Memorial weekend overload

When it rains it pours, right?

We usually go through months worth of nothing to do outside of normal household maintenance activities and/or events other people have planned and graciously have invited us to. But this weekend was different. Ha! Finally! And Mr. "Realistic" (I say sarcastically) predicted a Mommy meltdown.

Friday started with a fabulous trip to the farm, followed by an unplanned trip to the car dealership to have the tires re-balanced from a routine check-up on Thursday. (Is tire balancing really that hard?) That in itself was enough to make me crash later on that night because it meant unloading two car seats and two kids into the shuttle van to take us home for lunch and lay them down for naps. Then, loading the car seats back inside the shuttle van with two sleepy kids along with all their stay-the-night paraphernalia. Unloading and loading it all back inside the newly re-balanced car to head south.

This is where I must digress . . . Have you ever seen a woman carry a car seat from one car to another with a child in it? Twice? I haven't either and I know why. They (the car seats, that is) are way too heavy, bulky, awkward and full of dead weight. The woman, with diminished arm strength compared to a man, has to hunch over, bear hug the car seat and use the top part of her thighs to help hold it all up, while annoying latch straps dangle and get caught underneath the seat after she's managed to heave it inside the car. So why would a woman do this? Ironically enough, laziness I guess. I was the hunched over woman who was frankly so sick of loading and unloading all that crap, because someone couldn't balance the tires correctly, that I was willing to take some short cuts. And boy did I look like a beauty queen in training while doing it.

Back to the story... Thankfully, the in-laws were bravely going where few choose to go on purpose, and were watching the four middle munchkins overnight and all the next day. We were on a time crunch trying to get out of the car dealership so mommy and daddy could have some big people time. So I rushed south, dropped the little angels off, rushed home and at the last minute we headed off to our most favorite restaurant of all time, The Columbia.

The Columbia has ranked extremely high on my list of all-time favorite places to eat since way before kids. Their 1905 salad was my first official pregnancy craving with Katherine and anytime we get a chance to "get out", we'll usually head to St. Augustine to sample their exquisite cuisine.

So off we went to St. Augustine. We decided to stay the night and chose a hotel on the beach just north of there. I've always loved beaches. Jim hasn't. He pretty much only goes to them because of me. Isn't that love? We had a lazy walk along the water's edge the next morning while collecting shells for the princess, made a trip to the Outlet malls nearby and ate way too much.

Later on that evening, we pick up the exhausted kids and headed home. The next day Sunday, was pretty routine until that evening. We took both kids to my grandparent's pool and Jim got to see how much of a fish Nathan is turning into (or his lack of respect for the water, whichever it is). They both swam and swam and swam. It really is tiring to watch them constantly because they both are so eager to get in and enjoy the water, but their skills aren't there to support it.

Monday morning, we woke up and headed to the lake to meet my dad and brother's family. Dad brought his boat, which I was a little apprehensive about, but much to my surprise Nathan was extremely still as long as he was "driving." Go figure. We did the usual grilling of hamburgers and hotdogs, ate too much again and got back in the water. The kids swam and swam and swam, again and were crazy-tired that evening.

One important side note: Katherine reluctantly learned how to use the bathroom while at the lake. Let's just say, no one ever says they have to go pee while at the lake, they just take care of it. (wink, wink)

And then, to top it all off, we visited some friends for some more grilling and to let our kiddos play some more.

Needless to say, we opted to not go to our usual day of school today and chose to stay home and take it easy.

I am proud to announce there was no Mommy-meltdown, but there were some seriously tired kiddos with a tad bit of 'tude. But, it was all well worth it. They are so fun right now and I so enjoy spending time with them.