Beach Day

I promise I will finish giving every detail of our vacation soon. I know it is riveting, edge of your seat stuff and you can't wait to read it. Ahem, yeah. Just kidding, but still, I will write it. Later. For today, I'm at Deep South Moms talking about our fun day at the beach yesterday.

I'm a little sunburned and I made a major Mommy error and missed parts of Ben's face with the sunscreen. Not sure how I did it, but by the sunburn under his eyes and on his upper lip I'd say I missed that area entirely. Kind of makes me want to cry.

Vacation Part Two

So we arrived at Granny and Poppy's house (after a brief hello visit with Kevin's family) and within seconds the boys were asking about playing on the water slide. Of course, the grandparents obliged and they had so much fun. Ben went up and down a few times, but over all he played in the pool and laughed as the boys went down. This surprised me since
Ben is not known for his cautious nature. Okay, I can't even type that with a straight face. He is a wild child for sure! We slept so good that night after playing cards until one in the morning.

Saturday morning we went to the parade with most of Kevin's family and then, breaking the traditional IHOP fiasco before the parade (I mean is every IHOP seriously, ridiculously slow?) we took all the kids (8 of them 7 and under!) to McDonalds for lunch. Who can beat an indoor playground in July in Oklahoma?

Then it was back to Granny & Poppy's house, and this is where the blogging it as it actually happens would come in really handy. It was the fourth of July... I know my mom and I went to Wal-Mart for some more stuff for dinner but the afternoon is a blur. I remember at Wal-Mart Ben was in the cart reaching for me saying "Need mommy, neeeeeeed mommy as I tried to get him to stay in the cart. Wanna guess who won? NOT mommy. I'd venture a bet there was water slide action involved! My cousin who was my flower girl in my wedding was there. Only now she's all graduated from highschool and starting college next year and she is adorable and sweet as ever! Seeing her all grown up was truly a treat and also kind of makes me feel old. Because when I got married she was 4 or 5. I have kids older than that. Okay, must stop fixating on being old...

And then the kids were in the water slide (catching a pattern here? They LOVE that thing!) and it started to cloud over and thunder and lightning. Then it rained and rained and rained. Only, that was after dinner. REWIND...

We ate dinner that my mom made of barbecued ribs (okay, actually Kevin and Daddy did that part and fantastically I might add!), baked beans, potato salad, corn bread & rolls. Everything was awesome! (Thanks mom!) THEN the boys played on the water slide and then the lightning and the thunder and boys were filled with angst because if it's raining they can't do FIREWORKS. Wahhhhhh.

Only, Oklahoma must have been chanelling Florida weather because the storm, while impressively gusty and loud, only lasted about half an hour. And then we did fireworks. My husband managed to do so without injuring himself which is a darn good thing.

A note here about the people in my parent's neighborhood. They are firework maniacs! They were going off from every direction and it was pretty awe inspiring, if a little overwhelming for me. The cutest part of the night was Ben trying to blow out the fireworks. "I bwow them out Mommy." Too fun!

Again, I slept like a rock. And so did the boys. This is about the time they started getting up at 7. 7 Central Time which is 8 on their time zone. I guess it doesn't really count after being up til 11 though. I was so excited to get to sleep that late I didn't quite know what to do with myself. Except stay in bed so that is exactly what I did!

(to be continued!)

Jumping to Today

For just a second, I have to post something that happened today. Mark and Eric woke up extra crabby, which is saying a lot this week. I dragged them to the grocery store. Then Sams. At Sams I knew something was wrong when my 2 oldest boys wouldn't eat their pizza OR drink soda! So I told them we must go to the doctor. I had to put up groceries first and on the way home from Sams all but Zack fell asleep. They all stayed asleep. Eric had spiked a fever and Mark had a lower one, but still. Sick kids. When my kids won't eat pizza and take a nap I know it's bad. I called my friend, and cancelled our plans to go to the pool, and every now and then I'd hear Mark thrashing around on the couch. I assumed he was hurting and went to check on him. He said to me, with his eyes closed "I'm NOT SICK, I'm MAD that you cancelled the pool!!"

Such a mean mother am I who will not take her children to the pool with fevers and sore throats. Sheesh what's wrong with me?

PS Doctor says it's strep. Hello Zythromax. Which despite smelling nice and strawberry banana-y tastes bitter & nasty with a side of sugar. Yeah, I totally tasted it when they made the face after they took it. After I told them it would taste good.

