Beach Vacation 2017

This year, we decided to skip the last week of pre-school (such rebels!) and beat the crowd to the beach.  With a total of 11 nights away, this was the longest vacation we'd taken as a family and we enjoyed every minute of it.  (Well, most minutes of it.  Twenty-four hour togetherness with a 2- and 4-year old for 12 days straight does come with a few less than enjoyable moments.)

We were quite the clown car on the road! 

Our first order of business when we got into town was getting Thomas a haircut.  He needed one pretty badly and everyone knows you can't get a haircut right after vacation or you'll be showing off a sweet tanline on your neck.  So I stopped at a Great Clips because what could go wrong when Great is in the name?  

Clippers.  This natural redhead went straight for the clippers and buzzed up the back of his head like we were there to enroll in boot camp.  And then what could I do but let her finish?  So if his hair looks jacked up in every picture from this vacation, here's why.

After the awesome haircut, we went to Target where Matt taught the kids this cool trick where they laid down in the basket and pretended to nap so I didn't have any room in the cart to put anything.  Yeah, right.  Good try, Daddy.  This is the only time I'll wake the kids from their "nap."

Like last year, we invited friends to join us for the week.  Both of my kids count Levi as one of their best friends, so they were both thrilled to have him there to play with.  Levi's little sister, Reed, was toddling around and able to get into more things than she was the year before.  She enjoyed following behind the big kids and they were sweet to try to include her.  

FUN IN THE SAND

We have learned that having buddies for your kids to play with on the beach makes it a little more enjoyable (read: slightly more relaxing) for us parents! This was probably the first year with kids where we were both actually able to sit still and maybe read a page or two of a book while the kids played in the sand beside us.  And it was fun to see the kids enjoy getting in the water a little more this year - they're getting more and more brave with every trip to the beach!

Since our house is not right on the beach, we ride the neighborhood tram down to the beach walkover.  The kids love it - the journey is just as much fun as the destination.

Have you seen those big inflatable couches that are hot right now?  I bought a cheap knockoff version to take with us.  I wouldn't say it was easy breezy to fill up (punny, since you're supposed to use the windy breeze to scoop up air) but we got it done and both kids had to try it out.

I'll admit, even as a cheap knockoff, it was still pretty dang comfortable to lay on.  

That is, until...a giant wave came and swept me off the shore and into the water.  Laura managed to catch me sliding into the water on camera; I'm just glad she didn't get the shot of me completely tumping over into it!

MAKING A SPLASH

Even with the beach being a big hit this year, we still squeezed in some time at the big community pool and the splash pad.  

You can't leave for the pool until you're properly dressed and accessorized.

When going swimming, you've gotta make sure you stop for plenty of snacks.

And after playing in the splash pad, you have to spend some time out in the grassy yard perfecting your rolling-down-hills technique.  It helps to get Mrs. Laura to show you how it's done.  :)

We officially brought the redneck to 30A when the kids needed to potty and I let them strip down and go by the fence.  But really, can you blame me?  Who likes to clean up wet foot prints through the house?

OUT AND ABOUT

We spent a fair amount of time exploring Seacrest, Seaside, and Rosemary.  We even managed to eat out a couple times with our whole party of eight.  And, because we were on vacation, we stopped for lots of ice cream!  (Also, there were lots of matching outfits.  But you already knew that, right?)

Matt and I took the bigger kids to paint pieces of pottery one day.  It was so fun and their platters turned out so cute!  The colors are much brighter and more vibrant after it's fired in the kiln and topped with glaze.

AROUND THE HOUSE

Quick story - we had this doodle board at the house that the kids took turns drawing on.  Thomas had had it for a while when I felt a tug on my shorts and heard, "Look, Mommy.  I drew a sun!"  I gave him the standard mom response, "uh-huh," and kept doing whatever it was I was doing.  But when I looked over and caught a glimpse of his drawing, I squealed loud enough to scare everyone in the house.  Y'all, he had drawn a legit sun!  All by himself!  I know, that's like the easiest thing ever to draw but it was his first picture to draw where you could actually recognize the object.  I was so dang proud of him.  And just look at that big goofy grin on his face.  I had a matching one on mine.  

