No time to sit down, busy busy busy

BIG BIG things were on tap for us this month!  The kids had been looking forward to their first airplane ride.  Really Lilly and Lucy have flown before, but they have no recollection of it.  At any rate, this was a big event for us as a whole.  If the kids did well, then it opens up HUGE travel options for us.  Especially since we found out where we are headed next and it will entail air travel if we are going to see any of our family.  Yes, we are moving to Yuma, AZ during the summer of 2015.  Poor Jim, he is the ONLY one who is excited about this.  When he made the announcement everyone (especially me) reacted negatively.  In fact, I didn't actually speak to him for about 3 days.  If it weren't for this trip to Cape Cod I may still not be speaking to him.  Sigh.  Seriously we are grateful that he got such a wonderful assignment as next commander of MAWTS-1, but it will come with a big price!

Back to Cape Cod!  We spent a week two summers ago there with Jim's sister and her in-laws at Chatham, MA.  Surprisingly the Beck's invited us back and even more surprisingly we were able to pull it off!  
The kids LOVED the airplane.  They loved the airport, the shuttles, all the terminal activity, the rental car pain, all of it.  Speaking of rental cars, the company thought we could easily fit all of our luggage into a teeny tiny sedan.  HA! Lucky for us they double booked the car and so we got put into a KIA "SUV" which was technically bigger but was still quite a tight squeeze to get it all in.  WHEW!   

Look at all those bags!

I can't (and won't) give a blow by blow of how we spent our week.  Trust me, you would not want to read it just because of the time it would take.  So I will give you a few highlights.  The kids (11 of them) all get along so well it really makes it enjoyable to be around them.  
One of the fun things we were able to talk them into was a pie eating contest!  The only one who wouldn't participate was Ben basically because the pie was blueberry!  None of them won, but it sure was fun to watch!

In addition to lots of baseball on the front lawn, an evening of dancing at the bandstand, MULTIPLE trips to the Candy Shop, all day excursions to the beach, tubing, and seal watching, we even got some night capture the flag. 

One of my favorite activities was by far the greased watermelon football game.  For those of you who have no idea what that is here is the break down.  You separate into teams, for us it was children vs. the adults.  Only the men were crazy enough to get into the COLD water, so it was 11 against 4.  You throw a watermelon that has been COATED in Crisco into the water and then basically you get out of the way.  The teams then each attempt to get the watermelon to the opposing goal line for a point.  It was hysterical to watch.  It ended in a tie I think, but all in all it was a win for me because I have so many pictures of the men basically manhandling the children and the children retaliating by overwhelming them with sheer numbers.  Priceless!
 

How cold is the water Jim?

RUN LUCY RUN!!!

All too soon it was time to go - boo!  Since we were not flying back to Florida until the next evening out of Boston, we took the opportunity to drive down to Jamestown, R.I. and catch up with some of the children's friends.  They had a BLAST!!  Of course no one wanted to leave and there was lots of begging to move back (to Jamestown), mostly by me.  Ok, all by me.

Finally we headed into Boston for a night on the town and a visit to the children's favorite store - Quincy's candy store.  As if they had not gotten enough candy from the Candy Shop in Chatham.

The next morning Jim had us up bright and early to finish up the Freedom tour that we did summer before last.  The kids revolted back then and wouldn't finish the last leg.  Jim had the last laugh.  We climbed all the way to the top of Bunker Hill Monument (all 294 steps)!  We also revisited the USS Constitution because that is pretty much when the wheels fell off the first Freedom Trail attempt.  Jim didn't feel that we got the "whole experience".  CHECK!

We still had a few hours before we headed to the airport so of course we squeezed in one more visit!  Jim's cousin Patty lives just outside of Boston and we were able to meet up with them for lunch and a quick visit in the a park.  The cousins really enjoyed hanging out with each other one more time!
 

Suddenly we found ourselves back in Florida with a few weeks to kill before school started.  While we had been gone Oscar was looked after by our baby sitter and towards the end of the week, he began to kind of lose it.  She said he would alternate between trying to love her to death to gnawing on her hand and growling when she made a move to the door.  Poor guy!  Apparently he developed suicidal tendencies.  That is the only explanation I can come up with for his choosing to sleep under the wheel of the kid's bug car.  Don't do it Oscar!!!  We love you, come inside and cool off.  I promise we aren't going to leave you for at least a few more weeks.

