Finish Out June

Filling Hours

It's what makes a Mom's job both exceptionally challenging AND completely MUNDANE all wrapped into one!  NOT everyday can be an epic fail like the rainbow sprayer, but just about everyday comes with the task of having options for the boys to partake in, including LOTS of outside play so we don't melt into puddles in front of the TV.

Luckily we have a lock on where all the best parks and playgrounds are, so we usually try and get out the door EARLY on days we are going to the park.  And since my boys are generally all awake by 6:00 we are done with breakfast and out the door by 8:00 or so no problem.  That way we can have a few hours of outside time before the oppressive heat of mid-day sets in and renders outside play impossible unless water is involved or until the sun starts to set.

Taking It To The Trails

Kaiden learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels late last spring, so he enjoys taking his bike with us to parks to ride the trails when the playground doesn't have any big kids to play with.

K, riding ahead and waiting for the rest of us

 And Pierce, in his delightfully bull headed way STILL refuses to actually pedal the bike so he just straddles the bike and tippy toe pushes himself along - it takes FOREVER for him to cover ANY amount of ground.  BUT we are here to kill time, so bring on the tippy toe bike riding!

Bringing Up The rear - at snail's pace - P!!

Back At Home Base

Then once we decide it has gotten too hot to enjoy being outside, which is usually between 10:30 & noon depending on the day, we head back home and rest in the A/C and rehydrate and refuel.  Each day is different what we do with our 'inside time' some days we will have 'picnics' upstairs, I will carry up our picnic blanket and we will all sit on the floor and eat our lunch while we watch a show or just pretend like we are somewhere else.  Sometimes we will take a trip to redbox or hook up the wii and go to Netflix and make it a "movie time" afternoon.  And other times one boy will watch shows, the other will play some electronic game device and baby Dax will just nap!  Exciting stuff I know!

Water Play Time

Once inside time is done OR I have heard enough screaming, yelling and MMA death match wrestling, we will head out back to the splash pool and the back deck.  We get good shadow from the house so the boys are not in direct sunlight, and I can sit in the shade on our comfy chairs, OR drag a cushion out and set in the sun and dip my toes in the pool with the boys. 

Dax's eyes MATCH the pool - gorgeous boy!

 

P bringing it in for his cute boy smile.

K was 'too busy' practicing swimming to give me a good close up shot

Kirk Boys In The Splash Pool

 

 

Not necessarily glamorous but it's how my day to day went for most of the summer.  It was as June came to a close and we were spending our weekends the EXACT way I spent every weekday, that I BEGGED Dave for another vacation or some other option to help us 'pass our time'.  Cause I would no doubt slip the slope into madness if something didn't give soon.  HA!

 

 

 

Good Intentions And Good Outcomes. . . .

Rarely Seem To Be Found In The Same Place!

Summer had officially started - we welcomed it the right way by taking our trip down to the beach and really having a good time, so surely all that effort and energy would be enough to keep the boys 'chill' for the rest of June, right?!   Yeah, who are we kidding, kids are kings of instant gratification and completely unaware of things like time spent planning, or money spent on vacations or even having a decent grasp on time as a unit of measurement. 

SO, it's third week of June, and the temperature is just going to keep on climbing till it finds triple digit days, and we still have not gotten an access key to be able to use the pool - so like the Army commercial taught us years ago, "if you don't have a bridge.  Build One!"  So, that is precisely what we did.  We built a bridge!  Errr, I mean we went to Wally World, and bought assorted inflatable summertime yard water toys, as our peace offering to the boys.

Splish Splash Time Baby!

How freaking fun is THIS going to be?! 

I man, Come ON! I Want To Play Too!!

 

The fearsome threesome and I scoured our options at the WM, we settled on this because 'technicall' we are on perma epic drought status here in TX and at least this way we could arc the rainbow OVER the little splash pool and then we would be catching said rainbow water and they could then play in that until the days end, and they all retire exhausted from their fun in the sun and sleep soundlessly through the night.

 

AS you know, that is NEVER how my stories go, so here is how we had yet another, memorable afternoon.

