And sometimes, things actually do go (mostly) as planned.

(Whoa, this one is long and wordy. Enter if you dare!)

About this time last year, Nana came to visit. We had a bunch of plans -- the beach, Busch Gardens, more. Most of it didn't happen. Meltdowns, vomit, and doctor visits happened instead.

Sunburns and nasty colds aside, this trip was pretty disaster-free, and we started with the tourist thing.

We went to Epcot. Nana's first time.(Insert obligatory shot of giant golf ball.)

 

We had breakfast with the princesses in Norway. Lily was, of course, especially excited to see Cinderella. She knew Cinderella was going to tell her how pretty her dress was. 

 

And we saw Belle, Aurora, and Snow White, too.  

 

But Lily was confused by her visit with Ariel. "Her no have feet," Lily told me. So Ariel had to show Lily her shoes and tell her how she got legs. Lily was also confused by the lack of a prince in the room. (Other than her father, of course.) I wasn't sure how to explain that no one gives a hoot about Prince Charming, or Snow White's prince who didn't even get a name, but Ariel said her Prince Eric was out sailing that day. Well done, Princess. 

 

And then it was time to leave. Yes, maybe Lily was too young for the princess thing. Maybe I wanted to do it. Fine.

 

After breakfast, we wanted to try a couple boat rides nearby. Boat rides are nice and slow and easy, right? OK for a little one? Sure, except Maelstrom. (The name might've been a hint, genius.) I'm such an idiot to take my 2-year-old on that ride. Giant trolls with flashing red eyes popping up, giant polar bears roaring at us, and my poor child making a very small whimpering sound. 

So my big idea to make up for that was to try the boat ride in Mexico. I KNOW that one's better. Lots of music and light, lots of  Donald Duck, and no giant monsters. Lily wanted to go.

Until she saw it was another boat ride. Then she shook her head, no, no, no. We tried, but she was adamantly against it. So we left, no need for Disney Trauma, and on the way out, I mentioned that this was Quinn's favorite ride. And bam, we were on that boat in a hot minute. And she loved it. (Quinn is about her age they have playdates so I can talk to his mama about the important issues of the world like Harry Potter, Glee, and eyeliner.)

After that, Nana and I went on Soarin' (best ride in any theme park anywhere ever), we all went to the aquarium and did the Nemo thing and Turtle Talk. And just as we were getting ready to head back to the World Showcase to visit some more countries on our way out, Lily was out like a light. 

 

Probably just as well. We went to China. 

 

And Germany. And then I decided I was going to make Husband and Nana pose in every country. They did not love this idea. (Photography note: no one likes to look at the sun and smile.)

 

And we went to Italy. And Morrocco, Japan, and France, and whatever other countries are between them on the Disney map. 

 

 

The very next day, we went to Fort Desoto. Last time, we were ill-prepared. This time, we set up camp. Lily had to help. 

 

And then she wanted to take her "goldsish" in the water. Look, she's floating away. (Don't worry, there were plenty of hands hovering just above her but just out of the frame.) 

 

And Husband played in the water with her. 

 

Nana was pretty happy in the water, too. 

 

And I was pretty happy to play with my camera. Look! Self-portrait. (Husband was not amused.)  

 

And this one's for you, Nana. 

 

I love this shot. 

 

Lily and her daddy played in the waves for a long time.  They sat and waited for each wave.

 

Sorry about your hand, baby. (Photography note: limb chop =  not good.)

 

Lily giggled and shrieked every single time. 

 

Sorry about your foot, too. (This one's a little more forgivable, I think.) 

 

And, yes, they jumped on the waves, too. All in all, it was a pretty darn good day at the beach.

 

When the tourist thing ended, the baby shower thing began. (More on that later.)

Between all the busy stuff, lots of happy memories were made at home. Playing games, reading books, making cookies. With just a couple of hours before we had to go to the airport, I realized I had zero pictures to show for that. 

And just like that, problem solved. 

 

 

Superstar.

Lily has recently discovered her inner Mary Katherine Gallagher.

She likes to dance and sing, like any kid. But the ribbon/baton/wand thing she got for filling up her "I brushed my teeth" sticker chart was some sort of new inspiration for her.

She wanted to put on a show. Immediately.

 

She was all kinds of serious about her performance. She was up. 

Down.

 

And twirl!

And...superstar!

Best dollar I ever spent. 

And no, this post would not be complete without video. File this one under "another reason Lily will hate me when she's 13."

These three goonballs have great genes.

Seriously. So that's my husband in the middle. (Hint: he's the "Khan" of "kateandkhan.") His sister Phay is on the left and Joy is on the right.

 

And these are their kids. Lily is on the far left, and next to her is Connor (Joy's), Tirin (Phay's), Lia (Phay's) and then Pearl (Joy's). They are a seriously cute bunch of kids.

 

And you know what I really love about when we get all these cousins together? Yeah, they're cute, and they play and have fun, but so do we.  

 

We make them do silly things like hold up their eggs for no reason at all (nice job on that, Lily).

 

 And then we want to take, random silly pictures, too. 

 

Just for fun. And because I take hundreds. No - thousands - of pictures every month, and such a small percentage of those photos are of adults. And dammit, we matter too. 

 

And a couple of semi-serious pictures, just to remind us all that there are a few adults behind the scenes. too. Can I take just a second to say how friggin lucky I got in the in-laws department? I hear some seriously not-good stuff, and when I do, all I can really do is listen.

I really, really love this picture. (Even with me in it!)

 

I can just imagine that this pair of sisters has a similar photo from high school, and I would bet that they look almost the same. Gorgeous.

 

Inspired by their cuteness, Husband and I took a couple of pictures together. Just for fun.

 

And just for keeps.

Hunting for eggs.

Yes, I know. All the other mommy bloggers posted about Easter already. But hey, I'm not THAT far behind them.

So the Bunny dropped by Joy's backyard Saturday afternoon, just when all the cousins were together. Imagine that! Once they had picked out their baskets, we lined them up for a picture.

How is that I can get all but *my own kid* to look at me.

So then we told them to make silly faces. They did.

This is before they had sugar in them, y'all.

When we gave them the green light, they raced to the backyard. How do we channel that energy into getting dressed in the morning? Or providing alternative sources of energy for the world's consumption? Cuz they got it, if we can figure out how to tap it.

They found their eggs. (I think I might judge them a little if they didn't. They were just right there on the grass. Real kids aren't as oblivious as Dora.)

 

And when all the eggs were collected, we made them line up again to show us what they got. 

 

I'd like to say we had their attention for a second, but we really didn't. 

 

I mean, they had candy to dig into.

 

They took their candy inside and they DESTROYED it. 

 

Connor killed the chocolate. 

 

PJ took out the peeps. 

 

And Lily left no jelly bean standing.

 

Until next year, Easter Candy.