Family Vacation 2015 - Day 7 - Finally got ice cream!

This is going be a short post since I have to wake up at 5:00 am tomorrow to go to Walt Disney World and it's currently 11:53 pm. Tomorrow is gonna be a magical day. A long day. Hopefully a day filled with fun and adventure. But, I will give you all the scoop on how that goes at end of day tomorrow, and I think that will be a long post. But you can pray for us and Matt and Erin and our families for safety, good attitudes (from all of us), good weather, and a great time :) thanks. 

But now for today...

Today was one of those vacation days that just fly by. This seems to happen far too often on vacation. It usually takes about 3 days to actually forget about work and relax. In this case it took 6 days, and there's a problem with that... All I can think about is the trip back. I try not to dwell on that and just enjoy the here and now. Enjoy having talks with my wife without all the stress of work and schedules. Enjoy playing with my daughter in the pool and watching her interact with her cousins. Enjoy holding my son and watching him smile at me, or gas bubbles, who knows. But, from what I'm finding out, these moments go by way too fast, like days on a vacation, and I need to make sure I soak 'em up. 

We pretty much just relaxed all morning. No pool. No beach. Just played inside and enjoyed the A/C. There was talk of going into Old Town of St Augustine, but plans changed. After lunch we got some naps and both kids actually slept at the same time!! I got to read and Melody got to watch her HGTV shows :) That was excellent :) 

We made hot dogs, cheddar wursts, and Mac n cheese for dinner and then all headed out to go shopping. We just meandered around the outlets and got Rylynn some new swimsuits. Then, finally, we had ice cream!! It was not nearly enough but I was happy to get that Hershey's Choco Mint Chip goodness in me. 

We headed home and got ready for our big day tomorrow. Made sure the car seats would all fit in the van. Got the bag ready for an all day adventure. Informed my parents on how to care for Denver all day. Which is just awesome that they are willing to do that for us and we are sooooo thankful for them and Ryan and Mollie and their willingness to help us out :) One thing that was another blessing was we found two strollers at the beach house we are staying at. One is a two seater and the other a one seater. Just what we all needed to not have to rent strollers from Disney World. That was quite a last minute blessing discovery :) 

Now we are ready to go and ready for bed. 

Thoughts on today- I really need to try and think about each moment. It's not that long that we get to be in this stage of parenting. Yes, it's hard. But there are so many things that make it an amazing experience. It's hard not to focus on the negative and my prayer would be that I would be more patient and optimistic as I continue to learn this parenting thing.

 

See ya soon Mickey!!!

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 6 - A Support System is Key

Today finally felt like a day to relax. It's hard to recap your day when it feels like you didn't do much, which is a good thing. 

It started off a little rough when the baby woke up at 6:30 and decided to stay up. I was obligated to take him upstairs since I wasn't the one you had to get up through the night and feed him. But, Matt and his four year old daughter, Maddie, were already up and playing, which I guess means I can look forward to at least another four years of getting up at the buttcrack of dawn on vacations. 

Once Melody and Rylynn woke up we had breakfast. Waffles! Mmm. And then Rylynn, Jordyn, and Maddie all played while we just hung out, 

until about 10:30 when we hit the pool. At one point we were ALL in the pool, except for Mollie, sleeping the day away. Oh, to not have children... 

It's interesting how long children can play in a pool and not get bored. They will just go on and on and on until you drag them away screaming so they can eat lunch. You tell them that they have to eat lunch, but they don't care. And really, you might not either, because YOU want lunch, because you're starving, because you had breakfast at 6:30 am, because they decided to get up at that time. But, you can't just leave a two year old bobbing around in the pool, even with Frozen-themed floaties, just so you can go have some fine Kraft cheesy cuisine in peace. Parenting is all about forgetting what you want and doing what your kids need, which usually is not what they want, which makes it even harder. 