Vacation Part One

When I think of our summer vacation I break it down into four parts. Long, horrible, never ending drive. My parent's house. Kevin's parent's house. Lastly, back to the long, horrible never ending drive.

Starting at the beginning, I was excited about being with my family, but not too terribly excited about the long, excruciating drive. We had decided to stop in a hotel this time, to break up the drive a little, but we wanted to get as far as possible the first day to minimize meltdowns the second day. We planned to leave at 4! a!m! and stop at 9 at the Florida Caverns for a tour. We did this. The internet said the first tour was at 9:30, and my heart sunk as I we passed the part of FL that switches over into the Central Time Zone. We had allotted enough time to let the kids play for 1/2 hour before the tour. But waiting for a full hour and a half before the tour wasn't on our agenda. We still had to make good time to get to our hotel in Marshall, TX which required driving through the rest of the FL Panhandle (it is slightly maddening how long it takes to get OUT of FL. 4 hours up and a million hours (or maybe 3)across that panhandle. They need to consider a giant bridge across the gulf from Tampa Bay to New Orleans, or at least Alabama. I know, self serving of me to think this but it's sooooo long) and then a few hours each in Alabama and Mississippi, and an eternity (I want to say 6 or 7 hours) in Louisiana. I'll spare you my feelings on Louisiana, which I'm sure is a perfectly lovely state except for their extreme lack of REST STOPS on the highway. That's a story for the way home though.

Anyway, I apologize for my tangent, but I like to accentuate how long of a drive this is. We lucked out and the first tour actually began at 9. We wandered and explored and then went on the tour. This was a perfect outing, the boys were in awe and Eric was so cute at the end when the lady asked if there were any questions and he asked many, many questions about stalagmites and stalactites. Finally, Kevin pulled him back and said we needed to give someone else a turn. His curiousity thrills me!

Back in the car and we did make it to Marshall, TX at about 8 PM. Right on schedule! Despite the drive being insanely long, the kids were a dream. I had worried a great deal about Ben, who has very strong opinions screaming much of the way, but he was perfectly happy most of the day. I will say the dvd player is a lifesaver. It averted many tired of being in the car meltdowns.

Once in our hotel, it wasn't long until we all drifted off to sleep (not before I went and sat *alone* in the hot tub for a few minutes. The next morning my boys were up uber early (SURPRISE! Thank you central time) and we had breakfast and were on our way.

Day two was shorter, a mere 6 hours through TX and into central Oklahoma. A grand total of 21 hours on the road (plus the time we stopped at the caverns & for the night.) But we made it! Let the fun begin!

Unpacked and Unhinged

Unpacked -I did it. I unpacked everything yesterday. Well, everything except the giant rubbermaid container of boys clothes. It's in the guest room and I figure they can get dressed out of it for a week or so and we'll put it away as it cycles through the laundry. Totally lazy of me but it makes me happy, so I'm going with it.

Unhinged - My kids have completely lost their minds. Fighting with each other, talking back to me. Totally loud, totally screaming, total chaos. Even worse, I seem to be unable to get their attention without getting loud and I'm just not into yelling. It's been frustrating. I suspect they are over tired from late nights and lots of running around last week. Or maybe it's from the 20 hour car ride on the way home. At any rate, we are all completely cranky and out of control. I'm hoping to fix that soon.

On a positive note, (and I'm typing this very very quietly) the kids are sleeping past seven the last two days. I'm thinking they are still on Central Time. Which is fiiiine with me. But they need to quit being so freaking crabby!

PS I have a bazillion pictures to go through and post and of course blogging about all the FUN we had, but that will wait until another day.

Unplugged

Wow, I really expected to post at least once while I was gone, but I literally only sat down at a computer once while I was gone. It was good, but I'm happy to be back! I'll update on vacation stuff a little later. For now I must unpack and work on other things!

Going to be MIA

Just a quick post to say I'll be on a brief blogging hiatus for the next week and a half or so. :)

I had a post go up on Sunday over at Deep South Moms about Ben's eczema and some new things that are working. And there's another one going up tomorrow about how much I'm dreading vacation. Or at least the driving part. Check out Deep South Moms tomorrow to read that one.

And now I have to pack. Bye bye for a while internet! (I'll miss you!)