Summer Vacay 2010 - Part 2

Saying the kiddos were exhausted that first night is an understatement.
Our next day's journey took us to the Alligator Farm.
Same situation as the previous day's: July, beautiful cloudless day, in Florida, with little to no wind, outside. Red cheeks were everywhere.
The alligators all started looking the same, eventually, because there were sooooo many of them.
Then we realized there were a group of us, strangers included, suddenly and very interested in Gomek, an 18' crocodilian display. He was interesting and so were the snakes and fish. (Can we say rooms with A/C)?
We wrapped up looking at what felt like a million alligators, grabbed a bite to eat, had a great swim and headed off to our favorite eatin'/stompin' grounds, The Columbia. No visit to St. Augustine and The Columbia is complete without a little stroll along St. George street. Nathan somehow bumped his head on the way out, Jim looked cute carrying around a pink tote alongside his brother pushing a stroller and one more annoying family picture was taken. (And no, I will not stop taking them. You'll thank me for these one day.)
Aunt N had a special treat for the kiddos. She bought some silly bandz earlier in the day and after our ice cream treat, she handed them out and traded them with the kiddos.

Summer Vacay 2010 - Part 1

If you recall, last year's summer vacation with the fam was our trip to Disney's Fort Wilderness. This year we decided to take a trip to good and faithful St. Augustine.
I must admit. Back in my college days, my roommate and I would do crazy things like go to St. Augustine for the day. We were both so excited. We'd get all packed up, driving in the blue F-150, windows rolled down, radio blaring (her singing every word correctly, me mispronouncing and misunderstanding about 3/4 of the words), telling stories and gossiping the whole way there. When we'd finally arrive in the historic area is when our paths veered, drastically.
She is very much a history buff. Me, not so much. I'm very much a beach-lover. Her, not so much. It would usually take us about an hour or two to realize that we had both planned on going to St. Augustine for very different reasons. We'd always find a way to keep both of us happy, but it certainly gave us even more to laugh about after-the-fact.
Still to this day, when I hear St. Augustine, I hear beach; but to most people, they hear, history.
I'm just gonna apologize right now. Even typing the word history sends shivers down my spine. It wasn't something I was ever good at, kind of like cooking, and something I still have no desire to be good at (unless it came with no effort).

My brother-in-law, W, is a major history nut. He can talk about anything in history, anything and he knows it and knows it well. Bless his heart, he's tried many times to get me over to the other side, but it has never worked. He used to be a tour guide in St. Augustine so he really does know his stuff. One time there, the words "Hugenot Cemetery" came out of his mouth and I was done. You might as well have been talking about cooking terms like duxelles or oeuf or sabayon and set a wood spider on my shoulder. The rest sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher and I was instantly more interested in quickly leaving the premises and checking out the shopping.
To give him his credit where it is due, he did just graduate from the University of Florida with his PhD in Archaeology. So, bravo Uncle W. We are extremely proud of you. I really do wish my brain was wired to retain history.
Our trip started with a visit to the Fort. In July. At 4:00 in the afternoon. On a beautiful, cloudless day in Florida. In a 16th century structure (translation: no A/C). It was beautiful, but it was definitely hot, also. The kind of hot where you're glad the shirt you have on is thin and breathable but also wishing that same shirt was a little bit heavier for fear of creating a wet t-shirt contest in front of the whole family. (Note to self: remove camera lens cap from the front pocket of shirt before taking any pictures. Heck, just put it in your shorts pocket, goober. People probably thought you had a mouth full of dip.)
Our precious little ones opted out of the no-nap plan driving there. The Princess Party wrapped up that same day before lunch and in all of my motherly wisdom, I had it planned out for them to sleep, so they'd be rested, and ready to play nicely, and be pleasant for their exhausted parents. Ha!

WHEN

WILL

I

EVER

LEARN?
Good news is, that they were much better behaved than I had expected.
It could have been the built-in entertainment in cousins and loads of help we had there with us the whole weekend. Sometimes, uncles have just the right shoulder.
Nathan, big surprise, was fascinated with the cannons and their ammo. He was pretty sure he could pick one up and bring it home with us.
And Katherine noticed that there were no princesses to be found, anywhere.

Unless you include herself and her cousin, of course.

We stopped by a local hot spot for supper later on that night and took a stroll on the beach.
I thankfully am that annoying family member that is always asking the kids or the whole family to get together for a posed picture. I'm so glad I did, because this one is priceless.
This is what happens when you tell them you have french fries in your nose.
Someone learned the valuable lesson re: throwing sand up in the air.
And this one reminded me of a picture I took a year ago on another vacation. The kids had a favorite hang-out spot in both hotels.