I've said it before and I'll say it again, they're sweetest when they're sleeping.  Post-beach, post-shower, pre-clothes naps are the best.

We were all super sad on the dreaded morning our friends had to leave.

We stayed for a just a couple more days after they left, but it just wasn't as much fun.  We're already looking forward to going back...hopefully in the fall!

Date Night at the Viking Cooking School

The eighth wedding anniversary is traditionally celebrated with bronze or pottery.  Matt took those recommendations and turned them into a fantastic weekend getaway for us!  We drove to Greenwood, MS to have massages at The Alluvian Hotel and Spa and to attend a cooking class at The Viking Cooking School.  His thinking was we'd use bronze/copper pots in the cooking class (a bit of a stretch - I think they were actually stainless steel) and on our way home, we drove through Merigold, MS to pick up a new piece of pottery from McCarty's Pottery.  It was really nice to get away for a couple nights and enjoy getting to hang out with each other without having to referee kids in between sentences!

I don't have pictures from our whole weekend, but I took several from our cooking class because it was so much fun! 

Most of you know that I am definitely NOT a cook.  Matt is the head chef at our house.  But I can get into it when wine is served and it's more of a party!  (Or when you secretly make it a contest to make sure your food turns out better than the other teams...)

Here is Matt caramelizing the apples that would go on our salad.

Our tied-up tenderloin is ready to cook!  And my always-in-charge husband allowed me to flip the shrimp skewers...under his watchful eye.  :)

Cooking together!  He probably wishes this happened more often at home. 

If you've never attended a cooking class, it works like this:  the class of 12 is divided up into three groups of four and each group prepares the same menu.  There is a center cooking table where the instructor gives details for each step and then you turn to your cooking area to do it yourself.  Once everything has been cooked, the instructors plate it and serve it for dinner.  Each group eats the meal that they cooked.

Here we are, ready to dig in!

Our meal started with a salad of mixed greens, pistachios, and candied apples topped with a homemade champagne vinaigrette.  On the side were grilled rye and brie cheese sandwiches. This was not really the part I was looking forward to but ended up being so delicious!  In fact, I may request it for dinner again tomorrow night. 

I forgot to take a picture of the main course until I'd eaten half of it.  We had cheesy broccoli souffle, chateaubriand (beef tenderloin) with bernaise sauce, and glazed prosciutto-wrapped shrimp.  It was fantastic!  

We finished the dinner off with chocolate creme brulee and fresh raspberries - my favorite!

It was a weekend trip to remember and I'll be ready to do it again next year...hint, hint.  :)

Atlanta Bound!

In early winter, we were passed down some clothes for Thomas, and included with them was a full set of snow gear - bibs, coat, and boots - in pristine condition.  Then, for Christmas, both kids were given a new suitcase designed especially for airport travel.  So what do you do when you have a snowsuit + airport suitcases?  You fly to snow, of course!

It might take a day or two to convince your husband that this trip is necessary (you can't waste a perfectly good snowsuit, amiright??!), but once he gives in, you tell the kids and get them excited!  And because they have no sense of "three more weeks," you make a countdown chain to help know how much longer til it's time to ride on the airplane.  For ours, I drew an airplane for the top and added one loop for each day until vacay time.  We tore off one loop each night after bath.

We were all super excited when it was finally time to tear off the last loop!!

Technically, this was Katie Wynn's second time to fly, but since she was only 2 months old for her first flight, we called this the first one for both of them.  And I documented all of it.  Their new suitcases passed the carry-on size check!

Their Trunki suitcases were the perfect size for a weekend's worth of clothes - including their snow gear.  These suitcases are designed to be ridden on.  Each one has a curved top for the child to sit on and two knobs/horns on front for them to hold on to.  They have a strap that can be used to pull the suitcase, and you can hook them together to make a train (that's what we did!).  

