Easter candy is in the stores! Juliet and I were excited to find Cadbury Eggs and we discussed how the other kids were going to want to eat them. Then she had a genius idea of what we could do about this problem. "Hide them in our mouths!!"
There's a definite hierarchy when it comes to Juliet affections. Nathan was discussing how she calls him "Da Da" but only when she wants something. Otherwise it's "Not You." After he said this, Juliet came in for morning cuddles and laid directly on top of me, moving away from Nathan so she wouldn't touch him at all. She then informed him he was in Eleanor's spot. This was after he had spent the night in her room with her because she has croup.
I don't get the love when Eleanor is around though. She is queen of Juliet's heart. Juliet woke up from her nap the other day and started screaming for Eleanor and when I walked over to her Juliet screamed at me and told me to go to my room.
She likes the boys too and will happily play with them but if Eleanor walks by she'll drop everything for her sister. It sounds great for Eleanor but sometimes the love is a LOT.
I really enjoyed this video. Especially the discussion at the end with Juliet about annoying behavior.
Don't worry, at least I have the boys, right? After all this happened we had a conversation at dinner and as a joke I asked the kids which sibling they would have raise them and Juliet instantly hollered out, "Eleanor!" Then we asked which aunt or uncle they would have raise them, which seemed like a more interesting question. Patrick responded "Aunt Stephanie." I asked him why and he said because she was nice and beautiful but then he stopped and gazed deeply into my eyes and said "but not as nice or as beautiful as ..." and I reached out to pat him on the head as he said, "Mabel." Didn't see that one coming. Patrick had no idea why we were all laughing so much.
Patrick also loves math and has been using all the note cards I got him for Christmas to write out little math problems. He's off the charts for all his academic scores at school, which is lovely because it's not like I work with him at all. Although we do share math problems for fun at mealtimes sometimes. Math is fun, who wouldn't want to do this?
Eleanor had a Girl Scout board game afternoon and like a boss, she helped me teach kids a variety of the games that we brought along with us. Rock Paper Scissors War was a surprise hit.
Rock Paper Scissors War has been a hit at home as well. It's rare that the kids play a game without a parent being involved, so this was pretty great.
This is how Juliet watches shows with Patrick. Makes sense to me!
This is how Juliet tries to get me to share one of my fancy popsicles desserts. She's a sneaky one!
We were packing for Great Wolf Lodge and got out bathrobes. Juliet was very excited to be one of the bathrobe crew!
The kids got to do a Pinewood Derby through Cub Scouts the day before we went to Great Wolf Lodge for Juliet's birthday. They are very fortunate they have the dad that they have. He made a bonus car for Eleanor even though he didn't have to, Patrick won the fastest car, and Bradley won the coolest design prize for the third year in a row. Scott family dominance! Honestly it was a little embarrassing and I want someone else to win something next year.
Patrick and his friend Cohen watching one of the races.
And then we got to Great Wolf Lodge! Hurray!
Family picture! Only took 50 tries to get this picture.
Juliet was a little hesitant about the water at first but got more comfortable over the course of our time there.
The lazy river was, of course, a hit.
We got the fancy birthday package for Juliet which included a fun banner for the door.
In project "spoil the youngest child" the older kids helped us pick out a wand for her along with a topper. This was a much slower process for the older kids, Patrick had to share a wand for a couple years and they all had to wait a year or two to get a fancy topper. Juliet got all of her stuff immediately while three siblings, two parents, and two grandparents all fussed over her.
Magiquest! Juliet was medium excited about her wand after all that.
The bunk room in our hotel room remains the best part of staying at Great Wolf Lodge.
She was just a teensy bit excited about her cake.
Managed to get my parents in a photo! If you look in the background you can see the score from the Chiefs playoff game in the background. Fun fact - the last time we had been to Great Wolf Lodge prior to this the Chiefs had been in the Super Bowl. Poor Nathan. I don't time it this way on purpose.
Me with the very blonde birthday girl.
