The Griswald Family Vacation Part 1

Okay, so maybe we aren't the Griswald's, but as we were pulling out of our driveway scenes from National Lampoons Summer Vacation popped into our heads. But it's official- the Clark family went on vacation this year! It was really our first ever family vacation of any magnitude so we were all really excited. We decided to take the girls to Florida since Greg wanted to see his mom, grandfather and aunts and it also provided us an easy place to stay since his family lives there. We have been thinking about making this trip for awhile and put it off since Elizabeth was still pretty young, but we committed to going this year and finally figured out the logistics of making such a long trip.

Since flying would be fairly expensive and a logistical nightmare (think paying for four tickets and not being able to get a direct flight) we decided to drive. To make the drive easier we bit the bullet and rented a minivan for the trip. We figured it would be easier for the girls to have their own space and we needed extra room for all of our stuff. So we finally loaded up our stuff on Thursday June 24 and headed out at 3:30am on Friday morning.

We had a great theory of getting on the road incredibly early and the girls going back to sleep the minute they got in the car...well this is what they looked like shortly after leaving....

They don't look too tired do they! In actuality the girls probably slept a total of 45 minutes the first day. So that means they were up from 3:30am until they finally passed out at 7pm. They were troopers. One thing that made their trip so much easier was our investment in a dual screen DVD player. The girls were able to sit in the back of the van and watch their movies pretty much the entire drive. I also packed coloring books, crayons, toys and lots of snacks!

On the way down we decided to split the drive into two days because we thought it would be easier on all of us. We stopped outside of Atlanta to spend the night and the girls were introduced to the swimming pool. They loved it. After swimming we grabbed some dinner at the steakhouse and Morgan and Daddy played tick-tack-toe while we were waiting for our food.

On the second day we got up again at 3am (the hotel clerk looked at us weird when I said I wanted to check out) and we made it to Clearwater, Florida by 10:30am. The girls were so excited to be in Florida! Shortly after we got to Greg's mom's house we had some lunch, took a nap (I forced this on the girls- mainly because I was tired too) and when we got up we went to the pool! Grandma had gotten the girls sunglasses, towels, flip flops and goggles so they were ready. I was slightly worried how they would react in the pool but after our afternoon in the Georgia pool I knew they were going to do great.

They both had arm floaties which saved the day. Once they realized that they couldn't sink when they had them on they both pretty much had no fear of the water.

Grandma's pool also had a huge supply of noodles, so arm floaties + noodles= mom no freaking out about them drowning!

They both even tried their goggles on so they could see underwater.

After awhile the girls got so comfortable that they were swimming and jumping all by themselves. It was kind of nice not to have to hold onto them while in the water. We were all able to float around by ourselves.

Just as proof that they were doing so well I made them jump in so I could catch it on camera. Now just imagine them doing this over and over and over again.

The girls loved going swimming and they pretty much wanted to stay in the water all day. It wasn't long that we wanted to show them that there was more to do then go to the pool, so we decided to take them to the beach. There was a great state park near the condo so we headed up with all of our new beach gear for a day at the beach.

This was the view when we got there. It was so pretty! We were lucky that none of the oil had made it to the area so we got to enjoy beautiful water, beautiful sand and a pretty light crowd!

I was trying to get the girls to take a nice picture together...but they had different ideas.

So when we got to the beach and unloaded our stuff the girls took off to investigate the water.

Morgan was a little apprehensive about it at first, and would go to the edge and when a wave came in she would run back onto the beach. She much preferred to hang out by the towels and play in the sand.

Elizabeth on the other hand let Greg take her out into the ocean. They started out wading....

and then kept creeping out even farther. Elizabeth loved it!

When they weren't playing in the water they found plenty of things to do on the beach. They chased the poor seagulls around for a solid five minutes. Those poor birds didn't have a chance!

They made sand castles (or sand angels in this case)

We took turns burying each other in the sand. This was Morgan's idea and it started with me but both girls got their turn being buried!

Around lunchtime we got tired and headed back to the condo for some rest. When we weren't at the pool or the beach we watched cartoons and movies on our DVD player. It was a great way for everyone to rest!

We went out to dinner one night with Greg's family and afterwards we stopped by another beach because we promised the girls. Elizabeth was able to jump up when the saves came in thanks to her two helpers!

The first part of the week was great. We swam a lot, played at the beach, saw the ocean and ate some really great food. The trip almost couldn't get any better....but we had a big surprise in store for the girls. And although they knew where we were going next, I don't think they really understood what was about to happen.....

To be continued....

It's summer time!

Summer is finally here which means the Clark family has been spending a lot of time outside. The girls are still using their swing set all the time but since it's warmer we can now add the sprinkler and pool to the list of outdoor activities. I thin Memorial Day weekend was the first time the girls made us haul out the pool (and it wasn't even that warm yet!) but since they asked Greg blew it up and we filled it with luke warm water. The girls loved it. The both put on their bathing suits, lathered up with sun screen and hit the water.

