Another Fantastic Vacation on the Books

Well...it's over. And...we're home. And that? Well that's stinky. Stinky like Leighton's diapers. Now we're counting the days until we get to go again. Actually, Mom and Dad are doing that counting because I can only make it to ten.

For now we have the memories and pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Three-hundred-some pictures thanks to the Fancy New Camera That Takes Really Nice Pictures. You'll find a couple of them here, and more on flickr. (But don't worry, not all three-hundred-some.)

Mom got some cool action sequence shots at the pool that she's hoping I'll put up on the blog soon but that'll be a work in progress.

So anyways, enjoy...

The last night of our vacation, some of us (Mom, Dad, Haley, Kevin, Kris and me) headed to downtown Palm Springs for a street fair. (Leighton couldn't go with because of his early bedtime so Grandma Trish and Papa Boots stayed home with him and they all went to dinner at the club.)

I had a great time at the street fair but my parents made a very bad parenting choice to keep me out WAAAAYYY past my bedtime. Things went well through the waiting for the table at the restaurant period, during which time we walked the fair and shopped the shops. I stopped to pose with this cute poodle statue:

Then we had our dinner (well I actually just had chips, salsa and chocolate milk, but that's cool because I covered dairy and vegetables and kinda, almost covered carbohydrate/starch...) and then walked and shopped some more. Dad even gave me a ride on his shoulders so I could see everything that was going on:

But then something bad happened. Something very very bad. There was a rock climbing wall and I wanted to climb it and Mom said no because I'm too young and I said NO MOM MY NOT TOO UNG, MY BIG GIRL AND MY CLIMB THE WADDER NOW COME ON so Mom and Dad said we would go ask the people and we walked there and nobody could talk to us because they were busy helping kids that looked bigger than me but I didn't admit that and Mom looked at a piece of paper and winked at Dad and then pointed to it and said LOOK TAYLOR it SAYS you have to be five years old and you're only two so you can't do it and we're going home because it's after 9:00 and you're a wreck. So we started to walk to the car and that's when this happened:

We got to the car where I was FINALLY given a nummy and calmed down right away. Unfortunately, that only lasted until we got back to the house where I broke down again for no apparent reason but it involved things like MY NOT WEAR A PULLUP TO BED MY WEAR PANTIES and no Taylor, we're not doing that on vacation but when we go home maybe we can start doing potty training for bedtime and MY NOT WANNA WEAR JAMMIES, MY WEAR MY DRESS TO BED and a wrestling match involving a pullup and Mom saying EEERRRR Taylor I am so done with you right now and then Grandma putting me in bed with my nummies and water and an eventual surrender to sleep.

(Note: Life has been like that around here a lot lately, but not to worry, in an extreme act of parenting Mom and Dad took ALL my books away and I'm earning them back by displaying appropriate behavior.)

Other fun activities interspersed with my tantrums included:

Lots and lots of swimming

Fun times with my cousin Haley (who looks JUST like her mommy, Kris in this picture!)

Lots and lots of golf cart rides

A trip to The Living Desert where Leighton and I rode together in a wagon (so fun!)

A day out without kids for Mom and Dad-they went hiking at Indian Canyons and had a romantic date night at their favorite restaurant, Kalura Trattoria Italiana

And lots of practice on my "skaters"

The weather back here in Minnesota has been unseasonably beautiful which has been the state's saving grace since we had to leave the sun and very warm weather in California. And to remember the beauty of Palm Springs until we go again, we have this:

TTFN.

Taylor and Leighton (who, by the way, if you're keeping track, still DOES. NOT. SLEEP. THROUGH. THE. NIGHT. Argh.)