Dear Debbie . . .: Vacation

August 3rd was Tee Tee's birthday. Tee Tee is what Lexie called started calling Michelle a few years ago when she tried to say "Auntie." It's the name she'll be stuck with for the rest of her life thanks to my kids!

Michelle and Darrin joined us at the pool while in Torrance and we spent the afternoon playing with the whole family.

Lexie spent so much time under water with her eyes open that she had to wear my glasses in order for her eyes not to hurt. Grammy stayed out of the water too while Milenko held Mr. Grumpy! Okay, he never craked a frown the entire vacation!

The boys just wanted to hang out for a while so Dan & Brayden played at the table.

Darrin (aka Derwood) meets my brother Dave. Michelle & I watch the kids play.

Derwood became the main attraction as he was stronger than the rest of us in the pool and could launch the kids a few feet out of the water. The end picture is Lexie on her water hover craft.

Lexie & Bella do jumps off of Derwood's shoulders. Later on Nic joins the girls on the Derwood Express.

Tee Tee teaches Brayden to toss the ball. He really does pretty good with her. He even caught the ball a few times. Hmmm? Babe Ruth - watch out!

When Shell and I were kids we used to go to the Sanrio (aka Hello Kitty) store and buy stickers for our sticker albums. If you can believe it, Shell still has her album from 1982. While Bella and I were shopping at Sanrio for wallets for this trip, we saw some stickers and picked them up for Shell. Wonder if she had those in the album or if these were new. :)

We went out to Macaroni Grill to celebrate Tee Tee's birthday. Mom, Dad, Dan, Dave & his family and my family all joined Michelle and Derwood. Michelle hadn't been to the Mac before so she didn't really know what to expect - especially for the birthday surprise.

When it came time for the "surprise" serenade, Mr. Italiano gave her a Happy Brithday in Italian Opera. From the looks of Michelle's face, she was either in love with the singer or in complete awe at the beautiful serenade he gave her.

Tee Tee blows out her candle as Brayden claps and cheers her on. Lauren, er... Spawn of Satan, thought it was her birthday and threw a tantrum until Derwood put the candle on part of the cake and had Lauren blow it out. Don't tell him this because his head might get too big, but he's not a bad guy after all. The kids adored him to pieces and I thought he was pretty fun too. Shhh - don't tell him though!

See you in September Tart! The kids can't wait until you guys are up here!

After editing all the of the pictures from the Beaird family reunion, I have 180 quality photos that I saved. However, I'm not going to post that many on this blog or you'll be bored off your noggin. I'll update the blog at a later time once I put them all on Shutterfly so you can see them all. In the meantime, here's a little story about our ... er, ...interesting vacation. :)

We left for Southern California on Thursday, July 31st. Our original plan was to leave around 7am. After a glitch or three we ended up hitting the road about 11am. Everyone did pretty well on the trip down. Lauren was a pistol. We literally named her the Spawn of Satan for this trip. She completely lived up to that name the whole week. She's in the worst of the Terrible Two's and we're just praying that the Torrential Three's doesn't put this much strain on us.

Bella (top) - Lexie (below)

We checked into the Palos Verdes Marriott down in Torrance around 5pm and met up with my Mom, Dad & brother Dan. We had one bedroom with 2 queen beds and a porta-crib for the baby. After dinner and settling in, we attempted something called sleep. With Bella & Lexie in one bed, Milenko & I in the other bed with Lauren and Brayden in the crib, we all tried to close our eyes. Then the storm hit. Bella & Lexie kept coughing and sniffing. My throat was on fire. Lauren began to toss and turn and didn't feel sleep was important. Nobody could sleep because Milenko was sawing logs so loud that I think the people in the room above us were knocking to quiet us down.

Come 2am, I grabbed my wide-awake child Lauren and headed down to the front desk. I was in a pair of boxers and a tank top that was 2 sizes to small. My hair was on top of my head and I had bag the size of our luggage underneath my eyes. The guy at the front desk knew I wasn't in a good mood just from the steam coming out of my ears and the glowing red eyes I was glaring at him with. I quietly mentioned what room I was in, told him I had 4 children ages 5 and under and told him that if he didn't give up the adjoining room to ours that he would be responsible for whatever vengeance I would bestow on him. He was quite a character to begin with so I'm not kidding, this guy had a new room key in my hands in less than 3 minutes. Needless to say, he lived to see the next day! After Milenko and I moved out of the kids room, we actually fell asleep. Oh wait, he was sleeping fine in the first place. *I* actually got some sleep.