Patience Is A Virtue. . . On SHORT Supply When My Kiddos Are Concerned

 

Do you know just how mother loving long it takes to blow up not one, not two, but three flip flopping rings of the splash pool!?  Not quite long enough for Daddy to make it home and help but just long enough so you can threaten that if ANYONE whines one more time about how long it's taking Mommy to blow this up that you will WALK AWAY from it and make them wait till Daddy gets home.  My cheeks are getting sore just thinking about what a horrid experience that was, and then the torture that IS both biting down on the little valve and blowing hot June air into smelly vinyl yard toys isn't over yet.  Oh NO baby, we still have the 'piece de la resistance' the rainbow sprayer.

 

I started with the clouds, first the outer ring, and then filling the inner ring with water, per the instructions, to help give it stability and integrity as a base.  GOOD call makers of "Sun-Shine" products.  Then with EVERY ounce of 'give a crap' I had left, I inflated the blue, pink and yellow tubes.  We were getting SO CLOSE, the future of happy frolicking kids was SO close I could almost taste it!  I was sweating from the effort and stress of three anxious boys watching me take breath after breath and blow it into the valve, I was already fantasizing in my head how WONDERFUL sitting back with a cold beverage while the boys transformed themselves into the ridiculously happy kiddos from the cover of the boxes of said vinyl toys.  K, being both helpful and impatient, ran and got the hose and was standing at the ready, for me to give the signal once it was connected to the extended port valve on the rainbow.  I didn't want to already be doubting it's credibility, but the rainbow was having a hard enough time remaining in a 'bowed' position without any water flowing threw it or kids bounding about it's clouds. 

 

The Moment Of Truth

Much like the infamous moment in our family's FAVORITE Holiday movie where Clark W. Griswald has assembled the masses of his family to watch in splendor as he alights all 10,000 twinkle lights - I too had amassed my minions, and they were waiting with baited breath - having left while I was making progress on the rainbow to go help each other find swim clothes - the spigot was opened, water began to flow. . . .

. . . . and DOWN goes Fraiser. . . .

ERRrrr I mean, down goes the rainbow - down went ANY hopes of my boys turning into mindlessly happy little grass dwellers while I sat in peace in the shade.  IT was like a slow motion fail - the first of the water reaches the rainbow and it list forward precariously, with minimal water actually springing forth from the allotted holes.  Then the rainbow stumbles to it's side, the colorful tubes are now heavy with water, but at least from this angle SOME water is spurting out.  I'm trying to convince the boys THIS will STILL be fun to play with, all the while I'm not even believing the crap I'm spewing to them.  Then like a drunken swine, on to it's back the rainbow rolls, HEAVY as drunken pig too! 

 

I realize this is NOT what we wanted, but again I try to appease the complaints from the boys by saying, at least this way you can have it spray up, and walk OVER the rainbow - that's pretty cool, right?!  YEAH, um, NO they were NOT buying it either.

 

The Rainbow In All It's Drunken Swine Glory

 

The boys were PISSED, K especially, and I GET it, this is NOT what ANY of us wanted!  I certainly was NONE too happy that I had just spent the previous 2 hours inflating toys that were defective.  But it was, what it was and we could either make the best of it - OR he could go to time out!  HA!  I had to snap a picture, it was too funny not to - I mean, LOOK how swollen each of the colored tubes are.  I was laughing about what a waste it had been as I went inside to put my camera down and grab my beer.  I STILL had deserved it.  NOT long after I got back out the boys asked if they could slide down the rainbow (into a pot of gold.  And they'd be jolly friends forever more! - HAHA, you know you were thinking it!) and I said sure, it was going back to wal mart for being defective anyway - go for it.  And of course water had been pumping in these tubes for half an hour now, as SOON as the boys feet put any pressure on the colored part the burst open so fast - I WISH I had one of those super slow-mo cameras to watch what it looked like.  I imagine it was the tube essentially dissinegrating and a sausage of water hovering for a split second before crashing to the grass. 

 

I just found two more pictures of the boys and the doomed rainbow - OH I know it shouldn't make me laugh but it does.

