Virginia Beach Fun

My mom & dad both have always wanted to visit Virginia Beach so we spent their first weekend here with us exploring the beach & all it's beauty.

Best Buds

Pretty Little Princesses

The beach is beautiful this time of year.  The East Coast is definitely different from the West Coast, but it's SO wonderful to be near the beach again.  I miss the beaches of Monterey.  The sun was shining, the humidity was HIGH, & we had a blast walking the Virginia Beach Boardwalk.

It was SO nice having my mom there with us.  If you would have told me last year that my mom would be visiting us in VA I wouldn't have believed you.  She has healed leaps & bounds over the last 9 months.  I'm SO proud of her & how strong she is.  After all she's been through this year medically, she came out on top, a fighter.  She makes me SO proud.

After playing at the beach for a while, we started to get hungry & my dad asked if we had a Cheesecake Factory.  There just so happens to be one in VIRGINIA BEACH.  So we made our way to the best restaurant in the world.

All Dad could talk about was how excited he was to eat Jambalaya.  He cracked me up.

We all got GREAT food.  I love the Cheesecake Factory.  It's pricey but worth every penny.  Their food is fabulous.  We bought some yummy cheesecake to take home for later as well.  YUM.

After lunch we took the kids to the Norfolk Mall to play around in their big play place while my mom & I shopped for make-up & girly things.  Talk about a win/win for me.

 

We had a blast.  We were exhausted when we got home, but not exhausted enough to stop us from heading over to Yo Mix for some more sorbet & frozen yogurt for mom.  SO MUCH FUN.

Mimi & Baba Come to Visit

My wonderful parents just came out to visit us for 10 days & we loved every minute of it.  We did go on a mini-vacation to Washington DC for 3 days while they were here, but for the most part we just enjoyed hanging out around our area.

Taya got her new glasses while they were here.
She is getting REALLY excited for school
to start.

Baba couldn't get enough of little Canyon.

Mimi's favorite time of day was nap time
with Canyon.  She loved his snuggles.

Canyon loves his Baba.

Mimi also enjoyed building lego houses
with the girls.

My mom's favorite place here though was Yo Mix
simply because they had sorbet (non-dairy) that
she could actually eat.  With all of her health issues
this year, she is on a strict vegan diet so she longs
for ice cream & sweet treats that she can no longer
have.  Sorbet has no animal proteins in it so we
literally went to Yo Mix EVERY day she was here.

Canyon is getting SO big.  He rolls over all by himself
already.  He likes to roll around the room to follow
his brothers & sisters.  I'm NOT ready for this.  He is
supposed to stay a baby forever.  I don't think he
got the memo.

Being Healthy - Teeth & Eyes

Since it's still summer, I thought I'd fill up my calendar & take care of any medical appointments I could before school started.  I got Canyon's immunizations up to date, Cadence's allergies under control, the oldest 5 kids to the dentist & the eye doctor.  GO ME!!

The kids especially love the dentist.  They love lying down in the chair with their cool sunglasses on while they clean their teeth.  They also love brushing the teeth on the stuffed animals in the office.  All the kids did great & nobody had cavities.  Everyone seems to be growing teeth right now.  Craiger is getting his 2 year molars & then Cadence, Lorien, & Taya are ALL getting their 6 year molars right now. 

(Yes, Cadence & Lorien are a little behind on those.)

Then every single day this week I've been taking the kids to the eye doctor (for the first time for all of them) to make sure their eyes are looking healthy & strong.  I've had an inkling Taya might need glasses, so this confirmed it for me.

They did great. . . even with the eyedrops to get their eyes dilated.  I couldn't believe Craiger sat through that without crying.  Everyone is doing alright.  Cadence has absolutely perfect vision.  Lorien is slightly far-sighted, but not enough to need glasses.  Taya is just like me (extremely far sighted) & needs glasses for school & homework, but not for playing or watching TV.  Bladen's eyes are pretty bad like Taya's, but the doctor wants to wait one more year for him before we get him glasses to see if his eyes correct themselves.  If not, he'll need glasses for school as well.  Craiger is the same as Taya & Bladen, but we'll wait for school for glasses for him as well.

The kids loved the little sunglasses they got
after having their eyes dilated.

Poor Taya.  I knew her eyes were bad.  I'm SO glad I brought her
in to get them checked.  I think school will go a lot smoother
for her now that she has glasses.  We ordered these cute pink
glasses with butterflies on the side.  We don't have them yet,
but they'll be here before school starts.  She is VERY excited
about them.

All Smiles

This little boy melts my heart.

It took 6 kids, but I finally got one that likes his mommy more than his daddy.  His first smile was for me.  I was SO giddy when he looked up at me & smiled.  I love this kid.

Activity Days - Daddy Daughter Date/Dance: "Sundae Best"

Have I mentioned how much I ADORE being the Activity Days Leader?  I have so much fun with these girls & I LOVE that two of them are mine.

One of their goals in their Faith in God booklets is to help plan, prepare, & carry out a parent/child activity.  The girls decided they wanted to do a father/daughter date/dance type of thing so that's what we did.  We called it:

Daddy Daughter Sundae Best

& made everyone wear their Sunday best clothes.  Then we served ice cream sundaes as our dessert.

The girls were SO excited to be with their daddies.  I'm posting pictures of my girls with my husband.  (I'd post all my pictures, but I know how some people get nervous with pictures of their kids on the internet so we'll keep it to my girls only for the most part.)

Lorien & her Daddy

Cadence & her Daddy

My beautiful girls & handsome hubby

Yup, that's them!

So for our first activity of the evening we played a game like the newlywed game between the fathers & their daughters.  We were cracking up at some of the kids' answers.  The question was 

"What would your dad/daughter do if they had one hour to do anything they could possibly do?"

Cadence said her dad would watch TV & Lorien said her dad would mow the lawn.

What was Trek's answer?  SLEEP

We all laughed at that.

Then the girls planned out an obstacle course that they had to complete with their dads.

First the girls had to run to the basketball hoop & make a basket (like their dad's would do.)

Then the poor dad's had to put their girls' hair into ponytails & tie pretty ribbons in them.

(needless to say, this was beyond hilarious!)

After that, the girls had to shave their dad's faces with whipped cream & a tongue depressor.

(the whipped cream was VERY cold)

And finally, the dad's had to paint their daughter's nails.

They had a blast!  After that we let the dad's make their daughters ice cream sundaes.  (Each of the girls brought their favorite sundae toppings.)

Trek made Lorien quite the ice cream sundae.

And finally, we let the dad's & daughters dance the rest of the night away with each other.  We are fortunate to have a DJ in our ward so it really was a FUN DANCE.  We did the chicken dance, the YMCA, & all sorts of other fun songs the girls loved.  I think the girls REALLY enjoyed being with their dad's like this.  They were in heaven.

It was a really fun activity.  I hope the girls enjoyed it as much as I did.