What a WONDERFUL weekend we had with so many great people!!!!! The anticipation and
excitement the kids had about going to the beach and Savannah for the St. Patty's Day parade made us all super excited about our trip! Haley never talks to her teacher at school and she's been in the classroom since August BUT she did tell her that she was going to the beach and Savannah! That alone proves how excited she was about this trip! Our friends Ben and Lindsey brought there two boys Russell and Brandon and Bailey and Brian brought their little man Hudson and we all met up with Melissa and Whit!! The kids all had a great time playing with each other while the adults were able to relax (a little) and enjoy all the festivities!
We met Ben, Lindsey and crew at
6:30am on Friday and headed straight to
Tybee Island (you can see the
Hill's car out the back window!) where we enjoyed pizza at a famous local restaurant! It was so laid back and casual.....highly recommend this place. Of course we had to do a
little dancing and singing (from Noah) on the way down there! Then we headed to the beach for the rest of the day/afternoon! Luckily
Melissa only had to work a short day Friday so she was able to join us as at the beach!
The ocean was way to cold to swim in so the kids made
sand castles and enjoyed
running from the waves as they crashed on the shore. Unfortunately Haley tripped one time while running back so she had a nice cool wave wash over here a bit. I thought she was going to freak out as i knew it was really cold but luckily she was excited to get back up and do it again with Brandon and Russell :-) Can't act like a baby in front of the boys...
haha!
Noah's first trip to the beach was pretty much like I expected. He didn't like the sand but was perfectly fine chilling out in
his beach chair or on the big sheet i put down on the sand.
You can see the
Lighthouse in the back of some of our pictures! So pretty!
Saturday morning was another VERY early morning! We woke up at 5:15am so that we could head to the parade super early to save our front row spots as this was the biggest
parade in America! Over 1 million people there making it larger than the New York and Boston parades! Of course Haley had to get her nails painted green so
Aunt Miss took care of that while we waited for the parade to get started! Luckily
Bailey brought the green nail polish!
The
parade was
a hit! The
kids did some
more dancing, bought some
toys from the random guys selling stuff...
haha!
After we were all completely exhausted, hot and sweaty we headed back to Melissa & Whit's house for a late lunch and then
headed to the
boat where
Captain Whit took us on a DOLPHIN tour on our way to dinner by
boat!!! It was absolutely beautiful out and then to see several dolphins just out and about swimming around was amazing!!! I tried to snap a picture but of course they kept going
under water but the
kids sure loved
watching for them too! For as exhausted each of these kids were/should have been they were such TROOPERS all weekend long!!!! Pretty amazing to get 5 kids to cooperate with little to no sleep!
Sunday we hung around and had breakfast with everyone and then we hit the road where Haley and Noah both finally crashed!! We can't wait to do this all over again next year, it's always been a yearly tradition for us to go down there every year but
I'm thinking the Hill's and the
Rourk's are going to have to make it a yearly tradition as well now!!!
YAY Noah!!! We are so proud of you for giving up your pacifier at 16 months! It's kind of bitter sweet......our little boy is growing up SOOOO quickly but we are happy to see the pacifier go away! 
I went to put Noah to bed on Tuesday 3/20/12 and he was so tired from his busy day with Papa and Grandma that when I went to put him in his bed he didn't ask for his pacifier so i just kept it. He ended up sleeping the entire night with out it and didn't ask about it the next morning. Since Haley is usually the first to give Noah his pacifier and blanket when he's sad or tired I told her that we were taking his pacifier way so not to give it to him if she saw one laying around anywhere (ie. Clayton's car ;-) 
We went about our morning and then Haley came up to me just before the kids were loading up in the car for school Wednesday morning and very seriously said "I told Noah!". I said you told Noah what? She said "I told Noah that he didn't need his pacifier anymore." Apparently she thought that since she told him that he didn't need it anymore then we were all set and done and there shouldn't be any more questions about it! We told school not to give it to him either unless he seemed to be upset about it and they said he did great and never asked for it. So it's been 3 1/2 days now and no mention of it so we are 100% pacifier free!!!!! Wow, that was easy!!!! Thanks to Big Sister Haley telling Noah how it was going to be we are done with that transition!
