy sitting on the beach, but I am not a big fan of the water.  I know my mom is having to pick her jaw up off of the ground at that statement. :)

We spent one morning hanging out on the beach under a little hut.  I'm sure we would have spent more time here, but the chairs on the beach were a lot less comfortable than the ones by the pools.  We definitely took advantage of the wait staff bringing us drinks.  I know we were in the minority in having drinks with no alcohol, and we only had one bartender question why we wanted our strawberry daiquiri without it.  When I told him we didn't drink he said that was very good and he tried to not drink alcohol before.  We thought that was funny coming from a bartender.

Marc read the paper and a magazine every day.  I think that is more reading for pleasure he has done since... well I don't know if he has ever read that much for pleasure in four days. I finished three books and started a fourth. Pure bliss.

Since we have been to Cancun we opted to stay close to the resort rather than head out on an excursion.  Plus we were only there for 4 nights, so we wanted to just relax. We did take a taxi to Puerto Morelos one afternoon.  It is the closest town to the resort.  It was really tiny, but we were able to get necklaces to bring home for the girls.

Chichen Itza replica in the town square.

About three resorts down is Moon Palace.  We stayed there on our honeymoon.  We didn't realize that we would be that close to where we stayed 10 years ago.  When we were here for our honeymoon Moon Palace was new and it was the only resort on this part of the city.  

I have a few more pictures to post, but it is about time to go meet my new niece!

10th Anniversary Trip

We just got back from a wonderful anniversary trip to Mexico.  We stayed at Excellence Riviera Cancun and pretty much did nothing other than relax.

Our room.

View from our balcony.

Another view from our balcony.

Some pictures of the resort.

Marc found these little huts at the spa for sweat therapy, or something like that.  We went to Mexico in the middle of July. Sweat therapy was just being outside.  No huts needed.

The resort had 6 pools, one of which was a lazy river.  The main pool was too crowded and noisy for our taste, so we found a spot on the lazy river by the spa. It was quiet and the music was soothing. The lazy river took about 40 minutes to make a lap around.  Soooo nice.

The middle of the building our room was in.

Fourth of July

We had a wonderful weekend and 4th of July celebration.  My aunts and uncle were in town for a week and we always have the best time together.  On Monday the ladies decided to hit the Avenues for some shopping and Marc insisted that I join them - love that guy! We didn't do much shopping but everyone went home with something new.  Macy was worn out and fell asleep on the way home.  We moved her onto the couch and she slept like this for another 45 minutes.

We had our family up for a cookout and Kayla wrote a special song for the celebration.

And we spent the rest of the evening laughing and having fun. Brooke had a great time playing with Uncle Gary and her baby doll.  In this picture she is talking on the "phone" (aka a calculator).

And we had a marching band performance.  Brooke joined in and followed her sisters around the house. 

Macy once again decided to march to her own beat and pull out the headphones for her own music.  

 

Everyone left to go back  home today.  Macy and Brooke came down with strep throat, so we weren't able to say good-bye to everyone.  I know they understood, but I hated it.  Uncle Beans was in town for 24 hours and we didn't get to see him at all. :( Thankfully the girls are on the mend.  Let's just hope that Brooke will sleep tonight.  She wasn't too keen on the idea of napping today, so it has been a VERY long day. Marc is letting me have a nice, long break downstairs while he gets them ready for bed and I need to get back to my packing list because we are leaving in three days for Mexico!!

Do You See What I See?

Other than the crazy hair I see a little girl sleeping without a pacifier.  I wasn't plan on breaking the habit until after our vacation, but one night as I was snuggling with her I took it away.  She didn't ask for it back, so I went with it.  We had to rock her to sleep for 2 nights and she woke up for a couple of minutes those nights, but that was it.  I was dreading breaking the habit since she had to have one in her mouth and one in her hand to sleep, but she did great.  Last night I found 3 pacifiers in a drawer and I threw them in the garbage.  It was a such a freeing moment. Plus, now I can't give in and give it back to her on days like we have had yesterday and today.  Poor baby has strep throat and doesn't feel well.

Swimming Lessons

Kayla and Macy just finished swim lessons this evening. They both have done great.  Kayla is now swimming without holding her nose - something I tried and tried to get her to do, but it took a swim teacher telling her one time not to do it. Macy is loving being in the water and she has started swimming a little as well! We'll keep practicing and hopefully they will both be swimming well before the season is over!

 Macy floating on her back while the others in the class froze. ha!

Practicing crawling along the edge of the pool.

Macy's teacher had them stick their heads under water to pick up dive rings.  My child was the only one who just reached down and grabbed it without getting her face wet.  Smart girl.

Excited for class to start.

Since today was a make-up class due to lightning earlier in the week, Macy's regular teacher couldn't be there.  This lady was so good with the kids and really praised them for their efforts.  This was after Macy swam a few feet by herself. I love the excitement on Macy's face.

While the instructor was working with other children Macy kept going under water over, and over, and over, and over again.

Kayla's teacher left the boring stuff for the last day.  They spent time talking and practicing dialing 911. They also sat for a really long time on the side of the pool listening to her talk. Marc went in to take pictures and after a while sent me a text that said he was bored so he could only imagine how bored Kayla was. ha!

Practicing back stroke.

I've told Kayla that until she was swimming very well I wasn't going to take all three girls to the pool by myself.  Since our evenings and weekend have been pretty busy this summer we haven't made it to the pool much.  Hopefully, if we can keep practicing before our neighborhood pool closes for the season and then spend a little time at the indoor pool this winter, next summer looks like a fun, pool-filled summer for us!