This Is When They Decide Maybe They Could Slide Across It

 

HA, LOOK at that mean mug K is shooting me, as if I KNEW this would be the outcome.

 

 

 

AHH, WHO doesn't love some awesome summertime memories.  

 

 



Now, THAT Is What Beach Vacation Dreams Are Made Of

Beach Trip Day 3-7

Yeah so it may seem a smidge lazy to clump the rest of the trip into one post, but this CRAZY thing happens when the sun is out and you get to spend all day at the beach - you enjoy your free time more and document your misery less! Ha!

Sun, Sand, Warm Breezes, Encounters With Sea Life & Blue Angels
SEE, this is why we drove ALL this way, once the weather cleared up it really has EVERYTHING you could EVER hope for in a family beach vacation.

Happy Smiles From A Beach Bound Dax

Much Better Start Than Last 2 Mornings

 

Now, THIS Is My Kinda Day!!

 

Pod Of Dolphins Just Past The Sandbar

 

What you couldn't see, was between the shore and the sandbar, in the warm tide pools created by the previous two days of storms, were TONS of little fish and schools of Manta Rays - which was SO COOL, but until you got comfortable with them brushing your legs and toes as they darted past, it was absolutely terrifying!  HA!

 

Every Morning Around 10 The Blue Angels Flew Practice Flights - AWESOME!

 



 

This Is As Good As It Gets! Happy & Entertained Boys & Bright Sun!

 

Dave  & The BIGs Boogie Boarding

 

Dax Took The Time To Get Some Sunning

 

Construction Of Beach Highway Begins

 

They Work For Hours Building These Beach Roads!

 

 

Those Are MY People - Am I A Lucky Gal or What!?

 

 

Dax's Firsts

So the fact that I started this blog as a documentation of Baby Kaiden's growth and development from conception thru, with almost weekly instalments, important details and updates and has now morphed into a hodge podge of collective memories and hilariously catastrophic stories of awesomeness is NEVER far from mind as I compose my posts.  I figure at some point soon I will invest some time into researching this whole "birth order complex" since I bet the fact that Kaiden's first word and age he said it is the only one I can remember, and therefore I will be FORCED to make something up for the other two so that they don't develop some lifelong issues - is a BIG part of what they say causes said lifelong issues - ha! 

 

Although Dax is a serious trouper, and has hung in there with the BIGs from the very beginning, this was his first (I'm 99.9% sure) trip to the beach.  It was also his first time getting to swim in a pool - which this kid is a FISH, he LOVES swimming and water and ALL sorts of outside time.  And as you will recall from earlier in the month the two BIGs took swim lessons, and Dax got to watch every one of them - so he thought he knew what he was doing, and although it is a smidge terrifying to watch your baby go under water, he popped up and took a big breath like a champ and LOVED it!

 

Practicing His Doggie Paddle

 

He Took The Plunge

Popping Up And Holding His Head High For His Breath

Satisfied Smiles! He Did It!!

 

 

First OREO

I'm not sure if it is a required "Baby's First" but in our family I think (95% sure) that I have captured each boy's first experience with the chemical deliciousness that is the OREO cookie!  I blame credit my Dad with the passed down love of the OREO, he LOVES OREO cookies but ONLY name brand, you get what you pay for and if it is not the real thing, than it ain't worth eating!  And surprisingly there is nothing REAL in the real OREO, so therefore Dax was not allergic to anything and could enjoy them worry free!  Bonus!

Hmm, What's This?



 

Oh, Yeah, I'm Liking This!

"Let Me Just Shove All That Back In"

It's Official - He's Hooked!! Another OREO Lover!

 

 

My Sister From Another Mister

Like I said one of my best girlfriends Mirela at last minutes notice agreed to schedule a client visit down near us so she could still be productive and brought her oldest boy Sam, who is 2 days younger than Kaiden, and spent a few days with us and it was GREAT!  We met my first official visit to UNA back in the day and have been close ever since.  No matter time or distance whenever we get together it's always instantly like we've not been apart - I'm a lucky girl I tell ya!

 

Me & Mir

 

When I'm Wrong, I SAY I'm Wrong

Beach Trip Day 2

Did Ya Guess Yet?

