Poopin' In Beverly Hills

TIme to play a little catch-up. I received the Hopwood's OBX'13 photos.
On another note… Since we got the Sonata outfitted to handle the iPod more easily, we've been having fun listening to all sorts of songs in the car. The kids' affinity for Superchick and TobyMac has been well-documented, but the other day I was playing from my playlist, and this Weezer song played.
I scan through the "crap" and "screwed" lines to get to the chorus, and the kids love the chorus, mostly because it's short and easy to remember. What makes this particularly funny is that Lydia will sometimes start singing at home, "Beverly Hills! That's where I want to be!" And what is even funnier is last week she was sitting on her potty and she sang, "Beverly Hills! That's where I want to poop! Poopin' in Beverly Hills!"

OBX'13 #5

I can't believe I forgot to post these photos earlier. It must have been the going back and forth between apps while I was writing posts and linking photos on the iPad.

On Thursday evening, way past Lincoln's bed time, we went down to the beach to look for craps and to play with long camera shutter speeds and sparklers. This is what we got...Jenn also made a fabulous Peach Cobbler with some peaches we picked up from a road-side stand. The nice thing about Peach Cobbler is that it triples as a dessert for dinner or lunch and as a breakfast!I think that does it for my photos from vacation. The next OBX post here will probably be my sharing Emily's photos.

OBX'13 #4

We wrapped up our time with some pool and beach time on Friday morning (2+ hours in the pool) and in the afternoon (45 minutes on the beach and another hour in the pool).
Given the fact that we have multiple little kids that don't really get the idea of looking at the camera and smiling when it's on the timer, and they lose interest in a non-craft or non-pool activity at the drop of a hat, I was pretty pleased with our group photos.  Of course, you're not seeing the plethora of photos that I had to delete because Lydia wasn't "participating well," or because Lincoln was looking directly at the sand, but the remaining ones turned out well.
The trip home went surprisingly well.  We hit the road at 7:43am to beat the rush to the bridge, and we only hit a few brief slow-downs here and there.  After a vomit-stop for Lydia 40 minutes into the drive, a gas stop before DC, 1 hour lunch at a good deli north of DC, and a short stop just inside the Ohio line, we arrived home in less than 12 hours.  Lincoln travelled well with Grandma & Grandpa, and Lydia and Henry travelled amazingly well in our car.  Of course, Lydia was occupied watching lots of movies (with the unused bucket on her head, no less), but we were pleased that they were both quiet and pleasant.

Everybody talks about how it's never fun to come home from a vacation, and I've thought that myself on many occasions, but this one was a new feeling in that I observed this thought with Lincoln.  He cried at bedtime during our second-to-last night knowing that the next day would be the last of vacation, and he had a hard time last evening knowing that it was through.  Watching a slide-show of the photos helped all three kids a lot with unwinding and getting some closure.

This wasn't a particularly restful vacation for me and Jenn, but I'm quite certain that rest was never the original intent.  Memory-making and family-time were the priorities, and those goals were more than achieved.

Jenn and I shared this with the family at our Friday dinner (of the same Goat Cheese Macaroni & Cheese from Lincoln's Birthday Party), but I'll share it here because it's worth being public:

• We thanked Grandma & Auntie Em for coordinating the crafts that occupied and entertained the kids between beach/pool/shower/meal times.  The crafts were beach-themed, age-appropriate, and some were just messy enough to require that shirts be removed... and this kept all of the kids interested and excited.
  
• We thanked Grace and Cole, in particular, for playing so well with our three kids.  At every turn, they were friendly and polite with the kids, and they were willing to help out with crafts, food, toys and stories.  It's a big help to an Aunt & Uncle knowing that their niece and nephew play well with the cousins.

Over the next weeks and months we'll get to planning our next family vacation.  Jenn and I are crusing again next February, but that's alone-time for us.  Disney is on the horizon, and Waunita Hot Springs is a few years down the road after that.  What will we sprinkle in between those?  We're open to suggestions...

OBX'13 #3

A Mother-Daughter Walk On The Beach

The crabs come out at night, apparently after the birds can no longer see the beach very well.  There are crabs of all sizes, and they scurry around all over the beach.  It might be easy to step on one if you weren't careful, though they are pretty fast at getting out of the way when they see motion around them.
It was another couple of great dinners over the last evenings.  Two evenings ago we had Taco Night, with beef, chicken and shrimp; and then we washed it all down with Chocolate Dessert Tacos. Last evening was a night of pizza with a Taco Pizza, a Cheese Pizza, and a BBQ Chicken Pizza.  Ella might have out-eaten us all.
Yesterday we went to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and Lincoln and I climbed to the top to take in the experience and the view.  He did great with the climb, and we got to see the Outer Banks from way up.  The little ones stayed down with Jenn and Grandma & Grandpa... too much of a climb, and Lydia would have been a jump risk, we believe.

This last photo cracks me up.  It's from the inside of the Lighthouse, and I liked the brick pattern as a background.  I asked Lincoln to make a nervous face, and that's what he came up with.

The kids are getting more and more comfortable with the water, both the pool and the ocean.  It's way too cold to go swimming in the ocean, but Lincoln didn't mind getting wet in the waves this morning.
It hit me today that it's now Thursday and we'll be packing up for home tomorrow evening and hitting the road in less than 48 hours.  The week has blown right by.  I suppose it's a metaphore for life, that each day passes quickly.  These days, in particular, have passed quickly and we'll soon be left with photos and memories.

Jenn and I have had a number of conversations over the past several months about taking memory-making vacations for and with the kids.  My parents did that with Emily and me, and when we hear successful parents at church discuss the things that made them successful families, one of their secrets is being intentional about giving their kids good memory-making opportunities.
One of the surprises of the week was Grandma's present to the kids: matching jammies!
This followed an evening of Superhero Birthday Party for Grace, Cole and Lincoln, and we all donned Spiderman masks.
We've been letting Lincoln stay up a bit later some of these evenings.  It's all a part of that memory-making philosophy.  Two evenings ago he wore his new jammies to the beach and got to watch Grandpa fish.  That evening proved to be the least-exciting evening of fishing (lots of skates the night before and two stingrays the night after), but Lincoln got some extra kite-flying time in, and Grandpa even let him reel in the line before we went to bed.