and it came from the sea...

greetings! we're back from our little vacation and it is just lovely to be home. our hotel was truly awesome but anytime you go overnight with 3 kids, it's ALWAYS good to come home. when we got back last night, the kids played for hours with the toys they hadn't seen for a day and a half. they introduced their new toys to their old toys. and they stayed up until 10pm since they all had a 3 hour nap on the way home. *yawn*

sunday afternoon was spent at the mall of florida.

i bought myself some new oakley sunglasses. they look better in action ;)


we visited m&m world...and bought $9 of m&m's, priced conservatively at 10.99 a lb. why did we need such expensive m&m's? i have no clue. they tasted EXACTLY like the ones in a bag that you can get for 60 cents at walmart. i told the kids we weren't going to buy very many, then rob comes over with a big bagfull. he told me he got all the colors you can't get in the store. okaaaaay. whatever. then last night i gave them to him as we were unpacking and he says, "what should i do with these?" EAT THEM, dude. you spent $8 on them, eat them.

luckily the pictures out front were free.
another interesting tidbit...on sunday we were all wearing green. i don't know how that happened. cade picked out his own shirt, rob bought himself a new green t-shirt that he had to promptly change into (and no, he didn't turn green like my mother always told me would happen if you didn't wash your new clothes before wearing them), and then i changed into a green tank top later.

since it was reese's birthday we stopped by the build-a-bear workshop and reese made herself a new friend. she picked a husky and named it 'rosie.' awwww. she really wanted to buy clothes for it but i drew the line there. instead we chose a happy birthday hat and noisemaker instead, since rosie & reese now share a birthday.

after the mall we found our hotel and it was just wonderful. i had picked it on travelocity, based on the pool pictures. and ironically enough after we arrived it sprinkled and thundered and turned too cool to swim. the pool was still pretty from the lobby though. i was very impressed with it in general, it truly made our weekend feel like a vacation. if we had chosen a super 8 or the like, i would have been stressing about how clean or how dirty the floor or the bathtub was, but instead i just relaxed. the room was spotless and wasn't damp at all (as most hotel rooms in florida seem to be). if you're looking for a hotel in orlando, choose this one.

we had hoped to find a japanese restaurant for dinner, but the one that advertised a kid's menu was impossible to find. and once i teased rob about chicken fried steak, he had to have some. so we had supper at denny's. the kids had pancakes and rob had his steak. then we went and played mini-putt. we hadn't played since before we had kids, and we had a fabulous time. it had been a while since i had laughed so hard.

and this is afterward, walking back to the car. rob was happy that he beat me by 5 strokes.



we spent all of monday at seaworld, well until we all got tired of each other so we left at 3:30. 6 hours in an amusement park in orlando heat is probably the best we could have hoped for. we skipped all the shows. even though those are the biggest attraction, we skipped them because they were the biggest attraction. 45 minutes of standing in line with all 3 kids? i don't think so. just standing in line with rob alone would have been enough to make me go crazy, let alone with the kids who are hot and have been told there's roller coasters in the park somewhere.

this was cade's favorite part of the day:
he could have stayed in the arcade for at least another hour, and that's with no quarters or tokens in his pocket to spend.

they both went on the kids' roller coaster, the shamu express. rob and i took turns going with them. cade only went once but reese went 3 times, she loved it. then cade lost himself for about 7 minutes. he took off to the upper levels of their huge playscape without telling me where he was headed. after searching for 3 minutes, i went right to guest services for help. i was so surprised he turned up all the way on the top level of that thing. i really thought he would stay on the lowest level. he didn't seem that excited about the playscape when we first got to that area of the park.

i didn't bother bringing swimsuits into the park, thinking all the water play was across the street in a new waterpark. however, there was a big splash area for kids to play in. i think we could have stayed another hour if the kids had gotten cooled off. let me rephrase...if ROB had gotten cooled off. he was getting tired of the crowds and the heat and the whiny kids, so we started making our way toward the exit. we were steps away from leaving the park when it started raining. i had brought 4 umbrellas with us but we took cover under a storefront. it poured for at least 10 minutes, then lightened up enough so we could make a run to the car.

it rained and stormed all the way through orlando and actually we had rain almost all the way til daytona beach. so maybe rob's attitude is related to the weather? like the lower the barometer, the more unpleasant he makes life so you'd rather just head for cover in the car? i don't know. might be something to study during future road trips.

speaking of, we have another one coming up! we're heading to the DC area to go house hunting next week! should be loads of fun. (notice the sarcasm there???)

happy anniversary to me...