Arcade time!
I told her to make a racing face as she pretended to do the motorcycle game.
We discovered that Eleanor loves Skeeball. She's pretty good!
The zombie water shooting game remains the boys' favorite.
Cutie Juliet with tickets!
Please note her new birthday shirt because Nathan and I saw it in the gift shop. And honestly, she rarely ever gets new clothes because she has so many hand-me-downs. So this was fun and cute.
Evening story time in the grand lobby.
A very tuckered out Bradley in our room that night. He was the only one who didn't sleep in the bunk room with the other kids. Actually, he and Nathan were the only ones who didn't sleep in there. Juliet got lonely at 5 AM and started to cry so I got to go share a non-regulation size twin bed with her. It was short and the foam mattress is about 1 inch thick. Comfy!
We went back to the arcade to start the morning off right!
And then hustled back into the water park as soon as it opened. We actually got Juliet to go down a few slides on the second day. She didn't like water spraying down on top of her and most of the kiddie slides had that going on, which is rather ridiculous.
Hot tub with Grandpa! Bradley has turned into a hot tub fan. Smart kid!
Snuggles with Daddy! It was a great time. We did take the kids out of school for the day for this, which seemed like not a big deal until they had snow days later that same week. Whoops!
Chick-fil-A on the way home. Somehow Bradley and Eleanor started a baby bird game where she would feed Bradley french fries and they both couldn't stop cackling with laughter.
They don't seem to do much with each other anymore so stuff like this makes me very happy. Family getaway time is important!
It was a gorgeous day so we went back to our new playground in the park for the afternoon. Juliet was rightfully indignant that Patrick would choose to go on her swing and that he would do it so incorrectly. That said, she doesn't like baby swings anymore and prefers to ride on her tummy on the big swing. It doesn't have to make sense.
The next day was Juliet's actual birthday so we gave her a leftover piece of the Great Wolf Lodge cake and sang to her. It's good this was understated because she had yet another birthday celebration the next weekend.
I walked in on her reading a book in a chair that evening, just like a big kid!
Then we had a big snow and school was cancelled.
Proof that I actually went outside for a little bit.
Snow angel Bradley
Busy Juliet
These kids eat so much snow it's ridiculous.
The swing was a medium hit in the snow.
Then we went back inside and the kids played with marble run. Perfect activity for a snowy day!
Pusheen the Cat Purrfect Pick Card Game has been a big hit around here lately.
Patrick had another basketball game and I got another video of one of his baskets. There are many videos that could be taken. It's been a really fun season, I'm mostly happy that he's doing well listening to Nathan coach and being a good teammate to his friends.
And we all finally made it to one of Bradley's basketball games.
Patrick is a very good fan and was excited to go hug his favorite player at half time.
The girls ... were different kinds of fans. They brought toys and had a jolly good time but I'm not sure they watched much of the game.
Juliet had a new camera from her birthday and was excited to show off her poses.
She has a lot of poses.
And then we discovered we'd been flocked that night! It's a fundraiser for the elementary school. It's pretty cute and the kids enjoy it, kudos to the people who organize it.
And Nathan and I even got in a date night this weekend! We went to Dave & Busters for "research purposes" for upcoming kid birthdays. Turns out we both still love Big Buck Hunter.
Coming back to thank the babysitters. Grandma is buried under a pile of girls here.
And the next day we had Juliet's friend birthday party. It was at the gymnastics studio and we had about 45 minutes in the part room before they got to go do gymnastics. It was so fun and easy, we had such a good time.
Oh, and FUN STORY. Eleanor decided to cut her hair this morning! She walked downstairs to eat breakfast before church and didn't say anything but I looked at her and looked again and realized she now had bangs. She has a LOT of bangs, but it looks pretty nice considering she cut it all herself with a pair of kid scissors in her bathroom. I couldn't believe it. She had never even mentioned wanting bangs. So I tried to fix up her hair well enough for church and the party in the afternoon.
Cute kids in front of our photo op we used for the party.