They LOVED riding on them; Thomas especially loved being in the back.  We got lots of looks and smiles from everyone we passed.  They made our time in the airport so much fun!

But even fun suitcases can't compete with big airplanes outside the window.  Naturally, they were fascinated by them.  

We were split up in twos so Katie Wynn and I sat together and the boys were two rows behind us.  Both kids did SO well on our [short] flight.  

The Atlanta airport provided more entertainment as they also got to ride their first "train" (airport tram).  

While we rode, we did our best to quickly teach them proper pole dancing techniques.  

Our objective for our weekend away was to focus on the kids, do what they wanted to do, and be spontaneous!  And that's how we ended up on an overpriced ferris wheel shortly after checking into our hotel.  Since it was lunchtime on a Friday, we pretty much had the ride to ourselves.  We counted three different employees napping on the job, which is probably why we went around approixmately 72 times.  Got our money's worth, I guess.

We ate at a fun pizza place for lunch.  Katie Wynn took our pictures! 

On our walk back to the hotel, we found an awesome playground that the kids wanted to play on, so we did. 

A conveyor belt slide!

Our Friday evening was a little bit of a dud.  After the kids woke up from late naps, we were ready to do some exploring but found that all the kid-friendly places we wanted to go were getting ready to close.  Whomp, whomp.  We spent an hour or so at an arcade place that the kids were too little for, and then had an early dinner at Johnny Rockets, where the ketchup is served in a smiley face.  

We were back early at our hotel and whether or not it had a pool, I don't even know.  I didn't bother looking since I didn't think to pack their swimsuits.  But you don't need swimsuits to "swim" in the bathtub for a while.  

Early the next morning, we bundled up in our snow gear and headed out for the main reason we chose Atlanta as our vacation destination - Snow Mountain! 

Snow Mountain is the winter attraction at Stone Mountain just outside Atlanta.  

In the winter, they make real snow and have a big play area for kids and big slides that you ride down in innertubes.  We had a two hour pass for the slides but had time to hit the play area first before our pass started.  

Thomas was too little to do the individual slides, but he was able to do the big family ride with us.  I am shocked that they let little kids do this, but I guess it's because you can hold them.  If you look past Matt in the right picture below, there is a steep drop off at the beginning of the ride and you FLY down it!  I won't lie, I was a little nervous.  

Katie Wynn and I went down one of the other slides in a double innertube and then we sat with Thomas so Matt could do it too.  We didn't spend much time on the slides since T couldn't do them and KW was scared, but I'm glad we gave them a try!  

Weather-wise, we were there on the perfect day.  It was cool in the morning when we got there, but by after lunch time, we could take off our coats and play in the sun.  The crowds were not bad either since it was the second-to-last weekend for the seasonal attraction.  

The snow was an awesome texture that you could pack together.  I've never gotten to play in snow like that since we mostly get ice here!  There were lots of sand toys for kids to play with so we made a little snow castle to surround our snowman.    

Over in the kids' zone, there were two smaller slides.  It took us forever to convince Katie Wynn to try it and once she finally did, there was no stopping her!  I think she went down it about 25 times.  Thomas could not be convinced, although I did plop him on an innertube and sent him down screaming once.  

There was a fun board you could throw snowballs at that was more up Thomas's alley.  I included the picture on the right below to show you his first throw.  Do you see where his snowball is? 

His aim got better and he threatened to pelt me with snowballs!

The other slide in the kids' zone used a sled.  We tried to get Thomas to ride on it with Katie Wynn but it didn't work.  

He was perfectly content standing at the top and watching her go down.  

We left Snow Mountain in time to take good afternoon naps at the hotel.  That afternoon/evening, we visited the Atlanta Aquarium.  We arrived there just as the last Dolphin Show of the day was about to start and were able to get some of the last seats.  I couldn't take pictures during it but it was SO fun to watch the dolphins do all of their tricks!

