Florida--Day 2 (First Half)

When we got to the resort the night before, it was dark. So on the morning of our second day, we got to really see where we were staying. I'm not computer savvy enough to figure out how to post pictures from the internet onto here, so I'm posting the link to the resort we stayed in, and you all have to go take a look www.southseas.com.

Captiva is an island off the south western side of Florida, and South Seas Resort is at the very tip of Captiva island. Because it's such a narrow island, you can walk from bay side (where our room was) to beach side in about three minutes. Here's the map we used driving there. You can see the airport in Fort Myers where we flew in. It was about an hour drive, and we got to take a beautiful toll bridge over the bay to Sanibel Island, which then turns into Captiva Island, and then at the end of the island was our resort.




We slept in a bit that first morning because we were so tired from traveling the day before. After we got up, we got ready and headed over to the conference room for lunch and an introduction meeting. We left early so we could look at everything on our walk over. The whole time I was there, I was amazed at all the beautiful birds that were everywhere.






It was another company's retreat, and Scott was just a vendor (presenting insurance options to them), so we didn't need to stay for all their meetings. So after introductions in the meeting, we snuck out and went down to the beach. We only had an hour and a half before we needed to meet back up with the group, so we just walked up the beach for a little bit and got our feet wet.





I was amazed at all the shells that were lying on the beach. Huge piles of shells everywhere. They were so beautiful. I may or may not have gone a bit overboard on collecting shells to bring back to the kids.




The water was so warm and the weather was perfect (a bit hot and humid for Scott, but I thought it felt wonderful). We were wishing we had time to get more than just our feet wet.

Birds everywhere!



A cool caterpillar/grub that we saw walking back from the beach.


The other thing that was everywhere, was lizards. They were little and fast and were everywhere we went. During the day, they would scurry about on the ground.


At night, they liked to hang out on the outside of our hotel. I think they liked the heat that the stucco walls retained at night.

After just a little bit of time out on the beach, it was time to head to the other end of the island for a wildlife refuge tour. But, I'll save that for another post because I have a ton of pictures from that.

Florida--Day 1

As this summer was drawing to a close, Scott e-mailed me the list of his upcoming trips and asked "Wanna come on any of these?".

First there was California for three days. I really considered going on that one and taking the older three kids to Sea World, but the cost of airplane tickets for all of us was going to be pretty hefty and we'd only end up with about a day and a half to play once you figured in our travel time, so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Then there was Sun Valley for Governor's Cup. I was going to go with him on that one, but my Grandma died and Scott ended up going by himself.

Then there was Sun Valley again. That's when Shauna's mother-in-law died. And once again, Scott went by himself.

Lastly there was Florida. Captiva Island South Seas Resort. Scott needed to go present at a conference there. All I would need to do is pay for my plane ticket, because Scott's work was paying for the rental car and room. It would be easy for me to come along. Except when I looked up the price of the plane ticket, it was $650. I couldn't justify spending that much. But then I remembered that I have a ton of SkyMiles that I've racked up on our credit card. So I used some of those and got the plane ticket for free. So, as all those other trips came and went (and I had to stay home with the kids), I just kept thinking--at least I get to go to Florida.

My parents graciously offered to come stay with the kids as their birthday present to Scott, and they got into town Tuesday afternoon. I was in a bit of a panic in the days leading up to our trip, trying to get everything done and ready to leave. They announced in church on Sunday that a girl in the ward had plums she was trying to give away, so I took a box. So in addition to getting the house clean and the laundry done, I spent all day Tuesday canning plums (jam and syrup). I didn't even get the chance to start packing till about 11 the night before our trip.

Scott and I finished packing around 12:30 Tuesday night. Our flight was scheduled to leave Boise at 5:30, so we needed to be to the airport by 4:30, which meant we needed to leave our house at 4:00am. So, I decided to shower and get dressed and ready BEFORE going to bed, so I could completely finish packing (makeup and everything) before going to sleep. I laid down to sleep at 1:30am and got 2 hours of sleep before we got up at 3:30 and left for the airport by 4:00.

