Not Acceptable

 Over the holiday season our family went to Siesta Key and usually when we fly (which isn’t that often) we fly out of Pittsburgh, but this time we had planned to fly out of Harrisburg. The airport in Pittsburgh is just a little closer with driving distance but a much bigger airport and didn’t have a direct flight into Sarasota. So even though Harrisburg is a little farther we thought it would be better. Let me clarify, the adults thought it would be better, the kids hate the car, so they wanted the shortest drive possible. 

Morgan thinks a 15 minute ride in the car anywhere is too long, like going to the grocery store is a hassle for her. 

The kids knew ahead of time that we would have about a two and a half hour car ride to get to the airport but that I would take snacks and they each had activities for the car and plane. We were only about 15 minutes from the house when it started. 

Kyle started messing with Morgan, he crossed the imaginary line in the car and touched her coat several times. Morgan responded at the top of her lungs with, “Kyle, you remember when I had corona?! Well, this is the coat I wore, it’s covered in covid Kyle...covered in covid! Now it's the rona coat.”

Matt told her to calm down and she couldn’t say things like that! I’m trying my best to not laugh out loud and telling Kyle to stay on his side and not mess with her. 

I looked at Matt and said it’s too early in the car ride for this! 

We got about another mile or two and we both hear Kyle say, “I’m just tellin’ you now, if they make me sit in the middle seat on the plane, I’m whipping out my nerf guns and whackin’ and stackin’!” 

Matt turns around and yells, “these conversations are not acceptable!” 

I’m laughing and when Matt sees me, his face breaks into a smile and he shakes his head. Hindsight - maybe laughing and joking about the Tiger King wasn’t such a great idea. 

Surprisingly, we did manage to get on the plane after making sure Kyle didn’t take his nerf guns. 

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted

In early June we went on vacation, two weeks after the birthday party madness, and in these two weeks our family jumped around singing "...vacation's all I ever wanted..." Well I jumped and sang, my husband, not so much of the jumping. We had a lot of things going on before vacation, the birthday party, my son's preschool graduation, baseball ending with a huge tournament, and we didn't have a lot of time to obsess over the details of vacation...like the biggest decision...when do we leave?

Driving to the Outer Banks and in the car for 10 hours with two kids. Um, when do we start the drive? My husband and I had a huge discussion over this and what we thought was best based on previous experiences that seemed to fail. We eventually decided to leave at 3:30 a.m. and move the kids from their beds to the car in hopes they'd sleep until we needed to stop for breakfast. To say that I worried about the drive is the understatement of the year. My kids typically don't travel well, I don't travel well...I just don't like being in the car for a long period of time...my poor husband. BUT, everyone did amazingly well. I couldn't have asked for a better road trip. The baby girl slept, my son was entertained with The Lego Movie and games, we stopped twice - once for breakfast and once to stretch before arriving in North Carolina. I'm still a little shocked about the traveling. 

As for the actual vacation, our family had such a great time. Our son loved playing in the pool and building sandcastles on the beach and the baby girl loved sitting near the ocean and having the waves splash over her legs. 

Hanging out at the little pool.

Big brother did a really good job pulling baby sister in her boat. 

Stealing brother's sand toys.

Sandcastles.

A visit from a little friend.

Playing lifeguard.

Building more sandcastles.

Chocolate covered marshmallows from Forbes Candies.

Baby sister in her boat.

Swimming in the big pool.