Last Monday: pool

Playing doctor before the pool.

Dancing before the pool.  They had just gotten ready to dance and the song stopped. :(

Pool!

First try to get a kids' picture.  It didn't work for so many reasons.  But pretty much none of the kids wanted their picture taken.

Dinner at Texas Roadhouse: guys' table.

Dinner at Texas Roadhouse: mostly girls' table.

Someone woke up around 10pm and was super happy.  He was especially happy to help Ben choose cards.

Last Sunday: Space and Rocket center

Playing...there were so many toys and Isaac and Joshua loved it!

Getting sunscreened.

Hanging like a bat at the robot zoo.

Camouflaging like a chameleon.

Ring around the rosies under a rocket.

 Watching Ben on a ride.

Space shuttle/moon walk play area.

Joshua under Saturn V

Steering to the moon in the play area

Walking down the walkway arm.  At the end I threw him up in the air like a rocket would.

In the Apollo trainer.  The seats were rather comfy and Isaac almost took a nap.

Joshua with Saturn V.

Everyone by Saturn V

A tired Joshua.

Playing ring around the rosies after nap time.

After dinner yard time.

Last Saturday: arrival

So here are the pictures...they make the stories so much more fun.

The water fountain at the hotel, in the super super sauna room.  It had a sensor and gave cold water.  We visited it a lot while waiting for Ben to wake up.

Water table.

Squirt bottles were a hit.  Here they were very intent on squirting the stairs.

Saturday: bittersweet

Today's activity was to go to the pool again. It was fun. The boys had a good time. Isaac is deathly afraid of getting water on his face which is super annoying. Joshua got dunked a few times and "jumped" off the edge.

We went home and struggled to keep Joshua awake. Of course, he was then wide awake at nap time. I handed him over to Ben who said he was full of energy the whole time I napped. He got a bit cranky after that, but it also meant he went to sleep promptly in the car.

After dinner we left. I think it was the right amount of vacation, but still sad. The group is diverse and similar at the same time. It was a good vacation.

Before I had even taken my foot off the brake to back out of the drive way Isaac asked, "are we there yet?" We were also talking about returning our car and Isaac said, "We can return it Monday or Saturday. Those are our options." He sounds so grown up when he says that, but makes no sense. Speaking of grown up, he did his first credit card transaction while getting gas today. And Joshua started creeping along furniture. He'll be walking soon.

We're currently in Indiana. I doubt we'll get out before we find a hotel, but hopefully we'll get about half way.

Friday: cave!

This morning we went to a cave. It was big. It was darkish. It was a perfect temperature. The normal cave things were there...fallen rocks, columns, stalagmites, stalactites, soda straws. Beautiful. Amazing.

The first family of the group left afterwards. :(

After naps we made some ice cream, although haven't tasted it yet. We played outside. Isaac was completely exhausted at bed time. He kept telling me that all he wanted to do was sleep.

Hmm...I also had a funny conversation with Isaac written up, but can't access it right now. I guess it'll be tbd.

Friday: in trucks

Got it!

We're going down the road, guessing what's in white semi trucks.

Amanda: that says swing transport.
Ben: maybe swings are in there
Isaac:maybe logs.
Isaac: we don't know.

Amanda: what's in that truck?
Isaac: maybe bags of water
Isaac: that you throw
Amanda: you mean water balloons?

Amanda: what's in that one? It saw salson.
Isaac: maybe clouds
Isaac: maybe there's no clouds somewhere.

Thursday: lunch

Today the moms got to go out by ourselves. We went out for lunch. Well, really we went out for dessert but we ate some real food too. Our waiter didn't think we'd be able to eat all the dessert but we showed him! Not a single bite was left. We also rode the carousel. Really rode it, not just stood next to a child while it spun. :)

After naps we had water balloons. They were a ton of fun! The kids continued to play in water and on the play set for a while after that. After dinner things were getting crazy inside. The kids were running around screaming...most of it was fun, but as always there were some tears. Isaac and Marshall both wanted a basketball and ended up upstairs and then they were both crying surprisingly hard. All we really got out of either of them was that it was about a basketball. Anyway, we went back outside. Isaac chose to ride the black truck some more instead of eat strawberry pie. His loss, my gain.

The adults started to preview some of the pictures taken during the trip and there are some cute ones!! Joshua is Mr. Serious in most of them, but still cute.