8:06 am.
june 15, 2002.
a hospital in new london, connecticut

a baby is born.

that baby is a healthy 7 lbs, 10 oz and is quiet for the first few minutes after birth, then lets 'er rip. the noise hasn't stopped since.



this should read 'happy birthday reese', but it's my blog so i get titling rights. :)

off to seaworld for 2 days to celebrate us surviving for 6 years.

30,000 miles and counting

• listening to: 'take me there' by rascal flatts, interrupted here & there by today's episode of 'the backyardigans'
• reading: 'the good earth' by pearl buck
• drinking: dunkin donuts french vanilla with a shot of hazlenut biscotti creamer. yum.

i just finished reading my book. i stayed up til almost 1am reading, and only went to bed when my eyes started blurring and i had to stop and think about who wang lung was. (he's the main character, by the way.)

excellent book. i see why oprah chose it as one of her book club selections. oh, and of course why it won the pulitzer prize in 1935. i think i'll be looking for more of her work when we go to the library today. i'm going to get the kids a few more books, whether they like it or not. reese and i read her junie b. jones book together a few days ago and i'm thinking we're not going to get anymore of them. there's a lot of name-calling in her stories, which i really don't think is an OK thing to model to beginning readers.

yesterday i took the car in and finally got the oil changed. and miraculously, the odometer read 30071, which meant it was a perfect time to get my 30K service (i got a laugh that about 40 of those miles i drove to GET to the dealership in the first place, but whatever). at first i was annoyed i would have to pay an extra $160 for the extra services as well as spend an extra hour or two with all 3 kids as the minutes ticked by toward lunchtime. but then i realized it was actually excellent timing, better than making an extra trip anyway. there were 2 other children in the kid's area at the dealership and they played with my kids and before i knew it, the car was done. we were out of there by 12:30pm.

we would have to drive past the zoo to get home from the dealership and it had been ages since we had been so we made a short detour. we have an annual membership to the zoo that expires in august so we might as well use it as much as we can. we ate lunch near the jaguars and we headed straight for the snake house as it started to sprinkle. for the next half hour we hung out in there as the rain came down. it was air conditioned and all the critters were behind glass, so i felt pretty fortunate.

when we ventured out after the worst of it, there were some monstrous puddles here and there
so i think the zoo must have gotten at least an inch or more in that short time. i was wearing my leather reef sandals though, and those got soaked. i still have orange feet from the dye/oils from wearing them when they were wet.

we finished our short tour of the zoo (it was getting close to 3pm and elisha had barely had a nap in the car earlier and cade was starting to lag behind), hit the gift shop, and headed home.

it was pretty fun, rain or not, and i think most of the fun came from the spontaneity of our zoo visit. the kids were wonderfully behaved and were more than happy to have cereal for dinner. now THAT'S a good day.

wordless wednesday

summer lovin'...

school is out for the summer! last thursday was reese's very last day of kindergarten. she wowed the teacher and managed to get herself promoted to first grade. i showed up for the awards "ceremony" on wednesday afternoon and got to see reese receive an award for her end of the year tests. mrs. reeves was very surprised to see that reese got perfect scores on both her math and her reading tests! she said she's never had that happen in all her years of teaching! wow! both rob & i thought that was pretty cool. after the awards, the kids were treated to sundaes. Seems like this school and JUNK food go hand in hand. throughout the year i was really surprised and disappointed to see the crap food that was included in their school parties. in fact, most of the time the entire party revolved around eating junk food together. i know they had a huge class (36 kids!!!) but surely they could have had a fruit salad or graham crackers for a treat? maybe i'm just a little touchy on this subject, but really, reese came home with so many foods that she would not have gotten if she was homeschooled.

