Goodbye Florida!

Our last real daytrip was to Silver Springs in Ocala. They have a ton of alligators, a petting zoo where you can feed a giraffe (the highlight of the day), glass bottom boats, and a few little kiddie rides. We had a great time when we went last year, but found ourselves somewhat underwhelmed this time around. Maybe it was because we'd already seen all that there was to see, I'm not sure. Regardless, I doubt we'll be going back next year, but if you've never been, it's definitely worth checking out.

Obviously we have difficulty following rules.

I will NOT "say cheese"!

We spent our last day in Florida wandering around Downtown Disney. We had a ridiculously overpriced lunch at Rainforest Cafe, spent 45 minutes waiting in line to pay for Legos that we could have bought at Walmart, and took advantage of every photo op - much to the dismay of my poor camera-shy husband.

Forcing a smile, after spending $50 on 3 cheeseburgers.

It's a shame we can't actually use this for our Christmas cards.

Heathens...except for mine, of course. He's an angel. Just look at that sweet face.

Kaden, Koby, Logan, and Khloe.

Logan's hero!

Lego-tron?

And that's it folks. In some ways the trip went by way too fast, but honestly, I was ready to come home. I have difficulty dealing with other people's children, so having my niece and nephews around was stressful for me. I'm admittedly a pretty strict mom and I expect a lot from Logan. Most importanly, I expect him to be polite and to do as he's told. He knows that there are consequences should he fail to follow our rules, but it's really hard for a 3 yr old to be good when the other children around him aren't made to behave as well. It's also really hard for a mother to not step in when her child is being bullied (both physically and emotionally) and the other parent isn't doing anything about it. Aaargh. It's a difficult situation to handle without stepping on anyone's toes and pissing off the inlaws. What I really wanted to do was dish out some spankings to the rest of the kids, because they are all in pretty desperate need of a good ass-whooping in my opinion. Needless to say, that part of my vacation was extremely frustrating, but the rest of it was fantastic!

Enjoy your weekend ladies! I'll be back on Monday with baby updates!

Seeeeriously counting the minutes until the weekend starts.

I'm having a rough day folks. I've spent the last 2 days feeling grumpy as hell for no good reason, well, no good reason until this morning, but more about that in a minute. On top of being grumpy, I've been ravenously hungry. I'm starting to think the two are related and I'm not too happy with this development. I can't spend the next few months feeling like I'm starving to death and biting people's heads off if they so much as look at me the wrong way. Someone please tell me that this will pass. I never had mood swings like this when I was pergnant with me son. Could it be a girl thing?

Now as for this morning, without getting too into it, I'll say that I received an email that got me thinking. I've spent my day wondering why women are so mean to each other. Why aren't we more supportive and kind and encouraging to each other instead of being so vindictive and hurtful? Why do we spend so much time knocking each other down? If someone hurts our feelings, instead of talking it out and moving on, we hold onto it. We let it fester and let the hurt sink in deeper. We dwell on it. We talk behind the person's back. We make mean comments so that they will feel the hurt that they caused us. Couldn't this all just be avoided at the very beginning with a simple conversation? Something like:

"Hey, that thing you said wasn't very nice."

"Oh shit, I'm sorry, I had no idea. I totally didn't mean it the way it sounded to you, but I can see how you could have taken it the wrong way. My bad."

"It's cool."

I mean, that's how guys handle things and they fight with each other a whole lot less than women do. In this one way, why can't we just be a little more like them? Today I'm reminded of why most of my friends growing up were guys.

Sanibel Island

We took our first trip down to Sanibel Island during our vacation last year and we were hooked. This has got to be in my Top 3 Most Gorgeous Places I've Ever Been. It's even worth the 4 hour drive from Orlando and the additional half hour spent finding a place to park because there are only about 30 parking spots on the entire island. But really, it's worth it. We spent the entire afternoon playing in the sand, diving for conch shells, and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (no lie, I'm pretty sure I ate 4 of them).

Vivienne's 1st Trip to the Beach!

Letting it all hang out...

My plan to lay still long enough to get seashell tanlines lasted about 10 minutes before Vivienne started dancing and knocked them all off.

Logan and Daddy were out diving for shells.

You really cannot beat this view!

Baby Bump at 21/22 Weeks

Taken mid-way between weeks 21 and 22 while on vacay.

Watch what you say -- baby is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that she finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby's starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It shouldn't be hard to figure out when -- just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop.

How Far Along?  22 weeks


Total Weight Gained/Loss?   5 POUNDS!!!

Maternity Clothes?  I can still wear quite a few of my non-maternity tops but maternity pants are a must. I had to buy new bras thanks to my now even more monstrously large boobies and I STILL need to get one of those extenders for the back so this underwire will stop digging into me.