But first the posed for this wonderful bathing suit picture for me. I'm not really sure why they felt the need to put their hands behind their heads and flaunt their little bellies, but it is cute! The pool I bought last year was a last ditch effort to find something to fill the gap at the end of summer. Our original pool got a leak and I found this small dinosaur pool on clearance in August. I figured we would have to replace it with something else, but the girls love it.

They love the water that comes out of the tail, and will wait until the pool fills up to turn it off. While it is filling up the pool they use the tail to spray each other.


Even the dogs are having a great time outside. Pretty much every time the girls have their pool out I hear yelling of "Mom Belle is in the pool!" and I turn around and Belle is camping out in the pool getting sprayed by the tail. I guess even dogs like to go swimming.

The best part about being outside all day is the fact that the girls come inside and are dead tired by the end of the day. One afternoon I even found Elizabeth passed out on the couch in her diaper. I covered up and left her alone for a couple of hours.

This is just a small tasting of what we have been doing this summer. We spend quite a bit of time at the spraypark, spraying each other with the hose, going to birthday parties and we even went on vacation. The summer is only half over so I'm sure we will think of even more fun things to do!

The Gators End Thier Season!

Several weeks ago (I'm a little behind in blogging) was the end of Morgan's first season of soccer. I think she was a little excited that it was her last game- but as always she was excited to go to the soccer field. Since it was late in the season and lots of families were on vacation Morgan's team was down to just a few members- so after practicing the coach gave them all a little pep talk to get ready for the game!

The coach knows that Morgan does best when she actually gets to kick the ball so he let her kick off at the beginning of the game. Look at the concentration!

Morgan did really well for several, plays and even ran with the ball and her teammates!

Some of you might wonder what Morgan's personal cheerleader (a.k.a Elizabeth) does during the games. Well on this particular day she decided to be a little fashionista and wear her pink sunglasses since it was so nice out.

Most of the time Elizabeth sits with us on the sidelines (in her own special chair) and eats snacks and cheers on her sister. But since there weren't very many kids at this game they only played on one field, which left one open for Elizabeth to practice her skills. She spent quite awhile kicking the ball into the goal over and over and over again.

Sometimes she would pick up the ball and run with it...

Either way I think in a couple of years we might have two soccer players in the family! The day of the game was really the first super hot day of the summer, and since there weren't a lot of kids Morgan had to play pretty much the entire time. Which meant lots of water breaks.

Towards the end of the game she needed a pep talk from dad to keep her going, otherwise I think she might have stopped half way through.

Finally the game was over and the teams congratulated each other on a great game. And after the game the coach handed out trophies for everyone! Morgan absolutely loved the trophy and was pretty excited that it had her name on it!

All in all it was a good soccer season. It was full of lots of tears, pouting and smiles. I think overall she had a great time and she even got to play with a couple of her friends from school. Morgan finished the season with two goals (we aren't mentioning the fact that they were in the other team's net) and she had plenty of kicks. We decided to take a break from soccer during the fall, but I have a feeling she will want to do it again next spring.

My Little Picaso's

So lately I have been amazed at how far Morgan has come when it comes to drawing, imagination etc. Before her pictures were always good: she would draw people, give them some hair etc. But now she draws complete scenes! I didn't really take notice at first, but then all her pictures started to show suns, grass, flowers (she's big into flowers right now) and multiple people. And each picture seems to have a story to go with it.

So I gathered up some of the recent works of art to share with everyone.

When she first did this one she told me exactly what the orange things are and I think they are caterpillars (because they have lots of legs). Each caterpillar has a flower and there is a sun shining on them.

Can't remember who this person is exactly (but 99% of the time when she draws a person it is someone in particular. But this person is carrying a basket of flowers.

This is a bumble bee (see the stinger on the butt??) flying over some flowers. Again I told you she was really into flowers.

See why I was impressed! It's always fun to see what she will draw next. She has draw all of her friends on the playground (complete with swings and a slide!) but we had to take that picture to her teacher. She draws our family all the time, and makes each individual member a different size- daddy's always the biggest and Elizabeth is always the smallest. As time goes on I will try and post more so you can chart her progression!

And Elizabeth is getting pretty good too. She colors almost everyday and her teacher always tells me she is enthusiastic with her coloring.

As you can see she really gets into it!

Finally a place for them to play!

For at least a year I have been telling Greg that we should get the girls a swing set. Last year we decided against it and since then we had been scouring the classifieds for a used one with no luck. Well after a trip to the park one weekend that left the girls utterly exhausted we brought the idea back up and decided it was time. So the next day we piled into the car and headed to Costco. Now when we got to Costco we saw what we wanted because it was all set up inside the store. Every time we go there the girls have said how much they wanted it so they were pretty excited to hear that they were actually getting it! At first Morgan didn't understand that there were going to be two swings (one for her and one for Elizabeth) so she actually wanted us to buy two swing sets because she didn't want to share. We quickly put an end to that idea!

We scoped it out to see how we were going to get this thing home and then later that day Greg went back with his friend to pick it up. This swing set came in 6 boxes and so while I made dinner Greg began the process of unpacking six boxes worth of wood, screws and bolts. First he laid out the directions and the numerous packages of hardware.

Then he and Morgan laid out all the wood pieces and matched them up based on their size. This part was hard for Morgan- she didn't really understand that Greg was trying to organize everything. She just wanted it out of the box!

Then Greg made the smart decision to read the instructions before we started anything. And I think it is funny that the instructions begin with a giant Stop sign. We joked that it should really say "Stop! Hire someone to do this for you!"

The directions said that it would take approximately 10-12 hours to put the entire thing together. It was a little intimidating at first but after the girls were in bed we decided to go ahead and start the construction. We worked for two hours or so and got the rock wall, wooden ladder and picnic table put together. We were pretty excited with our progress, but the next morning Morgan was a little disappointed with the amount of work we got done. It seems that we were working for a slave driver!

Later that week Greg's friend came over to help put the bulk of the structure together. By the time I got home a big part of the swing set was up- but wasn't ready for playing yet. Finally after a few more days our garage looked like this....

but the girls had a place to play! By Thursday (and remember we bought this thing on a Sunday) the structure was up, the ladder and rock wall were attached and the picnic table was out. The girls couldn't wait anymore so we let them climb on it. We quickly realized that the next priority was to attach the slide because they could climb up but they couldn't get down!

So by Friday after work pretty much everything was ready to go. And the girls immediately started swinging.

And then they decided to swing some more....

And then they decided that they would let Mommy and Daddy play on their swing set.

So far the girls have used the swing set almost every day. In the beginning Morgan would even sneak out in the morning to swing before we went to school! By far their favorite thing to do is swing. The only catch is that Mommy or Daddy has to push them. Looking back this will be a great investment!

Even Belle likes it because it means she can be outside a whole lot more!

Introductions are in order....

A couple of weeks ago we were forced to let Zeppelin (our cat) go. She had gotten really sick, really fast and we decided not to let her endure anymore pain or discomfort. This was difficult because Zeppelin was the first animal Greg and I got together. He bought her as a Valentine's Day present in 2001 and she had been with us ever since.

While it was hard to say goodbye to her we (or at least I) didn't think we would miss her as much as we did. Turns out we missed having a low maintenance, mellow animal to cuddle with. Sooooo.....we would like to introduce DeWalt Rainbow Sparkles Clark.

Like the name?? It was a combination of all of us. Morgan really wanted to name him Rainbow Sparkles, but Greg and I didn't really think it was manly enough for him. So we named him after Greg's favorite tool company. We adopted him from a shelter (via Petsmart) and he is slightly more then a year old. So far he has taken to us pretty well and the girls LOVE HIM! He is pretty frisky and we thought that would fit in well with our household. So welcome to the Clark House DeWalt!

2028 US Olympic Soccer Team Here We Come!

Well this weekend Greg and I officially became soccer parents! For awhile Morgan has been wanting to try soccer for awhile and since she gave up dance we decided to enroll her in the Carmel Dad's Soccer Program. Soccer seems to be big up here in Carmel and we had heard a lot of good things about the program so we were pretty excited about our first game! Last weekend Greg took Morgan to Soccer Village to get all her gear and since then she has been wanting to wear the shorts and play with ball pretty much non stop.

We walked to the field yesterday (because the field is right down the road!) and finally figured out where our field was. It was mass craziness with tons of teams playing, practicing and people coming and going. Morgan met her coach and got her jersey and soccer socks. She is #2!

Morgan's team is the Pre-K team and is co-ed. I think she might be one of the youngest on the team because they are mostly 4 and 5 year olds. They start off with a short practice which consists of a little kicking, throwing and general craziness. Here is Morgan getting her ball to go line up with her team.

Here she is lined up with her teammates and listening to a little advice from her coach Raphael!

As a side note- see #8, he is huge! He has to be the oldest kid on the team and the entire time he dominated the game!

Morgan liked practice! And I was even able to get a little video of her practicing her skills. Look how good she was kicking the ball and getting it down to the goal.

After practice they split up into two groups and play three on three on two different mini sized fields. The coach asked for a volunteer to help on the second field (which basically consisted of making sure the kids didn't get too sidetracked) so Greg volunteered to help on Morgan's field. Since she was pretty good in practice and seemed to be enjoying herself we figured the game would be no problem...right??? WRONG!

She actually did okay on the first play. She helped kick it to start and ran down the field and then at some point she either got pushed, or fell (we aren't really sure) but she started to cry.

Once she started to cry she ran to Greg who was still on the field. He tried his best to make sure she wasn't hurt and he gave her a little pep talk and she seemed ready to keep going.

But then the next play started and instead of running down field, she ran behind Greg to hide.

Then after awhile she just sat down in the middle of the field and cried.

We both tried to help her but she pretty much spent most of the game in tears. She was able to continue to try and get out there and while she was I was able to get a little bit of her game on video.

We aren't really sure what the problem was. She was so excited! I think it was partly her being tired, she was with all new people, it was cold and she really, really, really wanted to score and couldn't. We had a lot of talks about not quiting and just trying to go out there and have fun and she seemed to get it. Later that night she did say she had a good time so it must not have been an experience that scarred her for life!