Our First BIG Trip (part 2)

Day 2- Carey's birthday

Our first morning in the condo, Laura and I took the kids straight down to the beach, so Carey could keep sleeping.  We walked out of the condo complex onto a boardwalk over the dunes down to the beach.  Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to walk out to the beach on one of those boardwalks.  I can't even explain how excited I was to actually be walking on one.  I felt like a little girl meeting princesses at Disneyland for the first time!  It was surreal!  Despite the fact that it was cloudy and windy, it was plenty warm at the beach and we had a blast playing in the warm ocean water.  We even invented a couple games:

1)"Knocked Over"- you sit at the ocean's edge and every time a wave hits you, no matter how tiny, it knocks you over!

2) "Dead Squid"- in the super shallow water you lay down and just roll around however the ocean pulls and pushes you, just like it does to a dead squid!

The boardwalk!!!

First time in the Atlantic!

Awesome St. Augustine shells:)

Seth was the inventor of "dead squid"!

After a couple hours at the beach, we spent some time in the pool at the condo.  After a little while at the pool, we all headed up to the condo, ready for naps, and walked in just as Carey was getting up!

After naps we ran a few errands; grocery store, Dollar Tree for sand toys, fish market (at which Abby and Haley were thrilled to touch a huge dead fish, eyeballs and all, that the kind fish market lady brought out for them), and the cutest little cupcake shop!  Back at the condo we enjoyed the cupcakes and then headed back down to the beach.  At that point, we had been informed (by all the weather stations) that the bad weather was thanks to tropical storm "Debbie", and she poured rain down on us and tried to blow us away as we played at the beach.  I think that afternoon, playing in the water in the pouring down rain was one of our favorite memories!  We finally went inside when the rain was pouring down hard enough to hurt our skin!

Yummy cupcakes on the balcony!

Day 3- Alligator Farm and Tropical Storm Debbie!

One thing we knew we wanted to do in Florida was to go to the Alligator farm, and since tropical storm Debbie was out in full force, we decide to start doing the things that we wanted to do in the beginning of the week and hope for sunny beach days towards the end of the week.  Laura and I started the day off taking Abby and Seth down to the beach while Carey and Haley slept in.  We wore dresses but were laughing as we walked back to the condo, because it had rained so hard that we might as well have worn swim suits!  We were literally wringing water out of our dresses.  We could not have been any wetter if we had gone swimming!  After the wet trip to the beach, we spent a slow morning in the condo.  Laura's mom, the fabulous Julia, had stocked it up with all sorts of treats for us (as well as necessities like laundry detergent and shampoo), making it super fun and cozy.  The condo itself was awesome.  It is two bedrooms and I'm pretty sure it is bigger than our whole house.  It has a great balcony that looks out onto the beach and ocean, too!

This is a pile of all the cookies that Julia had baked for us!

 We spent the rest of the day at the Alligator farm.  It was kind of like a small zoo, with about a billion alligators and birds, some snakes and lizards (Laura and I opted out of that part), and some cute little monkeys and things.  We had a lot of fun there, and I decided that I would like to be an alligator.  They just lounge around all day, and the bigger they are, the more impressive they are!

Looking at baby alligators and turtles!

This was a "pen" of 41 alligators!

We kept seeing these little frogs all over the zoo.  They are so tiny (that's Haley's hand) that it looks like tons of little bugs jumping around!  Haley caught a ton of them (an activity that not all of the frogs survived)!

First BIG Vacation

Last week we flew across the country to spend 6 full days (sandwiched between 2 days of traveling) on the beach of beautiful St. Augustine, FL.  Our dear friend, Laura, is from Georgia and grew up going to her aunt Ann's beach condo in Saint Augustine.  "Aunt Ann" so kindly let us all go and stay there for the week and we had an amazing time.  I am little overwhelmed at the thought of trying to blog about such a big trip, so I am going to break the post up into days, and, depending on the behavior of my kids as I post (they are supposed to be having "quiet" time) I may have to do it in more than one post!

DAY 1 (Traveling)

On Saturday morning, June 23 we left our house at 3:00 in the morning to get to the San Fransisco airport for our 6:00 a.m. departure time.  My mom (who so kindly drove us to the airport at such a lovely hour) and Laura had spent the night so we were ready to go!  We made it to the airport really quickly (since there isn't much traffic at the time) and hopped in the line to check our one big suitcase and the 3 carseat/boosters.  The line ended up taking super long, and by the time we went through security, we walked straight onto our plane!  Oh, and as a sidenote, I am so thankful that you can gate check strollers for free, because we used ours as a luggage cart for all the kids carry-ons!

