Last Beach Post!

Here are the last few tidbits from our beach trip...and I promise not to put any more photos of the beach up EVER AGAIN!! Well, maybe not until next year :) But really, we had a wonderful, restful time last week and enjoyed every minute. Thanks Mum and Dad for hosting us all!

Jack loved having his lunch out on the beach

We tried sweet potatoes (his first vegetable ever) and he didn't do too badly

Michaela loved building sand castles with her bucket and spade

We put Jack's Pack 'N Play in our bathroom because there wasn't an extra bedroom for him, so he had to have his baths in the kitchen sink :)

Playing with Alexis (whenever Alexis and Jack see each other now, they grin happily!)

Sunbathing

A New Love

Disclaimer in previous post!

Well, our little boy has a new love in his life: the beach! He has always loved his bath and the swimming pool, but the ocean has taken his love of all things water to a whole new level. He adores it all, the sand, the waves, the wind, the paddling, the playing...everything! And he greets it all with smiles and squeals. Needless to say, he thoroughly enjoyed his week in Florida.

One morning Dad, Andre and I took him out before it got too hot, for a paddle and ended with a dip in the pool:

Round Two

Disclaimer Again: the posts that follow are really only going to be interesting to family and friends far away who have asked for photos of our trip. I know it will be thrilling for you locals who see us everyday to scroll through a hundred million pictures but I don't know how to do PhotoBucket and would prefer not to get sucked into online storage... so feel free to skip visiting us Russians for a few days if you'd rather!

Early last week we attempted a photo shoot on the beach with the kiddos, which, due to extreme humidity, poor lighting and bad tempers, didn't go so well. So on Friday night, that being our last opportunity, we headed out once again for Round Two. And, thankfully, met with success!

Nana and Grandpa with their Grands

Mum and Dad

Cousins

Sweet Alexis

Miss Michaela

The Cousin Twins showing off their standing skills

Sisters

Sean and Ness with their girls

Mum and Jack

Me and Dad

Boys Day Out

Disclaimer: the posts that follow are really only going to be interesting to family and friends far away who have asked for photos of our trip. I know it will be thrilling for you locals who see us everyday to scroll through a hundred million pictures but I don't know how to do PhotoBucket and would prefer not to get sucked into online storage... so feel free to skip visiting us Russians for a few days if you'd rather!

Here's a glimpse of what the boys did on their day out with Dad (Mum and Dad usually treat all of us to a special time out while at the beach). This year Dad took the guys deep sea fishing which they LOVED. They had a marvelous time. We girls secretly think they enjoyed it so much because they had been manly men and spent the day subduing their little corner of the earth: hunting, triumphantly bringing home the kill and then eating it for supper :) Thanks Dad for a wonderful experience for our boys!

The ride

Speeding 15 miles out to sea

Lone pelican waiting to gulp down the left-overs!

Their impressive catch

P.S. Mum took us girls to see "Eat, Pray, Love" (which, in my humble opinion, was a sad and disappointing story, however much I love Julia Roberts) and then to have a manicure/pedicure. Fabulous relaxation time!

Date Night

Confession: Andre and I haven't been OUT for a date since Jack was born. I know, it's awful. We vowed, of course, that we wouldn't be those parents, whose world revolved around their child and never made time for each other. Well, what with Jack's colic and reflux, my surgery and long recovery, travel and then going back to work, our child is now almost 6 months old and we hadn't had a date night away from home yet. We've done movie and pizza night in quite a bit, but haven't done the dress up, baby-sitter, go out and be real adults thing yet.

So this week at the beach, Mum and Dad very kindly offered to watch Jack while we went out one evening. And we had the best time! We went to a place here in Sarasota called St. Armand's Circle, which is full of shops, restaurants and boutiques. And we did the unthinkable...got dessert first...and after too! Whenever we go out, I always pick out what I'm having for dessert first and then think about dinner. But this time, we actually ate the dessert first! In our quest for the perfect dinner place, we came across this tiny little French bakery called "La Macaron" which served gelato, specialty chocolates and the most delectable little pastries called macarons. They came in all sorts of flavors like black currant, vanilla bean, passion fruit and even basil (which I must say was amazing!). So after coffee and macarons, we found a fancy dinner place and partook of mozzarella salad and mussels (well Andre had these as I'm allergic) and then went back and had more macarons!! So fun.