I love this picture.
We had a really nice crew of kids at the party. It was mostly church friends and there were a lot of big kids and I think only one child was younger than Juliet and three were within a year of her age. She loved it though and so did all of her siblings.
Yes, a child starts crying while we're singing happy birthday. That's how you know it's a legit kid party.
There was a lot of spitting involved in blowing out her candle. This is why I did a pull-apart cupcake cake and took Juliet's cupcake out for the purposes of this moment. You're welcome, everyone!
Then they had guided time in the gymnastics studio. It was so fun.
Followed by a little free time!
The boys helped build forts for Juliet.
I really like February birthdays. Everyone is available and ready for something fun to do!
We had guided parachute activities at the end of the party.
Followed by a group photo! Great success. Everyone had a blast.
Look at how pretty this three year old is. Lucky Meg getting to be cuddled by her!
I needed a picture of her in a birthday gift outfit from the party and she ran around and screamed happily while I tried to get her to stop for a photo.
Goofball eating some chips at lucnh.
She whined and begged for about two days straight until I finally sat her and Eleanor down to paint a ceramic unicorn she had received as a gift.
Eleanor is so good with her. I'm really happy Eleanor enjoys doing these things too.
Looking like a teenager while playing with her new phone.
The best picture I could get of the aftermath of Eleanor's haircut. She did pretty well and she loves it, she just cut the bangs about an inch further back than was probably necessary. I just can't believe she decided to give herself a haircut out of nowhere. Ridiculous child.
Juliet has my number and whenever she wants me to play with her she sets up a game. Here she is after she set up the Pusheen game all by herself.
Tired nap girl. Birthday festivities are exhausting.
We had a Lego robotics practice at my parents' house and Juliet decided to join the team because she had missed Eleanor while she had been gone at school all day. Juliet gets away with a lot by being so cute.
Patrick has a new best buddy named Timmy. We love Timmy. He's in cub scouts with Patrick and his family also has a lake lot down in Linn Valley. We've been trying to organize more play dates for the cute buddies.
Meanwhile - nekkie time before bed while watching Eleanor do something on the tablet.
The girls got to go to a Daddy Daughter dance at our church! It was cowgirl themed.
Everyone looked so fancy and nice!
Juliet borrowed my new hat for a photo.
Meanwhile, the boys and I went over to my parents' house for our standard Friday night with them. We tried out Kim-Joy's Magic Bakery game, which was cute and fun.
But then we went back to Pusheen, a fan favorite.
Winner and loser picture.
I was the loser this time. Dad won. Patrick was just there to celebrate. We love Friday night games with my parents, it's some excellent quality time for all involved.
The girls got to go out to a fun pizza dinner before the dance.
And then it was time for pictures, music, yummy food, and cool crafts!
Apparently Eleanor tried to go run around with a friend while she was there and that was wrong, so Juliet had to do some clinging. Juliet's friend Caroline is looking on.
Juliet really likes Caroline.
They got some great photos and on all accounts it was a very fun evening!
However - that night I threw up and the next day at piano lessons Eleanor threw up. She made it to the sink at least! There's a really bad stomach bug that has been going around and the boys had it earlier in the week. I thought we were in the clear, it had been three days since the boys were sick, but apparently it still came for us in the end. Eleanor and I spent the day in bed watching episodes of The Great British Baking Show and taking naps. Eleanor and I even slept in the bed together that night and Nathan slept on the couch because he wanted to be far away from our germs. It seems this made an impression on Juliet, who always pays attention. A few days ago when she had a cold she said she wanted to be sick and get to sleep in my bed with me. Hah! Too bad for us, it turned out to be croup and she did actually get a few sleepovers with her wonderful dad who slept in her tiny twin bed with her so he could help her whenever she woke up coughing. I hate winter sicknesses.
We were rather concerned with all the stomach bugs because we were due to leave on our big winter break trip on the afternoon of Monday the 14th. Fortunately, everyone was better just in time. And Juliet and I spent the morning of the 14th packing and watching the neighborhood armadillo who happens to live in our backyard!
