great vacation

We just got back from 3 weeks in Florida. We had the best time.

We drove this year which saved money and a lot of stress. I don't mind being on an airplane but flying with kids is a whole different experience.

We wanted to rent a van but all they had were cars, so we drove non stop in a red Pontiac. It was packed on the way to Florida, but we figured since 90% of our trunk was filled with clothes for my nephew, the ride back would be very comfortable.

We were wrong.

I was proud of myself, though. i went through 7 bags of hand me downs and ended up with 2 vacuum bags of clothes for my girls. That was giving a lot up. My mom, however, is quite the shopper so we were squshedeven moreso on the ride home. I even have a bruise on my leg from sitting next to the cooler in the front seat. We had a loaf of bread and four pack of tomatoes that were casualties as well.

My oldest child insisted that we go to Sea World, so we spent the day their with our parents. It was a good time. The kids loved all the animals and got to feed most of them.

I got to see/hold/babysit my nephew, which i have wanted to do since he was born last year. He has a very laid back temperment, but he is also into everything! When my dad and I babysat for him, i made corn dogs for lunch. I put him in the living room to get them out of the oven, but he was too fast for me. The first time, I couldn't find an oven mitt and he made it back to the kitchen (and near the hot stove) before I could get them out, then the second time I needed a plate... then I finally sat down and he pulled himself up and started grunting and hitting my plate for me to share. I knew my sister gave him food, but i didn't know how big or how much so I was hoping he wouldn't choke.

My youngest niece is still a little wild girl. She is the prettiest thing. She says she's a princess, so when you call her, you have to call her "princess" or whoever else she is going by at the time.

We had their pictures taken at a studio, and that refreshed my reasoning of why I only take snapshots of my children. The three oldest girls were fine, they have already had their days of not doing pictures, but my boy decided after two in which he was being really silly, that he was done, he put on his shoes and got everyone elses and was saying "I'm done with pictures. Lets go. Come on, Mom" and pulling my hand. My niece and nephew would have none of it. They both screamed and cried everytime they were put in front of the camera. I felt bad for my sister but I totally remember being in that position just a few years ago with my own. It certainly gets easier as they get older.

My parents backyard was infested with grasshoppers. Huge, ugly, grashoppers. I went to sit on the swing with my sister, there was one on the canopy, right over my seat. I got on the trampoline with my husband, TWO huge ugly things, just sitting there. The worst was July 4th. My cousin and her family came over, we were sitting around sipping margaritas when someone said "look at that!" looking up into the umbrella over the patio table. Sure enough, huge grasshopper. I moved where it was facing the opposite direction in case it jumped, then a few minutes later it turned and was facing my difrection again. I moved as far away from the table as I could when my dad walked over with the net for the pool. Holy crap. My dad is totally the type that would fling a bug no matter where I happened to be standing. i ran over to the swing only to find a grasshopper on the canopy again. My dad flung the grasshopper into the bushes which was only a small consolation but since I had never actually seen one jump I decided to keep my seat.

I was probably being a little over dramatic but I hate bugs with a passion and had one of those things actually gotten on me, i would not be here writing this blog. I would be in an institution somewhere lol.

My brother in law shot off the fireworks, but we could also see a couple of other shows going on around us. We only had two bottle rockets shoot off into the neighbors yard lol. By the time the show was over, there was only one kid remaining outside, the rest were watching Enchanted in my parents living room.

My little brother was gone for the first week, but when he came back, he acted just like he did last year. He insisted that we play monopoly. My mom bought over half the properties and most had 4 houses on them, so you would land on a spot and she would say "$1100" Andrew and I gave up pretty fast on that game.

A few nights later, my husband and I were playing Scrabble. He comes flying out of nowhere. "I'm playing" great. My husband takes a long time to put down a word, which is pretty normal, but my brother would sit there tapping his feet and swinging his body back and forth waiting to fling down a few titles that didn't even make a word, then insist that we let him keep it on the board. Between the two of them, I was really ready for the game to be over.

It wasn't until I went shopping with my mom that I realized how I've gotten used to doing it alone. I love to shop, but a lot of times I'll go into a store and walk through without looking at anything. My mom likes to look at everything. She kept picking out stuff for me that I could clearly see her wearing, but I wouldn't think twice about. It was difficult because I didn't want to shoot down everything she showed me, but figuring our space in the car I couldn't agree to a lot of stuff I wouldn't wear, either.

I'm also different in that even if I'm shopping for myself, if I don't find anything in my department, I go to the kids clothes or the mens, just to see if I can find any good deals. When I went with other people they kept saying I need to just look for stuff for me and I found that to be a good reason to go alone the next time. hahaha

We got to spend two nights with our friends, which was probably one of the major highlights of the trip. Its a shame we don't have friends out here who will just come over and play cards or have dinner and watch a movie. I've heard many times how people out here are so busy but i don't see the difference, really. Both of the couples we are friends with have multiple children and both the man and woman work...so I don't really get it but thats okay. You can't really replace old friends anyway.