Jason's birthday party

On the Saturday following Jason's birthday we celebrated again with more family and a few friends. It was so nice to see everyone.  We had a bunch of snacks, and ordered Just Pizza.  They did a bad job again, Mike having to wait 30 minutes over the time they told us, so we won't be ordering there again.  2 strikes and you're out JP. We got his Cars 2 cake from Tops this year and it was fantastic... I love Wegmans for everything else, but Tops cake was way better. Jason was overspoiled by everyone, and scored a bunch of fun things to do, including Fantasy Island Tickets, movies, moon sand, tons of Cars stuff and board games.

"Nursing" his bunny

Jason's 4th Birthday

On the day of Jason's 4th birthday he chose to eat pancakes for breakfast, and chips and salsa for lunch.  After breakfast Jason got new Cars bubble bath and a painting book from his brother and sister, Grandma, and Aunt Amy came over, and Mike came home from work for birthday lunch and cake.  We had black bean chili, chips and salsa, and yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. I think he had a very fun day. Happy Birthday Jason, we love you so much!

Some things about Jason at age 4:

• He is very polite.  He even says excuse me and no thank you, and always yes, not yeah
• He sleeps with his brown bunny, and takes care of it like it were his baby, including nursing it with my boppy (he says he's feeding it carrots that way)
• He likes to pretend to be Buzz Lightyear
• He loves the Cars movie and owns everything there is to own with characters on it including a bike, helmet, bookbag, swim trunks, shirts, pjs and ofcourse cars
• He still will only dring warm milk... he asks for it hot, as far as the moon

Stats

Jason at 4 years old...
37.5 lbs (75th%)
41.25 inches (75th%)

Lexie at 22 months...
approx 28lbs 15 oz
35.75 inches

Colden at 6 1/2 months...
19 lbs 1 oz (75th%)
29.5 inches (97th%)

Phase 3/ Washington DC

We stopped in DC on the way home to break up the drive a little bit.  It turned out great. We got a GREAT hotel on Priceline.  We didn;t want to leave it!  Mike had never been to DC and I haven't been since 6th grade.  We didn't do much because we were too tired to walk for too long and couldn't find parking.  We did walk around Arlington and check out the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum though,. When we were trying to park at the cemetary we unknowingly drove up a military base and it was a little scary.  They were asking for our ID and what we were doing.  When we said just looking around they told us you couldn't... we were so confused at first. We also drove by the White House and the Lincoln, and Washington Monuments.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Myrtle Beach was AMAZING.  I highly reccommend it to anyone, and cannot wait to go back already. It took us a little over 3 hours to get there from Durham, but it felt like our longest drive.  We took all sorts of 10 mph backroads courtesy of google maps. Here are our top reasons for loving this place in no particular order...

1. The resort is right on the beach!  Not only does that make for a beautiful view from our room/balcony, you also don't have to worry about packing everything you need in one trip.  If you forget something or a kid gets hungry, you can just run back and grab it.
2. The POOLS! We had our choice from 7 different pools, 2 lazy rivers and 10 hottubs. If you want sun, shade, heated, cooler, kiddie ect. A pool for every occasion. I LOVE to go swimming, and it was so nice having so many pools.
3. Family :-) Mike's Mom and 3 of his sisters were just a small walk away, and it was so nice to see them everyday. We actually missed eachother when they left a few days before us  It also made our vacation a little more vacationee getting away from the little ones a few times.
4. Parasailing. Parasailing was fun but I wasn't that impressed until the end.  We did see a giant sea turtle while we were up there though. The whole time we were up in the sky, Mike was trying to see what these round brown spots were beneath us.  Finally towards the end we realized they were jellyfish, hundreds of them.  While they were reeling us back in to the boat they intentionally dropped us in the ocean, unbenounced to us.  I was so scared to get stung I screamed and screamed, but apparantly they do this to everyone and these partivcular jellyfish are harmless (I still don't believe it). Since the boat can't go too close to the beach, we were taken to it via a banana boat driven by a jetski.  On the way back they told us when they get close to just jump on the banana boat.  I did not know they meant jump into the middle of the ocean!  When Mike jumped into the dark waters, I screamed again.  I thought he missed, until they yelled for me to hurry or I'd miss my chance.  Without thinking I jumped in after my husband.  I am one ofe those, like my 4 year old that can;t open their eyes until I wipe the water off of them.  So I frantically tried to pull myself into the boat with my eyes closed terrified the whole time. We we made it back to our children so all is well.  Those scary parts turned out to make the parasailing much more exciting.  I think I was so scared because I had no idea they were coming until the min they did.
5. Food. We had the best restaurants (except for the Golden Corral the first night).  We found this great authentic Mexican place.  The service was top notch, the chips and salsa were devine and it cost the same as Chipotle! The breakfast buffet at our hotel was equally perfect.  The food was the best, service was great, and we ate outside looking at the ocean, and the kids ate free.
6. The hotel was perfect.  It was close enough to get to everything, but not in the main busy strip, so it was very peqaceful and relaxing.  We had a full furnished kitchen and a ocean front balcony. It was definately the best time to go.  The hotel wasn't crowed at all. Plenty of space in the pools and on the beach and you could always get your own hottub.
7. The weather was PERFECT the entire time we were there.  No rain, no cold, we definately were not in Buffalo! It was too hot when you were walking around dressed, but perfect bathing suit/ swimming beach weather the whole time... Exactly what we wanted!
8. No work for Mike!  It was so nice to get a whole week with him and not having housework to do the whole time.  Since we had a maid, we could just relax and play all day, everyday.  It was so much fun!
9. The kids loved all of the playtime.  When the little ones would nap (which they did everyday even in all the different surroundings) Jason would go read books on the balcony.  Jason was terrified to even get in the water being held at first, but slowly came to love it by himself even in the deep end! Lexie loved to jump in from the pool deck. Colden slept a lot of the time in his carseat on the deck, but he enjoyed some swimming too.
10. Cable!  We haven't had cable for a long time, and usually don't miss it at all. It's is a waste of time and money, and we think we watch too much just having a few channels.  Anyway we loved having it.  Mike watched 5 movies, and I was addicted to Nancy Grace and all of the HLN coverage of the Casey Anthony trial. It definately added to the vacationee vibe we were going for!

Babysitting with Amy and Grandma while we went parasailing!

Little guy slept a lot poolside

Yummy sand

Balcony View!

We could look up and see our room on the 8th floor!

Ocean

Balcony view

Our hotel

 Look closely... Lexie is snuggled up next to Jason... This is a King size bed!