We hit the road as soon as I picked up the kids from school. Nathan and I spent a romantic Valentine's Day with the entire family at a Wendy's in Emporia, Kansas!
We went to a Wendy's because I had been telling the kids about how it's a thing to dip french fries in their frosties. All the kids tried it, only Patrick liked it.
We got to our hotel pretty late. Juliet was amped up to get to sleep next to Eleanor.
We stayed at pretty nice hotels on this trip thanks to Nathan's travel points.
An adorable picture I took before I noticed the sign on the luggage rack asking people to not climb on it. Oops!
We booked it to Dallas in time to get In-N-Out for lunch and for me to have a mini college reunion with a couple of friends who lived there.
Meanwhile, Patrick had some necessary time laying in the dirt at the playground.
While Juliet ran all over climbing things.
Then we surprised the kids with the news that we were spending the night at the Dallas Great Wolf Lodge! Eleanor already knew of these plans but Nathan had told me I should keep it a secret from the rest of the kids so it could be a fun surprise. They were a little tired and perhaps not mentally prepared for a water park but they quickly came around once they saw the place!
The view from our room!
One of the biggest draws for us for this location was that they had a very kid friendly ropes course.
All of the kids went on it, although Patrick gave me a heart attack because he walked up and decided it was too hard and tried to walk back down immediately. I gave him a little pep talk about at least trying it out a little first and then he had a great time.
The biggest fan of the ropes course.
It went pretty high up! They have a genius system, the kids can walk all over wherever they like and they just have to pull the rope latching them into the system along with them.
We decided we might as well put Juliet on the mini course since the big kids were having so much fun.
It was preschool child sized and Juliet was very brave and had a lot of fun.
After he came down from the course Patrick decided to show me his collection of acorns from the park that afternoon. He always has a collection of something.
The water park had a wave pool which was deemed okay, not as thrilling as the kids would have liked (I was delighted that it was basically drown-proof) and they had the best little kid water slide area ever. Juliet had a little loop that she did running over to a water slide over and over again for at least an hour straight. Finally I realized that she was poopy and had to get her out. I took her back to the room and changed her and she refused to get back into her swimsuit, which I thought was weird. I went back with her to the water park area to find the rest of the crew and after she ate the pack of fruit snacks I had given her she promptly fell asleep in my arms. I call this picture, "Too Much Vacation."
I was really glad Patrick had decided he was done with the water park too and had come along with me to go get the pizza for dinner. Juliet was very sound asleep and I had to have him carry the pizza for me.
It was worth it. Nothing like pizza after an afternoon swimming!
Juliet was refreshed after her snooze and ready for food and an evening checking out the arcades.
There was a mini carousel that Juliet was in love with. This was her favorite unicorn and she kept hugging it as she rode the ride.
They even had an arcade monster truck game that was geared for preschoolers! Juliet was pretty good at it and earned a bunch of tickets.
However, it was enough tickets and when we went to the prizes area we discovered we didn't have enough for the unicorn toy she desperately wanted. I told her she had to put it back and my three year old said, "My life is ruined!!!" Fortunately, Daddy went to the basketball game and won her the 100 tickets she needed to be able to afford the best toy ever. Daddy is a hero!
So much joy. It was actually really great that she got this because she had mostly packed her suitcase with stuffed animals before we left home and I had removed all of them and replaced them with clothes. She discovered the lack of stuffies at the hotel the night before so this filled the stuffy need for the trip. Hurray hurray!
She carried that thing everywhere. We named it Rainbow.
We stopped at a cool hipster burger joint for lunch on our way down to Austin. It was really fun breaking the trip down into three or four hour chunks each day, it gave us time for easy mornings and long lunch breaks.
I told these two to give each other bunny ears for the photo. Patrick is a huge goofball.
And I didn't even tell Juliet to do bunny ears but she pays attention.
