Us went on a cation

If you asked this little twirpy what we did over Memorial Day weekend, she would tell you, "Us went on a CATION!"

And although terribly grammatically incorrect, she is right! Due to Colby's crazy work schedule, we took our family Summer vacation a little early this year. We took advantage of the long holiday weekend and drove down to the Texas coast. It was a GREAT, well needed vacation. Here are the highlights:

Staying in a hotel:

Really, it doesn't matter where we choose to vacation. We could be a block away from home and the kids would have a blast just staying in a hotel.

And what's not to love?? From the continental breakfast with waffles shaped like the State of Texas,

To swimming in the hotel pool,

squishing three kids in a double size pull-out bed (while Mom & Dad have the KING size all to themselves hehehe).

and of course, watching cartoons.

The Beach:

The highlight of the trip was taking the kids to see the ocean for the first time. We drove out to Padre Island and found a great little beach with lots of sand and surf.

The boys (including Colby!) had a blast catching these little sand crabs,

and later, built a sand castle for them.

Abbi and I enjoyed some swimming and sun-tanning.

At the end of the day, it was sooo nice to get showered off and rid ourselves of the sand that we found in every little nook and cranny.

The Texas State Aquarium:

We were also able to spend a day at the Texas State Aquarium. The kids loved seeing the fish, dolphins, turtles, crocodiles, sea otters, sting rays, etc. etc.

It was so nice to take a break from our day to day responsibilities and spend some time together as a family.

I guess it's back to the daily grind for us now. The question is, What to do the rest of the Summer?

Tiny Dancer

Our sweet little Abbi has her first dance recital coming up on Saturday. Because there are no pictures or videos aloud at the performance (this is serious business!), we got to attend a dress rehersal yesterday to get photo documentation of our little munchkin.

If you ask me, I think she is the cutest little two and a half year old on the planet. (I'm not biased or anything).

IF you can believe it, she looked even cuter than usual in her leotard, tutu and ballet slippers with this GIANT bow on her head. I was a little worried that she would either refuse to get on stage, or get on stage and just stand there with a blank look on her face. We were sooo proud of our little girl, she loved performing and even remembered most of the moves.

Colby and the boys were good sports and came to cheer her on. She was so excited to have them in the audience.

And I love having a little girl!

Abbi listening very attentively to her teacher while on stage.

After the performance, we got a picture with all of her dance friends.

Abbi is the youngest one in the group (although definitley not the smallest!)

Here is a video of their performance; all one minute, 26 seconds of it!

Way to go Sis!

Untitled from Shauni Frost on Vimeo.

True Confessions

A couple of months ago, I read on my cousin Elizabeth's blog about her "true confessions." Since then, I've been thinking about some of my own. Here they are;

#1 I love to vacuum. It's almost relaxing for me and the house always looks so much cleaner after it's been vacuumed (you can really fool people into thinking your house is clean, when really the only thing that is clean is the floor). Here's the "true confession" part; I really love to vacuum when my kids are on my nerves. When they just won't stop talking, fighting or asking questions -I turn this bad boy on and they stop (or I just can't hear them). It's fabulous.

#2 Frequently, when I know Colby isn't going to make it home for dinner, I make pancakes. A couple of months ago when Colby was doing a particularly busy rotation, Ammon asked me if I was putting them on a "pancake diet." Ooops.

#3 I own (and use) onion goggles. They are just as awesome as they look. Just for the record, I had them before Phil Dumphey.

What are your true confessions?