We spent the next day in the pool. The kids brought their life vest and we spent the entire day outside enjoy the weather and the heated pool. I think my Dad enjoyed it the most. The kids were all over him and Brayden just gobbled him up.

Now I know where Brayden gets his good looks! haha

Hmmm? Who's in need of the tan more? Dan or Milenko?? I had to wear glasses just to take this picture!

For those who didn't believe me that Lauren is the Spawn of Satan, here's just a little taste of her good moment. As for Brayden, this was his typical face the entire vacation. He was awesome!

On Friday evening we checked into the Family Reunion and the girls made special little birthday cards for my Great Aunt Irene. She turned 90 and we had a huge family reunion/birthday party planned for the next day.

Mom and Don Olmstead chat at the check-in area.

After the reacquainting at the hotel, everyone headed to Bepo di Bucca for dinner. First of all, the amounts of food were absolutely amazing. Secondly, the food was out of this world. Lastly, there was so much noise that nobody noticed how obnoxious my kids were. ;-)

Lexie & Bella - angels throughout the night!

Brayden loved the spaghetti. It was his first time experiencing it and too bad I didn't put a bib on him. He was quite entertaining for our table and for the Clarks. He just kept everyone in stitches as he waved the spaghetti strands in the air like pom poms.

While Lauren found Papa Lee (my uncle) to be the greatest thing on Earth, Lexie saw the same thing in Grandpa. Then again, all the kids get their own personal attention from Grandpa each time they are with him.

The chocolate cake was to die for. Here we are enjoying the cake:

I'm not going to include who everyone is in each picture because I've forgotten the names of the family members that I don't see on a regular basis. Here were just a few of the families who attended the reunion dinner.

On Saturday, the Family Reunion Picnic & Birthday Party for Irene started. Since it didn't start until around 4pm, Grammy and I took the girls & Brayden to Redondo Beach for some play in the surf and sand.

Beach Bunnies!

Each time a wave would come in, both Lexie & Bella would fall down because the water just mesmerize them and couldn't keep control of standing up. It was so funny!

Lauren couldn't stand the sand. It was so scary to her. Each time I let go of her hand to take pictures of the kids, she would scream bloody murder!

When we got back to the hotel, our family spent the day in the pool. Here are a few photos that show how much fun the kids were having!

Nicholas & Lexie were almost inseperatible when together.

Here's Lauren jumping into the water and Christian taking it easy in the shallow end.

Bella & Lexie on their hover-crafts.

Bella, Lauren, Lexie & Nicholas

At the Reunion, we celebrated Aunt Irene's 90th. She was a little worn out and her precious little body couldn't do too much so she needed to leave after about an hour into the festivities. We all got the chance to since Happy Birthday to her and get big smiles from her before she needed to go home and rest.

Here are some pictures of Irene & Charlie back when they first got married. There's also a picture of Great Grandma Beaird (Irene's mother).

During the picnic, we had the family Olympics. Each family was able to participate in events. Dan even won one of the events. I think he was demanding a drug test from one of the 3 year olds who whooped his butt!

Lexie, Lauren, Bella, Nic & Christian

Sun-kissed Lexie

All smiles for Bella

The cutest nephew in the world - Christin. okay, he's tied for 1st place with his brother!

Lauren had a little too much sun. However, she didn't have too much cupcake!

The absolute cutest boy in the world - in my opinion!

My brother Dave and his beautiful wife Michelle.

Debbie & Milenko - celebrating 8 years of marriage and a lifetime to go!

Daddy & the girls, Lexie & Bella

Grandpa Bob (my Dad) & Uncle Bill (my Dad's brother)

Aunt Sherma (married to Dad's brother Bill) & Uncle Lee (married to Dad's sister Gloria)

Family Olympic Champion Dan Gardner!

Sissy and Brayden (my sister-in-law Michelle)

After a long day at the park we all came home and jumped in the pool. Along with 32 other people, the pool was completely crowded at 9pm at night! Here are just a few pix that turned out: