Weekend Family Get-away

Kyndall came up to me a couple of weeks ago and said, "Mommy, can we go to see Shamu again and ride the roller coaster?" I thought, why not, right? So I called Jim and he agreed it would be fun to have a weekend Get-away and take the girls to Sea World again. Last year in April of '09, we took the girls for a family vacay to San Antonio and South Padre Beach. We went to Sea World (click on "sea world" if you want a quick peek back to that post) then, and Kyndall LOVED it...Avery was indifferent. Kyndall was just a smidge too short for the Shamu Roller Coaster and has mentioned SEVERAL different times since that trip how bad she wants to go on it! She also LOVED seeing Believe, the Shamu show and all the other sea creatures....so......

Jim set up a hotel and we drove there early Sat. morning...straight to Sea World and Kyndall was ready to get going!! Here she is pushing Avery in the Parking lot:The infamous pic with Shamu....we still have to do a family shot....the girls aren't exactly comfortable going "kid only" yet:)

First stop was the Shamu Roller Coaster...wish I could have gotten a better shot, but my little camera didn't do movement shots well: Kyndall went once with Jim and once with me...Ave was a little too short this year, maybe next year!!!

On to Believe!! Wow, I love this show:) So did the girls!!

Then we took Avery on a few rides she WAS big enough to go on:

Dolphin Cove:

And the final show was Azul with Dolphins and Beluga Whales...incredible!!!

Avery was pretty done for the day after this one, so we checked out the sharks and bought them some toys before leaving for the day. 5 hours at Sea World put us all to bed early that night!!!

My favorite part of the trip, besides watching the girls have a blast at Sea World, was shopping at the outlet mall in San Marcos and eating at The Gristmill in Gruene, Texas on the way home!! Here is a pic of the girls peeking out the window like they did last year, only being super sweet and lovey this year:) I love my sweet family and had a wonderful mini-vacay with them!!!

A Couple of Firsts for Both Girls!

The girls are so close in age (19 months) that fortunately they get to share a lot of "firsts" in life. For example, we introduced ribs to them for the first time a couple of weeks ago:

Man did they love 'em!! The whole slab was gone between the four of us! Smiles on everyone's faces!! I thought it was pretty cute to watch them devour them...so I shared!!!

I really felt like these 2 events went well together...because after a mess like that in you mouth you are due for a visit to the dentist. I know, I know, 4 is pushing it for the first dentist visit....I should have taken Kyndall WAY before now. But I didn't and I am taking her now so on with the story..... Kyndall was a little skeptical about everything...and of course went first. Between refusing to lay down for them to clean her teeth and spitting water at the hygentist we made it through her cleaning and fortunately the dentist (Dr. Tim from Texas Pediatric Dentistry) said she had wonderful teeth not a cavity in sight! They were really good about explaining the different tools and letting Kyndall touch them and play with them a little before they cleaned her teeth!

Next up was Avery. Isn't she lucky to have a big sister to watch and pave the way for her? First off, she got to play with Ali the Alligator (who had a full mouth of perfect teeth) and she laid right down and opened her mouth wide for the cleaning...no spitting, no crying, no putting up a fight. She just kept saying, "I do it like Kyndall". How sweet is that?

Then she got to check out Ali's teeth....it was too cute!!

Then Avery picked out a rubber dentist duckey and Kyndall picked out a super bouncy ball and after Dr. Tim told Avery her teeth were wonderful we left! Both girls did super and I really liked that practice!!

Lubbock Bound!

Kyndall wanted to go and visit her Bits and Gram (my parents). So the girls and I packed up (poor Jim had to stay and work) and headed to Lubbock for a couple of days! We had so much fun...Grammie and Popo came and made some yummy corn on the cob (do you know a little sugar in the water pot really makes the corn taste super yummy).....

My parents were "kitty sitting" for their friends and the girls LOVED it! Especially Avery...she was enamored:

My parents also bought a little pool to splash in!! Total hit with the girls:

Sitting with Bits:

Playing Princess with Popo:

Kyndall swinging with Grammie and the kitty she named "Barbie Princess"

Avery and her Gram!

All in all is was a wonderful trip! The girls can't wait to go back and hopefully Jim can go next time!!

Exotropia

Exotropia: An outward turning of the eye. It may occur only when the child is daydreaming, ill, or tired. Parents often notice that the child squints one eye in bright sunlight (this is to compensate for seeing double).

We had noticed since Kyndall was about 2 1/2 that she kind of squinted one eye in the sunlight, and when the flash would go off for some pics. Here are a couple examples of her squinting:

2 1/2 years old

3 1/2 years old

4

Her left eye squints, and if she is out in the sun for a prolonged period it gets REALLY obvious. We also noticed when she was getting tired, sometimes her left eye would look away so her eyes looked like they were looking in 2 different places. We decided to take her to a pediatric Opthamologist, Dr. Catherine Chen so we could find out if this was serious. And it turns out that she has what is called, Exotropia (defined above). There is about a 30% chance it will heal on it's own and a 30% chance she would need surgery. If it stays like it is now, which is also what could happen, surgery is not recommended. For Kyndall, there is no other option to help correct it. So we are praying that it heals itself.

Kyndall was a Princess Pirate while being examined by Dr. Chen:

They even had a train for the girls to play with while we waited on Kyndall's eyes to dialate:

This was the final examination before she gave us her diagnosis:

We are going back in 3 months to keep track of her little eye!