Our First BIG Trip (part 3)

Day 4- We Hit "The Wall"

On Tuesday of our trip, we woke up to Tropical Storm Debbie still in full force.  I think it was the night before that the storm was so loud it kept waking me up.  I have never heard wind that loud in my entire life.  I have no idea how it didn't rip the roof off the building!  Anyway, Laura and I decided to take the kids to the beach and fly kites.  It was not our best idea!  It was WAY too windy to fly kites and the kids were crabby and not listening well.  We went back to the condo and we all kind of "hit the wall".  The trip had been so stormy and everyone was disappointed but had been trying to make the best of it.  I was D-O-N-E with the girls being rude and disobedient and Seth's whining (plus I was super tired).  All I remember is going to lay down and try and nap (I suck at napping) and getting up a bit later to all three kids sleeping/resting, Laura gone on a walk (on which she saw a fox sitting in the dunes) and Carey enjoying the condo's cable tv!  

After our early afternoon, mid-trip meltdown, we were all feeling better and decided to head to "old town".  I can't remember if I've already said this, but St. Augustine is the oldest founded city in America, so there's lots of history and (more importantly to us) cute/neat old buildings!  We saw the nation's oldest wooden schoolhouse, went to an old fashioned candy shop (I feel like I should spell it "shoppe"!), found more lizards, and saw a Mary Poppins-ish street performer!  While we were there, the weather was alternating between really hot and pouring down rain, with the consistent windyness, of course!  At one point, it was pouring down rain, there was still some things the adults wanted to see, Abby was screaming crying about buying a horse necklace, and we didn't know which way to go.  I noticed we were standing right next to the church of St. Augustine (the saint the city was named after).  The sign on the door said people were welcome to go in but to be respectful of people who might be praying in there.  I told the kids to be quiet and we went on in, expecting to run out in two seconds because the kids would yell or something.  It was like a magical building.  It was huge and beautiful and so different than any church building my kids have been in, there were so quiet and in awe.  They loved hearing about what the different parts were (sidenote: Abby had asked me about the two doors that led to the confessional, so I told her about it.  Once we were home, she was telling my sister, Auntie Melissa, about the church and she told her "And they had these doors you go in and there is a man who goes in the other one and you say like 'I disobeyed my mom' or something like that.  But we don't have that at our church").  We were in there for a good 15 minutes or so, just enjoying the beauty of it.  And, when we walked out, the rain had stopped and it was sunny!

The street performer...who proceeded to make it half-way through a song and then break 2 strings at the same time!

Loving the entertainment!

The oldest wooden school house:)

Inside the gorgeous, tear-stopping, quiet inducing, rain-stopping St. Augustine church!

Day 5- An End In Sight

On Wednesday, good old Debbie seemed to be on her way out and the beach days we were expecting were seeming more like a reality!  We tried the kites once again, this time with more success!  Well, Carey had success; Laura, not so much, although it was hilarious to watch her kite!  We did some playing on the beach and in the pool and were so happy to see the sun out by the end of the day:)

Ready to go fly some kites!

These three kids are ready for the sun!