The rest of the day was a blur of plane rides (Boise to Minneapolis then Minneapolis to Fort Myers), lay overs (4 hours in Minneapolis), napping when and where ever we could (airplane seats are so uncomfortable, but my husband has a great shoulder that he let me use, and there's a wonderful lounge upstairs in the Minneapolis airport that wasn't busy and I was able to push together two chairs and lay down and sleep), and finally getting to Florida at 5:30 in the evening. We rented a car, then drove an hour to the resort. It was just before 7pm when we finally got settled into our room. To say the least, we were pretty exhausted.

Our room had a kitchen, but we didn't do any cooking while we were there (I do enough cooking at home, so we ate out the whole time).

Scott on the phone--he's ALWAYS on the phone.

Our bedroom.

The patio. Our room was bayside and this balcony looked out over the water. It was screened in to keep the little lizards out (there were lizard EVERYWHERE).

We called the kids to tell them we'd made it safe, then went out for dinner. We went to the Bayside Restaurant that was part of the resort and had a delightful dinner. As we were walking up to the restaurant, we spotted a manatee swimming in the harbor--our first dose of Floridian wildlife. And let me just say now, I did NOT stick to my diet while we were on vacation--not one little bit. That night Scott had grouper (some kind of fish) and I had a big old hamburger with blue cheese melted on it (although I did ask for a salad instead of fries). And since we were both very full at the end of dinner, we asked for our dessert to go. We got chocolate cake with fresh berries on it, and ate it later back in our room.

The Next Day...

Ok, so with a little bit of sleep behind me (and when I say little, I mean little--Owen was up a LOT in the night), I'm not quite as irritated by the hair today. And I've come to these conclusions:

--I may have been a little tired and a LOT emotional when I reacted yesterday.
--I still think an apology was in order, but know that I will never get one because of stubbornness.
--I still think that proper etiquette requires a person to ask permission before giving haircuts to minors.

but...

--I realize that there are worse things a person can do than shaving off a little boy's hair.
--Even though I am still mad about the haircut, I am extremely grateful for the 5 days of babysitting that allowed me to go on an amazing vacation.
--Let's be real, I have 6 kids-I'm never going to have the "perfect" family picture.
and
--Nate is still the most handsome 3 year old around, no matter how much hair he has on top of his head.

So, instead of totally cancelling pictures, I've postponed them till Saturday (I can't do them any later, because then Scott is off to Alaska again). That way I have 4 more days to come to grips with Nate's haircut and not be quite so angry by the time we have them taken. Now if only there was some magical potion that I could put on Nate's hair to make it grow.

There Go My Family Pictures

Ok, so we are back from our trip to Florida, and I'll post all about that later when I have time. I went to bed at 2 am last night, and got up at 8 this morning to get the kids off to school. I've spent my entire day trying to get laundry caught up and clean up the messes that the kids created while I was gone.

I'm just having a really rough day, though. Tomorrow we were going to do family pictures. We had pictures done in the spring (the picture that I have on top of this blog), and they turned out great of everyone. But I didn't like them because of me--I was so fat in them. It was those pictures that prompted me to go on this diet. And I have had unreal self control all summer long, trying to lose weight. And I lost 35 pounds! And I decided to do family pictures again so that I'd actually love the pictures this time. So, just before we left for Florida, I sat all 4 boys down and did haircuts on them so their hair would be perfect in a week when we had family pictures. Josh and Aaron's hair always gets cut pretty short, but Nate's hair I love to leave a little longer on top. Nate's hair is one of my favorite things about him. I love that it's darker than all the other kids'--it sets him apart from the rest, makes him unique. And it's a different texture than the other boys'--it's softer and lays down great when it's long (the other boys' hair just poofs out when it's longer). I love having it longer, so you can really see the color, and so I can actually style it. So even though I had a hundred things that I needed to get done before my trip, I made the time to do the boys' haircuts so they would be perfect. I even took extra time on Nate's and used the trimmers to make sure the line on his neck was just perfect. He looked great (they all did). {I did not take any pictures of this most recent haircut, but it was very similar to the haircut that he had when he started preschool a few months ago.}

And then I came home to this:


My dad decided to shave off all of Nate's hair while I was gone. He didn't even ask me. He didn't pay attention to the fact that Nate's hair was perfectly trimmed around the neck and ears (he definitely didn't look like he NEEDED a haircut). He didn't call me and say "Do you mind if I cut Nate's hair?". He just took him out in the backyard and shaved all his hair off.