After lunch we had our naps. I took a short nap so that I could get some more of my hilarious book read, Tina Fey's Bossypants. I had just settled into the couch to read when Mollie and Ryan came in and decided to watch Psych on TV. Reading is fun. But watching TV is just easier, and I'm all about relaxation efficiency. After too short of a time, Denver woke up, so I hung out with him for a little bit. It's nice when you're at family events because you never have to fully deal with the baby. Usually there's at least one other person who wants to take them off your hands for you, which can be a real attitude saver. Anyway, so between me and other members of my family we were able to keep Denver content until Melody woke up and was able to feed him again. 

Now it was about that time when its too close to supper to start a major activity with the kids. For that reason, you're left with trying to entertain a 2,4, and 5 year old for an hour without getting wet, dirty, sandy, changed or ice cream. Luckily, family is here again to come up with interesting ideas. Mollie came up with some ball game that, in the end, resulted in much weeping and gnashing of teeth. But, the girls enjoyed it long enough that we got to dinner. 

For dinner we had a fiesta! Taquitos, tortilla chips, salsa and bean dip, and pineapples. Taquitos are way too easy to eat and I'm glad I didn't keep count of how many I ate, because that would be depressing. I don't know what it is about parents eating, but infants know! They can't figure out not to scratch their eyeballs with their fingernails, but they KNOW when their parents are about to eat, and that means it's time to need to be held. It would be okay if you could sit down and hold them and eat with your other hand, but they would prefer you to stand. So now you're standing and enjoying your endless stream of taquitos. But, again, family steps in and offers to hold my baby so I can eat, and I'm back to being a happy person :) 

Later on, we went to the beach so we could play bocce and the kids could get sandy again. Everyone had a good time. Especially Erin. She must be on a secret, underground professional bocce team. She whooped us! We played a total of three games, and she played in two of those games, and she won both times she played! Ryan's Reviews And Ramblings will be the first sponsor for Erin Lehman when she goes pro!! 

Then it was back to the house for some more swimming in the pool and then bedtime for the kiddos. The adults played games together and the laughter rarely stopped. 

Thoughts on the day- it's such a blessing to have family that are there to help you as a parents. Our support system has been so key to raising our children, I have no idea what we would be able to do without them. Thank you all!! 

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 5 - Late to bed and early to rise

Days on vacation are long. They start early and end late. Sometimes way too late. There's a few reasons why this happens. For some people, mostly older people, they want to get the most out of their day. It's breakfast and coffee at 6 and then 18 hours later, when everyone is going to bed, they're wondering who wants to play Rook. I think I'm doing pretty good when I get up at 8! But then my parents get back from the beach after watching the sunrise. My theory is more along the lines of...  If I want to see the sunrise, Google has some great images I can check out.
Another reason the days can be long is from kids. It's hard to get the kids to bed at a decent bed time on vacation. They're jacked up on fruit snacks and want to play and swim nonstop. That leaves us with very limited time to do anything for ourselves after the time they are both in their beds and out of our hair. And it doesn't matter how late you put the kids to sleep, they'll wake up before you want them to. You got to be very careful. I've learned to sneeze into my pillow anytime after 5:00 am if I want to sleep any more. If I can't find anything to muffle my sinus spasm than I'm sure to hear a "bessooh dadda" and then I know I'm up for good. 
But, no matter how much sleep you get or don't get, vacations can be tiring. I always like to have a day after I get back from vacation just to relax at home. And then I think "I could have saved a lot of money if I would have just relaxed here at home this whole time". Honestly, I would hate to get back from vacation and have to jump right onto work the next day. I need that vacation - - > real life buffer day, or I'll have real-life culture shock. 
I say all this because I was up at 6 this morning and it is currently 1:15 when I'm writing this. That's a long day. But we had lots of fun. Got to go to the beach before lunch. Rylynn loved playing with the sand toys with her cousins and laughing hysterically when a wave would push her.

Later, much like a pack mule, I loaded the chair, umbrella, backpack, towels, and toddler onto myself and walked back to the house for lunch. Im always amazed at how much I can carry when I'm trying to avoid two trips. Same thing with groceries. We could buy 18 bags of groceries, and it's only 20 yards to our front door, but I HAVE to get it in one trip! 

