Vacation 2013

Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be any remaining vacation photos, I decide to post the Instagram* pics.  As a chronic "overgrammer," there are so many photos on my phone, and some of the Instagram pics were my favorites, and I want to make sure I have a record of them here in the event that something should every happen to my Instagram feed or Instagram proper (gasp!).

With the exception of saying we're ready to return to the beach, this post will conclude the vacation discussion.

*By the way, multiple posts could be written about my love for Instagram, along with my dislike of Facebook, concluding with how conflicted I am since the Facebook purchase of Instagram.

The Grand Sandestin

Choctawhatchee Bay

Lauren, with George

William George

Lauren, Gracie and George

Grace and Lauren

Lauren and George

Lauren

Grace

William George

George

Grace and Lauren

Lauren and Grace

Random shot of the property

Lauren and Grace

Lauren

Grace and Lauren

Gracie (top) and Lauren

William George

Grace, George and Lauren

Vacation 2013

George, Lauren, Gracie

After school ended, we packed five suitcases (along with most of our home) and headed to the beach for six days where the trio enjoyed the beach as well as some much-earned pool time.

Gracie

After checking in and making the requisite trip to the store for provisions, we quickly settled into our routine of spending our morning at the beach, returning to the room for lunch and spending the afternoon at the pool.

Lauren and Gracie

That was our routine for the entire trip, and the trio would have been happy enough to continue that exact schedule for the entire summer.

George and Skip

We expected William George to have some reservations about the beach.  The ocean made him nervous, what with its intimidating size and the sound of the surf, but he was happy enough on the beach.  For the first three years of Lauren's life, she had an extreme aversion to the beach and would not allow her feet to touch the sand.  George is following in Grace's footsteps.  Although he is slightly less fearless, he bravely takes on the sand.

An older George would want me to add that we had red flags for the entirety of our trip.  The water was rougher than usual, and the undercurrent was strong.  I'm sure he would want me to point out that a strong undercurrent is significant when one weighs 25 pounds.

Lauren

Lauren, on the other hand, has safely left her sand/beach issues behind.  She practically rolled around in the sand, along with Grace.

Lauren, Grace, George

William George stayed in our room, while the girls slept with my mom, who joined us on the trip.  Our view was of the Choctawhatchee Bay, and one of our treats was getting George to say "Choctawatchee Bay" over and over.

George

The duo hit the beach each morning as if playing in the sand is their vocation.

Grace

Lauren and Grace

Lauren

They would have stayed in the blistering sun all day but for the need to get George and his fair skin back in the shade.

Grace

Lauren and Grace

By the end of the week, William George was an equal partner in the sand exploits.  They were too busy running from the sand to the water to actually construct many castles, but they built some impressive sand mountains.  

Lauren

Lauren, George, Grace

Mostly, they enjoyed putting sand in buckets.

George and Lauren

Grace, George and Lauren

And playing with water.

Lauren

George

Grace and Lauren

Grace and Lauren

While at the pool, William George was brave enough at the end of the week to jump off the side of the pool.  His sisters were jumping in, and he quickly joined in the fun.

George

George

George

George and Grace

Upon leaving, Lauren burst into tears and said, "But I don't want to leave! I love it here!"  Being the realists we are, we discussed real life versus vacation, and that all of the amenities we were enjoying would not be possible on a long term basis, i.e., even if we moved to a beach town (as was her fervent wish), we would not have regular access to the property, we would not live "on" the beach, and that life would return to normal immediately -- absent all of her friends and family who live close by.  

When that failed to sway her, we simply asked, "Don't you want to sleep in your own bed and have all of your toys again?"  

And then we were homeward bound.  

VBS 2013

Last week the duo attended Vacation Bible School at cousin Lexie's (LEXIE!!) church.  Because Lexie's family took her to St. Thomas for graduation last week, we were unable to see Auntie Melinda and Lexie.  Once the duo recovered from that trauma, they had so much fun -- really a BLAST.  This is their third year, and they couldn't have been happier to see old friends and teachers.

William George, on the other hand, did not enjoy last week's schedule.  While he loved seeing all of the children during drop-off and pick-up, he was verrrry belligerent when the time came for him to be buckled in his seat for the drive home.  Despite the openness of this blog, I rarely discuss details and specifics of any serious topic.  Therefore, I will only say that a good deal of wrestling was involved in getting him back into his seat once he spied all of the fun.

Some outtakes of VBS week include the following breakfast discussion wherein we talked about the day's activities.  We also tried to get George to say Choctawhatchee.  While on vacation, our view was of the Choctawhatchee Bay, and George nailed the pronunciation immediately.  (Lauren and Gracie, on the other hand, refer to the bay as "chocolate bay".)  Unfortunately, we had him say it 1391823412837402837 times, and he is now on strike from any further performance as you will see.





Also, we attended parents' night last Thursday to watch the choir.  The music director encapsulated this group of children perfectly when he said they had worked as if they were on American Idol.  They were awesome:



VBS, II, 2013 from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

(Lauren and Gracie are in the front row in long red and blue dresses, respectively.)

The duo are normally really down the week after VBS... they miss it terribly once it's over.  This year, however, there's no time to be down because they are attending day camp this week. Instead of being fatigued last night, they were practically swinging from the rafters.  George is maintaining his position on his sisters' activities.  Yesterday he boarded one of the buses bound for camp, and I had to wrestle him back into the car.  He is nothing if not consistent.

