This weekend the boys and I went up to the cottage. (We left Ben at home, but I told him to text me frequently so I knew he wasn't dead.)
Isaac tried fishing for the first time. He said it was meh. To be fair, Dad also said it was meh because they caught zero fish. However, Isaac did well casting.
It was supposed to rain in the afternoon, so we went to the sand bar in the morning. Well, I joined in the boat ride but didn't get in the water. It was warm but not hot, so I wasn't interested in getting wet. Joshua went tubing after the sand bar, but Isaac was too cold.
After lunch was movie and a nap. It was a long week and I really needed a nap. After I woke up we played some games and the rain finally started. We just hung out for the rest of day, even though it didn't rain for all that long.
Today we played bocce ball in the morning and just hung out again, watching the birds. Isaac wanted to go tubing, so Dad and I brought him out for several loops around the lake. Then lunch and home.
It was the last extra busy day! I even had some things canceled.
I drove 35% of the battery today.
Ben was moved into a walking boot today, but he can't actually walk without pain yet. We did get a knee scooter though, and he's very excited about that.
It was a rather boring day for having so much in it.
Isaac also had an up and down day. He had most of his clay project finished (a giraffe), and it fell over, nose first. The teachers were so kind. They got the basic shape back and then let Isaac finish the details...all after class. The teacher also is working tomorrow after class, and said Isaac could stay until he finishes.
A friend came over to work on a puzzle. We got about half of it done. If we had another forty-five minutes we probably could have finished, but I had to pick up Isaac.
I drove about 20% of the car's battery today. I don't know what that means in meaningful data like time or miles.
Today was the first day of busy week. The kids both have camps. In some ways it's nice because then the rest of the weeks are more free, but it does make this week busy.
Joshua went to the library to make salsa. (Pat came to bring him because I needed to pick up Isaac.) Joshua has really enjoyed salsa lately so was thinking he'd be really excited about it...he was a bit relucent. However, by the time he came home he was all smiles. He had a great time. Also, I thought it was some of the best salsa I've ever had. Everyone else thought it was good but not great. I could have eaten it for dinner, but did the responsible thing and ate real food instead.
Today there weren't plans to go anywhere. Ben and Isaac had a surf lesson, but the location they selected was the pier so they could just walk 100ft and be in the right place. I told Ben and Isaac that I supported them and I hoped they would have a lot of fun, but I wasn't going to watch - I was going to play in the ocean. However, we did go over to their side of the pier for 20 minutes to watch while playing in the ocean and they did a great job. Also, happily, we have other people in the group that were willing to take pictures so we got some great ones.
The boogie boards were in high demand, so I just jumped in the waves a bit and then pretended to read my book. I only read about three pages; friends and kids are distracting, the ocean is distracting, being wet is distracting. I brought it down a few more times, but never opened it up again. (Please note the beach book is different from the one I was reading on my kindle. Phones and beaches don't mix all that well.)
We spent the afternoon inside. The girls went swimming again, and they all ended up with very sad sunburns...they had been well sun-screened up in the afternoon too! (Actually, Joshua was burnt too, but that was more due to poor application of sunscreen.) It reinforced my plan of not going out in the afternoon and putting on more sunscreen in the morning.
During the afternoon we played several games, read some books, and just hung out.
For dinner we pivoted our plans. We picked up some Buffalo Wild Wings and then went back to the beach. The beach in the evening was perfect. All four of us played in the ocean for quite a while.
We got Joshua some new shelves for his room. He worked really hard putting them together this evening. He's doing a really good job doing most of the work by himself, although I needed to keep reminding him to put the front of the pieces in the front.
The other day we were listening to an audio book and Joshua has me pause the recording...
J: so, the what is the kid's dad? A: The poor kid's dad is a chalk maker and the rich kids dad is a senator. J: OH!!! A senator! I was wondering how a kid's dad could be a centaur.
We had at 12:30pm flight, which was perfect. We had time to wake up, finish packing, clean the house, and even do some LEGO. It was lovely.
Snaxalotl and Catnana didn't get to come because they are too big. So they started vacation early
We were most of the way to the airport when we got a notification that our flight was delayed two hours. Did you know that most things are closed until noon on Sunday? We finally found that Dave and Buster's opens at 10:30, so we headed over there for a bit. It was a nice easy to spend and extra hour. We also had non- airport food for lunch.
We got to the airport and everything else went pretty smoothly. The exact timing of departure was a little weird as it was pushed up and back a bit. My most eye-roll comment was from the gate agent who was telling the people standing in line, "Hurry up! I've only got 10 minutes to get everyone on board!" as though we can go any faster. It isn't our fault the plane was late.
We made it to Myrtle Beach and proceeded to wait 30 minutes for a gate. I was annoyed. Doug, Heather and Seth kindly waited for us though and didn't really care. I mean, it meant we didn't have to help carry up the groceries. Our family also didn't have to help get the groceries.
As normal, we have pizza for dinner because groceries are sometimes still coming in. Unlike previous years, we did not have any leftovers. This was a common theme throughout the week - the kids are getting older and eating more!
We ended up taking the upstairs king room and it was a good choice. It had a massive closet, which frequently doubled as a changing area since the kids' stuff was in our room.
I was also happy I got pictures before it got messy. It was never too bad, but never as nice as the beginning.
Upstairs there was also an arcade game. I think. I honestly never looked at it, but heard it had a bunch of games. The kids enjoyed it.
This was the downstairs main area with the table off to the left. Not quite as big as last time, but still fit us all well.
The kids were chomping to go play in the ocean (almost literally), and we finally had everyone around. The adults had been expecting to just go look at the ocean, but all the kids wanted to put on swim suits. We didn't really have a good reason to say no, and they had a great time.
I spent some precious luggage space on big shovels. It was the right call as they, especially the one in the picture, were used a lot.
Joshua was trying to be a seawall for their castle. It worked at first, but the tide comes in surprisingly quickly.
Four of us went for a walk.
I'm writing this rather late, unfortunately, but I don't remember anything else of note. The kids went to bed. I told our kids to go to bed when they were tired and to not be the last kids up, and it worked well.