Days with the Dorans

I love that we spend all of our anniversaries (or the overwhelming majority of them) on vacation! What a great gift that is! This year we celebrate our Sweet 16th!! Wow! We decided to check out an inland boat cruise (something we hadn't done before). And we're so nice that we decided to let our offspring come along for the ride. They were thrilled... Joe and Ali Jane literally fell asleep for most of the ride. We had the bottom level nearly to ourselves and it was really nice. We got to see the homes of the rich (and some famous... like Johny Depp & Jimmy Buffet) and it was just really pretty. The Bigs woke up around that time and got in better moods. Then we drove the kiddos back to my folks and the two of us hit the House of Blues because it was something new. We both got a burger which was yummy and had fun looking at all the decor. when we got back the kids wanted to go swimming. We thought it was cold so bundled up to watch them. They spent a l...

This lucky lady gets breakfast in bed!! Whooo hoooo! After some fun on the beach, we decided we should check out downtown MB. We stay in North MB (which we love) but thought we'd check out the main drag. My kids are JUST like me and NO ONE was tempted to go up in the giant ferris wheel! (ugh) We did walk a bit and no one was impressed, in fact there was quite a bit of complaining. On top of that it was RIDICULOUSLY windy!! We eventually decided to walk down to the Tiki Bar that Jeff and I hit last year. It's called the 8th Avenue Tiki Bar and Grill. And so we had some yummy beer while my mom had a yummy fruity drink (that I didn't get a picture of). I love the nachos here but the pizza was not as good as we remembered... Still bar food is good and cheap and the kids all approve! Z even found something for him (in 11 years) to try! As another day comes and goes I am just treasuring each and every moment. Even just snuggling with these two (who stayed with...

What I love most about these vacations is we wake up and just say, "What should we do today?" No set plans. On day 3, the boys hit up some Putt Putt while we ladies hit a show. We went to this show called Thunder and Light and what was hilarious was that Ali was PETRIFIED she was going to get pulled up on stage by this magician guy. She sank low whenever he came out. MOST of the show though was amazing clogging which my mom and I totally dug. Al liked it but I believe the quote was, "Tap is better." The boys went out to get Wings so we got Papa and headed back to Broadway at the Beach and went to Margaritaville.  Boy was I glad our party wasn't bigger because it was EXPENSIVE!! We did have fun though. This guy on stilts went around making these cool balloon hats.  While we were at dinner, our phones started going nuts that tornadoes were coming in so we decided we'd better try to get home (even though "home" was a bit high up). Whe...

  Our second day everyone was feeling a bit better so we spent the entire day on the beach! Ali and I went for a walk (she insisted on wearing my beach cover up). It was such a beautiful day. We walked a bit further down the beach where no one was and I took some dance pictures (which was something we tried last summer in Elk Rapids). Well~ I could not believe how good the pictures turned out. This really took no time and I took them with my phone. She's a great little dancer but clearly I had the timing down too of when to snap. I love all the pictures! After lunch we spent more time on the beach. Joe and Seany made some pretty serious sandcastles. They were sweet!! We also spent a lot of time playing this new game Jeff got for the beach! It was fun and something that everyone could play. Nana and Ali even won a game which was cool. We went to Broadway at the Beach for dinner and had fun looking around. We decided to check out a new place and hit the Liberty P...

On our first day of vacay Sean couldn't wait to get into the pool but since I could (wait), I filled the tub for him to go for a little swim that way and I could linger in bed watching the sun rise. He's so funny! We did make it down to the pool quite early and the first thing Sean wanted to do was hit the lazy river with Papa which is always one of their favorites. They all had a blast swimming in the pool too. Joe eventually joined us but I didn't get a group shot with him in it. You snooze, you lose I guess. He and Jeff still seem to be fighting sickness so I think that's part of it too. After a few hours at the pool, we walked a few more feet and hit the ocean. It is so great being at our home away from home! For dinner we decided to go to Nacho Hippo which is just a walk away! I loved watching my three sons walk together. I treasure this time together so much. Sean LOVES Nacho Hippo (I think he mostly loves saying it). I had a bit to drink and ...