Albino alligator...who knew?

Our walk to find dinner was way too long in chilly weather - we should've done more research for that.  But we finally made it to a pizza place that didn't have an hour long wait and it turned out to be worth the long walk.  The kids especially loved getting to color on the paper table cloth.  

Our trip was a short and sweet one.  We were up at the crack of dawn on Sunday to head back to the airport to head home.  

Isn't this the cutest?!?

We switched partners for the flight home so I got to travel with my little buddy.  He got antsy so I was thankful for the Wooly Willy game I had in my purse! The flight attendant gave Katie Wynn her own set of wings to wear.

Heading for luggage pickup after another safe flight!

Our flight was so early Sunday morning that we actually made it back into town in time to attend church!  Needless to say, we all took a good afternoon nap that day.  Next year, I hope we can make it to Snow Mountain before Christmas because I hear they decorate with lots of lights and project Christmas movies up on the stone mountain.  Sounds fun!

Fall Vacation

We took a ride down to our beach house in Florida to spend a few days before Thanksgiving.  It's such a great time to be there...it's not hot but also not cold, there are hardly any crowds but most places haven't completely shut down for the winter yet, and bonus - the outlet mall starts it's Black Friday sales the weekend before so we can knock out some good Christmas shopping.

We're getting pretty good at the drive down there.  What we've found works best is to pick the kids up from school/daycare, have a quick dinner, give them baths and put them in pjs, and then hit the road.  They usually watch a movie and then are sound asleep until we get to the hotel that's about 2/3 of the way there.  They get a little bit riled up when we get to the hotel but within an hour we're all settled down and in bed asleep.

We take our time in the morning getting ready and enjoying breakfast at the hotel.  We've even been known to take a dip in the indoor pool before hitting the road.  With just three hours left in our drive, we usually roll into town just in time for lunch.  This trip was no exception.  We stopped in Seaside at Bud & Ally's Pizza and the weather was PERFECT.  We sat outside on their patio and had a delicious lunch.  

So very thankful for these two cuties!

It was a great day to walk around and enjoy the little town.

On vacation, we have ice cream by the pool before taking a nap!

Now, for me, the highlight of this quick trip was the next morning when Mom and I took the kids to Fired Up Seaside to paint some pottery.  The guys were playing golf and it was slightly overcast so it seemed like a good way to spend the morning.  We were thrilled to have the place to ourselves!  I had never done anything like this before and it was right up my alley.  I would even go back without the kids somtime! :)

First we had to paint the backgrounds of our pieces three times, drying it with the hairdryer in between coats.

I picked them each a design that was kid-friendly so they could do most of it themselves.  For Katie Wynn's platter, we made our family into reindeer using our thumb prints.  It was a good thing we had the place to ourselves since Thomas screamed through me dipping his thumb in the paint.  Poor guy doesn't like having his hands dirty.

Thomas just had to fill the bottom of his Christmas tree bowl with paint chips that would get melted down once it was fired.

I helped Katie Wynn with the details on the reindeer, but she really did a lot of it herself.  She did so great!  Later she and I alternated doing polka dots around the edge.

Both kids were proud of their pieces!  And I was proud of them!

Here are their pieces before and after going into the kiln and being glazed.  I LOVE them and am so excited to have them out every Christmas!  

On this trip, we only spent a total of about 15 minutes at the beach.  

Other than a pretty full day of shopping, I honestly don't know where the rest of our time on this trip went.  It always seems to fly right by!  At some point we went swimming...

...and my favorite people did some pretty cute hand holding.

We woke up to a cold snap on our last day there so it was a good thing we had packed our cozy sweatshirts!

Thomas rocked the static look on our journey back home.

