"Vacation"

Anyone who has young children knows that going "on vacation" can be a contradiction of terms, an oxymoron. When we have young children, we simply pack up and move to a new location and do the same things we do at home, just in a smaller space and without the routine of home. In essence, we work harder. At home we have our routine and some down time each day. On "vacation." we go and go and end up needing to recuperate once we get home. In this season of life, "vacation" is all about our boys, making memories for them and making sure they have a blast.

Wednesday we traveled from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. What a day! Peaceful, without car trouble, upset tummies or accidents of any kind. We stopped for breakfast, ate lunch from our cooler and got McDonald's to go for supper. A few gas and potty stops along the way and Poppy treated the boys to overpriced Blizzards at a DQ. Once we arrived, we dropped Poppy off at my sister's, came to my mom's to unload. At 12:30, B and I went out with my sister for awhile to do some shopping. We were awake, why not?

Thursday, also Thanksgiving, we slept in a bit, woke up and the cousins came over to bring the boys some cool presents. My sister has been making marshmallow shooters out of PVC piping. My boys immediately began to modify the guns to maximize their shooting power. They are mini versions of their daddy, no doubt. Mom and her D made our Thanksgiving feast and my sister's family joined us later for desserts. D and I attempted to go to a Toys R Us about 30 minutes away, saw the crowds before midnight and drove back to sleep. He got up at 5:30 and hit a local Game Stop and scored two used DS Lites for $59.99 each. We'll present them to C and J for the LONG RIDE HOME. Between D, my sis and myself, we rounded up the rest of my Walmart Black Friday wishes--$3 two piece workout suits, $2 DVD's for D's stocking and a cool Cranium game for $5. I used the Toys R Us flyer and scored three Tony Hawk DS games for $9.99 each, ending up with THREE for less than the price of ONE regular price. Yea!

Friday we were all a bit out of it, from the crazy night of shopping. We stayed close to mom's, let the boys play Wii and then took the boys to a new park in the afternoon. Sis had us over for a yummy dinner and the boys enjoyed playing with their cousins.

Saturday, Mom took the boys and me to Jungle Gardens. They held parrots and a baby gator, fed fish and flamingos and enjoyed being out in the wild. J was in heaven, he just grinned all day. He was just as thrilled with the squirrels that were all over the garden as he was with the exotic animals. We stayed there for over three hours and I bet my boys would have stayed longer.

Sunday we all slept in and then headed out to visit a local church that is pastored by a friend from back home. The service was good, but I had an allergy attack halfway through, so we left early. I took some meds and packed us up to head to the beach. We spent about three hours out on the beach, the temps were only in the low 70's but it was so pleasant for us to sit and watch the boys. They braved the water and of course, spent lots of time in the sand. B chased sea gulls, J searched for shells and C found a new sport to conquer--paddle ball! He and D got up to 19 hits in one round.

Monday we headed out to the beach again, this time with Poppy. We picked up some yummy fried chicken and had lunch out there. We stayed for over four hours. The boys went out with D on boogie boards, J joined B in the sea gull chase. He also found some pretty shells. And D and C got up to 60+ consecutive hits in paddle ball! We came home to try out the pool (the boys had been begging to get in) but they decided it was far too cold. We cleaned up, rested for a bit and after dinner, we headed out to the outlet mall. Not too many great deals, but I found some shoes for C and J that were marked down to $5 and found my nieces nice "church outfits" for $10. Mom had given the boys some money to get a treat, so I presented them with two Transformers each. They were in heaven.