Back Among the Living :)

I apologize to those of you who have actually checked this blog in the past six weeks. I have been so sick with this pregnancy that even when I had time to update, a nausea-induced lethargy has prevented me from even attempting. Praise the Lord for this, but it seems that my morning sickness is waning and my appetite returning several weeks earlier than it did with Caleb. I am thirteen weeks pregnant and I have felt pretty normal for three days now (I was sick until seventeen weeks with Caleb.)

So here are some of the fun things that have happened in our lives in the past six weeks: Our anniversary was on Aug 31st, and I surprised Marcus by arranging for his mother to keep Caleb for the night and took him to Orlando for Arabian Nights and an overnight stay in a beautiful Hilton Garden Suite. The best part is that the whole thing only cost $25! I got a big discount on the Arabian Nights tickets and the hotel was free because my dad let us use his Hilton points. We had a great evening together, and thoroughly enjoyed our first opportunity to sleep in together since Caleb was born. (This was the first time we'd left him overnight.)


After our anniversary, we spent a few days at the beach at Marcus's brother Mike's new house in Melbourne Beach, Florida. Mike & his wife Gigi recently bought a beautiful house just a block from the beach, so we had a great time staying with them, swimming in their pool, and taking daily walks to the beach or the park near their house. Caleb had a lot of fun with his 2 1/2 year old cousin, Chase. This was the first time the two have been together and actually played together (rather than just tolerating each other's presence). They would run back and forth along the cat walk that overlooks the downstairs living and dining rooms, squealing and laughing, for long periods of time. They had fun together in the pool as well, though Chase, being older and wiser, was more apprehensive about the dangers of the water. We had to stay very very close to Caleb because he would literally just jump into the pool anytime he felt like it, regardless of whether or not anyone was there to catch him or help him swim. He went all the way under several times, but it didn't seem to phase him. Hopefully he'll gain some sense before we go again.

After our four days in Melbourne Beach, we spent one night at home and then drove to Destin to join three other families from church for a beach house vacation. This is the third year that we have done this trip, and it has always been a lot of fun. This year was different because the Peters' family was not able to come and because the Westfall's joined us for the first time. In some ways, this year was probably more challenging because all seven of the kids were old enough to need instruction and discipline, while last year the four youngest were just babies. With seven children who are all able to initiate conflict at any time, we did spend more time refereeing than we have in the past. Also, with all the kids being toddlers and preschoolers, it was a little harder to have whole families sleeping in the same room (i.e. it was harder to get them to sleep at bedtime). On the other hand, the weather was beautiful this year and I don't think we had any rainy days (maybe one rainy morning). The beach was not crowded at all and the kids had more fun at the beach this year than they have in the past. The "big boys" (Luke, Carson & Noah) were more creative with their play in the sand and braver in the water, and the little ones were just happy to be walking around and exploring everything independently (as opposed to on Mommy's lap or on a blanket like last year). Overall, it was a very enjoyable four days at the beach, and we are already looking forward to next year!