Anyways, got some lunch back at the house. Spaghetti O's and grilled cheese. Rylynn was almost asleep before we could even get food in her mouth, but we made it through lunch and afterwards her and momma both got their naps.
After naps it was playtime immediately. Waste no time. And the cousins played til dinner while me and Matt purchased tickets for our families to go to Walt Disney World on Wednesday!!

For dinner we had some amazing lasagna roll ups that Ryan and Mollie made. I had more than my allotted amount. Sh. Don't tell!

Then we hung out, planned a little for our day at Disney and played games til 12:45. You never know what to expect with our family. There was about a ten minute discussion about how well the upstairs toilet seat fit to everybody's rumps, which involved fully clothed adults taking a try and giving their 5 second review. That's what I love about our families. We get on such obscure topics and it is just a never ending line of jokes.

Thoughts of the day -  It was worth the drive :)  

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 4 - Finally There!!!

We made it!! Finally!!! 

Today we started our vacation. Yes, we technically started on Wednesday night, but that was all just the journey to get to the vacation. Now we are here and we can start relaxing, as much as young parents can. But first, let's take a quick look at our day...

We woke up and got our free breakfast again and left the hotel. I never know if the breakfast is free or the hotel is free with a really expensive breakfast. Hmm. I guess we'll never know. 

Anyway, we were on our way to Hunting Island Beach. It's a State Park, which basically means it's a park that you have to pay to go in. But, this one did have a beach, so it was worth it. The drive to the beach area was beautiful. I don't know if they planned it to be this way or not, but the road makes you wind around trees and bushes like you're navigating through a dense jungle. 

The beach was pretty nice too. Very wide and flat and you could see how far the water had come up at high tide, and it was almost the whole way to the beach access. Me and Rylynn played in the water while Melody and Denver sweated together in a chair. 

She was having a great time, but Melody and her sweaty sidekick were ready to go. We packed back up and got to the car around lunch time and tried to decide where to go while Melody nursed Denver. 

We ended up at the Smoking Planks in Port Royal. We had tried to go there the night before, but they were closed. We both got pulled pork and Rylynn got some mac and cheese. Mine was actually a pulled pork Reuben, and it was quite good. Especially dipped with their BBQ sauces :) 

Back in the car we went to head to our final destination. We loaded the baby up with milk in hopes that we could tackle the last 3 hr 20 min leg of the course in one fell swoop. HA! The kids must've read all the good things I said about them yesterday and decided that shouldn't happen again. It was a headache for sure. I didn't count, but I'm pretty sure I heard the word "momma" a bazillion times, give or take. We had to stop half way though because we only had "cookies" and not "snacks" so Rylynn wasn't happy, which woke up Denver, who wasn't happy, which made mommy and daddy not happy. 

We exited the highway and found an abandoned gas station to pull into and feed Denver. Melody sat in the back seat to nurse him, and, to give her more room, I took the infant carrier out and put it on the ground outside the car, then grabbed Rylynn and we went for a walk to stretch. We ran around a little bit and then got back in the car because we were boiling to death. Melody wasn't done feeding Denver, so I thought we could just drive to the quick mart right across the road and grab some snacks, and use the bathroom, and change Rylynns diaper. We proceeded across the parking lot, crossed the road, and parked in the next parking lot, all while Melody nursed. No big deal though. I don't think we even went 3 mph. I took Rylynn in and into to the bathroom to change her. 

Grossest. 

Bathroom. 

Ever. 

It was terrible. We walked out and I was just gonna have to change her in the car. But, I was surprised on my walk back to the car by a stranger in a red car who pulled up to me. 

"Excuse me" he said. 

"Yes?" I responded with confusion.

"I think you left your car seat in the parking lot"

Then it hit me... I had never put Denver's car seat back in the car after taking it out for Melody. Somehow, this guy had seen that I had taken it out, left it there, and then tracked me down at the next place to let me know I forgot it. I mean, we would've found out soon enough, but I thought that was pretty awesome that guy took the time. That guy is awesome! And I'm forgetful! 