You did?!  You already guessed that the second morning we woke up at the beach we were greeted by yet MORE rain!?  You MUST be one of my loyal readers, cause come on, who else could have such luck?!

So Day 2 was starting to blend into the schedule from Day 1

Couch Potato Kinda Morning

 

 

Do NOT be fooled by what appears to be bright light streaming in the door behind the boys, well I mean it WAS a cloudy, bright, rainy, and thunderstorm kinda morning.  We had ALL had it, me maybe worse than the fellas since I didn't really partake in the 'play in the rain' portion of day 1 so I was starting to get beach house crankies, which is sorta like cabin fever, but because there is NO sun, and you're stuck IN a house with three anxious, excited minors, so you can't drink your blues away, you get irritable and maybe, a tad irrational and you convince yourself, your hubs and the kiddos that the solution is to check the radar and drive EAST until you find the sunshine!!

 

Liquid Sunshine

 

 

Yeah, that actually happened.  We went ahead and all put on our beach clothes, brought a change of clothes, beach towels, some snacks and drinks, and agreed we would drive up to an hour and a half east at max, and hopefully by then we would out run this storm, and according to weather.com radar, it looked like a promising option.  I mean what's another hour of driving if it meant we got to spend all of day 2 on sandy beach in the sunshine!?  So Dave and the boys headed out the door first while I finished packing the snacks and such and off we went.

We drove East along the beach front avenue so IF at any point there was a break in the clouds we could ship into first parking spot and immediately make it to the beach.  We made it probably 30 or minutes so down the way, we were staying in Fort Morgan Beach, which is the far west end of Gulf Resorts area, so once we made it down into Gulf Shores proper, past the state park and took the bridge across to the Florida/Alabama state line we checked our weather radar map again and since the radar had changed and showed the storm was now moving East (presumably following US) it seemed our best chance at beach time would now actually be BACK west towards our beach house.  Luckily about the same time we made this decision to turn back and forgo our sun seeking adventure, we happened upon FAT Daddy's arcade park area, so as a way to kill time AND as a reward to the boys we went in and let them play a few games and pass some time in a super exciting kid friendly environment (kid friendly in that it's LOUD and there are a TON of blinking lights etc, NOT necessarily BUDGET friendly, as veterans of Chuck E Cheese, we had sticker shock that almost EVERY arcade game cost at least a dollar or more to play.  Which leads me to my disclaimer of 'DON'T judge me if you noticed in all the pictures to video game machine is flashin the 'insert coin' message). 

Motorcycle Game

 

Dax taming that hog

 

 

Dax practicing his driving skills

 

 

Back At Home Base

So after driving east, playing arcade games and then finding a package store on the way home (side note if you have not tried sweet tea vodka you are MISSING out!) and ultimately making it back the boys ate some late lunch, which I realize IS technically a necessity but it also makes them refuel which means MORE DANG ENERGY.  So we turned on some tunes, Dax boogied down

While the BIGs chose to take a more 'aggressive' outlet for their energy in a cross between dancing and karate

My children all but refuse to wear clothes, but P was just in his bday suit and I'm not sure what age is no longer acceptable to publicly show naked booty - thus the star upon thars.

 

SO - this is ALWAYS how these things go - K is winning the whole time, but if P gets one punch, or slap in, then DOWN goes Kdog, and the whining and crying set in, and Dax man goes to comfort him.

 

What would my blog be without some epically awful poop story?! P asked to go out back while we worked on dinner - and THIS is why.  Yup - that's his poop, he was mad cause the flies were landing on it.  AND yup, he pooped thru his shorts again - good times!

 

As the sun went down, this is what the front drive and streets looked like - at least it was no longer actively raining.

Down there, at the end of the street is the beach - we will get there sans rain tomorrow!!! (hopefully)

 

 

 

 

Waking Up In Paradise

Or At Least The Beach

So my boys have NEVER been late sleepers, which I guess is fine, we get more done in the day, right!? Any way they two BIGs were up bright and early like so early it wasn't even bright yet, so since Dave is da BOMB, and doesn't mind waking up early and since I had been the one to get up with the kiddos the night before, he told me to sleep in with Dax who was still zonked in our room and that he would take the two BIGs to WalMart to buy our groceries for the week.  See, told ya, he's da man!! 

