Beach Vacation

for Henry and Greg, and really all of us.

Greg's grandma makes a yearly trip to Panama City Beach, Florida in September.  Greg's dad used to take one child down to the beach to join her, so Greg decided to take Henry.  Henry didn't have school, can handle a day without a nap, and let's be honest, isn't always treated the nicest by his siblings.  Greg thought Henry would benefit from a week of one-on-one time and throwing sand where ever he wanted.

They left early Saturday morning.  Greg said Henry just talked the entire way down, until he fell asleep.  Henry told Greg all about all everything he saw out his window.  They didn't even stop for lunch Henry was doing so well.

They got to the beach late afternoon and enjoyed the sand, the pool, tried out a little fishing, hit up some mini golfing, paddle boarding, snorkling and then back to the sand for the next 7 days.

I will say, I found the trip quite vindicating.  I have re-instituted naps for Henry, which Greg didn't agree with.  He thought the naps made Henry stay up later.  But while they were at the beach, guess who took a 3-hour nap every day?  Henry.  Because he still needs a nap and if doesn't nap his naughty level explodes.  The one day Greg didn't make Henry take a nap, they tried to go out to dinner and Greg ended up having to give Henry his phone to watch to get him to sit still.  I just love being right.  

I'd call Greg about 10:30 every night, which is 9:30 in Florida and Greg could barely form two cohesive sentences he was so tired, but he couldn't understand why.  Well, dear, hanging out with a three-year-old is physically and emotionally draining.  I know.  I've been doing it for 8 years now.  I just love being right.

But they had a great time and Henry got lots of one-on-one with Dad and got to just play in the sand for hours every day.

Meanwhile, the other three kids and I had a very quiet week at home.  I spent the mornings cleaning out all the dressers, under every bed, and cleaning out every closet.  I made one actual dinner, which also means fewer dishes.  We read lots of our current monthly book, Alice in Wonderland, and actually went to bed late every night, but Zora also slept into until 9 most mornings, which meant that I had some very quiet mornings to get lots done.  It was a nice vacation for me too, if you define vacation as getting to do whatever you want, which for me is busting through my to-do list.  Thursday morning, I took Zora to Monkey Joe's to play on the inflatables for some fun Mom-and-Me time.  She played with the toys she has at home and avoided the inflatables.  But she did enjoy her pizza.

Friday night I got a babysitter for Zora, and took the older kids to paint pottery and to dinner and ice cream.  We had a good time.  Rex was surprised at how much fun he had painting pottery--he, by far, took the longest to pick his project and then pick his paint color and then to actually paint his.  Alice did hers super fast, so I let her work on mine a bit.  I think it'll be a good, let's have a chat, activity in the future.

Greg and Henry got home late Saturday evening and met me at the hospital...dun dun dun, stay tuned for the next  thrilling installment of this tantalizing blog.