We don't have a pool in our back yard.  We do have a community pool less than a three-minute walk away and are members of the Y so we have access to an awesome water park about 10 minutes away.  That being said you would think that we would be able to agree on the method of staying cool.  No, you would be wrong if you thought that.  There is always someone who doesn't want to do whatever the other two want to do.  Usually I get the deciding vote because nothing happens without Momma getting directly involved.  I started allowing them to squirt each other with the hose and jump around the trampoline.  Probably not the safest of activities, but it usually gets me a good thirty minutes of uninterrupted quiet time.  I have been known to lock them in the back yard to extend it to forty five minutes.  One of our friends took pity of us and gave Ben a slip and slide for his birthday IN FEBRUARY (because yes, you can use a slip and slide in February here).  It has seen a lot of action here recently.

  
Finally it is the day before school starts!  Man I feel like we have been gearing up for this FOREVER!!!  Our school requires so many school supplies (required and donations) that we had to enlist the aid of our smaller backpacks from previous years.  We delivered all the goods and that is what is important.  Last year Jim he was all gung-ho for the school open house, but not this year.  I basically had to guilt him into going.  First because I truly needed his help to get all this stuff to the classrooms, but the real reason was I wanted him to get a look at the teachers and more importantly for them to see him.  I have a feeling it may be the only time!

Despite my best efforts to get the kids back on their "school" schedule and off the "anything goes summer" schedule, there were some last-night-of-summer jitters and it took some convincing to get them in bed.  I told them repeatedly that it would be hard to get moving the next morning, but as always, no one was listening.  I must say, I was pretty happy to make as much noise as I possibly could when the alarm went off at 6:35am.  I was the only one - hee hee.
 

Ok, they are up and moving and actually ready EARLY.  I am sure this won't happen often.  In fact if our usual timing is in effect this year, the kids will have about 2 to 3 minutes of spare time before the bell rings. 

Don't they look so cute!!  I am loving this whole uniform thing.

Reunited with our friends the Monclovas!!

Here is a creepy fact.  This is what happens to a cherry tomato plant when left on it's own for 8 weeks.  I am not exactly sure what all that growth is unless it is new roots.  But they are all over it!  I am afraid it survived for nothing, because I am going to have to pitch it.

On of my projects this summer was to make a skateboard swing.  Well I forgot the skateboard which is really a large balance board someone gave me in Florida.  I talked my sweet husband into bringing it to me on one of his flights to visit us.  He did NOT want to do it. AT ALL.  I am not sure why.  You would have thought I was asking him to bring me a refrigerator as a carry on.  Anyway, Daddy drilled my holes and all I had to do was get some nice line and figure out where to hang it from our Mango tree.  It isn't perfect, but the kids love it and so do I!

Last item on the month's agenda is Labor Day!!  Well if it is Labor Day and we are in Florida then you KNOW we are heading:  Orlando.  It is somewhat of a tradition.  Of course it is always Disney World, but since this is our last Labor Day in Florida we thought we would mix it up a bit and go to Universal.  The kids are older now and we thought they could step it up in the rides department AND there was the added benefit of being able to do the New Harry Potter rides.  

So as soon as school got out on Friday we jumped in the car and headed out.  It is a good four hours to Orlando from Pembroke Pines.  So we had plenty of time to discuss our plan of attack.  As soon as we get there Jim throws the first curve - Blue Man Group.  I mean we literally unloaded the car and hopped on the tram to catch the show.  This means we were eating hot dogs and popcorn for dinner.  Not exactly what I had in mind.  Oh well, the show was great and the kids will be talking about this for a LONG time!

In the whole planning process of this adventure two of our three children (guess which ones) had been saying they WOULD NOT RIDE THE SCARY RIDES.  You can thank Daddy's little Tower of Terror stunt from last year's Labor Day trip to Hollywood Studios for that attitude.  Well of course Daddy was not taking that for an answer.  We get in line at Gringotts, the new Harry Potter ride that involves fighting Voldemort and fire-eating dragons and such.  The whole way through the queue the littler ones were quiet and so Daddy was thinking we were good.  Not so, Daddy, not so.  Once inside they began to protest in earnest.  By this time the line is moving super fast and before you know it we are being ushered into the elevator to start our decent to the vaults.  Daddy basically tricked them into riding it!  Lucy and Lilly are sitting with me and Ben and Jim are behind us.  Immediately the crying starts.  AWESOME!  Lucy has a death grip lock on my hand but surprisingly half way through she starts enjoying herself.  By the end of it she is not crying, but does admit that it was fun - but never wants to do it AGAIN!

