Life is so much better at the beach!

We ended up having 2 unexpected trips to the beach during the past couple of months. Our first trip was not due to good circumstances, however, and was very spur of the moment. We skipped town rather quickly in all my crazy pregnancy hormone freaking out after the horrible tornadoes hit our area at the end of April. Please don't judge. You try being told that your power is going to be out for at least a week (turned out to be 5 days) when you are very pregnant and very hungry all the time. With no way to cook my food storage (looks like I'm going to have to do some revamping and prepare better) is like a death threat. So, we headed south. After 4 years of not setting foot on the beach, we were extremely excited to go. Plus, Cade had never been, and we just knew he would love it.

WRONG!

This was him for the first hour- sitting in my lap. He did not want his feet the touch the weird "snow" (didn't matter how many times we told him it was sand, it was forever going to be snow), and he sure as heck did not want to go near that scary water.

Daddy tried to break Cade of being scared by forcing him to go in the water while Chase held him to show him it was fun. Nope, not fun. He screamed and was terrified the whole time. Then, when finally back on the "snow", he ran in the the complete wrong direction crying for me and tried to find solace in the arms of another momma who was definitely not me, which made him even more upset. So this is him finally running toward the right momma. It was all very dramatic.

After awhile he became more comfortable in the "snow" and started to play with his beach toys. But still keeping a very safe distance from the water.

Day 2 on the beach was MUCH better. He got over his fear of the water and would let it hit his feet. Afterwards, he kept saying, "That was fun!".

Trip 2 to the beach was due to Chase having a business trip to Ft. Walton, and Cade and I got to tag along. Yay! We had such a great time. We got to stay right on the beach and enjoyed a nice big room. Our hotel also had 2 pools which Cade loved. He loved being able to say, "Let's go beach" or "swimming pool, Momma?", and then just picking up and going to whichever one he pleased. It was really great, and he had a blast to say the least.

Cade was completely fine with the water this time. Daddy would take him out in the waves, and Cade loved it.

Coming back from the pool.

Family friends Marty and Christie were also there with us, and Cade was obsessed with going out in the waves and building sand castles with Marty. Here they are out in the water:

On the trip home, Cade had to stop and see the airplane.

Cade now asks almost everyday if we can go to the beach. We definitely need to take fun family trips more often.

Easter time

I am way far behind in my blogging, although I'm sure none of you have minded. Yes, Easter was 2 months ago, and yes, I am just now writing about it. Let's not dwell on that fact. Just pretend it was last weekend. Moving on- we had a great Easter this year. I love that Cade is at the age where he understands holidays and gets excited about them. I think we are going to hear all year long about how the "snowmans" are going to come out at Christmas every time we drive down our street (several people in our neighborhood put the blow up snowmen in their yards). So I was really anticipating Easter and even started planning out what we would put in Cade's Easter basket a couple of months in advance. And sweet success it all was!

To start off the Easter festivities, we were invited to an Easter egg hunt at a very close family friends house- the Messervys. They have the best egg hunts filled with a bajillion eggs to find, a pinata, breakfast treats, awesome goodie bags, and tons of kids on sugar highs. The kids always have a blast.

Cade running out to start finding eggs.

There are eggs hidden all over the backyard.

His loot.

Blue Steel

Kate and Cade. I ask for a smile and this is what I get.

Easter morning we had our own basket hunt around the house and an egg hunt in the backyard.

Basket filled with 3 Chuggington Trains, 2 new trains from the Thomas collection, a Thomas shirt, a little Mickey Mouse, a football, some other things I can't remember now because it was 2 months ago (I mean, last weekend), and some candy eggs.

Daddy made getting some of the eggs too difficult.

I went way overboard on the eggs this year. I filled about 45 eggs and could have done tons more but figured that was enough for one kid. It took him about 4 minutes flat to run around and get them all. A major improvement from last year where he lost interest.

Playing with new Diesel and Whiff after church

And because I really love food right now, I took a picture of our immaculate Easter feast that I slaved 2 days over. Homemade chicken cordon bleu with homemade mashed potatoes and other stuff. Even the breadcrumbs were homemade (and that really makes a big difference if anyone cares). Chase helped me stuff the chicken breasts and bread them so he tries to take credit for the whole thing. I did appreciate the help:)

And best of all- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake. Stop drooling.