road trip, camping and biking - oh my!

April was jammed packed with activities!  Looking back it is hard to figure out just how we managed to fit everything in!

First up was a quick and I do mean blink-and-you-will-miss-it trip back to our old stomping grounds of Tampa.  We wanted to visit one of my oldest and dearest friend before she moved to Japan with her family for two years.  The decision to go was an easy one, not only are they moving, but they had a brand new baby that we all wanted to hold. The problem was picking the right weeeknd to drive the 7 hours to get there.  We decided no time like the April Fools Day, loaded up the minivan and headed off.  It was great to be in Tampa again.  Man I really like that town.

Drove by our last place of residence and waved to Derrick Jeter (his Tampa house is across the river).

Took in the sights at Bush Gardens

Had some time for a little role-play

And of course got some new baby love

The girls have taken this opportunity to push for another sibling; Ben not so much, as illustrated in this photographic evidence.

As much as we wanted to stay in Tampa forever, we had to get back to Niceville and on to the next thing which was a trial run on camping!

Jim had been wanting to throw our hat in the ring for camping since before Lilly was able to walk.  I have been able to fend him off for quite a while, but no more.  He started small, which I was very impressed with, because his natural inclination is not small.  He rarely takes baby steps – EVER.

He rented a tent and he and the kids slept on the back screened in porch one night.  He wanted to do the backyard, but the forecast was for scattered thunderstorms so I talked him into the porch. 

   

I fully expected them to not make it through the night, but much to my great surprise they did it!  I however slept in my bed with the cat.  Oscar silently pleaded with me to ensure a night of uninterrupted sleep by locking the sliding glass door, but I told him that was unthinkable!  He does have a mean streak.

But even Oscar couldn’t resist curling up in the tent before we broke it down.

The big (BIG) news of the month by far was reserved for Lucy.  She had been wanting to learn to ride her bike without training wheels.  As you know wanting something and doing something about it are two vastly different things.  But I finally convinced her that the time was right.  We put the balance buddy on the back of the bike and within about 20 minutes we had success.

So proud of herself!

Lilly also had an accomplishment to celebrate.  Her Elementary School has a PE activity every week called Mile Club.  Basically it is a opportunity to walk/run around the track.  They play music and reward the students for every 5 miles they finish by giving out charm tokens for a necklace.  Parents are encouraged to participate and Ben and I made it to every one. 

Here she is getting to sign the 25 mile wall.  She was so super excited!!

Next up was EASTER!  We had made Easter cookies, dyed the eggs and had been having Easter egg hunts for a couple of weeks in preparation for the big day.  I would show you some video, but it is pretty depressing.  Lilly is running around finding all the eggs, Lucy having trouble finding eggs and Ben just running after them crying because he has no eggs.  Instead I will share quite pictures of happy children.

Here they are getting briefed on how the Easter egg hunt will proceed.

And they are off!

The next weekend we decided to go camping for real!  So we packed up the car and drove to one of favorite places here in the Panhandle – Grayton Beach.  We stayed pretty close to home in case something went horribly wrong and we need to make a fast get away.  The tent preparation was pretty painless and Jim cooked us a fabulous Hobo dinner over the fire.

The kids ran around for hours and finally collapsed.

All in all everything was going great.  And that is when all the fun came to a screeching halt!  Ha!  Not really, but I really messed up big time.  Early the next morning Jim and I got up to get breakfast ready and to start organizing the campsite.  Of course raccoons had visited up in the night and the hanging trash bags had been ripped open with the remains of our dinner scattered around.  I decided to make a coffee/tea run and trying to be thoughtful to our sleeping children was going to push the car back about 10 feet before cranking it so as not to wake them up.  MISTAKE!!  The car’s was turned on and when I got out to push it, apparently shut the door and all the doors locked.  WHAT JUST HAPPENED!! We were in Jim’s Sequoia not the van, so I didn’t know that was going to happen – obiviously!  Oh he was not happy.  He took it very well, much better than I did.  He figured out there was a locksmith about 20 minutes away and made the call.  The take away on that was two fold – ALWAYS bring the extra set of keys and wear them on your person at all times AND don’t park so close to the tent next time!