Once we were on the plane, the kids were so excited for it to take off.  I think the flight was about 4 1/2 hours and they all did really good.  No tears, a little napping, lots of snacking, and lots of checking all the new little trinkety toys and entertainment I had been collecting for weeks!

Ready for the plane to take off!

So excited for his first plane ride!

Enjoying some $1 CVS modeling clay!

Working really hard!

We landed in Atlanta, GA, ready for a 4 1/2 hour layover.  We got some lunch, rode on some escalators and moving walkways, rode the tram from terminal to terminal, then headed to our gate with about an hour left.  Unfortunately, our flight was delayed.  So for the next few hours, our departure time got pushed farther and farther back and I think they changed our departure gate 4 times!  During this time, Laura, Haley and I made a new friend.  She was three years old and named Amelia.  She was FUUUUULL of energy.  I mean, FULL.  Not that my kids are mellow, sit around the house and read kids, but this girl was ready to go out and run a half-marathon or something!   Anyway, she and her brother (who was 7 and engaged Laura in an argument about where we were going for our vacation) kept us pretty darn entertained!  And Seth was still just so excited about going to Florida.  Every so often he would say "raise your hand if you want to go to Florida!" or "Let's just get on a plane and go to Florida" (as if that was an option none of us had thought of)!  

The layover and the early rising took it's toll on Carey!

Finally, after a little over 7 hours in the Atlanta airport, we took our short flight to Jacksonville, FL.  We got off our plane and Carey headed over to get our rental van while Laura and the kids and I went to get our suitcase and boosters.  We waited and watched everyone else get their luggage of the carousel and go merrily on their way until we were the last ones standing there and the carousel was empty.  I kept thinking "oh great, we're stuck at the airport.  It's too late for any stores that would sell boosters to be open and we can't just throw the kids in the van with out them."  Thankfully, I went over the the little luggage office place and our luggage was there (apparently it did not have a 7 hour layover in Atlanta)!  We made it to the rental van, loaded up, stopped at McDonalds for a nutritious late night meal and delicious sweet tea, and headed off to St. Augustine.

So happy to be almost there!

Dance Recital

This past Saturday was Haley and Abby's annual dance recital (their 3rd one) and it was awesome, as usual.  Dance recital day is a thrilling day in our house.  Auntie Laura comes over and helps me put on the girls' "stage make-up".  Probably one of their favorite parts of the dance recital is that they get to wear make-up...and TONS of it.  I actually think it looks pretty weird, but they think it's gorgeous (which is a little concerning)!  It sure does make a difference on stage, though.

Anyway, they both did an amazing job on stage.  It was so fun to watch them up there.  They loved it and I am just so proud of them for getting up on the huge stage in front of SO many people.  This year, being 6 1/2 year olds, they really knew their dances well, and Haley even had a little cartwheel "solo"!

After the recital, we went out for ice cream and then the girls and I stayed downtown to go watch the "big kids" dance recital.  The one they were in is 3-7 year olds and we've never gone to the big kids one.  They LOVED watching the older kids dance, and Haley decided that she really wants to do a solo some day.  So cute!

Let It Go!

As I was putting on a load of laundry just now, I was thinking of what I need to/should do during Seth's nap and the girls' quiet time.  Then I started thinking of the ridiculous number of things that I think I need to/should do each day and it's crazy.  No wonder so many mommies (some days I include myself in this) feel like we are failing!  I consider a day to be from 5:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (although it usually goes later because of the crazy amount of things on my list), and here are all the things that I put on my list:

• make meals for 4 people twice a day and 5 people once a day (making sure everyone is getting a balanced diet with all the nutrients they need)
• clean up all those meals
• go on a run
• spend a little bit of one on one time with each of the kids
• gather, wash, fold and put away laundry
• take care of the garden
• feed the dog
• play with the dog at least a little
• spend time in my Bible
• spend 15 minutes resting (in the middle of the day)
• keep the house tidy
• shower every couple of days
• brush 4 people's teeth twice a day
• floss all those teeth once a day
• keep in touch with friends (email/cards/texting)
• keep the house stocked with all the necesities
• read at least 20 minutes with the kids
• have the girls each read at least one book to me

I'm sure there are so many more, plus there are the tantrums and fights and spills that take up so many minutes of every day!  Anyway, I am getting much better at "letting things go" since I really can't do all of those things every day and still try and have some time to sleep at night!  Oh ya, and I have a hubby who hardly even made the list, but we all know they have needs too!

Last Day of Kindergarten

Alright, let's see if I can get through this post without crying!  Today was Haley and Abby's last day of kindergarten.  I've said this a hundred times today, but I just can't believe it!  I was just crying about their first day of kindergarten.  This year has FLOWN by (as I was driving to school this morning I was thinking that it won't be long before it's Seth's last day of kinder!).  There is something so special about kindergarten, and both Haley and Abby had wonderful teachers and classmates, making for a great year!

