Surf Trip

I know Marcus went on this trip almost a month ago, but I just got ahold of the pictures a few days ago, so here is the post :)

Every year that we've been married (except for maybe the years each of our kids were born), Marcus has added a notch or two to his "I've been to 20-million foreign countries belt." (When we got married, we were close to tied, but I haven't left the country since 2003, so I am WAY behind now.) This year, Marcus's international trip was to El Salvador with his dad and brother. They spent a week enjoying the sun and the surf in La Libertad, El Salvador. The trip started out a little rocky, since they were actually deboarded from their flight in Miami when it was canceled for maintenance reasons. Thankfully, Mike had purchased travel insurance, so they were able to stay in a nice hotel and enjoy an evening in Miami without any extra expense. They flew to El Salvador without delay the next morning, only to be joined by their luggage and surf boards four days later.

In spite of the travel hassles, they all had a wonderful time together: talking, surfing, eating & sleeping in. I am very happy that Marcus came home relaxed, refreshed and even a little bit tanned :) He works very hard all year long, and this trip is the one week out of the year that he can really relax for days on end. Then again, it would be hard to do anything but relax in such a beautiful environment. Enjoy the pictures :)

Time With Family

We arrived in Melbourne (Marcus's hometown) early Monday evening. Our whole trip to Florida was actually planned around being in town for Marcus's mother's 60th birthday. To add to the celebration, we decided to surprise Mimi about our family coming to town. We pulled up at her house, let the boys out of the car, and sent them to ring the door bell by themselves. Mimi was expecting her son-in-law, Josh, and it took her a minute to process that it was really her only two out-of-town grandchildren. When she recovered and realized it was really us, there was much laughing and catching up.

Mimi had a great birthday week, complete with lots of time with her five grandchildren, a home-cooked meal of lasagna, and the best birthday present ever: all the kids worked together to compile a book of photos from her childhood on, as well as letters from all of her children and close friends. Needless to say, she loved it :) And to top it all off, we took all the grandkids for a (semi) professional photo shoot, and now Mimi has a framed picture of her five grandbabies on the wall :)

Other highlights of a our time with family were a morning at the Sebastian inlet tide pool (which the kids LOVED), an afternoon at the Melbourne Zoo lagoon, an adults-only dinner at the Melting Pot (thanks to Mimi both for paying and babysitting!), lots of swimming (both in Mike's pool and Mimi's pool), late night talks at Mike's house, and (for Marcus & Mike), lots and lots of PS3 time :)

All in all, the kids had a great week. They handled all the chaos really well. Caleb made us proud many times with his willingness to share and his cooperative attitude. Ethan made us proud by not having a potty training relapse during the nine days of travel. Even though he's been potty-trained for months, we thought we might have to put him in Pull-ups this week because of all the time in the car and the constantly-changing environments, but he ended up doing great! We did have to make a lot more potty stops than we are used to on the road, but it was totally worth it to get through the whole trip with dry underwear :)

As for the trip home, I will spare you the details. Let's just suffice it to say that I'm glad we don't have another road trip on the calendar until Christmas :)

(Mimi hugging Marcus after our surprise arrival.)

Pictures From Orlando Weekend

Group picture of the 11 kids (w/o 2-year-old Conner, who was MIA)

Ethan climbing the rope wall...pretty impressive for such a little guy

I enjoyed the water slides almost as much as the boys did :)

We came across a locust while walking to the pool.

The boys enjoyed holding it and letting it crawl on them.

Here is the living area of our condo.

Orlando Weekend

To continue the account of our trip... we spent a night in Gainesville with our good friends, Lauren and Danny (and their three children). In the morning, both families loaded up their respective cars and we all drove the 2 1/2 hours to Orlando to join the other two families we would be spending the weekend with. We met them at the Bass Pro Shop on International Drive a little before noon. (Where of course we had to tell everyone about our recent Bass Pro Shop Adventure.) We spent about an hour walking around in there, and then, just as we were about to leave, Marcus stopped to point out something interesting: a representative from Gatorland was standing around with a 4-foot American alligator. The gator's mouth was taped shut with black duct tape, and he was just crawling around on the floor of the Bass Pro Shop. At first, I could hardly believe it, but before I even said anything, the boys (and every other kid around) were petting the gator. We hung around for a while, talking to the guy from Gatorland, and ended up even having a picture taken of the boys holding the gator. (Check back later for a picture.)