We didn't have the camera on our date but took a photo when we got back

The macarons we brought back for Mum and Dad to try


All in all we had a wonderful first date night out. And Jack slept through the whole thing!

We Tried

Yesterday evening we attempted to take some photos of the kiddos on the beach. Unfortunately, there was a huge storm during the afternoon and although it cleared up beautifully by evening, it was SO muggy and humid that no-one had much fun. The babies were highly unimpressed by the whole thing and both of them ended up face-planting in the sand before too long! Oh well.

Jack Goes To the Beach

Bare naked baby loving the ocean air!

Enjoying time with Nana and Cousin Michaela

Hanging out with Daddy

An early morning stroll with Mummy

Cowboy Jack

Saying good-bye to Uncle Steve
(my brother was just down for 4 days and had to leave today)

Leaving On A Jet Plane

So yesterdays trip went off fairly well, even with the two babies. They cried all the way to the airport pretty much (poor Hannah, who drove us, was permanently put off ever having kids!!), so we were very glad that we weren't driving 9 hours with the babies! However, we did have to sit on the runway for an hour waiting to take off, due to inclement weather, which neither of them was very happy about.

Of course, I was asked 17 million times if they were twins, did I know I was having twins, how old are your twins, they don't look like twins, etc. etc. So funny.

The only snag happened right before we took off. Dad was on the same flight as us but he was upgraded to business class (which was a good thing, as initially his seat in economy class was next to a VERY talkative, somewhat inebriated Polish gentleman!). Anyway, just as we were about to take off (like literally as the plane was accelerating down the runway, the flight attendants happened to notice that we were sitting in a two seater row with two babies, hence not enough oxygen masks for all four of us (there's apparently only one extra mask per row) and said, rather helplessly, that one of us would have to move, with a baby...are you kidding me?!! We were all strapped in and had the bottles in their mouths in preparation for take off. Then they just stood there staring at us, clearly expecting me to come up with a solution! Unbelievable, when they were the ones who hadn't even noticed that we had TWO babies with us. I handed Alexis to one of them and told her to give her to my Dad in business class. Brilliant plan, I thought, just for take off. Well, poor little Ax was not amused and screamed her lungs out for about 10 minutes straight. Dad was mightily embarrassed, as he doesn't do too well with crying babies and so I rescued him by grabbing Alexis back as soon as the plane leveled out. Drama, drama.


Both kiddos did very well considering they mostly missed their afternoon naps due to the trip and we arrived safely in Sarasota. Needless to say, they both slept very well last night!

Waiting for our flight

Having a snack in the Delta Crown Lounge

Alexis taking a cat nap before take off

Playing together

Off To The Beach We Go...

We are all packed up and ready for our beach trip. I'm sitting here with plenty of time on my hands, a quiet house, a big cup of coffee and two babies sleeping...I KNOW, it's AMAZING! How is this possible, you ask?

Well, we are taking Alexis, my niece, on the plane with us, when we fly down to FL this afternoon, and Vanessa and Sean are taking all our stuff (suitcase, toys, pac n play etc) in their van as they drive down today. Saves them an unhappy baby for 9 hours and saves us hauling all our junk through the airport. Win win!

This meant that we had to be all packed and ready when they arrived early this morning to drop Alexis off. The exchange went off smoothly: Alexis and Jack greeted each other with much rejoicing, all our luggage squeezed into the van just fine, Ness and Sean were on the road by 9 am and both babies were down for naps by 9:30. Hence, all this quiet, free time I have on my hands (well, I still have to get myself looking presentable!)