Day 2

We started off the day with a phone call to our hotel room from the front desk complaining that we were being too loud. I guess we are just troublemakers already! We decided it was time to get out of this small room and find someplace we could be noisy at. We got everyone showered up and headed out to IHOP. All of the kids decided to get funny face pancakes - complete with their own tube of yogurt to decorate it with. After we ate we headed out to Cole Park. It is a playground that is right on the bay. The first set of color pictures that we got of the kids were taken at that park and we thought it would be neat to see it in person. We took some new pictures there, played on the equipment, played bocce ball and watched some people feeding the birds. The birds caught the bread in mid-air - probably a good 50 of them swarming around. We then stopped at the local Whataburger (which seems to be the local equivalent to McDonalds) and got some drinks and fries to share. After that we headed out to meet the kid's therapist. Chris and I got to meet with her for an hour by ourselves to get some insight on the kids and how we could best meet their needs. Then the kids met with her as a group. After they went back to meet with her they kept sticking their heads back into the waiting room because they were afraid that we were going to leave them. After promising we weren't going anywhere they stayed in the back with Miss Carole Ann for their session. We decided to help the kids burn off some more energy by going to the beach. It was hard to believe that they had only been there 2 or 3 times before since they live right on the water. We had every intention of not getting soaking wet. We were just going to roll up their pant legs and walk in the water but that didn't turn out how we planned. Very quickly they were all soaked by chasing after the waves and running away from them. They were squealing and yelling at the water and having a blast. Since everyone (except Rachel) had soaked clothes and sandy butts we decided to eat dinner at one of the little beach front snack bars. The kids all had pizza, chips and ice cream while Chris and I ate footlong hot dogs. We quickly realized that ice cream + kids = hyper!! Laci, still being soaking wet from the water, sat at the table shivering the entire time (even though Chris went and bought her a beach towel to wrap around her). When we walked outside and the wind started blowing on her she got big crocodile tears in her eyes. I do believe if daddy had turned around at that moment that Laci would now be the proud owner of a pony! We went back to the hotel, got dried off and changed and then played Uno Attack and Whonu together. We then piled onto one bed and shared my scrapbook with them so they could learn a little bit more about our family and our life. After that it was lights out.