but reese enjoyed her ice cream and since cade and elisha were with me, they were treated as well, and of course they loved it.

so far so good as far as sumer vacations go. we've gone to the pool a few times, gone to the library, gone to target, gone to mcd's, gone to home depot (twice). today i plan on getting an oil change in preparation for SEAWORLD! woohoo! this is a birthday trip for reese, she'll turn 6 on father's day. i remember she was born on the saturday before father's day, at 8:06 in the morning. she's always been a morning girl and i'm thinking names really do influence the person. reese is welsh and means "enthusiastic" and that is my first-born to a T.

the enthusiastic one has been playing with elisha a lot since school has let out. during school, elisha didn't see much of reese, just a few hours after school and during dinner time, then on the weekends. but now reese is enjoying her little mommy role, trying to teach her new words and all about animals. and elisha enjoys running off with reese's stuff...mainly her goggles.

we went to the library on the first day of summer vacation, how's that for LAME. at least we slept in a bit to celebrate summer. :) the kids picked out some books, 4 each. i picked out 3 for myself and i'm starting to rethink this reading thing. i chose 'the good earth' by pearl buck and i'm 100 pages in and i'm not sure if i want to finish it. it's so damn sad, i don't know if i can handle that much more sadness. in case you haven't read it, the plot involves a chinese farmer and his wife 120+ years ago and follows them as they have good years and bad years, even to the point where they consider selling their children as slaves in order to survive. the thought of being put in that position as a mother makes my stomach hurt and my shoulders sag. sure, it was a completely different time, but in extremely rural parts of this world, i'm not sure things are that different. there's still starving children all over, in all corners of this earth. i know i should finish the story, i'm a big believer in "finish what you start" and i really want to see this farmer's life improve. but in the mean time i'm working in some stephen king to make myself feel better. i'm 33 pages into "duma key" and it's helping.

rob was talking to some friends the other day and they mentioned that they read my blog (hi chris & kim :) how's the baby doing?). after hearing that i went back and read some of my earlier posts and holy cow...was i a freaking psycho or what? oh my. some of what i had to say about rob was just unbelievably mean. i'm convinced that during some of my pregnancies or post-partum months i should have been on mood-altering drugs. for some reason, as i wrote these old entries, every problem seemed to be HIS fault. reading them really makes me want to start this blog over. i mean he has his faults (as do i...no, really, i do) but i was just really out of line to bitch and moan that much. so in line with that, i'm trying to focus on the positive.

1. he's gone to the pool TWICE with us in the last week. the man hates swimming in chlorinated pools and hates being around strangers' children even more, but he's taught reese how to submerge her head underwater and he's been taking cade on piggyback rides around the pool.

2. he scrubbed the hell out of my kitchen sink for me. we have a stainless steel sink and i use bar keeper's friend (ooh look a free sample!!) on it but it really hurts my fingers to have to do the actual scrubbing part. he's strong enough that he gets it twice as shiny as i do.

3. he let me sleep in on saturday morning. of course i had to TELL him i was not getting up, but he handled it well. he and cade even invented a new game called "damage ball." i think it involved hitting a wiffle ball with a lincoln log and then tackling someone?

4. he hasn't batted an eye when i told him i bought a new dyson vacuum (only i got it for $20 cheaper than that link) or a new stroller. hey, what's a nuke bonus for, other than keeping the wife happy?

5. he's taking us to SEAWORLD! i know it's for the kids but i can't wait to see shamu!

see? he's a good man :) so i just need to keep my mouth shut and start keeping the positives closer to my heart. besides, our anniversary is coming up and i've been hinting about how much i'd like an eco-drive watch.