This is what happens every 15 minutes at the entrance of the ride.  Probably should have been a sign for us.

To dry tears and get everyone on board for doing at least one more somewhat scary ride Daddy breaks down and buys some Butter-beer.  YUMMY!!  I don't even want to know how many calories are in this thing.  Just keep it coming!!
 

We have explored about as much of Diagon Alley as there is to do without spending every cent we came with.  The kids were able to talk their Father into buying them wands.  The girls got the fancy dancy kind that are interactive and you can do "magic" with them at particular sites in both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.  Ben, wisely, chose the no-interactive one that lit up.  He is much more likely to have this thing in a couple of pieces by the time we leave.  Up next, Kings Cross and a ride on the Hogwarts Express!

WOW!  The train ride is pretty cool.  Short, but worth it.  There is a short interaction between what you "see" out the window and what is going on in the corridors of the train.  You see one going to Hogsmeade and a different version going back to London. 
 When you get off the train you are in downtown Hogsmeade in the dead of Winter.  Wish it had felt like winter, oh well sounds like a good excuse for some more Butter-beer!!  The ride inside Hogsmeade is incredible.  Again, we had a reluctant rider.  Ben, curiously was all gung-ho.  That is until the ride actually started moving.  Lilly sat between us (why?) and so I was stretching my hand across her lap for Ben to hold onto.  There is one part where a Dementor is basically screaming right in front of you and I think that is where Ben totally lost it.  The picture that was taken mid-flight had Ben screaming in terror, Lilly with her head pointed down, eyes closed and me looking right at the camera - only because it must have been hidden in the GIANT spider that was spitting in my face!  Lucy had balked at the last second and then somehow Jim was able to get her to change her mind.  The whole ride I was thinking "this is not going to end well".  But as soon as she got off, she shocked us all by saying she wanted to do it again RIGHT THEN!  So off they go.  Ben said he would pass.  We rode the "Flight of the Hippogriff" three times while we waited for them.  So by the time we reunited there was smiles all around.  Calls for another round of Butter-beer!!

 

The crazy Knight Bus driver and shrunken head

I could have spent the entire weekend in Hogsmeade.  But that was not going to happen.  So off we go to ride more rides and tour the two parks.  All in all there were some really cool rides and some that should be shuttered as quickly as possible.  The only part of the parks that were even REMOTELY crowded was the Harry Potter areas.  The rest of the parks were pretty much deserted.  Some friends of ours chose to go to Disney and they said it was crowded and some of the wait times were ridiculous.  That has never been our experience over Labor Day Weekend (Sorry guys)!
 
The kids had a blast and it was nice to check off that box.  As far as Jim is concerned our time visiting Orlando has come to a close.  Especially given the fact that we are moving to Yuma.  I have already googled the driving distance from Yuma to Disneyland - just under 4 hours!  HA HA HA
 

No, it can't be July already. What happened to June?

So we start the month of July right where we left off - in Swansboro!  I know you are sick of hearing about how much I love being home, but I don't care.  I love being home with my family and even if we don't do anything but work all day, it is still better than any day someplace else.  Of course we don't just work, work, work.  We also have a pretty good time.  Every Wednesday night my parents eat at a local restaurant in Emerald Isle called Rucker Johns.  The kids love this!

Even though we had just dropped Jim off at the airport, he came back to spend the 4th of July with us too!  He and Ben had a "boys night out" back when the girls had been at camp, so of course the girls wanted to have some special time with "just daddy."  Who was I to complain?  They went to Jim's old stomping ground - Beaufort.  Apparently there was a boat ride over to Carrot Island to see the horses and other wildlife and then a mini-tour of all Jim's favorite places.  He even took them to the restaurant where we met!  He claims it was the same table!  

Poor Ben, he drew the short straw.  While the girls and Daddy were reminiscing in Beaufort, we were getting ready for a Category 1 Hurricane, Arthur.  Don't feel too badly for him though.  He basically played on his Kindle while Nanny and I secured her yard and then we headed down to the marina to assist in their preparations.  Ben will complain if you mention it to him, but he had a grand time on the forklift and helping Papa Dub.  "Hurricane" Arthur was a dud, of which I am enormously thankful.  We spent the morning of the 3rd moving everything back to where it had been -- only this time we had the added stress of waiting on gas customers all while trying to re-assemble the gas pumps.  Fun!


The 4th of July was glorious!!  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  The girls had been dreaming of re-creating their success from last year's lemonade stand.  They even expanded their product line to include popsicles.  Ben had a crazy idea to sell glow-in-the dark bracelets during the fireworks, but since they had been cancelled before the storm (just in case) he decided to help out the girls in between working the gas docks.  Originally I had tried to get him to set up a kissing booth, but he wouldn't have anything to do with THAT!  I don't know why?  He could have totally raked in the cash.  The girls did well though.  About lunchtime Lucy got bored and went with Jim and Ben over to the beach in search of our friends the Monclovas.  That left Lilly right where she wanted to be.  Alone with all the profits! 

Lucy and Ben hanging out with Otway Burns at the park.

We ended up having a cookout at the marina on the 4th of July which has NEVER happened before.  So while it was bad that the fireworks had been postponed, it was great having a relaxing evening with friends and family.

Cousins hanging out at the dock

Jim had to leave on the evening of the 5th, so he decided to take the kids for a breakfast at Yana's.  No trip home is complete without THAT happening at least once.

 

Before Jim left we were able to squeeze in one more boat ride.  We borrowed a skiff from Daddy and headed out to Hammocks Beach.  The waterway was INSANE!  Several times Jim forgot he was in a flat bottom skiff and not a V-hull boat.  I swear I thought I had broken my tailbone after running over some HUGE wakes.  Mercifully, he slowed down on the return trip.  Mainly because there were so many boats he couldn't go fast.

The next morning Mom had us up for Church and even though it was two days after the 4th, the kids were still feeling pretty patriotic, and looking it too!

Mom always has at least one pumpkin at the end of her walkway in the fall.  Apparently last year she left one there longer then she should have because this spring a vine appeared.  Just because she was curious, she left it alone and was greeted with a baby pumpkin!  We wanted to leave it there until it was ready to be picked, but after all the rain we got from Arthur, it rotted and we had to toss it.  We left a few seeds in various places in the yard.  Who knows, maybe it will happen again next year!

The next week was all about going to the town park, and seeing the local sights.  There is a one-room school house that has been restored, and Nanny took us to see it.  The kids were AMAZED at how different school was then as opposed to now.  Ha!

We also took them over to the Museum at Hammocks Beach State Park.  Not only did they enjoy watching the Ferry loading and unloading beach goers, but also the interactive displays about Sea Turtle egg laying and hatching.  Ben wandered up to a payphone while we were outside sitting on porch.  "What is that Mommy?"  Well what does it look like?  "It kind-of looks like a phone."  I told him that before everyone had cell phones, there were these things called PAYPHONES and they were EVERYWHERE!  I have to admit, I was quite surprised to see one, and even more surprised that it actually worked.  When he picked it up he said it was making a strange noise.  We haven't had a land line in so long the poor boy doesn't even know what a dial tone is!  

One thing that Nanny had been itching to do was take the girls to get a pedicure.  Well of course that was not going to happen without Ben!  So all three of them did it.  Ben was a little skeptical at first, but once he got in the chair and the warm water was filling the basin AND the chair started vibrating, he was all in.

We are not even close to being finished!  Mom and I took the kids down to Fort Macon to a free concert in the park.  The fort was "closed" for touring, but otherwise open to explore -- and explore they did!  I don't think that place has seen that much action since the Battle of Fort Macon in 1862!  I will have to bring them back so they can get the real tour at some point.

Oh my goodness how did it get to be July 12th already!?!  Seems like just yesterday it was Father's Day!!  Well if it is July 12th, that means it is Lucy's 8th birthday!!!  Eight?!  That can't be right either?  Well she assures me it is, so I guess we will go with it.

Lucy's birthday cake is usually a tricky affair.  Nine times out of ten we are in Swansboro and I do not have any of my cake stuff with me.  Gigi's kitchen is a great back up (don't get me wrong), but it takes a bit more of a coordinating effort to pull it all together.  Nanny had purchased some whale plates and napkins earlier in the year and Lucy was easily convinced to have a whale cake to go with it!  We decided to try our hand at a cupcake cake.  Gigi baked the cupcakes, I frosted them and Lucy did the outline.  It was a truly a family effort.  I think it came out pretty well!  Tasted even better.

Another almost-tradition is to go to MacDaddy's to feed the videogame machines with perfectly good money.  We were joined by Mary Hardy and Forrest (Fa) and also cousin Wesley!  They say you can't put a dollar figure on happiness.  These kids beg to differ.

