Mommy Vacation

We got home from our Florida vacation and I spent the week laying around feeling tired and out of sorts. Why does vacation do that to us? Vacation with kids is not so relaxing or energizing even if it is fun and memorable. So I was super excited that less than a week after getting home from Florida I was back on the road this time with my mom and sisters and no kids for a weekend getaway. A while back Amanda and I were shopping at the Washington Square and having a marvelous time when I thought hey, we should shop together more often. I suggested that the four of us take an annual trip to celebrate our birthdays and do a little shopping. Instead of buying gifts for each other on our birthdays we would go on this trip with the intention of buying something and having a good time. You know, since we were spending so much money on each other anyway. Ok, not really. We rarely do stuff for our birthdays, we are so lame and I am the worst. Everyone seemed to like the idea and we quickly planned a trip to Galena, IL for their annual giant craft fair. It turned out to be an extremely cold weekend to spend outside, but Galena was still beautiful and we had a great time wondering the booths and downtown shops and spending each others money. We had such a great time I think we are all looking forward to whatever we plan for next year. We went out for dinner, we watched movies, we shopped, we talked and we laughed a lot. It was just what I needed.

One of my major purchases. Hopefully, it won't be years before you see this hanging in my living room filled with pictures of my boys.

The Thing I'm Most Scared Of

Disclaimer: Some may find these pictures to be inappropriate. I find them to be funny. And nothing is showing that shouldn't be.

I've been tossing around the idea of potty training the twins now for a while. I know they are on the young side and many will and have said that I should wait until they are at least 3. But right or wrong, I'd love for them to be able to go to preschool next year and you have to be potty trained for that. If I wait until they are three then we will only have a month or so to potty train and that just doesn't seem like enough. So I thought maybe we could start now. I was ready to go gung ho after this potty training thing and then the week I said I would start drew near and I freaked out. Potty training scares me. I have no idea what I'm doing and the boys have no idea what they are doing and it's a mess everywhere and it's hard. I hate it. So then I rethought my plan. I decided to still introduce potty training to the boys I just wouldn't be so gung ho about it. We'll start slow and see what their response is. So I bought some (a lot) of undies and washed and dried them on my hottest settings four or five times. I think they are shrunk as much as I can get them. We got out the potties and we've been talking and sitting and having fun with it. Jack has taken on the roll of teacher and invites his brothers to watch him pee and poop whenever he remembers. When the boys aren't sitting on potty's they are in diapers. I'm just not ready for pee and poop everywhere. We've had no successes so far and one #1 & #2 accident that I was unaware of until an hour later. But they are enjoying it and I really think they kinda, sorta get it, not really. I think for a while we'll just stay on this take it easy course and try to eventually have a success so they can see what that's all about. Eventually, I'm sure we'll have to go gung ho but I'm praying that at least one of my children will be a very quick learner. 

Yay! New undies!!! They were so excited.

Trying them on right away. By the end of this day they each had on over 6 pairs of underwear over their diapers. That will really bulk a kid up.

First day sitting on potties. Jack of course had to be included.

I find this so funny.

Jack talking through how you poop in the potty and the twins taking an observational roll.

Logan wanted Mickey to practice too. It took a few tries but he finally got Mickey's tiny bottom to sit on a potty.

Family Vacation

A few weeks ago we took a family vacation to Florida. This was no ordinary family vacation but a much anticipated, extended family trip that we had been planning and talking about for over a year. We had a group of 11. Our group included the five of us plus Paul's brother's family and Paul's parents. A total of 6 adults and 5 children, ages 4 and under. In an effort to maintain sanity and friendliness we started out with a few rules. Rule # 1 we were not traveling together. Each family had to get to Florida and get home from Florida by themselves. Rule # 2 each family would have separate hotel rooms, we were not cramming us all together in a hotel room for a week. We ended up keeping rule number one which I think worked out well and we ended up breaking rule number two which I think also worked out well. Thanks to some fancy maneuvering of the system I was able to get us four nights in the presidential suite at The Fountains, a resort included in our timeshare. (Yes, we have a timeshare. It's a long silly story that we never knew how to tell you about. I figure by now maybe you've figured it out anyway.) The presidential suite was a three bedroom, three bath suite with and indoor and outdoor kitchen, a dining area and two living rooms. It was bigger than our town home in Palatine and possibly bigger than Janet and Gregg's house in Morton. It was huge and amazing and allowed us all our own space with plenty of room for the kids to play. Despite the hugeness we ended up sharing a room with our kids so we didn't have to put them in the room leading to our beautiful patio and thus making it useless in the evenings when we would be most apt to enjoy it. It was an experience that I'm glad we've had now. The kids thought it was fun and of course took forever to fall asleep each night, but they did eventually fall asleep and it ended up being totally fine.

The view from our suite.

Our vacation wasn't planned intentionally as a Disney vacation but once you get to Orlando you feel like you must go visit the life size mouse and his gang. We spent one day at Universal's Islands of Adventure, one day relaxing at our hotel and one day at Magic Kingdom. Overall we had a great time with only a few major issues. Like Jack's insane meltdown at the entrance to Islands of Adventure or the five minutes of panic when we legitimately had no idea where Schaeffer was. That was terrifying, but the Lord answered our panicked prayers quickly and I found him before too long walking with a park person. I think the ordeal still gives Paul nightmares though. Magic Kingdom wasn't my first choice of places to go with so many small children but we ended up having a great time. We had been telling the boys we were going to meet Mickey and see where he lives and really talking it up so they would be excited. Of course when we actually met Mickey and Minnie everyone got scared and clung to Paul and I. Still they now think it was fun.

After a few days in Orlando we drove across the state to Panama City Beach for two nights. We had found a beach house big enough for all of us (see, we shared the whole time). It had five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The best part wasn't the house, but it's location. It really was right on the beach. The white, squeaky sand was at our backdoor with an amazing sandbar for us to play on in the ocean. For me this was my favorite time. We spent almost every moment we could out on the beach and in the water. Jack and Kyle played their hearts out and loved every moment of it. The twins were free to dig and play in sand without worry of getting dirty or having me stop them. They were a little afraid of the water at first but they quickly adjusted and enjoyed splashing at the shoreline, running on the sandbar and jumping with the waves while Paul and I held them. Sadly, not everyone could enjoy the beach. Miss Hayden had been sick most of the week and Nicole ended up taking her to the ER the afternoon we arrived in Panama City. So their beach time was a bit limited. After a day and a half of beach time we had to pack up and start the long drive home. That long drive home is always the hardest, but the kids were troopers and did well for the most part. All in all, it was a great vacation and I'm glad we got to share it with Paul's family.