First Family Vacation!!

One thing that Shane and me want to try to do every year is take a family vacation. Well, this past weekend we took our first ever family vacation! Our amazing friends, the Johnson's, let us use their condo in Sarasota. We have been wanting to take the girls to the beach for the very first time so we were way excited about being able to go to Sarasota for the weekend (thank you guys SO much!). We drove down on Thursday evening. I knew that the first thing that had to happen was "baby-proofing" the condo. So, I went in first and moved everything that was breakable out of reach (you don't realize just how many things are breakable until you are having to move them all :) and we moved around all the furniture, etc to create blockades so the girls couldn't get to territories that they could destroy. After I finished the baby-proofing task, we let the girls in and started unloading our things. Not 1 minute after we let the girls in, we hear this awful CRASH from the kitchen area. I sprint in there to find this beautiful vase laying on the floor...destroyed. Nice. Gabbie was standing there looking at me like..."what??". The vase had been in a corner of the breakfast area and I had not seen it on my initial sweep of the place. Fabulous. Thankfully it wasn't a vase they had gotten on their honeymoon or something like that. Thankfully :)

Blockade to the kitchen

Blockade to the office

Towels covering every square inch of the floors and chairs. Our children are MESSY eaters.

Chairs blocking the entertainment center drawers. Those are VERY tempting to open and demolish everything in them :)

Family pic at the beach!

The girls LOVED the beach!!

Gabbie especially loved the sand...

"MOM, leave me alone already....enough pictures!"

Gabbie decided to relocate the beach chair. Then she decided she needed more sunscreen...

My little girls are growing up so fast!!

Watermelon....yummmm!!

We spent one rainy afternoon at Chick-fil-A. The girls love drinking out of "big girl" cups :)

Jocelyn sharing her snack with me

When we were at the condo, we were in the pool. The girls LOVE the pool. They especially love jumping off the side for daddy to catch them...over and over and over again :)

They also shot some hoops on the side.

These floats are awesome. What is not awesome is that they will only stay in the 1.2 seconds.

One night in the bathtub, they discovered how to turn on the shower....they were absolutely amazed!

We had a fabulous time on our first ever vacation! Thanks again to the Johnson family!

The Black Reunion

A couple of weeks ago we flew to north Georgia for Shane's family reunion. The last time we flew with the girls, Gabbie projectile vomited 10 times all over Shane, herself, the plane, etc. etc. The time before that, they both screamed bloody murder for the entire flights. So, needless to say, we were slightly hesitant about flying again....BUT, this time was very redemptive! They did so good this time around...no constant screaming and no vomiting! Here is a picture of them "entertaining" themselves before we boarded.....hey, whatever it takes... :)

Ever since we found out we were having two girls, Shane's mom (Gran) has talked about having tea parties with them. (like they will EVER be old enough to have tea parties...come on!). Well, when we got to Gran's house what was waiting for them? A tea party on the back porch...they LOVED it!! Gran, your wish has come true!

While all the men (and a few ladies) play in the Black golf tournament on Saturday, the rest of the chicas head over to Shane's cousin's pool and lounge (or chase babies :)

For some unknown reason, Gabbie freaked out at the pool and clung to me for dear life, literally...

Jocelyn is upset that she can't have her 25th piece of watermelon

Me and the Gabbster

The Fam...oh, and Shane's mom is getting married in October to a wonderful man, Hayward. (above left)

Auntie Julia

Shane's twin cousins holding the twins...how cute!

One thing that definitely happens at the Black reunion is FOOD...and lots of it!!

You can't have a southern reunion without a huge basket of fried chicken :)

Our new nickname for the girls is "the scavengers"...no matter who is eating what, they want some. They smelled Shane's biscuit and came running!!

Of course after the meal we always brush our teeth (aren't you proud MawMaw?!)

I think she is hiding her snacks in her diaper for later :)


Curls, Curls and more Curls...

Serious face


Melt your heart face

I am definitely their favorite chair :)

Jocelyn "sharing" her snack with cousin Lexi (with a little help from Daddy :)

Got to love the Georgie mountains...or as Shane's calls it... "God's Country"..