Although Juliet was a bit of a pill in the car ... she's my only child who literally asks "are we there yet?" on repeat. Now she knows she's being silly whenever she does it which only adds to her enjoyment.
We met up with Uncle Thomas at a cool ice cream spot in Austin. Bradley hugged him like this for literally the first 10 minutes we saw him.
Want to hear something fun about Patrick? He takes a few tries to make any good choice. He picked a salted chocolate ice cream and decided he hated it so I got to eat it (instead of the lemon one I was excited to try) and we got him a different flavor. Being around him in the morning while he's going through his breakfast options is something else. But hurray, cute pic with Uncle Thomas!
Eleanor took this picture of the two of us. Sibling time!
I love this picture so much. Juliet adores Uncle Thomas.
The grownups had a nice chat while the kids ran around and collected giant amounts of acorns from the nearby trees. Bradley's sweatshirt pocket was packed full. He was very upset when Nathan made him leave it all behind.
I wanted to do at least something touristy in Austin and we were excited to find a cool mini golf spot only a few minutes away from where we had ice cream with Thomas. I told Eleanor to go look creeped out by this statue. Success.
The beginning of mini golf, before all the chaos.
The kids ran all over and we couldn't get Patrick to stop taking giant swings so Eleanor got hit in the eye because she didn't give him the 10 food berth he required while golfing. We sorted things out and everyone ended up having a good time but it was a bit of a thing for a while.
The golf course was incredibly cute though. We loved the statues!
Juliet insisted on going to the castle hole even though it wasn't on the course we selected.
Then we went over to our friends' house and met their kids. So much joy!
Their daughter Hadlee is just one year older than Juliet so they hit it off immediately.
And then we spent the night and took off from Austin for Port Aransas. And as I've said, it's been glorious to drive while we weren't in a huge rush to get our destination. We got to stop and play at the Corpus Christi pier as we were driving by.
A sunny picture with my cute boy.
Meanwhile Patrick led Juliet around the playground to play a fun game called, "scream and run away whenever you see Mommy." It was something else.
Time at the pier and the nearby playground was clearly a success as evidenced by the car ride to pick up our code to get into our Port Aransas house.
We barely beat our friends to the house. It was so nice! The foosball table was an immediate hit.
As was the arcade console with a bunch of old-fashioned games on it. So cool!
Then we made sure to go and hit up the pool. It was so pretty.
80 degrees. Glorious.
We took a picture to commemorate sitting by a pool in Texas on an 80 degree day while 8 inches of snow was dumping down on Kansas. The vacation was a big success already!
There was a girls' room full of bunk beds. Eleanor and our friends' three daughters slept in here. Eleanor ended up having five straight nights of sleepovers with friends, so much joy over this especially since we usually don't allow sleepovers.
There were so many fun things to do at this house. So worth it doing this instead of a condo or a hotel.
We definitely brought enough games with us and it was fun teaching a few to our friends.
We told Hadlee and Juliet they probably shouldn't play on the bunk beds too much so of course they made it their mission to camp out on the top bunk as much as possible with the big girls.
Eleanor playing Pusheen with Ella.
Encanto was definitely the theme movie of the trip and the kids watched the movie and sang the soundtrack on repeat. We don't talk about Bruno!
More games. Similo this time!
We had a short walk to the beach via a boardwalk about four houses down from the place where we were staying.
View from the boardwalk.
First dip in the ocean of the trip!
It was upper-fifties but sunny. We thought the kids wouldn't want to get in the water. We were wrong.
The biggest hit of the trip for Patrick was the metal detector we brought along with us.
Eleanor recovering after playing in the ocean. Yes, it was a bit cold for water time.
Hadlee recovered after falling in and getting dried off and put in new clothes and was an awesome beach buddy and loved playing in the sand with Juliet.
I walked back to our house to get swim bottoms for the boys and when I came back the interest in metal detecting had gone up a notch because the wise dads had started to prime spots by tossing some spare change in the sand and burying it. Patrick made about a dollar in change on our first day and he was beyond delighted.
