My Kids & Me

I have posted the pictures from our family trip. For Oscar & Elizabeth's birthday (not really a party), click here . For pictures of the family vacation to Destin, click here . We really, really miss the beach!!!

We over did ourselves today. 7 hours at the beach was probably a bit too much (and we have the sunburn to prove it). The kids were running on fumes when we left and so were Beth and me. Elizabeth spent about 6 of the 7 hours with Mrs. Salena and her family (they have offered to adopt her), Oscar spent the 2nd half of the day playing with Mr. Kenny (and he checked for him every time we walked by his chair until he got there), and Michael played with Chris, Mr. Kenny's 21-yr old son. It's great that the kids are so social, but I hope people don't think we are taking advantage of them. At about 3, Oscar was sitting next to Mr. Kenny and was so tired that he could hardly speak. Mr. Kenny put down a boogie board for Oscar to lay on and as soon as he laid down, his arms went behind his head (his sign for I'm ready to sleep). He shut his eyes and we thought he was out, but he hung in there and never took a nap. Elizabeth ate almost an entire can of Pringles from Mrs. Salena

I might need some help with this, but I think we need to try to convince Oscar to be the Hamburglar for Halloween. I don't think there is a child on the planet that eats more burgers than him. He had 2 hamburgers today and probably at least 5 for the trip so far. He is so excited at the sight of mustard bottles now too. We ate lunch at the beach bar today and he saw that mustard bottle and started doing his little Oscar dance. So funny... Last night I got kicked out of the bed, not by Beth, but by Michael. When I went to bed, there he was in my spot, so I slept in his sleeping bag. Looks like more of the same tonight. Today we got a late start and made it to the beach around 11am. We decided to stay there for most of the day. Our pool time was limited to 30 minutes after the beach. The kids were all good at the beach today and Elizabeth is now recognized by just about everyone on the beach and she talks to all of them. She found a great sea shell today, one of the kind

Tip #1: Reapply sunscreen often when it's about 150 outside. I actually told Beth yesterday at one point that I could feel myself cooking. Now I know where the bacon smell was coming from. Yesterday and today were pretty much like Sunday. Beach in the morning, pool in the afternoon, sunburn free to those that care for it. Why is it that the kids always want to climb on your shoulders when they are crispy? Elizabeth has made a friend at the beach, Mrs. Selina. I think Elizabeth talked to her for about an hour today and actually ran back to her when we left to give her a hug and a kiss. She is quite a character. Oscar is becoming more of the prototypical surfer dude every day. He's doing great on his boogie board while riding the waves and likes to float around on it in the calm surf farther out. Pretty much his personality all summed up. Michael, of course, thinks he is bigger than he is. He sees people out on the sandbar several hundred feet offshore and is convinc

Finally, we are on our family vacation to Destin. We had to postpone 2 weeks due to Michael's broken elbow . First, let me apologize to my Mom & Dad for the endless times I must have asked "Are we there yet?" when we were driving to Florida. This was the first trip that our kids started asking this and it was painful...and it was only a 7 hour drive. I can't believe my parents didn't just drop us off at the side of the road; heck, one of my nicknames as a kid was "Question" so I guess I'm lucky they still talk to me. The trip was uneventful, other than not getting Beth's van fixed Friday like we were promised, so we got off to a late start (don't use America's Service Station near Brookstone). The kids were overall very good on the ride. As soon as we got into the condo, they were all stripped naked within 5 seconds and were going through the bags looking for their swim suits. We went in the pool for a couple of hours then we

The last 3 days have been crazy. We were invited to a party at a neighbors on Sunday and had a blast. We got to meet so many new people. The hosts have the best kids yard on the planet. There were about 15 kids there and Elizabeth was the only girl up until the end. The kids entertained each other all night; it was so wonderful. Monday we went to Athens for a cookout at Ma and Big Daddy's house. The kids did great, the food was great, and we got home late. (hey, i'm a poet.) Oscar was asking for his bed by the end of the night. July 4th started with the kids not waking up until around 8:30. Talk about wonderful! The kids participated in the bike parade and ice cream social in the subdivision. I had no idea there were so many kids in our neighborhood. We then hung out at the pool for a few hours before Michael and I came back to watch Italy beat Germany in double overtime in the World Cup. We then went to Lake Acworth for fireworks. We met the Davis' and Skow