After that it went okay. Melody stayed in the back with the kids and entertained Rylynn til we finally got to the house. My parents, my sister Mollie and her husband Ryan were already there and my other brother, Matt, and his wife, Erin, and their two girls, Jordyn and Maddie, arrived shortly after. We all got settled in, went swimming while we waited an hour and ten minutes for our pizza to be ready, ate, and then hung out a bit. It's so great to be with family. We are so blessed to be in such a great family that we can all laugh and have a good time together, and our kids just LOVE to play together. It was truly a great time. Although, I did leave out that Denver nursed 3 times in that short amount of time. We call it his evening feeding frenzy. Usually between 7-9 pm he doesn't want to stop eating. Ever. 

By this time I was already pretty worn out from the day, but we still had to get groceries. I went to the store and my parents came too. I got my stuff, took it out to the car and waited for them. While I was waiting, my faith in human kind dropped significantly. I watch a lady load up her car and then take her cart across the parking lot and ram it into a curb directly behind another parked vehicle, causing it to be in the way of that vehicle. The worst part is, if she would've walked that same distance in a different direction, she would have been at the cart parking place!! I don't understand people like this! How can you just push a shopping cart to block a car from pulling out of a parking space and just leave? I don't understand. But, the cart wrangler came around and grabbed it eventually. And then my parents came. Then we went home and I got waaay too out of breath carrying groceries up two flights of steps :/ But, melody had already put the kids to bed, so I gave her a kiss and went to get in bed with this bed hog... 

She makes up for it with her cuteness, so it's all good. 

My thoughts on the day- I'm so tired. Goodnight. 

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 3 - Travel Day

Today was travel day. A long travel day. We got up and had our free breakfast and started packing up to leave. It's amazing how much luggage two adults, a toddler, and and infant can have. It doesn't help that we have to keep hauling a week and half's worth of clothes in and out of the car for just one night in a hotel. Anyway, we got on the road at 10:11and after that... Everything went great. Honestly, it could not have been a better traveling day. I kept waiting for something bad to happen... And it didn't. Well, except for a little issue at lunch. It was a minor issue, but I got to put this in here just for principle. What is up with restaurants NOT having changing tables in the bathroom!? What are we supposed to do? Change them on your filthy floors? Let me know which day of the year you decide to clean your bathroom floor so I can come and have a clean surface to lay my child on! Seriously though! I had to change Rylynn standing up in the stall. It is hard to take pee-soaked clothes off of a crying toddler (again crying because of the loud hand dryers) and then proceed to put a new diaper on and dry clothes, all with the toddler standing. How hard can it possibly be to screw a folding piece of plastic to a wall so that my child doesn't get hepatitis from your floor?!

Anywho... We drove for about two hours and it worked out so that we were able to stop for lunch (again, thanks Wendy's for not investing in a changing table), fuel, and to feed Denver all at the same time, which was amazing. Then we drove another 3 hours and, right when Denver was waking up to eat, we entered South Carolina and we were able to stop at the welcome center and use the bathroom and feed Denver and run around a bit to let off some energy. Then it was back on the road for another 3 hours til we finally met our destination of Beaufort, SC. 

Yes, we ended up in Beaufort instead of Charleston. Since we are last minute planners, and the fact that we did not consider the amount of people that would be in Charleston for the historic event of taking down the Confederate Flag, there were no hotels available. Plus, after much consideration, we decided that it might not be the best time to try and have a leisure and relaxing time in Charleston with all that's currently going on. 

Since we didn't have a whole lot going on at the time, Melody was able to search for another place to stay. We had already been to Savannah, GA and Hilton Head was too expensive. She came across this island town near Hilton Head called Beaufort that actually had hotels we could afford. Plus, that would only leave about a 3 and a half hour trip the next day to finish our journey to St Augustine. 