And when I called him on it this morning, and told him that he should have asked me, that you don't just cut someone else's kid's hair without asking their parent, he didn't care. I told him that I was going to have to cancel family pictures--not postpone, but cancel (by the time Nate's hair grows back, it will be winter), and he didn't care. And instead of being willing to apologize and admit that he probably should have asked me before he shaved my son's hair off, he decided to pack him and my mom up and go home. They had promised the kids they were going to stay another night so they'd be here on Halloween to see them trick or treating. So now I get to try and explain to the kids when they get home from school, that it was more important to their grandpa to be stubborn and not apologize than it was to keep his promise to them.

Seriously, maybe I'm over reacting, but Nate didn't need a hair cut. He had a hair cut one week ago. It wasn't like his hair was hanging over his ears or neck, making my dad think that he'd be doing me a favor by cutting it. He cut it because it wasn't the haircut he would have done on Nate if he had been in charge. So he took the chance while I was gone to shave it off military style the way he likes it. And he wasn't even sorry that he did it. When I told him that I'd just cut Nate's hair one week ago, his comment was, "When did you do it? In the middle of the night when you couldn't see? Because it was a terrible haircut and had a big patch of long hair hanging out the back." I guarantee you that Nate didn't have a patch of long hair in the back--I took extra time making sure his haircut was perfect because we had pictures, and I had Scott looking over my shoulder telling me whether or not it was even. It was a great haircut. It was perfect. And my dad shaved it all off. And even if there was an uneven patch in the back (which there wasn't), it's a long way from just evening it up in the back to shaving off the entire top. I still am just fuming about it.

So now I have to cancel family pictures. These pictures were supposed to be perfect. We already have pictures that are okay--these were supposed to be perfect. These were supposed to be the pictures that I blow up really big and hang in my entry way for the next three years (that replace my all time favorite family picture that has been hanging there for the last three years). I was going to spend hundreds of dollars on these pictures because they were going to be perfect (my dad also told me I was stupid to be spending money on pictures--his exact words were "all you need is a camera"). I cannot spend that kind of money on pictures that I'm not going to love, or that I'm going to look at and zoom in on Nate and get angry over his haircut. We already have great family pictures of the family as a whole, I wanted a picture where we were ALL perfect.

And no apology. Nothing. No concession that maybe he should have asked me first. No inkling of regret that I was so upset over having to cancel my family pictures. No apology for calling the haircut that I had given my son horrible and uneven. Instead of just saying sorry to me, he went home and left me to have to explain to my kids when they get home why grandma and grandpa couldn't stay to trick or treat with them.

So not only am exhausted from no sleep last night, I here working to clean up the disaster that the house became while I was gone, AND I'm doing it with red puffy eyes from crying all day long. My perfect Fall family picture down by the Eagle River, that I've been dreaming about all summer long, will not happen. And instead of getting to go trick or treating with Scott and the kids tonight (we were going to have my parents hand out candy for us here), I'll have to stay home and hand out candy while they go out without me.

It's really kind of a crappy first day back from vacation.

Pumpkin Patch

Friday night we went as a family to the pumpkin patch. The weather was perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better evening.

We rode the hay ride out into the field. All the kids love getting to do the hay ride.












Once we got out to the field, it was time to search for the perfect pumpkin. Nate was especially proud of the pumpkin he found.











Then it was back on the trailer for a hay ride back. I love these pictures of Owen and Scott that I took. I always worry when he travels that the current baby will forget him while he is gone. Owen wasn't too sure about Scott when he first came back from Alaska, but it didn't take long till he was loving his daddy again.


After we got back from the hay ride, the kids played on the old tractors and looked at the animals. Then we posed for our traditional family picture at the pumpkin patch.




After our time at the pumpkin patch, we were all ready for dinner. We went to TGI Fridays for dinner (Josh had received a coupon for a free kids meal there from his teacher at school). The kids did really well behaving at dinner. It was a really nice family evening together. On the drive home, all three little boys fell asleep in the car. When we got home, we carried Nate and Owen in and put them in bed. We woke Aaron up to walk in the house (he's getting too big to carry). He walked into the kitchen, then collapsed on the rug and fell back to sleep. I think that's a sign that he had a good day.