Beach picture with my Bradley boy.
Back to foosball. Patrick in particular was obsessed, we played so much on our trip.
I got Juliet to sleep in her little closet in Nathan's and my room and came out to find everyone playing Dinosaur Tea Party together.
Then I read to the boys. They may have not gotten to sleep in the bunk room but their room was very nice too and I'm pretty sure they got a lot more sleep than the girls on the trip.
Patrick came into our room for wakeup cuddles the next morning. It was such a relaxing vacation. We had so much down time and our main activity every day was going to the beach for a couple hours.
Morning video game time for the cute boys.
Juliet and Hadlee playing together. At one point Hadlee asked Juliet why she was following her everywhere and Juliet said, "because I love you!" and they both seemed to think that was great and resumed playing. Neither are used to playing without their older siblings, I think it was a little strange for them but very fun too.
The garage had a big open space that we used too. A pool table, checkers, and even a ping pong table in another room.
Back to foosball. If Patrick had to describe this trip it would have been video games, foosball, and metal detector on the beach.
It was a bit cloudier and colder on our second beach day. But we still went!
Beach fashion in the winter.
Many thanks to Jason Shneekloth for having a fancy camera and getting a picture of our entire crew!
Our official family pic of the vacation.
I think Nathan took this picture of me and Eleanor at the pool later that day.
It was definitely a girl fest on this trip but the girls were very nice to Bradley and Patrick too. Bradley loved playing video games with Brynn.
We might have pushed it a bit for sweet Juliet. One afternoon she was wandering around being extraordinarily whiny and fussing and then she walked in her closet and grabbed her blanket and pacifier and said, "I'm tired, I need a rest" and laid herself down and fell asleep within about a minute.
We woke her up for an evening out at a cool buffet pizza place. The kids were concerned and skeptical about the quality of this pizza until we discovered that they had dessert pizza which included cinnamon sugar pizza, chocolate covered pizza, and fruit covered pizza. Best pizza ever! And then we stopped by what was clearly the biggest tourist trap around because it had an open shark's mouth for an entrance. So. Cool. We went in and took full advantage of all the overpriced souvenirs and it was all so fantastic.
We had a cozy evening playing Monza and other games when we got back to the house.
And a delightful morning of kids sitting on the couch and playing games on the tablet and ignoring the gorgeous view out the window.
At least Eleanor was happy to go out on the deck with me to admire the view.
It was so pretty. We were so delighted with the house we had for the trip.
Taking a selfie on the deck with my cute husband.
The three older girls with their matching Port Aransas sweatshirts! Eleanor has been wearing hers just about every day since we got home.
Juliet on the deck. Eleanor: You should come inside. Juliet: No, I'm staying out here forever!!!
Yes, she was poopy. We decided to wait to potty train her until after this trip. It was an excellent decision, it would have been a huge pain to deal with a newly potty trained child on the drive down and she has mentioned a fear of the loud sound when toilets flush so even now that we're home I'm not exactly in a rush to take on the adventure that is potty training.
Eleanor wanted a fruit snack on our drive to rent a golf cart. I told her that she could have one if she told Juliet a sweet little angel. This is the resulting look between the girls.
So - it turns out in Texas people drive vehicles on the beach. Big trucks, jeeps, and the coolest of the cool kids rent golf carts. We decided to be cool kids so we rented a shark golf cart for a family beach ride. And in case you're wondering, it was a bit of an issue when we were at our regular beach spot by our house and we had to keep an eagle eye on the kids because they were rightfully not used to watching out for traffic while they ran around on the beach. I'm just glad we were far enough up the coast from where most of the beach traffic was and that we weren't there during the busy season so it wasn't too bad.
It was a chilly but fun golf cart ride.
I told the boys to pose like cool dudes for their picture. Accomplished!
Then we went to the port of Port Aransas and there was a concrete path with giant rocks on either side of it. I immediately yelled out, "the children need to stay away from those death rocks," and instantly there was no other place they would rather be.
