February 26-March 3, 2011

Now that Lauren has recovered from Bronchitis, we were back to a normal routine this week.  

Smiling with Dada

Family shot

On Sunday afternoon, we went over to Bailey's house for a chili dinner.  Mrs. Holly needed a night to practice and critique her chili recipe for next weekend's chili cook-off in St. George Island.  We were more than willing to taste her delicious chili!  

"Lauren, you can't SEEE me!"

Monday play at the park with Daddy.  He had not been to Oakland Terrace Park, so we took him on his day off.  

This is by far, LEB's favorite park!

Side shot of her little curls...

front shot of her "wings"...

and a picture of the beginning of a melt down in the drive way.  :-)

Lauren's new favorite thing to do when we get home is to drive mommy's car.  As soon as I start to unbelt her from the car seat, she cuts her eyes at me and wiggles out of the car seat to hop over to the driver's seat.  Lately, she even tries to say "I drive".  She likes to press the hazards lights button, turn on the wheel shield wipers, and buckle the seat belt.  She'll want me to sit in the seat next to her and will say "sit" and point at the passenger's seat.  

Fun new little trick.  :-)

2/18-25/11 Gumbo Festival, Isaac's Birthday and FSU

 On February 19, 2011, we drove over to Baytown Wharf for the Gumbo Festival!  It was a beautiful day and had lots of fun outside with Vivian and Bailey!  

Ride the Carousel was definitely a high light for the girls. 

Hanging out on the green listening to a good jazz band from LA. 

Bailey taking time out to feed baby.

Vivian doing some good dancing!  At one point, Lauren was out right in front of the stage dancing and ended up dancing in the arms of some nice old man.  No pictures of it...the mommy was way too nervous the entire time and was in stalker mode watching her baby have fun with a stranger and his wife.  It was cute though. 

Back to the carousel!

and now on the playground!

Doesn't she look like a big girl here? 

On Sunday, we went to Chipley to have lunch with Isaac for his 8th birthday!!!

Happy Birthday, Isaac!

Lauren had fun jumping on the trampoline for the 1st time.  

Swinging with Grandma

and playing Guitar Hero.  :-)  

On Monday, we drove to Tallahassee to spend the day with Aunt Kay.  It's always fun hanging out in Aunt Kay's dorm room, but I'm pretty sure she is ready to move out into a bigger space!

Strolling on campus back to the car. 

We have been battling fussiness, a cough, diarrhea and a runny nose and watering eyes for a couple of days.  Poor Lauren.  Her mommy was chalking the fussiness and diarrhea up to teething all 4 canines at one time and the cough as something from post nasal drip.  The runny nose and watering eyes?  Maybe from increased allergy symptoms.  Right?  WRONG!  When her cough turned to a chest rattle, I took her to Dr. Rachesky.  She said that she had Bronchitis and gave us Azithromycin (only the 2nd antibiotic in 20 months), a steroid to be taken twice a day for 3 days, and a cough syrup with codeine.  Yikes!  Once I realized all that Lauren needed, I felt HORRIBLE!  She and I have had almost sleepless nights since Friday night (4 nights) but I was hopeful that it was not anything related to a true sickness.  Maybe I was just in denial.  And the diarrhea with horrible gas?  Yeah, Lauren's stool was tested for Giarrdia, Norvirus, and ___ since her mommy took her to the natural hot springs in CO one week ago.  Way to go Amateur Mommy!  

Aunt Nan came over to help watch Lauren so I could go pick up medicine and go to a meeting.  She ended up feeling a lot better once we started the steroid and cough medicine and all stool studies came back as negative for all parasites and bacteria (thank goodness). You should have seen LEB on steroids; she was literally bouncing off the furniture.  You could tell when it would wear off because she would just sit around or want to be held again.  She was finally over all symptoms within 5 days or so and her diarrhea stopped once 3 of the 4 canines poked through the skin.  

Steamboat Springs, Colorado~Feb 11-15, 2011

On Friday February 11th, we left for a 5 night ski vacation/dental conference in Steamboat Springs, Colorado!  We LOVE dental conferences like these.  :-)  We didn't want to be lonely, so we took 17 important people in our lives!  Yep, there were 13 adults and 7 children on this ski adventure and we had the best time!  

Gigi and Pops

Grandma and Pa

Aunt Jeannie, Uncle Ronnie and Duane

Uncle Gabe and Aunt Stacie

Austin (9), Isaac (7), Ethan (5), Lucas (2)

Joey and Whitney Bongiorno

JB (5) and Noah (3)

My favorite quotes from the trip: 

JB during his first ascent in a plane while going through the clouds: "Mama, where's Jesus?  We're above the clouds.  Where is he?" 

Ethan, when he passed gas at a restaurant: "Fire in the Hole!"

I was a little nervous about this trip's flight since it would be the longest since Lauren has started walking and being VErY active, but she was great!  I even gave her Benedryl during our layover in ATL, but this little strong-willed baby fought through the Benedryl sleepiness and forced herself to stay awake.  She would yawn, rub her eyes, and throw her head back but never went to sleep!  I guess she didn't want to miss anything!  She watched 2 movies, had snacks, and played with Gigi and Pops.  

