Vacation Stop #2: Vegas!

We left Palm Springs and headed for Vegas. It's an easy breezy 4 hours from there. Syd and Chris popped into the pool and hot tub after we arrived there at 6 pm and we hit the sack. The next day Chris had to work, so Sydney and I decided to camp out at the pool. Shockingly she passed out around noon poolside, so we were able to hang out there ALL DAY. We headed to Prescott on the third day after shopping at our favorite mall in Vegas. Syd picked up about ten more dresses. She has a bit of an obsession with dresses. Quick trip, but always fun.

Syd sawing logs at the MGM Signature Pool

Having fun in the hot tub at MGM

Long day in Vegas makes my babies sleep hard :)

The girls got crazy good moves

Vacation Stop #1: Palm Springs Bound

I finally was able to take a little time off from work, so we decided to make it a full on vacation. We started off in Palm Springs visiting my best friend Sarah (and Syd's BFF, Savannah), headed to Vegas for a few days and ended it in Prescott before heading home. The drive is a tad long and I think the last two hours Sydney asked us if we were at "Mannah's House" yet approximately 352 times. There was a lot of excited screaming as we turned the corner to their house. The girls went bananas over seeing each other and we were soo happy to see Neil and Sarah too.

The boys were chillin' outside enjoying the patio

Long day of driving us out to PS. He's such an awesome hubby.

Uh oh....Sarah mixin it up.

And where there's booze, Neil and his shaker are never far away.

After a long day in the car and all the dress-up, she passed out hard!

Rise and shine and the girls wanted to do their Lazy Lizard Yoga tape after watching Sarah do her P90X. So cute!

We went over to the Riviera and checked in then headed straight over to the pool.

I love how once the sun sets, all of the fires turn on around the pool. It's so cozy!

Livin' Hard

While we relaxed, the girls made a mess in the sand.

Back to the Husvar's to hang out. I love love LOVE this picture of the girls

My love, Sarah

Lovies

Palm Springs, Day #3 started out with room service breakfast and soccer outside our patio.

She loved to run over to me, turn around and take a huge running start to kick the ball.

Bam! "Go get it Daddy"

Bacon. This girl would live on bacon if I'd let her.

We headed back over to the Husvar's to watch the Lakers!

How cute are the apple girls. Had to do everything the other one was doing.

Love

It was time to hit the road for Vegas and Savannah was so sad. Every time she cried, I wanted to just squeeze her to death. She finally told Sarah goodbye because she was coming with us. Ugh, I love her.

Birthday Party Fun

Syd was invited to Noah and Olivia's birthday party this past weekend. Was a fun little surprise and she's played with them a few times while Lala gets her nails painted. They were so sweet to her and she had the best time! They had a bouncy jumping house, tons of toys, playground and even a face painter. Was pretty cool!

Sydney and Lala eating birthday cake

All the kiddos eating cake and ice cream

Finally Syd's turn to get her face painted. She's in love with rainbows, so that's what she chose!

Our pretty girl with her rainbow face

Swim Class Lessons!

So.....we started swim class lessons again. We were on a hiatus since last summer when Sydney refused to do anything except cling to my neck and scream. She LOVES to swim, unfortunately she also loves the security of her floaties and hates getting her face wet. Such a girl. Luckily our neighbors have lessons at the same time so we thought that would be great motivation for Sydney. We got there and she was a little timid, but she reluctantly went into the pool without her floaties.

Patiently waiting her turn, still kind of excited.

Oooo here we go! It's her turn! Yeay, just kinda getting used to the water and enjoying her lovely dry hair.

Doh! She got dunked!

Annnnnd this was the final straw. She came up from the 6th dunk and screamed bloody murder and ran like hell for the gate. Teacher told me to bring her back to her and for Chris and I to get out of her sight. It was an excruciating 30 minutes of her screaming "MOMMY" over and over. She didn't get dunked again, but she sure as heck was ticked off. I had to try and play it off and take her for ice cream afterwards so that she considers going back again next week. Apparently the theory is that you need to make them finish the entire lesson so that they learn that crying won't get her out of it. It's smart. Ironically the rest of the lesson she actually completed. Although the teacher had to wrap Syd's hands around her neck every time she did one-on-one with the other little girl because Syd would bolt for the gate any chance she got. Haha. Oh Sydney, please outgrow this!!! Here's to hoping!

Memorial Day at Apache Lake

Our bimini top on our boat was finally finished, so we decided to head up early on Memorial Day to Apache Lake. We talked my dad into coming along with us for a day of swimming and fishing and he took us up on the offer. I packed drinks, snacks and lunch for everyone and we hit the road for the three hour drive! Apache Lake is surrounded by the Superstition Wilderness and the Three Bar Wildlife Area. Granted it's a lovely shade of green across all 17 miles of it, but it has some really cool coves and if you're lucky, the mountains surrounding it are home to javelina, big horn sheep, eagle, and deer.

After passing right by Roosevelt Lake, we decided to give Apache Lake a try. One bumpy dirt road and three ulcers in my gut later, we arrived at the ramp. One really nice thing about Arizona is that you don't have the traffic in Chicago. Meaning, when we'd go boating at Lake Geneva, WI, there'd be a line around the block (literally) of people waiting to get their boats in the water. When it was your turn, you'd have to bust your butt to get your boat in there fast and get your trailer out of the lot so the next person could go. If you hung around the docks too long waiting for the drive (aka, Chris) to hop on the boat, you'd get yelled at. It was always so stinkin stressful! It's almost comical how coming here, even on one of the busiest holidays, there was no one else hustling us to move faster. It's glorious! :)

Sydney and Papa fishing off the back

Chris completely in his element

Papa....probably splashin' around the warm water ;)

Brrrrrrr!!! It was a crisp 72 degrees in there. She wasn't a big fan.

She preferred to sit on the boat, snacking while everyone else swam.

This is how real fisherman do it

Snoozin on the boat

After a lovely day on the boat, it was time to head back home...and send the boat back to the shop. Ugh. Always something! Hoping to try out Roosevelt next!

It's Officially Swim Season!

It's true, the swim season has begun at the Evans' household. It all started one lovely day last week while Chris and I were scoping out the new fire pit area in the back yard when Sydney disappeared inside the house. A few minutes later she returned, wearing nothing but her birthday suit and carrying a towel over her head exclaiming "I'm reeeaaaady!!!" Yep, this is that moment in life where our three year old showed us up. She walked over to the pool and said she wanted to swim. Thankfully we talked her into putting her actual swim suit on along with her floaties. After she was appropriately dress, she looked at Chris and said "where's your suit?" Chris had a panicked look in his eyes and asked "Are you really going in there?" her response, "I love cold water." He reluctantly agrees to put his suit on, but wears his shirt, insisting that she'll never actually go IN the water.

She stands on the step and tells Chris to come in with her. He tells her that if she actually jumps in the water and swims, that he'll jump in as well. Let me tell you the important detail her. The water is a bone chilling 72 degrees!! EEEK! She attempts to move into the water and as it hits her belly she realizes this isn't as easy as she thought! Chris giggles thinking he's safe and won't have to get in. But then......

Oh that's right, SHE JUMPED IN!!!

She swims around having fun as Chris mentally preps himself to jumping in now. She looks so calm and relaxed, you wouldn't have any idea that she was FREEZING!

So the time came and Chris paid up on his promises to jump in. He froze at first and then I couldn't get him out of the pool. He kept muttering some nonsense about it being "refreshing."

I think I'll stick to my parents heated pool and hot tub for a few more weeks!!