More death rocks. Eleanor was actually really bad, I was sort of joking about the death rocks but then she started running and jumping from rock to rock and there were actual giant gaps between some of them. We had to call her back to safety and sanity.
Me with the cuddly youngest two, neither of whom believe in shoes it seems.
All the kids on our walk back to the golf carts.
Patrick demanded more foosball out of me when we got back to the house. I think I'm his favorite person to play against because I have loud and enthusiastic commentary most of the time we play and he also generally beats me.
Back to the ocean on our last full day at the beach. We had wised up by this point and had the kids in swimsuits and sweatshirts.
Juliet did manage to fall in pretty quickly but fortunately I had brought her coat as a backup. Toweled her off and popped a coat on her and she was good to go again!
Eleanor doing what can only be called a model pose in front of the ocean.
It was not warm, it was not swimsuit weather.
Bradley brought the gun show to the beach. Look at this hunk!
I was freezing and got to sit and snuggle by Nathan as we watched the kids play. I love beach vacations!
Patrick opted out of swimming when we got back to the house and snuggled with me instead. I was not unhappy about this choice!
Nathan and Jason had spent a fair bit of time and energy figuring out how to heat the pool by our house and getting it up to temperature for our final day. Then the kids got in it ... and it was still freezing. No one lasted long except Juliet, who seemed to love swimming around and jumping to Nathan like a little maniac.
Group picture of the kids before bedtime on our last night at the house.
Then I had us leave a little earlier than we might have in the morning because I wanted to cram in some family visits on the way home! We stopped by my second cousin Stephen's house in Fort Hood to see his wife and their cute little kids on the way home.
Shocker, the girls loved Eleanor so much. The toddler boy was a little less sure of us but we only stayed about an hour.
Getting a picture with Stephen before we had to go!
Then we pressed on to Arlington Texas to see my dad's cousin Kate and her husband Richard before going to our hotel for the night. We didn't get there until 8:00 and we ate a very late dinner. The kids were wired!
Fortunately they were both very very nice about active kids and Kate even helped Patrick play his favorite game, Rock Paper Scissors. There was so much neat art around the house and the kids were dazzled by Kate's kiln and pottery out in her art shed in the backyard.
Wired girls not ready to go to bed even though by this time it was 9:30 or so at the hotel.
We got in a good night's sleep and had one more fancy hotel breakfast before heading home. A highlight of this meal was playing a game together. I have Patrick and Juliet trained to make cute faces and then scary faces on command so we started playing where someone would make a face and we would have to guess the emotion they were conveying. We were not quiet but I like to think the cuteness factor made up for it for the other people eating nearby us.
And then we had an easy peasy drive home! Which is really lucky and rather fabulous because two days later Oklahoma was covered in ice from a winter storm and it would have been a terrible drive. We were really incredibly fortunate for this entire trip. Pretty much everyone we saw said they were sick with one thing or another within a week or two before the trip. There were stomach bugs, hand foot mouth, and even a few covid cases. We missed a winter storm when we left and on the return trip and we had really nice weather on our trip, the forecast for the next weekend at Port Aransas was low-fifties and rainy.
And now we're back and in the swing of things. Juliet got to go to her museum class on Thursday. This picture is her looking back at me after enthusiastically sharing her knowledge about the ocean during the sea animals class. And then on Friday we discovered that she had come down with croup! Ahh, winter sicknesses are the gift that keeps giving. But at least she wasn't sick on our trip! Or on either of her birthday celebrations!
Also, many thanks to my dad who took good care of our kitties while we were gone for nine days. I got daily reports about the amount of cat vomit. Only one cat has thrown up since we returned and it was because of a hairball so it seems like it was anxious or lonely cat vomit that my dad got to deal with while we were gone. Cats! They're just the best and I love them.
And finally, perhaps the piece de resistance of this post: Bradley and Eleanor singing We Don't Talk About Bruno together. Enjoy.
