More Fun on the Beach

Des got a major tan from all his time at the beach and the pool, despite the religious use of sunblock.The only thing white is his little bum just like the little girl in the vintage Coppertone ads. Sorry, no pix of his white bum...Dada said that we had to protect his modesty =:) But just imagine the picture below!

We are happy to say that Des loves the pool and the ocean. When we get outside onto the deck in the mornings, he says "bubbles, bubbles" pointing at the pool, meaning he wants to go in the pool and blow bubbles and splash around. A few days ago, while we were in the ocean, we saw about 4 to 5 dolphins about 200 feet from the beach, just diving up from the water playing. We couldn't believe how close they were. Des was so excited to see them. He said over and over "Look, dophins, jumpin'. I see them. You see dophins Dada? You see them?"

That same day, Des also enjoyed sitting close the beach and trying to fill his little bucket up with water every time the waves washed ashore.

Stella is still a land lover and prefers to play on the beach rather than get in the water...

...but one day at the beach, Stella had no choice, because Aunt Marisa just scooped her up and went in and Stella was less apt to protest with Aunt Marisa as opposed to Mama or Dada. Stella got used to the ocean and she really liked jumping the waves with Aunt Marisa.

Aunt Marisa even convinced Stella to go all the way under the water 3 times (although Stella really had no choice). Very impressive considering Stella hates getting water in her face and eyes during baths.

Here they are emerging after one of their dunks underwater

Family Portraits at the Beach

On Wed, before we headed out to dinner, we took various family portraits at the beach. Ommy bought matching dresses for the girls and matching shirts for the boys. Unfortunately, it was very windy at the beach and very sunny, leading to a lot of pictures with us squinting and the girls with hair blowing in their faces. These pix are the best of the bunch!

Uncle Tommy and Aunt Tara with their kids: Zoe, Eli, Eva, & Ian (from L to R).

Aunt Marisa & Uncle Jake with the kids.

Ommy & Poppa with their grand kids.

The whole gang!

Mama just loves this picture of Stella with her dress blowing in the wind.

After we finished taking pictures, we all went out to eat at Hemingway's, a nice restaurant overlooking Pensacola Sound. Mama wanted to take a nice picture with her girl, but Stella just kept making silly faces like this one.

After dinner, we walked up to the top level of the restaurant to take this family picture at sunset.

When we came home from dinner we tried a group picture with Ommy and the kids in the backyard since it wasn't so windy there.

First Trip to Pensacola Beach

Today we hit the beach for the first time and spent the whole morning there until lunch time.

The beach was beautiful with its soft white sands and clear turquoise waters. We were able to see lots of different fishes in the ocean because the water was so clear.
Stella tested the water and thought it was too cold for her liking and preferred to be on the beach either playing with Des or with her cousins. This was an about face from a year ago when Stella experienced the Pacific Ocean in San Diego and we had to drag her away kicking and screaming from the cold, cold waters of the Pacific Ocean!

Stella having fun burying her cousin Zoe in the sand!

Later on, Stella helped Zoe dig a big hole in the sand which they filled up with ocean water to make a little pool on the beach!

Des was just happy as a clam to be playing and digging in the sand. He filled his buckets up with sand and dumped them out over and over. When he grew tired of that, he filled our hats and beach totes with sand. He also demolished any sand castles anyone built.

Des was so happy to play in the sand that he did not even want to go in the ocean. Dada finally convinced him to go with him into the water and Des was not all that impressed with his very first experience with the ocean! He kept saying, "All done" over and over until Dada took him out of the water. Oh well, we have a whole week to get him used to the ocean!

Z Family Beach Vacation 2009

We got to Pensacola Beach, FL yesterday for our week long Z family beach vacation wiht all of Dada's immediate family members (Ommy, Poppa, Aunt Tara & Uncle Tommy and their 4 kids, and Aunt Marisa & Uncle Jake).
We took off Fri morning from Arkansas and drove to Jackson, Mississippi and stayed there for the night (about 8 hours of driving). We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for dinner in Batesville, MS. After dinner we hung out for a little bit and the kids had fun climbing on the rocking chairs outside of the restaurant.

Then we got in the car and drove some more to our hotel in Jackson, MS. But before we checked into our hotel, we took an ice cream break.

The best part of taking a two day road trip is that Mama and Dada get to sleep with one of our kids in the hotel room. Stella insisted that she sleep with Mama and that Dada sleep with Des.

Des was so excited to sleep with his Dada that it took him an hour to settle down and fall asleep. He kept calling over to Mama in the next bed and saying "Mama sleeping" over and over. Whenever Dada told him to lay down and go to sleep, Des would say "Down?, Dada I get the milk?" (meaning Dada, I'm going to get down from this bed to get some milk, ok?).

Bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning.

After breakfast, we got on the road again, eager and excited to get to our beach house in FL. We stopped for lunch at Steak-n-Shake and ate outside so the kids could run around and exercise their legs.

A mini cheeseburger to eat + a packet of ketchup to play with = a happy Gup!

Mama & Stella engage in some post-lunch snuggling!

We finally got to the beach house around 3 PM and we immediately headed for the pool.

..........................Lubing up with sunblock........................Drinking some water before heading out to the pool

Stella posing with her cousin and buddy Eli

"Look, I have as much chest hair as my Dada!"

Des and Stella were nervous at first about going in the pool (they are land lovers like their Mama). Des eventually got used to it and stayed in the water for a long time until we insisted that he get out of the pool b/c he had goose bumps all over his body and he was shivering every time the breeze blew. We took him up to the hot tub to warm him up and he loved that.

Stella enjoyed running around the pool with her floaties and tube rings on and would come into the pool here and there before getting out to run around some more. After we were done with the pool, she also enjoyed sitting in the hot tub with Eli.

Stella is having a ball playing with her cousins. Before bed, the kids (Stella, Eva, and Eli) watched 101 dalmatians and they all went to sleep in the bunk bed room (room with 3 bunk beds). We had to try hard to convince Stella to sleep on the bottom bunk and not the top.

A Trip to the Park

While Amamma and Appachen were here visiting, Dada, Stella, Des, and Appachen went to the park one day and here are some pics from their outing.

Desmond's primary job at the park was to carry sand from one side of the sand pit and drop it off on the other side of the sand pit. As you can see from the pictures, Des took this job very seriously =:)

Dada said that he did this for a while!

Half-Indian Princess

For Mama and Dada's engagement party back in 2003, Stella's cousin Zoe wore an Indian outfit (a salwar kameez). Zoe kindly passed this outfit onto Stella recently and Stella was more than happy to model it for Amamma and Appachen when they were here visiting.