The next place we went was the Ginn Reunion Resort, which is where we stayed for our annual reunion with a group of friends from our years in Gainesville, FL. Through the six years that we have done this trip, our families have grown significantly. Now, the kids outnumber the adults! Everyone but us has three kids, so there were eleven kids and eight adults. Add to that the fact that eight of the eleven kids are boys, and you can imagine the mayhem in the condos we rented :)

Nevertheless, we all had a great time visiting, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the resort's water park. One day, Ethan even took a nap in my arms while we floated the lazy river in an inner tube. And even with three days in a row in the sun, nobody got a sunburn. When the weekend was over, we piled back into our loaded-up car and headed to the east coast for some time with Marcus's family.

Road Trip

We recently made the 12-hour road trip from Birmingham to Melbourne, Florida to visit Marcus's family. Based on our experience of a 6-hour drive on Memorial Day weekend, I decided it would be wisest to expect the worst. I guess because of this, I remained unperturbed by the six potty stops we had to make during the first four hours of the trip. Unfortunately for my optimistic husband, his head almost popped off each time he heard "I have to go pee-pee!" from the back seat.

We had decided to break the trip into three parts, and boy were we glad after the end of that first leg. We would have lost our minds had we attempted to drive the whole thing at once. Instead, the longest leg was the first five hours, from Birmingham to Marianna, Florida. We spent about four hours in Marianna, first at the Florida Caverns State Park and then for dinner at McDonald's. It was storming when we arrived at the State Park, and it looked like our plans for a hike were not going to work out. But the rain slowed down to a drizzle and Marcus decided to take the boys on a short hike in the rain after all. Then we all spent some time looking at the (indoor) nature exhibits while we waited for our tour of the caverns to begin.

The caverns were pretty cool. I've been to Blanchard Springs Caverns in Arkansas, and on a tour of some huge caverns in southern China, but I think I liked these caves the best. (This may have been because there was such a pronounced difference between the heat outside and the cool interior of the cave.) As we walked down the path into the first cave, Caleb kept exclaiming excitedly, "We're under the ground! We're under the ground!" A few minutes into the tour, he asked us, "So if we are under the ground, what is under us?" The guide answered his question, explaining that there was another cave filled with water underneath. Caleb just grinned a huge grin, and I could see the little wheels in his head turning as he imagined never-ending layers of caves under his feet.

After the cave tour and a quick dinner at McDonald's, we got back on the road around 6:00 pm, this time just 3 1/2 hours from our destination: a friend's house in Gainesville, Florida. More about our trek tomorrow :)

Memorial Day Weekend

For the long weekend, the four of us drove to Searcy to visit my parents. We hadn't been on a road trip with the kids since Christmas, and two new road trip "hazards" have entered the arena since then. The first is arguing in the car. Now that Ethan can talk so well, the boys get into lengthy and exasperating arguments in the car.

Caleb: I saw a big truck in my window.
Ethan: I saw it, too. It was a yellow truck.
Caleb: No, it was gray.
Ethan: No, it was yellow.
Caleb: NO, IT WAS GRAY!
Mommy: That's enough boys, you've both stated your opinion, now drop it and talk about something else.
(15 seconds later)
Ethan: I saw the biggest truck ever in my window.
Caleb: No you didn't. The gray truck was the biggest truck ever.
Ethan: NO IT WASN'T!!
Mommy: ENOUGH!

The other hazard is potty breaks. It was not a piece of cake dealing with Caleb's potty breaks on the way to Texas at Christmas, but having two kids going potty all the time was MUCH less fun. We stopped to go potty so many times. A couple of times with Ethan, we would stop for #1 and then 20 minutes later for #2. It was almost enough for me to want to put him back in diapers for our trip to Florida this summer (but that would require me buying diapers, which I refuse to do, so that course of action is highly unlikely).