Every trip to and from our beach house, we pass this really cool old school house.  At least, that's what I call it.  I have no idea what it originally was.  And every time I ooh and ahh over it and say I want to move it to our town.  When we passed it on our drive home, I said, "One of these days I want to stop and look at that building."  Matt said, "Why not now?"  And so we turned around and did just that.  Mark my words, this will be mine one day.  (In my dreams, anyway.)

I am so glad we stopped because it is so much cooler and so much BIGGER in person than when just whizzing past in your car.  And, it's actually still in use.  Some men's prayer group uses it weekly, or at least that's how I interpreted their sign.  The doors all have new locks on them (yep, I tried to go in).  And because of how it's built up, the windows are way too high to see into.  I was able to sit on Matt's shoulders and see inside the windows on the far left (around the corner in the picture above).  Gah!  I seriously LOVE this building!!

So now I spend a lot of time daydreaming about where I would put the building and what I would do about it.  Of course, there are small details to work out like who I could buy it from, how much it would cost, and how the heck I'd move it approximately seven hours away.  Like I said, small details.  Anyone ever move a building before?  How much does that cost?  I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the sign so I could look up some contact info...

We made it back in time for Thanksgiving.  I'll be writing an update on the rest of our month of November next!

A Weekend at the Lake

There is a big, beautiful lake about three-ish hours from where we live and it's THE place to go in the summertime.  Lots of people in our area have lake houses near it and call it their second home.  We don't have a house there but everyone in my family has visited it with friends at some point...except me.  Yep, I've lived here and heard about this lake and fun boating stories my whole life and have never even been!

Until now.

Two weeks ago the friends that went to the beach with us invited our family and two other families to join them at the lake for the weekend.  To most people, one house full of 8 adults and seven kids aged three and under would sound like a nightmare, but we had SO much fun!  And it helped that it was an enormous, 8-bedroom house.  :)

One of the homeowners, Laura, had to work late on Friday so she couldn't leave as early as everyone else.  I volunteered to hang back and wait for her while Matt went ahead with her husband, Justin, and three of our four kids.  (Their baby, Reed, rode with Laura and me.)  The other families went early too.  Laura and I didn't arrive until almost 10pm that night so we missed out on dinner and that night's festivities.  This picture that was texted to us, though, shows that the kids made quick work of messing up the playroom!

As Laura and I were getting close, we were sent this picture of the Daddies reading bedtime stories.  So sweet!  And we were excited about the kids already being in bed when we arrived, ha!  :)

My excitement was premature because it ended up being the worst night of sleep for Matt and me!  More so him than me.  Our kids just would NOT go. to. sleep.  We ended up splitting them up with me being with Katie Wynn in one room and Matt and Thomas sleeping in another.  Matt said Thomas didn't fall asleep until close to midnight and even then, it wasn't good sleep.  I think they were just too excited about spending a weekend with their buddies.

A bad night of sleep didn't keep the kids from waking up in the 6 o'clock hour!  Poor Matt - even when he feels like a zombie, the kids still flock to him.  They surrounded him for breakfast that morning.  :)

The plan for Saturday was to spend the whole day out on the water, and that's exactly what we did!  I'll be honest, I was a little unsure how having 15 people together on one boat all day long could be fun, but my worries were for nothing.  The boat was plenty big enough for all of us and everyone - the kids especially - had a great time out on the water.  

Here we are pulling out of the boat slip.  We had barely even been on the boat for five minutes and you can see my child has already pulled out the first bag of snacks.  The treats they got to eat may have been one reason they thought boating was so much fun...

These four are partners in crime!  They have all been in daycare and Sunday School together for the last couple of years and will start preschool together this fall.  From left to right - Katie Wynn, Levi, Addi Clare, and Mason.  

After riding around to find the perfect spot, we finally anchored down so the kids could jump out and swim.  Can you believe my child - the shy, clingy one that is timid about everything and had never even seen a lake before - was the first one to jump into the water!?  I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes.

And again!