WGL, 22 Months

Dear William George,

You have taken off, love. You are really no longer a toddler and are now our preschooler. You ask, "What's this?" dozens of times each day, and you have truly earned your "Curious George" moniker. Your vocabulary and speaking abilities have exploded into sentences and the full-fledged ability to argue your position with your sisters -- effectively, I might add.

 Our schedule in May was really packed, and you flourished with all of the comings and goings, taking it all in and asking every step of the way, "What's this?" or "What's next?" or demanding "Go bye-bye!"

You remain "into" everything. Instead of playing with toys, you consider the entire house your toy box, and you have started walking around with a stool in your hands all the time. When something catches your eye, you plunk down the stool, climb on top and proceed to explore whatever appliance or household good has your attention. We have moved several small appliances, such as the toaster which was a favorite. Accordingly, you have mastered additional phrases such as "I'm sorry, momma." You are always sincere, but completely unable to curb your curious nature.

Instead of a monthly photo, video is the only medium that can capture the 22 month old version of William George:



Appliances from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.


Don't worry; you weren't injured at the end. Rather, you became curious about the iPhone, saying:

"What's that, momma? Wan' push it? Wan' push it? Pie-Pod? Wan' Pie-Pod?"

And then you came charging for the iPhone. There's simply no way a photograph could capture this properly.

Without you, George, we would be sitting around coloring quietly or painting fingernails. While those activities are wonderful, we cannot thank you enough for livening things up around here, and we love you to the moon and back.

Love,
Momma

Softball Awards Night, 2013

So back at the end of May we gathered one last time on the softball field for awards night.  While not exactly the same as a tiara, these girls love a shiny trophy. 

Piano Recital, 2013

Gracie and Lauren recently performed at their annual piano recital.

They worked on their songs for many weeks and were ready for the big day. 

Performances below: 



Lauren, Piano Recital 2013 (2) from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.


Lauren, Piano Recital 2013 (1) from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.


Gracie's Inimitable Bow, Piano Recital 2013 from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.


Gracie, Piano Recital 2013 (2) from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.


Gracie, Piano Recital 2013 (1) from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

(My apologies for the iPhone video that aren't merged. Our big camera is experiencing technical difficulties. Also, I will clean this up later by supplying links to Vimeo versus embedded video.)

After performing, their teacher presented awards to her students.  Lauren received a "perfectionism" award, and Gracie received a special award - her first place blue ribbon - for "most improved student".  Of course, they both received crowns because their instructor knows the way to their hearts is via sparkle. 

They were so nervous this year, and playing with the duet accompaniment added a degree of difficulty for them.  They did a great job, and my heart came very close to exploding.  Good job, Gracie and Lauren!

Daily Photo

Enumerated Update

Hello, Friends!  How is your week so far?

Ours is great, and here's where we are on this fine day.

1) Beach: We went to the beach last week, and we're all giving the vacation a five star rating.  Good times, good fun, unbelievably good weather and all that.  Updates soon.

2) Vacay: Sorry about the lack of notice on posting, but it just cannot be smart to announce vacation plans on your Internet-type platform.  Of course, all of our friends and even anyone who has read a single entry or two will clearly know the only thing to score at our house is near-obsolete technological devices, books, and Target clothing.  But you never know.  A crazy stranger could read a simple vacation announcement and be hugely interested the original iPhone (cracked screen, no less) and the entirety of the Target collaboration line, as well as the entire Merona collection.

Actually, looking back over that list.  I could probably announce when we will be out of town and insert a map to our home and be completely safe.  I mean, you cannot even watch cable television here!  HA!

3) Guilt: I haven't worked in a couple of years, but I still have tremendous guilt if I do not return a phone call quickly enough, miss an e-mail or spring vacation on someone unexpectedly.

4) Buzz: Speaking of work, I have a few abbreviations in lieu of actual buzz words.

a) BAU = business as usual
b) AOB = any other business
c) OOM = order of magnitude

Example e-mail transmission:

To: Jane Smith
From: Cathi Lindsey

Re: Status Update

Jane:

I wanted to touch base with you on the XYZ Project.  My team is preparing a synopsis of our research to date, and I wanted to see how things are going on your side of things.  We had a few hurdles with the logistics of merging, but now we are operating BAU.

If you could, please confirm that your report will be available by EOW [end of week].  Otherwise, let me know of any problems by OOM as soon as possible.

AOB?

Thanks,
Cathi

I probably owe all of you an apology for indulging my inner nerd in this way.

5) Surprise: While typing the above, Skip popped upstairs on a brief break.  Earlier today he took his computer to one of the corporate offices to have something or the other done to his computer.  Since he was in close proximity to the Apple store, he stopped by for a new - and very much needed - iPhone and iPad case.

So he comes in the room in a rush, a blur really, and tells me to close my eyes.  Thinking he is merely coordinating a big reveal of the aforementioned cases, I casually closed my eyes.  To my surprise, a white box was placed on my desk containing Apple tv!  Ahhh... those white boxes!  LOVE!

I know I have quoted the Jobs' biography endlessly, but I have to share (or reiterate?) a tidbit about the packaging.  In the early 1980's, when Jobs was working on the Mcintosh, he had 50+ prototypes of the packaging -- the box! -- made because he was not satisfied with the look and feel of the finished product as it would sit on the shelf.  Also, he walked around with various cables and cords in his pockets because if he didn't like the "feel," he would keep working until it performed/looked/felt perfect.

Anyrate.  That's what's happening with us.  What's going on with you?