Other than the road trip challenges, we had a very relaxing visit. Ethan had a low-grade fever and a cough most of the weekend, so we didn't attempt to do much outside of hanging around the house and a couple of trips to nearby parks, but the kids still had a great time with Papa and Nanna. A few years ago, my parents made their den into a play room, and the boys entertained themselves very well with Nanna & Papa's toys (of course, taking many breaks from the toys to read books with Nanna).

And here is one funny story to go with the pictures before I wrap up: At one point in the weekend, Ethan was in time out in the Pack-N-Play, which was set up in the apartment that adjoins my parents house (where we were all sleeping). The four adults were all chatting in the living room, a good distance from the Pack-N-Play, and, to be completely honest, I forgot about Ethan and left him in time-out for about ten minutes. All of the sudden, that little warning bell that says it's been too quiet for too long went off in my head, and I went in search of Caleb. I found him inside the Pack-N-Play with Ethan. He had carried two or three loads of toys all the way from the play room to the apartment living room (quite a distance). When the Pack-N-Play was full enough with toys, Caleb climbed in himself, and the two of them were happily playing together in Ethan's time-out prison :)

Beach Trip, Part 3

During our days at the beach, the hours after nap time were a little different each day. Running errands, eating dinner, going back to the pool/hot tub, and taking walks on the beach all had their place. We walked on the beach in the dark with our flashlights looking for crabs, but the crabs did a very good job of hiding. We only found one crab the night we went hunting. We let all the kids touch it and then let it go at the end of the walk.

I really enjoyed hanging out at the pool at night, as well. It wasn't hot and I wasn't worried about the kids (or me) getting sunburned. I also have fond memories of swimming at night in hotel pools on family vacations.

When we all made it back into the condo for the night, usually between 8:00 and 9:00 pm, we got the kids ready for bed and tucked them in with a Disney movie, another special "vacation" privilige. Caleb thought it was the coolest thing in the world that he got to watch a movie every night. I was worried that he would ask for a movie at night for weeks afterward at home, but he seemed to get that it was vacation only, because I haven't heard a word about it for the five nights we've been back.

Nine people in a two-bedroom condo sounds like it wouldn't work, but somehow it did. And the best part is, we found an even better place to stay at next year!

Beach Trip, Part 2

About midmorning, when enough of the kids were bored with the beach, we'd walk back up to the boardwalk, rinse the sand off of us, and spend the rest of the morning at the pool. Caleb took the next step in his swimming proficiency by jumping in the pool from the side, going all the way under the water, resurfacing without help, and swimming to the side. Always before, he insisted on someone in the water catching him and keeping his face from going under.

Ethan, on the other hand, jumps in all the time, completely without fear. He is independent in the water when he is wearing his swim vest (see the pic of me and Ethan from yesterday). He can jump in the water and go completely under, and then he resurfaces with the help of the swim vest. This all works perfectly, except for the rare occasion that he doesn't have his swim vest on (like right after going potty, right when we get to the pool, or as we are preparing to leave). One night, the boys and I were hanging out in the hot tub with our friends, and I hear a splash just behind me. Ethan had climbed onto the side of the hot tub and jumped into the adjoining pool. Because the boys' have identical swim outfits, I initially thought it was Caleb who had jumped in, but quickly realized something was wrong when he didn't resurface. It took me less than 15 seconds to step into the pool and pull a startled Ethan out of the water. He didn't cough or cry, so I guess he had not had time to inhale any water. He didn't seem scared at all, and I didn't make a big deal out of it because I didn't want to cause a fear of the water if he wasn't freaked out.

Anyway, the rest of our hours at the pool were much safer and filled with water shooters, jumping, swimming and laughing. After all the kids (and adults) were worn out at the pool, we'd head back upstairs for lunch and nap time. Once the kids were asleep, Al, Quenta and Marcus would bust out the PS3 while I read a book. Check back on Monday for the final installment of beach stories and pictures :)

Beach Trip

We just got back from a GREAT four nights in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. We split a 2-bedroom condo right on the beach with our best friends, making a total of nine people (five of them preschoolers) under one roof. There was concern that it might be a little too chaotic, but everything went surprisingly smoothly. The kids were able to sleep when they needed to, and they had a GREAT time when they were awake.