About an hour or so later when Dax and I made our way out of the bedroom we saw that before the boys had left for the store Dave had carried in our basket of snacks and our cooler of drinks, so I was able to get Daxie some snacks to munch on while we waited. 

Look At That Sweet Boy In His PJs

As you can see from the picture it's a bright morning starting out there - or at least that's what I thought - we didn't go out and check, we just enjoyed our quiet morning time together while the ruckus bunch was out.  It was probably another hour or so later when we saw Minnie pulling back into the driveway - and depending on where you vacation you may not see this type of home, but typically, post hurricane destruction, the homes are built one story up, so the under part of the house is like a covered patio, open garage thing, so since Dave had gone and got all the groceries the least I could do is help him carry them up.  Problem is, the stairs were steep and there were lots of them, so we asked the two BIGs to go up and hang out in the house with Dax so no one would fall or hurt themselves - yeah, easier task said then done - ha.  So Dave came up with almost 2/3 of the bags, I ran down and grabbed a few and stayed up to start sorting and putting away the goods, and Dave ran down to get the last of the bags and any other assorted things we needed to bring in the house.  Just as he got in the skies OPENED UP!

Fair Weather Fans

By that I mean, we are FANs of fair weather!  Ha, yeah, umm, so it rained, well remember it actually started the night before, so there was already puddles on the ground, and then this driving rain started.  It POURED, I mean just came down in buckets.  But we weren't worried, I mean not that much the boys still had to eat breakfast, and get their sunblock on plus all their beach gear and plus it's the beach it never rains THAT long, right!? 

Yeah, no.  You know what's up ~~ That Cat5Kirks Magic at it again!!  So after three hours with NO break or let up the boys were literally bouncing off the dang walls so since there hadn't been any lightning in a while Dave decided he would go play in the rain with the boys so they could get out of the house for a while.  Yup, that's how he rolls - he figured we came to the beach to play outside and we'd get wet down at the beach what's the difference playing in the rain and puddles out in the front drive.  Ha!  Here's a few screen grabs of the video - they're hilarious.

Making good use of some beach toys

K 'splashing' P with water - or proof for when P finally retaliates that he deserved it!

Dax was LOVING it - he was cold, wet and yes that water is almost up to his knees

P was giving me his version of a rainy hybrid of thumbs up & wave

AND in they come for hot baths and snacks.

 

 

The Rainy Day Beach Plan

 

So the boys would play in the rain for 15-20 minutes or so, then come running up the stairs, strip off their wet suits and go straight into their bathroom, fill the tub with hot as they could stand water, swim around in there for another 15-20 minutes or so, then we would get them out, dry them off, put them in jammies if they're so inclined to actually WEAR clothes (that's another blog in itself, these nudist I'm raising) then they would tromp off to the kitchen find something to snack on then to the couches to watch a couple of shows or a movie while their suits dried in the ridiculously loud dryer.  Then once the noise stopped they knew their suits were dry, so they wanted to go back out and play in the rain again - WHY?! would they want to KEEP going out and doing that - well cause they're BOYS and apparently that is just how they roll. HA!

 

So we went through this practice from mid morning through the afternoon, then around 3:00 or so the storms got worse - mind you it NEVER slowed on the rain, but at this point the winds picked up significantly and thunder and lightning started in again, so we snuggled everyone in for a movie marathon, no one lasted very long before the sandman paid them a visit, but that is what vacation is for right?  Exerting energy, eating indulgent foods, sneaking in day time naps and just all around having a good time no matter what!

 

 

 

In Summation:

 

So it wasn't exactly what we had in mind for our first day at the beach, but so what, we had all enjoyed the day and luckily the boys were exhausted from a combination of play and what I must a assume is battery drain from the cold wet play and warm bathtime swims.  Either way when we tucked them in we promising that tomorrow would be a better day, cause COME ON, it's the beach it NEVER rains for two days in a row - right?!