Nicknames

I thought it would be fun to do a post about the kids nicknames and how they came to be.

Abbey-my little "ladybug"

When Abbey was born, she was teeny tiny (4 lbs 12oz) and had the smallest features. Little itty bitty hands and feet, a little mouth, nose, and a scrawny body. But she also had these huge eyes. My friend Suzette visited her in the NICU and said she looked like a little ladybug. Ladybugs don't really have big eyes, but it made sense to me. It stuck and to this day, I call her that. What do you think, is it fitting?
Andrew- Andrew "Bear"

This one kind of evolved over time. For a long time, we just called him brother, then we added bear to it calling him brother bear. Eventually the brother dropped and we ended up with just bear or Andrew bear. He is such a loving and huggable guy just like a teddy bear.

Allie- My Allie "bean"

This one makes the least amount of sense but she has always been my Allie bean. I think it is a play on the words jelly bean but I'm really not sure. But for whatever reason, she has always been our little bean.

Erie, PA Splash Lagoon

James had MLK and Inauguration off. The Sunday before the two days off, we started discussing taking a quick trip to an indoor water park. I googled "indoor water parks" and found a place called Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA. I have heard wonderful things about this place. It is a top notch resort where you pay to stay in the hotel and then are able to enjoy the water park. I priced it and they wanted $900 for the two nights. Yikes! I also found a place called "Splash Lagoon" in Erie, PA. At this one, you stay in a neighboring hotel and then purchase tickets to the water park separately. I priced this one and it was much much more affordable. The only catch was that it is about 5 hours away while Great Wolf is a quick 2 hours. We decided to be adventurous and take a road trip that Sunday to Erie, PA. The kids were great until the last hour when they started to go crazy. We made it though and had a great time. I would recommend Splash Lagoon to anyone who lives within driving distance. Here is a link to the website:

http://www.splashlagoon.com/
Oh, forgot to mention the kids were in snow heaven. We hadn't seen a drop of snow all season in Ashburn but they saw plenty of white stuff in Erie. They had a blast playing in the snow in the hotel parking lot before we headed home. There was a huge pile in one corner of the parking lot where they had piled all of the shoveled snow. Allie climbed to the top of the pile and wouldn't let Andrew or Abbey join her. She started crying and pushed them off as they tried to climb up. You can see she doesn't look too happy in the picture. I thought it was funny that she was so territorial of her "hill".

notice Allie screaming and trying to push Andrew off of her "hill".