Now, back to the driving part... Like I said... It couldn't have gone better. We were pretty worried since we didn't have a TV in our car that this much sitting and traveling with a toddler would be horrendous. But we purchased a few new toys right before the trip and slowly introduced her to them throughout the trek. That, and about a billion stickers, kept her pretty content the majority of the ride :) 

It also helped that Denver slept the entire time! We really couldn't believe it. He would wake up to eat, and then right back to sleep. That was truly a blessing from God. Trying to drive that far with these two kids could have been enormously worse, and we are thanking God for that right now. Also, running around and playing hide and seek at the rest stop helps :) 

We arrived at our hotel in Beaufort at about 6:30. Got settled in and asked the concierge where a good place to eat would be. She suggested a place called Dockside. So we got the kids ready and headed that way as soon as we could, which was 7:45. Fifteen minutes later we were there and the parking lot was packed! It was a gorgeous view across the swampy, marsh area with some large sail boats docked there, and we could smell the water as soon as we got out of the car. We were excited :) We gave the hostess our names and she politely told us it would be about an hour til we were seated. So, quick recap... We ate lunch at 12:00 and now we were gonna wait an hour to order dinner at 9:00. That's not a good plan. We decided not to stay. We were really disappointed we couldn't eat there but we were trying to stay positive. There was a seafood restaurant directly adjacent to our hotel called Gilligans Seafood Restaurant that got mediocre reviews, but since nothing else was open, we headed there. One upside was that on our way to Dockside we went through a quaint little town called Port Royal with shops and restaurants that we decided we definitely wanted to visit the next morning :) 

Pulling into Gilligans we were a little skeptical. It looked a little run-down and outdated, but we were out of options. But, just like He had all day, God provided for us again. We were seated at a booth with an aquarium on the side, which Rylynn was ecstatic about. The restaurant wasn't crowded, which was good because me and Melody had to constantly walk around with Denver to keep him calm. Me and Melody took turns eating our food in shifts while the other held/comforted the infant, and Rylynn just ate and danced and was happy as could be looking at the fish and crabs. This was amazing to us since she had only gotten about an hour nap at around 11:00 in the morning. 

The food was good, it had a great view of the water, and Rylynn actually finished hers with little hassle. We had some issues at the end with slow service and bill issues, but nothing too major. Once again... Could've gone a lot worse. 

Then it was back to the hotel at about 9:45, a little TV, and then sleepy time. Another successful day of keeping our kids alive ;) 

My thoughts on the day - I just could not, and can not, stop thinking about how well everything went. I know that I can't expect this every day or in every situation, but I'm still so thankful. True, we didn't get to do everything we wanted. We didn't get to go to Charleston and we didn't get to eat at Dockside, but I think there are reasons for that. Who knows what Charleston would've been like and I know Rylynn had a waaay better time at Gilligans than she would have at Dockside. And every parent knows... A good experience for your kids is a good experience for you. So, I'm headed to sleep with a thankful heart and ready to see what challenges and joys lay ahead tomorrow :) 

 

Family Vacation 2015 - Day Dos - Plans change, roll with it

The person who first said "things don't always go as planned" must have had kids. It isn't that things always go bad, they just don't go like you thought they would.
Today the plan was to go to Colonial Williamsburg for the day. Probably check things out there and have lunch and come back to the hotel by nap time in the afternoon. 

We had been to Colonial Williamsburg before and had a good time just walking around. This time though, we wanted to see things we hadn't had a chance to see the first time. So, we arrived at Downtown Williamsburg and found a parking spot in the shade, which is essential if you have a black car and a dark colored car seat for your toddler. We got out the Ergo and stroller and snacks and sunglasses and backpack and diapers and juice and we were all set for an all day learning and history adventure through colonial times. We leisurely strolled down the sidewalk and Rylynn was content breaking her sunglasses in her stroller and Denver was sound asleep, sweating on momma. We ooh'd and ahh'd at the people dressed in old clothes and the horse and carriages and heavily debated touring a church which cost $1 per person, but then decided to save our money, hopefully for ice cream. We made our way to the Governors Palace, trying to stay as much in the shade as possible. When we reached the large abode we saw some people going inside the large brick wall and thought "Oh, that would be fun to go through there" so we followed them. But a Colonial Williamsburg employee stopped us at the entrance and asked for our passes, which we didn't have. "Oh yes. You need a pass for everything in Williamsburg" he explained. So he directed us to the ticket house, and we headed back the exact way we had come, towards the ticket house, but not before we snapped a great picture :) 

