We're Baaaaaaack!!

Well, actually we've been back since Sunday but I was bombarded with things to do since we arrived home and also I've been VERY VERY tired for the last 4 days. (It took me 3 full days to unload and put things away. That's very unlike me.)

So I thought everyone would like hearing the short version of our trip. Now that our children are mostly potty trained (we're finally almost there with the older two!!! YEAH!) it was a little more hectic during the long rides. Thomas has the SMALLEST bladder. He must have stopped us 4 times in 4 hours. I wanted to SCREAM! However, we did eventually make it there. The first stop was Cocoa Beach and it was a GREAT hotel. It was old and a little dingy but the pluses were that it was on the beach and they had a FANTASTIC kids swimming pool with a huge pirate ship and 4 water slides. All three boys loved that. They also liked the ocean. Michael and I enjoyed both too. It was very relaxing there. We mostly just hung out at that hotel. We only went into town once to go to Ron Jon's Surf Shop. It's a really big deal down there. I asked my California bred husband to go in and take a look at the store before taking the boys in there. I didn't want a lot of sexually graphic women in bikinis staring them in the face. Michael came out smiling. He said that it as great and that he loved it. I said something like, "Oh no! Are you trying to figure out how much you can put on the credit card?" (which would be COMPLETELY out of character for him) He replied, "no, it's way past that. I'm trying to figure out how I can sell the business and move to the beach. LOL The boys had a hard time in the store and Michael couldn't exactly look so I took them back to the hotel to swim.
The next day we went to Kennedy Space Center. Wow! That place sure has changed in the last 15 years. It's like a big tour now. The boys were pretty crabby there. I thought we'd be done in time for a nap but it didn't happen and they were HORRIBLE at dinner that night. They did enjoy the rockets and stuff but not enough to justify either the money it cost or the loss of a nap.
The next two days were at a hotel in Orlando and we spent 2 days at Sea World. It took us the whole first day just to get our bearings. Plus since we have 3 little ones it took awhile to stop at the bathrooms every couple of hours and go across the park with the boys losing their flip flops every other step. GRRR! WE did make it into 1 show the first day. That was the new Shamu show- Believe and it was AWESOME!! I grew up near a different Sea World and we went in the summers but my mom didn't want to sit in the soak zone so I had never been splashed by Shamu. I talked Michael into sitting in the top part of the soak zone. It was really fun. We didn't get terribly wet but we did get splashed a bit. The REALLY funny thing to me was watching and listening to the people who were in the front two rows who got DRENCHED!! I kept whispering to Michael- "why do they look SO surprised to be so wet? They're in the FRONT row of the SOAK ZONE!" People sure are funny. I mean for goodness sake they actually sell ponchos before the show. That should give you somewhat of a clue of things to come! LOL
The rest of that day we rode the roller coaster and let the kids play in the underground water fountain. Gideon LOVED that. So did the other boys. I'll put up pics when I get them developed if it's ok with Michael. The jury is still out on that. :):)
We also saw some of the exhibits. They were fun.
The next morning we came back with a plan. Two strollers (1 double and 1 single) and EVERYONE had on tennis shoes. We literally sprinted through the park to catch all the shows and we accomplished in 3 hours what we couldn't do all day the day before. We sat in the 3rd or 4th row in the dolphin show and we got WET. Judah LOVED that! He kept asking me when they were going to splash us again. Even Gideon loved the shows he was awake for. The Elmo show fascinated the older kids.
After day 2 at Sea World we drove up to Brunswick. For some reason that trip took HOURS longer than it should have. It was something like 5 1/2 instead of 3. GGGRRRR Traffic was rough and then bathroom stops and a Walmart stop to replenish the soda/ water supply in the cooler. Plus Gideon needed Orajel. I had forgotten ours at home and I knew he was cutting a tooth before we left. He was getting a bit fussy during the evenings (he is NOT a fussy baby) and I figured the tooth was bothering him. Well one night while he was giggling I got a good look in his wide open mouth and realized that he was not only cutting one in the top front but 4 MOLARS and one on the front bottom too. Poor guy! SIX teeth all at once. I never even dreamed he was cutting that many. He was only a little bit fussier and much less fussy than my other boys were cutting ONE tooth when they were that age.
Anyway, we FINALLY made it to the hotel and got some sleep. We were pretty worn out from the past two days so we just hung around the next morning. I took the two older boys to the hot tub in the morning and in the afternoon we went over to St. Simon's island. We played at a park there. Michael walked out on the pier. We took a pic with the light house in the background and then Michael took the boys into the ocean for about 45 minutes. I opted out of that swim because the water there was DIRTY!! We went back to the hotel and swam in the pool. We fed the kids PB &J for dinner and put them to bed. Once they were in bed we tried out the Italian restaurant next to the hotel. (we got take out) It was WONDERFUL! Very authentic and VERY YUMMY!! I also had gotten a cup of coffee at Starbucks down the street. The funny thing was that I also wanted one of their desserts. When I asked what a particular dessert was no one could tell me. I said that it looked so good that I would take my chances on it. Well it got even funnier when one of the guys pointed out, "If we don't know what it is. We really can't charge her." I laughed and said that I would take a bite and see if they could tell by the ingredients. It was DELICIOUS! Some sort of gingerbread/molasses cookies base with a creamy topping. YUMMY! That still didn't help them so I got it for FREE! Yeah! By the time I got back from gathering the food the boys were asleep so Michael and I left the door to our room open and sat outside at one of the tables and enjoyed our food. It was almost like a date!!! :):):)
The next day was my "get away" day on Jekyll Island. I had the whole day (from 10:00 am -5:00pm ) to myself. I haven't had one of those days in roughly 3 years. It was "high time". I had a blast. I rented a bicycle and rode around the whole island. I stopped for lunch, at two or three stores, and also once to swim by myself which was great. I only had to worry about 1 person drowning then. LOL I rode from about 10:30 - 4:00 pm and then came back to the hotel and relaxed in the pool for about 1/2 hour. Then we all went to dinner at a great seafood restaurant. The next day was supposed to be Michael's deep sea fishing trip but it was cancelled because they didn't have the minimum amount of people signed up. BUMMER!! I felt really bad for him. We rented bikes with the carts on the back and rode 3 miles to Driftwood Beach on Jekyll. It's a very interesting beach with HUGE pieces of driftwood littering the beach. In fact there are WHOLE trees in some places. It's because of erosion. We let the kids play in the tide pools and they had a blast! Then I told Michael to go to dinner with just Gideon (less chaos) and the older boys and I spent about 1 1/2-2 hours in the hotel pool. That was really fun. Then when Michael came back I went in search of dinner.
We left the next morning. I wish that I could say it was a great Mother's day but a 10 hour trip (that is only a 6 1/2 hour drive) with 3 small children isn't that exciting. Plus, everything was booked and Olive Garden, where I really wanted to go, was a 1 1/2 hour wait EVERYWHERE we called. So we ended up at Outback but it was VERY loud and I had a headache, plus Gideon was SUPER fussy. So, I ended up back in the van nursing him which was just fine. Michael brought my meal out to me and I ate some of it on the way home. WHEW!
So, all in all we had a great time! Next time we are definitely going to schedule in naps for the kids because they were just TOO stressed at dinnertime. :):) they had a blast though!!
That's the "short" version. LOL I guess you can see why it took me 4 days to get it down. :):)

BLESSINGS!