As if this night couldn't be any more perfect, Lucy also got a SUPER MOON!  How is that for a birthday present.

Oh My Gosh!! We are somehow down to our last week in NC!  How on earth did that happen so fast.  I do not want to go back to Florida.  The kids do not want to go back.  In fact, the ONLY one who is even remotely excited about going back to Florida is Oscar.  He is over it.  He doesn't like roommates, AT ALL.  They aren't especially excited about him either.  So there you go.
 
We were able to have another big pool day with some friends.  Even Lucy's new friend from Camp Don-Lee was able to join us.  Yeah!!!
 

As our days wind down we are trying to cram as much as possible into them.  That means boat rides every day, going out to eat and basically spending EVERY WAKING MINUTE together.  Forced Family Fun (FFF) everyday!!
 

I was able to spend the night with one of my (many, many) college roommates while the kids were in Virginia and for some reason she wanted me to come back WITH THE KIDS!  What?  Are you crazy?  No, well ok.  So off we go on one of our last days in NC to Wilmington to play with Pedrina.  We went to the beach and then did a quick driving tour of UNC-W.  Boy has that place changed since the last time I was there!  The kids loved it and said they all wanted to go to college there!  YES!  Of course that was mainly because there was a Dunkin Donuts on campus.
 

Finally the day has arrived to head south.  I had the car all packed.  Surprisingly, it is just as full heading south as it was in June heading north.  Weird, how does that happen?  I felt for sure that I was offloading so much stuff!!  Sigh.

Well, ok maybe there is a little less stuff in the back

Are you sure you are ready for this Gigi?

We made it down all in one day.  I am not sure if everyone was happy with my decision to do it without stopping.  We left early enough in the day to do it and spending the night on the road with kids and a cat is easier said then done.  Of course the kids started dropping off like flies the last thirty minutes in our drive.  Isn't that the way it always is?  We left everything in the car and put the kids in the house and we all just went to BED!
 
We had a few days before Jim got back to Miami (from his latest trip) to kind of regroup and assimilate to life back in South Florida.  Unpacking - Done. Laundry - Done.  Back-to-school physicals - Done.  Grocery - Done.  Back to school shopping - DONE!!  That one was huge!  We are going to spend the first week of August in Cape Cod and I wanted to make sure that I had all I could do finished before that.  Gigi was a huge huge help in getting all that taken care of.  
 
To thank her for everything she had been doing for me we wanted to give her an unique Miami experience.  We took her to South Beach, which I am sure she did not really want to do, but you cannot come to Miami without seeing South Beach.  Sorry Gigi.
 
We also decided kind-of spur of the moment to check out a local attraction called Monkey Jungle.  We saw signs for it the last time we were heading to Key Largo and Gigi seemed to be a good test subject.  Boy oh boy, what a score!!  Everyone loved it!  Basically it is a primate preserve where you walk through in a caged walkway and there are monkeys all over the place.  Every few feet there are little bowls on chains hanging from the ceiling where you can put dried fruit and nuts and the monkeys pull them up, eat what is inside and just DROP the bowl.  So watch out for falling bowls or you will get beaned in the head!
 

Monkey Jungle not only has monkeys, but also Mae Mae the orangutan and King the gorilla.  Both have been raised in captivity and had their routines down.  Very entertaining and educational!!  Thank you Monkey Jungle, we will be back!
 

Just to go along with the wildlife theme, I took Gigi over to the neighborhood where all the peacocks live.  We stumbled upon a resting male just hanging out on the sidewalk.  Then we turn the corner and there is a momma with her babies!  Score!!

Gigi is a huge baseball fan, so we had to take her to a Marlins game.  First we had to get outfitted with all our Marlins gear!  We must have brought the team good luck because they came from behind to win in the last inning!  The kids were able to get on the Jumbo-tron SEVERAL times so it was a win-win!

Unfortunately, the time has snuck up on us again!  We barely got Gigi to the airport in time for her plane despite Lucy's best effort to delay our departure.  She ended up riding in the car in her pj's!
 
On our way home we passed this. 

 
I am STILL not sure what is going on here.  I think it is a woman relocating her pets but I am not sure if it even legal.  Definitely not something I was expecting to see 3 miles from my house.  Good Job South Florida.  Thanks for always keeping me entertained.

As I have said in the past, it rains EVERY DAY this time of year.  Here is a visual to give you an idea of just how much it rains - EVERY DAY!  This bucket was empty earlier in the day.