Once inside the refreshingly cool, air conditioned house we looked at the ticket prices and thought "I wonder where I can sell my kidney around here". The daily admission for an adult is $40.99, but kids are free! Yay! We thanked the gentleman at the ticket booth for explaining to us that there's nothing fun you can do without buying passes and quietly acted like we were discussing whether to buy the tickets, when in actuality we were just enjoying some A/C before heading back into the heat to go elsewhere. 

Not that $40.99 is an outrageous price, but just not what we were hoping to spend for probably about an hour til the kids got bored, tired or hungry. So, we accelerated our plans and decided to go to the Jamestown settlement as well. Long story short... We drove there... And there's nothing to do without buying $25 passes, but the gift shop was neat. And, actually, the drive was quite enjoyable and relaxing. 

So, by now it's about 11:30 and we had basically done nothing except get the kids in and out of the car for what seemed like a hundred times, but it was time to feed Denver and ourselves. We made our way back towards the hotel and found a nice pull off area in the shade where Melody could nurse Denver and me and Rylynn could go play on a small beach area. Rylynn had a great time playing in the calm water and digging in the sand and watching a dog shake it's wet body right in front of her. It's easy to smile when you see your child having so much fun :) 

But eventually it's time to go. I tried to clean and dry Rylynns soaked and sandy body off with a blanket we had in the trunk, and changed her into dry clothes while she screamed for wanting to stay. That's one thing that's not great; stopping your kids from doing something they are loving. But, we gotta eat. 

Yelp! came to our aid and found us a nice little diner called Five Forks Cafe. The food was good and the staff members were super friendly and couldn't stop complimenting us on our beautiful children :)

Then it was back to the hotel for nap time, and both kids were asleep before we even finished the 15 minute drive. It wasn't at all the morning we had planned, but it was a great morning nonetheless. 

Later on, after naps, we got some pizza and wings from a local Italian place called Sal's and ate in the hotel room. The wings were amazing and Rylynn had a fun time running around the hotel room as we tried to prevent her from getting pizza sauce on stuff. 

After at least 30 minutes after eating, to avoid cramping, we went down to the hotel pool. Indoor hotel pools are normally easy to find, as long as you can smell. We just followed the chlorine odor and we ended up in a loud, hot, eye-burning room with a relatively small body of water, semi-crowded with other very active children seemingly unaware of their surroundings or that anybody else exists on the planet. But, Rylynn loved it and Denever even gave it a try. 

Hoping that it would make Rylynn sleepy, we stayed at the pool for a while. Once we were back in the room, we had some snack and way too much juice and watched TV til bedtime. Denver was already zonked out so it was just the active toddler to try and relax. Obviously we had not stayed at the pool long enough, because she was not even close to tired. Finally after about 45 minutes of struggling, she was asleep, and the day was done. And no ice cream was eaten :( 

My thoughts on the day- Parenting is a roller coaster of emotions. Frustration, joy, impatience, gratitude, etc. You never know when a happy moment is going to immediately change to a moment where you're trying to change a diaper in the public bathroom but someone had to dry their hands and the electric hand dryer is loud and is probably gonna attack and eat everyone so we should probably freak out and scream at the top of our lungs! But at the end of the day, even if your plans got changed or ruined, you look at your sleeping child covered in an Elsa towel used as a blanket, and all you think about is the good stuff. At that moment, you don't care that they cried for 5 minutes because you gave them water instead of orange juice. You think about your day, and how much of a blessing it is to have kids who love you and forgive you for when you mess up. THAT is a nice thing to fall asleep to.