Sleep?  Like a freaking baby. If she kicks at night, I don't feel it! I do dream though and it's always some sort of crazy shit. The night before last I had wild, freaky sex with Bruce Willis. Two weeks ago I dreamt that Kyle and I joined a charity walk to support legal immigration, where you started in Mexico and had to cross into the US just as if you were an illegal. You had to carry all your shit and try not to die. I swear, I couldn't make this shit up.

Best Moment of the Week?  Kyle finally saw Vivienne punch/kick. He's been feeling her for a few weeks now but he hadn't been able to see her in action until this week.

Movement?  It's constant with this one. I swear, all that crap up there about 12 hour sleep cycles does not apply to my child. She rocks and rolls all day long!

Food Cravings?  I was really wanting some baklava while we were on vacation, but then I picked up a piece at Coffee Beanery yesterday and it was terrible so I'm pretty sure it killed that craving. Otherwise, nothing in particular.
Food aversions?  None. I even had a few bites of asparagus last night. This is a huge deal for someone who doesn't eat anything green.

Morning sickness?  None at all, though brushing my teeth still makes me gag some mornings.

Gender? Pretty, pretty princess Vivienne!!!

Belly Button?  Getting shallower every day. The top part (I call it the "hood") is sticking out now and looks kind of weird.

What I miss:  Not having constant back pain, not waddling when I walk because of said back pain, and not feeling like someone hit me in the crotch with a baseball bat.

What I'm looking forward to:  Getting started on her room!

Milestones?   Baby's 1st Trip to the Beach! That counts, right?

Touching stingrays

Since we weren't planning on doing the theme park thing this year, we planned a few little daytrips and spent more time hanging around the resort than last year. Our first little trip was to the Tampa Aquarium. They had a few touch pools that Logan LOVED (once he stopped being such a wimp) and even a little water park outside for the kiddies.

Getting ready to touch the enormous sting ray.

Shooting Daddy with the water cannon.

The resort where we stay actually has quite a bit to do (including a gorgeous spa but I unfortunately couldn't convince Kyle that a $250 massage was a wise use of our hard-earned vacation savings). We spent an afternoon playing mini golf and doing some arts and crafts to take back to my parents because we're cheap and real souvenirs are expensive. For the record, the Grandmas loved the "psychadelic birdhouse" (their words, not mine) that Logan painted for them. Anywho, Logan has never played mini golf before so I wasn't too sure what to expect. He did pretty well though. He scored a 91 on a par 40, which I like to think is pretty exceptional for a 3 yr old. He's no golf prodigy but he IS a really good cheater. Watch out Tiger!

Egg hunts and a freezing ass pool

Well I'm back from Florida and nearly caught up here at work, so I thought I ought to drop by and share a little vacation love with you all. I didn't take nearly as many pictures this year but there are still almost 200 of them. I managed to get through all the cropping, brightening, and beautifying this morning, so here's your first little peak at the Lynch Family Florida Vacay 2010...

We started things off with an Easter Egg Hunt at the resort. Logan was an egg-gathering beast!

Check out that haul! Lots of candy for Mommy and Daddy...I mean, Logan.

With the cost of the time shares (something we are all too familiar with after sitting through a 3 hour presentation last year to score free Islands of Adventure tickets), you'd think they could find a less crack-addicted looking bunny costume!

My handsome boys NOT getting in the freezing cold pool. Apparently this was the only pool in the entire complex that wasn't heated so, of course, it's where we ended up.

The kiddie pool, however, was toasty warm...from pee, I'm sure.

Stud.

My husband looks so happy because he just realized that my boobs are now as big as his head.

Spent.

Rather than bore you all to death with a post that's a million pictures long, I thought I'd just try to spread it out over the course of the week. Tomorrow I'll have pictures from our trip to the Tampa Aquarium and Logan's first attempt at mini golf. On Thursday I'll share photos from my audition for SeaWorld, aka pics of me rocking my 2-piece and pasty pale skin at the beach (looking like Shamu). Then I'll wrap it all up on Friday with giraffe feedings, giant Transformers made out of Legos, and lunch in the Rainforest. Sounds like a plan, right?

See you in a week!

Well ladies, I'm going to be spending the next week in Florida soaking up some sun, having a good time with my boys, and relaaaaxing by the pool in my bikini (that I almost chickened out and returned the other night but Hubs likes it and talked me into keeping it). We realized yesterday that it was the 2 year anniversary of our 1st date, so this week we'll be celebrating that while we enjoy our family vacation/babymoon. Kyle's parents will be here any minute to pick us up and then we'll be off! We stop in South Carolina for the night on the way there, but drive straight through on the way back. Hopefully I have enough movies/toys/books/snacks to keep the Monster entertained! Hell, I hope I have enough packed to keep myself entertained too! I bought the 3 disk New Moon dvd and plan on watching every second of every special feature. That should kill a decent amount of time, right? Anyway, I better go double check our luggage and make sure we haven't forgotten anything. Happy Easter to all of you! If you're going on vacation for spring break, enjoy and be careful! I won't have internet access down there so I'll see you all again in a week!