She was so brave.  I have just been blown away over and over with how much she loves jumping into the water.  Her favorite part is going under!  I think she would've jumped and jumped and jumped all day until she absolutely had no energy left to do it anymore.  In fact, this love of jumping off the boat caused a teeny, tiny bit of a meltdown (read: it was the worst meltdown to date...nonstop screaming and crying because she couldn't be the "first" to jump off every single time and had to wait her turn...we had to swim way out into the water to get her loud screams away from the group...it was epic...and embarrassing....and it's a wonder our friends even still talk to us).  So we're embracing her love of the water while also now working on taking turns with our friends.  

This guy?  Not jumping off the boat.  And not handing over that paci.

Once  we made it past the meltdown of all meltdowns, all the kids and Dads had fun swimming in the lake and jumping off the boat!

Thomas finally made it in with a little prodding.  No jumping, though.  He was carefully handed down to his daddy!

Here's proof that even Mama got in the water!  (I mean, everyone's gotta have a potty break at some point, right?)

On-board was a real snoozefest.  ;)

After lunch on the boat, Mr. Justin blew up the big raft so we could go tubing!  He was nice enough to let Katie Wynn and Addi Clare go first.  Good call on his part so we could avoid another meltdown - especially since at this point, we were officially skipping nap time.

Again, I'm blown away that she did it, let alone went first!  Who is this child?!

The boys watched and patiently waited their turn.

Mr. Justin, Levi, and Mason were more daring and went fast!

Poor Thomas is stuck in the middle of all the kids.  He's a year behind the "big" kids and two years older than the babies.  He tried hard to hang all day with the three-year-olds but just couldn't keep up.  The afternoon caught up with him and he finally fell asleep in my lap.  And he cracked me up the whole time.

Before calling it day on the lake, we tried for a picture of all seven kids together.  (By the way, in one more week it will be EIGHT kids instead of 7...Addi Clare's little brother is almost here!)

Levi and baby Reed win the award for cutest pictures of the day!

I didn't take a single picture the rest of Saturday.  We got back to the lake house and bathed the kids before having a huge feast for dinner!  Cheese and sausage plate, grilled chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob, and on and on.  Oh, and Paula Deen's banana pudding.  Our kids made up for their horrible night of sleep the previous night by crashing early and sleeping soundly all night.  I accidentally fell asleep while putting Katie Wynn to bed so if anything fun happened later that night, I missed it.  :)

The swimsuits went back on Sunday morning.  And some upside down sunglasses for Thomas.

This picture of Katie Wynn (at right) is probably my favorite one from the trip.  When I look at it, I can almost hear her belly laugh.  She was laughing at Thomas and his silliness and was just in the best mood.  This is what joy looks like to me. 

Have I mentioned on here how much Thomas loves Levi?  Like, he kinda idolizes him.  Ever since "my Levi" (as he's called by Thomas) went to the beach with us, we've been able to use Levi as a way to get Thomas to do things.  "Well, Levi wears sunscreen so you better put yours on too."  "Levi wears a hat on his head, don't you want to wear yours?"  It's pretty cute to watch Thomas watch Levi and also quite handy to use when he doesn't want to do something. :)  Of course I loved it that they were dressed similarly on Sunday.  And who knew wearing a cap backwards could make Thomas look like he's ready for college??

Instead of going back out on the boat, we took the kids over to the swimming area to wear them out before the drive back home that afternoon.  

As I posted on Instagram that day, "You know your Mom owns an embroidery machine when, even at the lake, you're rocking three different monograms."  No such thing as too many monograms, right?

We let the kids swim and play for a couple hours before returning to the house for baths, lunch, and packing up.  Our ride home was pretty smooth sailing since three of the four of us took awesome naps.  Thank goodness Matt stayed awake behind the wheel!

HUGE thank you to Laura and Justin for inviting us to the lake for such a fun weekend!  You were awesome hosts and we had such a wonderful time!  Now that my first trip to the lake is in the books, I'm ready to do it again.  Maybe we need a lake house of our own......