A Couple of Cowboys

Last Sunday as we were trying to pass the time being stuck indoors on a rainy day, Josh and Nate decided to play dress-up. I thought these pictures were just too cute not to share.

Life After Alaska

This week Scott took Monday and Tuesday off. I tried to convince him to just not tell his office that he was back in town and just stay with us till Thursday when they expected him back. But after being gone from work for so long, he was itching to get back to his office and get caught up on everything.

Monday night the whole family went to Josh's end of season football awards ceremony. His football league is sponsored by a church, and the awards ceremony turned out to be more of a "convert you to our religion" meeting than an "awards" ceremony. And the kids did not behave at all during it. All I could think was, "I'm so happy I'm not here doing this alone". I'm sure all Scott could think was, "I should have stayed in Alaska".

On Monday we started a project--a big one. Last year we built a desk area into our upstairs. My ultimate goal has been to turn that into a family computer area and turn our office downstairs into a piano room. So on Monday, we moved our computer upstairs (now we have the kids' computer and our computer on the desk). But then we had a whole room full of office furniture that we didn't need anymore. Scott texted his sister to see if they wanted it (it was their mom's old office furniture), and she did! So we loaded it up into Scott's truck and he delivered it to them out in Homedale. While he was gone, I shampooed the carpet in that room. The kids were excited to come home from school to a big empty room.

The next step in this project was to move the piano into that room, but we couldn't do that till the carpet was dry, so we moved on to the next step--a shelf to hold a TV to go where the piano was in the living room.

On Tuesday morning Scott, Owen, and I (Nate had preschool) went on Aaron's school field trip to the pumpkin patch. It was cold, but was fun. (In the picture, Aaron is on the top right.)

After the field trip, Scott and I took the three little boys to Home Depot and bought the wood for our new shelf. And then we spent the evening with a table saw, wood, and lots of sawdust as we started building our new shelf. We found ourselves really surprised at how quickly the project came together. It's not done yet, but it's close. I'll post pictures of it w

Wednesday Scott went back to work. I spent my day cleaning house, catching up on laundry (Scott's suitcase was still sitting in our living room waiting to be unpacked), and shampooing the carpet in my bedroom (I'm tackling one room at a time). After work, Scott and I worked on the shelf again till it was time for him to go to Mutual.

Thursday morning Scott took the morning off and took Owen to gymnastics. Nate was at preschool, so I had the house to myself to speed clean for an hour. Scott went in to work before noon. Thursdays are Savannah's gymnastics day, so I had to drag all the kids along drop her off there after school. But, with Josh's football done for the season, we didn't have to worry about football practice, and Scott just picked up Savannah from gymnastics after work and brought her home. Not having football is going to make our Thursdays a bit more simple.

This morning (Friday), I went and donated blood. Long story short--11 years ago I found my way onto the "do not donate for life" list because of a false-positive Hep C test. Two years ago, I started the process to get off that list. It took a year--a blood test and clearance from the FBI--but I was told I could start donating blood again. So I went in to donate, and was turned away that time because my iron was too low. So I tried again today. My iron was high enough and I was able to donate blood. Now I'm sporting a nice purple bruise on my arm.

Scott took the morning off work so I could donate blood, but had to go in to work at lunch time. Before he went to work, we got the piano moved from the living room into the office (now piano room). After Aaron got home from Kindergarten, I loaded up Owen into the stroller and Aaron and Nate hopped on their bikes, and we walked over to Aaron's friend Wheaton's house. Wheaton's mom had planned a "Fall Fun Day" party and invited the entire AM Kindergarten class, their parents, and any siblings that wanted to come. We packed a lunch for us, and she provided juice and cookies. It was perfect weather, and all the kids played outside while the moms visited with each other. After the party, we came home and I put Owen down for a nap in his crib, and the rest of the afternoon has been spent updating this blog. But, I think I'm finally caught up. Now we are off to the pumpkin patch as a family! It's great having Scott home for all these activities!!