We thought we might take the kids to play miniature golf or ride go-carts one of the days, but they didn't get tired of the beach and the pool, so we ended up sticking with that every day. Our kids woke up each morning between 6:00 and 6:30 (just like they do at home). I kept them in our room watching a video or reading books until about 7:30, when the triplets woke up. (Marcus would go into the empty bunk room and go back to sleep.) When all the kids were up, we would have a leisurely breakfast of bacon, pop tarts, toast, cereal, dried fruit...whatever was requested. (My dietary goals for the kids go out the window on vacation.) After breakfast each day, we'd head the beach and play. Caleb really enjoyed the waves this year. Marcus taught him how to stand perpendicular to the breaking wave and brace himself so that it didn't knock him over. He'd stand out there in the surf forever, it seemed like, never tiring of the water crashing against his body and then rapidly retreating. Ethan was less fond of the waves, and did not like having sand all over him either. He preferred the hotel pool to the beach, and was always the first of the kids to start clamoring for the next stage of the morning (the pool).

That's all the time I can spare for typing today, so more about our beach trip tomorrow :)

Marcus took this picture of all of us at the pool from our room's balconey.

More About Camping Out

Saturday morning dawned early and cold. Extra early and extra cold for the Pollard's, since the air mattress that was supposed to separate their sleeping bags from the cold, hard ground malfunctioned (sprung a leak). The four of us slept pretty well, and we were especially happy that Ethan slept peacefully through the whole night, which he rarely did during our 2009 camping weekends. When we emerged from the tent, we found Al cooking breakfast and Quenta and the kids warming up in their minivan. To add to the unfortunate beginning, we had burned all of our first round of firewood the previous evening, and the campground store didn't open for three more (very cold) hours. Fortunately, Quenta found a huge pile of bark, so we burned bark and kindling until the store opened.

After everyone was warmed up and stuffed with bacon and eggs, we headed all headed out on a little hike called the Treetop Trail. It is a boardwalk hike at tree level (just like the title), and there are rescued birds in cages all along the trail. We all enjoyed the walk, and then we loaded back up in the cars to go to the petting farm, a little further down the state park road. It was such nice weather by now, and we spent more than an hour walking around in the petting farm, enjoying all of the animals, but especially the baby goats and the pony. Then we shared a picnic lunch, which we had to guard carefully from the opportunistic peacocks that strutted around the picnic tables.

After lunch, we made a quick trip out of the state park to get a few things at Walmart, also hoping the kids would take a short nap in the car. Caleb obliged us, but Ethan chattered all the way there. So Ethan and I went inside while Marcus stayed with sleeping Caleb in the car. When we got back to camp, Caleb and I went to the beach while Marcus, Ethan, and the Pollard's took a nap. I had bought the boys little hand-held fishing nets at Walmart, so Caleb and I took them and caught two minnows and a water bug. After about an hour, Ethan and the Pollard's were up, and we all went back to the beach together, armed with five little nets, and (this time) a bug jar to collect our booty in. Quenta caught a minnow and a tadpole right away, but there weren't too many other bugs out because the temperature was cooling down.

For dinner Saturday night, we grilled burgers and hot dogs again, and I broke out the broccoli salad I'd made at home. After dinner, the Pollard's handed out glow sticks to all the kids, which they loved of course. We even got brave and let the older four kids roast a few marshmallows on their own. That made me a little nervous to have four preschoolers so close to the campfire, but it made it easier that Caleb was a very cautious roaster. He was more warming the marshmallow slightly and then eating it :)

The kids went down a little earlier Saturday night, and we adults enjoyed another night talking and eating around the campfire. Sunday morning felt about 10 degrees warmer than Saturday had. I was the first up, so I started the morning fire and then started the bacon. Breakfast was bacon, fried eggs and toast again. I think the morning is my favorite thing about camping out (though I really love the campfire at night, as well). The kids are happy and rested (generally), the smell of bacon and eggs in the open air is something else, and the whole day outside is ahead of us. We all enjoyed a leisurely morning of eating, playing around the campsite, and then breaking camp. We headed home for much-needed baths and naps around noon, and spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and cleaning pollen off everything (including ourselves).