The 3 of us, Gigi and Pops, and The Bongiorno's arrived in Steamboat Springs while the rest of the gang landed in Denver and enjoyed their drive looking at lots of elk and moose along the way. 

Lauren literally gave it up and fell asleep while taxiing on the runway in SBS!  That was her only nap all day long! 

Waiting for the Daddies to get our luggage. 

Lauren loved riding in all of the shuttle buses from the airport and around town all week long.  She's definitely going to like riding the school bus one day.  (I wonder if we'll let her do that by herself when the time comes?)

We arrived at Trappeur's Crossing Resort and checked in to the Champagne Lodge (which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone!).  The weather was beautiful all week long.  High's in the low 30's, low's in the teens. Sunny skies. Perfect!  

This little bear statue was in the main lodge.  I told LEB to stand next to it for a picture and she proudly stood right beside it and smiled really big.  :-)

Next order of business on arrival day was to pick up our skis.  Lauren getting her diaper changed and not missing a beat with "Bugs Life".  

Day 2.  Our first day of skiing was great!  Grandma and Aunt Jeannie watched LEB while Eric and I skied with everyone.  Austin, Isaac, Ethan, JB and Noah all went to ski school. They all did so good!

AUSTIN

ISAAC

Ethan on the lift with his mom and Duane

Isaac and Austin on the lift with their dad

Just hanging out with Gigi after a good 1st full day in SBS. 

My little gnome. 

Enjoying her cookie at the lodge office.

Ready for a dip in the pool!

There was a swim out partition between the indoor and outdoor pool and Eric took Lauren under it!  Twice!  I don't think she loved it, but she didn't hate it!

 

Lauren loves being with her cousins

On Sunday, Gigi and Pops took a break from skiing and spent the day with Lauren.  Gigi said that she was worn out by lunch time.  For those of you who really know Lauren, she doesn't lay her head down on your shoulder often.  She must have been exhausted!  

Silly mommy and Lauren

Day 3.  The Berry boys on one of the summits. 

Ready to go tubing!  We took a shuttle to the Hausenhill Tubing area.  I had no idea what to expect with Lauren and tubing, but I was excited to try it with her. 

Isaac loving on Lauren

Walking towards to hill with Grandma

Pops and Gigi

Pa and Grandma

Some of the kids with Uncle Ronnie

"Okay, Lauren!  Are you ready?" says Mommy.  "Mommy, I was born ready," says LEB. 

Joey and JB!

Lauren Elizabeth "dare devil" Berry absolutely loved tubing!  She would smile the entire way down and sometimes let out a little "weeee"!  When we got to the bottom, she would start shaking her head and say "No, no, no, no".  She didn't want to start!  So, we left her in the tube for the entire hour and just pulled her up the hill on the conveyor belt  over and over.  The wind, chilliness, fast speed and few bumps didn't phase her one bit!

Whitney and JB

This is an action shot of us while we were going down. 

Lauren with Dada. 

Going back up the hill. 

Back on the shuttle after an entire hour of fun!  

"Oh my gosh, mommy.  I can't move.  I had so much fun though!  I can't wait to go tubing behind the boat this summer at Crystal Lake!"

Eating Mexican for dinner.

Joey with his boys 

Noah!

Noah practicing his wink. 

6 of the 7 kids having dinner on the 4th night. 

Bunny made the trip, of course.  This bunny HAS to be the most traveled little bunny in the entire world. 

Eating snow.

...pitter patter...

The Bongiorno's

Duane at one of the summits

It may be hard to see but "baby" and goofy are watching TV with LEB. 

Grandma and LEB

Aunt Jeannie and LeB

Lucas

Lauren pulled the Oreo container off the counter...

success!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Aunt Stacie got them Webkinz for Valentine's Day 

One of my two Valentine's

We spent Monday with Lauren walking along Main Street and looking in the little shoppes. 

I love this picture of Lauren with her skinny jeans and snow boots...

We borrowed Duane's rental car to go down town and Lauren used Ethan's booster seat.  It wasn't too bad!  She still has a few years yet before a booster seat will be in our car but she did pretty good in it!  

Exhausted after a morning of walking...

Lauren didn't really like touching snow but by the end of the week, she was making progress. 

Mommy and Lauren spending time together at the wine and cheese reception in the main lodge.  They had juice boxes for the kids and she ate tons of fruit. 

Coloring with Ethan. 

"I think I'm ready, Dada!"  

Lauren will be old enough for the 2-1/2 year old ski school class next year!  Can you believe it?!

Lauren's latest fun thing to do is pretend to drive.  At home, she likes to sit in the driver's seat of my car parked in the garage and turn knobs, pretend to toot the horn, and drive.  

"What?  It's 20 degrees?  You could have fooled me!"

JB and Noah left with their mommy and daddy on Tuesday to go back home.  These boys had a lot of new experiences (1st time flying, seeing snow, skiing) and I'm sure they'll be talking about them for a long time in sunny Orlando!  

Lauren and I went to the natural Hot Springs on Tuesday with Gigi and Pops.  It was beautiful!!

We were sad to leave on Wednesday, but I guess we had to!  I love being in the clean, crisp air with beautiful mountains and nice, awesome people once a year and can't wait to go back next year.  This was our first trip to Steamboat Springs and I think it may be my favorite.  

Coloring on the flight back home.  

"See you back in Florida, everyone!"