First day of kindergarten.

Last day of kindergarten (Abby is really loving to tuck in her shirts...not my favorite phase!)

Abby and the fabulous Ms. Dorrian

Haley with two of her buddies and her wonderful teacher, Ms. Schewe (Shayvee)

Pete The Pirate

We got a dog.  At this point it's been almost three months, but it's still a little crazy to me.  We've been saying "no dogs 'till no diapers" for quite a few years now, and we finally made it to the "no diapers" part!

Seth potty trained last fall, and the kids were pretty quick to start asking for a dog.  Carey and I decided that we wanted a dog that doesn't shed, is medium sized (not so small that the kids can easily carry it, but not so big it makes our house feel small), and is a rescue or someone's pet that they couldn't keep any more.  I was mostly looking on Craigslist, hoping for a standard poodle that someone had to let go.  I also checked the local animal shelters, but they were basically always 90% chihuahuas!

One day, when I was checking on Craigslist, I saw a cute dog named "Pictor Galaxy" that was in a foster home through a rescue organization in San Fransisco.  He was a schnauzer mix and medium size and really cute, so we made a date to go up and meet him.  When we went to meet him, I made the kids wear all black, and any fleece that they had, because I really wanted to make sure he didn't shed (schnauzers don't, but we didn't know about the "mix" part)!  Anyway, he was a keeper, so we took him home and renamed him Pete the Pirate.

When he first came home, he was kind of shut down.  He just stayed in his bed, not really interested in treats or toys.  It was three days before I heard him bark.  After about a week, though, he was used to us and his new home and now is a super happy puppy.  We just finished training (with THE BEST TRAINER) and he's a great, smart, sweet puppy. 

We all love Pete.  The kids will tell you that he really is a pirate, because he loves to steal their stuffed animals and shoes!

This is when we first meet Pete!

The Library (of all places)!

This afternoon we had our worst injury to date.  Of all the fighting and wrestling and jumping and daredeveling my kids do, the injury took place at the public library!

This afternoon, I was planning on picking Abby and Haley up from school and going to the library.  My friend Nicole called and asked if I could pick up her daughter (who is in Haley's class), since her son was still napping.  We planned that I would take her daughter with us and Nicole and her son would meet us at the library when he woke up.

We all checked out our books and were walking out of the library together, trying to wrangle the five kids (between the two of us), our purses, and our bags packed full of freshly checked-out picture books.  Abby was holding a purple, fairy book that she was particularly excited about, and spinning around.  Seth came up behind her, and she spun right into him, whacking him in the face with the book. 

That girly, purple fairy book gave Seth quite a cut on his forehead.  The girls were freaking out, as there was a lot of blood (like any head cut will have!), and I was trying to figure out how bad it was.  Nicole and I decided I should take him to the doctor, since he likely needed stitches.  She took Haley home with her, and Abby, Seth and I headed to the doctor. 

In the car, Abby was just feeling so badly, and Seth was doing that gaspy breathing that comes after crying really hard.  He kept looking at his hand, which was fairly bloody, and saying that he wanted to go home.  I was on the phone with the doctor's office, and couldn't get my blue tooth to connect while I was already talking on the phone.  I decided that if someone pulled me over for talking on my phone, I would just point to the bloody kid in the back of the van and they would let me go on my way!

At the doctor's office, Seth was SO brave (can't quite say the same for Abby) and got all cleaned up and checked out.  The doctor decided that it wasn't so deep that she had to do stitches, and that she would try glue, even though it was a little longer than she would normally like to use glue on.  Oh, and when she was gluing it, I suggested to Abby that she sing Seth a song.  So she started to sing "Jesus Loves Me", which I don't think the doctor liked much, 'cause she told Abby to sing something more "upbeat".  So Abby sang "Deck the halls with jars of jolly...uh, I don't really know the rest"!

So, now Seth is all glued up and not supposed to do any "physical activity", like riding bikes, climbing, jumping on the trampoline, basically any of the things that he spends his days doing...for 2 weeks!  I don't think it's really going to take that long to heal, but we'll see how well we do with books and puzzles and playdough.

I am so thankful that I had picked up Ella and that Nicole was there to give me a second opinion and take Haley home with her.  I'm so thankful that it got Seth's forehead and not his eye.  I'm so thankful that the doctor's office got us in right away.  And I'm so thankful that this little cut is really the Webber kids' worst injury yet.  Oh, and that it all happened at the library, of all places, because that's just funny!

all glued up!