Princess Party

Another activity to add some spice to our summer was "Princess Party." It's an event our local civic theater puts on which is basically princess day camp. For one week, 4-6 year old girls got to experience princess-stuff. They dressed up like princesses, learned princess poses, colored princess pictures, danced around like princesses and earned a bonified Princess certificate. What made this year's Princess Party even more fun was her cousin being there also.

Katherine receiving her princess certificate

Proudly showing it off

It's all just a little too much for brother, and rather boring

The princesses showing us the "Cinderella" pose

Cute pool pics

Fun memories of our new pool...

A great week

I hope I'm not jinxing anything by mentioning this, but this past week has been one of the best during my mommy-ing journey. The last 2 months were so busy, hectic and non-stop, it was as if we barely had time to even notice the people living in our own home.

Don't get me wrong. The pool and swim lessons and Princess Party and vacation were all exciting, fun and memorable. But this week we did very important stuff, like:

• go visit daddy, have lunch with him and ride around on a golf cart while looking at crop fields and tractors
• spend time with our neighbors learning how to bake sugar cookies and decorate them
  
• have our friends come over for playtime and lunch
  
• go for a 5-minute walk around the block that takes 45 minutes
• learn about the difference between Pine trees and Oak trees
• pick up, touch and drop pine cones that are prickly
  
• pick lots of flowers every day and put them in water vases
  
• watch a black snake sliver across the lawn
  
• watch new construction equipment in action
• visit and swim with the cousins
• color with our newly sharpened colored pencils at the table together
• eat supper at the table together as a family
• take a ride in the couch-car to our vacation spot - St. Augustine
  
• finally eat something home-cooked
• read new books we borrowed from our friends
• purposely make funny faces over and over again just to get a laugh
  
• cuddle with each other

• Say I Love You more times than I can count

I consider myself so blessed and thankful to have been given the opportunity to be a mom. Even more importantly, I'm thankful for the parallels brought to my attention regarding the love and admiration I have for my children as compared to God's love for me.

Swim lessons galore

So now that we have this beautiful new addition to our home, within a week it became painfully clear that it very well could be a death trap also.

Nathan REFUSED and still REFUSES to listen to anything I tell him to do in the water. Arm floaties - yeah right! Sit on the step and wait your turn - come get me mom, better hurry I'm goin' under. Cool life jacket with an alligator on it - he acts like I'm strapping a cactus plant to his back.

Back to swim lessons we go. For one week, we had Nathan finishing up the "easy" swim lessons in one location and also starting the "life or death" swim lessons in another location clear across town. Katherine was in the "easy" lessons for 3 years and it was just her pace. Basically, it is getting the child familiar with the water and making sure they love it. That wasn't the issue in our household, it was making sure this child was on his way to becoming drown-resistant because there was no fear or respect for the water.

He enjoyed the "easy" lessons and didn't care for the "life or death" ones, but at 21 months he can jump in the water and swim to the side.
Because brother was going into swim lessons at Katherine's alma mater, I decided to have her go for another two weeks with him. She successfully completed her Pre-school certificate and by the end was working on swimming Freestyle and breathing to the side. I declare that girl.

All in all each kid got 16 1/2-hr classes of swim lessons over a 6-week spread with the mileage to show it. It was all very worth it and the peace of mind is priceless.

"Lazy days of summer" my rear-end

I don't know about you, but I'm just now feeling like I can finally get a couple short gasps of air once more, before my head is forced back underwater.

LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER! Ha! Whoever said that ridiculous quote wasn't rearing two pre-schoolers and trying to take on the task of co-leading a group of 70 women! ( I had to throw that last little bit in because I can't blame all of my summer craziness on the two littlest people in the house; their eyelashes batting, lookin' all sweet and innocent).

So where do I start? I'll start with the most exciting news in our house. Remember the mosquito pit? The science experiment we had bubbling in the back porch? The only block of space we own that I had successfully and completely blocked out of my memory? Remember this?
Well, I do and it has taken on a much different "feeling" in my heart and mind. Thanks to Pool Man Dave and his colorful crew, we now have a beautiful, sparkling and CLEAN pool for our family to enjoy.
The deck isn't so slippery that we curse the Home Depot salesman that convinced us painting it was "okay." It no longer leaves a fowl stench in the back yard. That 18x30 foot area is no longer blocked from my memory. (a defense tactic I strategized to preserve my sanity).

Now we have an official fish and a wanna-be fish enjoying it's coolness on these extremely hot summer days. And what a blessing that is. Now, if I could only convince the wanna-be fish to wait his turn.