Vacation Fun

Sorry for the delay in updating. I’ve been enjoying the week off with my kids. They are out of school all week. I had Monday as a holiday and took Tuesday and Wednesday off too. We had originally thought we might go to Parrott to camp and relax, but decided we’d relax more at home. We had a great week. We had a huge bon-fire most of the day Saturday as Lance burned lots of tree limbs and a couple of dead tree’s he’d chopped down.

We ended up at the school parking lot no less than 4 times for the boys to ride their bikes. If it’s possible I think Owen is now into riding his bike more than his brother. My car and Lance’s truck stayed out of the garage most of the week to accommodate their riding. Our gravel driveway doesn’t make for a great racetrack. They prefer the garage and then flying down the paved portion of the driveway and into the pasture. Lance is nearly done with his chicken-coop. That’s right, we’re hoping by early Spring we’ll have chickens. Lance wants them for the eggs, I think the kids are more looking forward to having them as pets. Owen has already named his – “Chicken Coop”. He said all week, “Chicken Coop is going to live in the chicken coop.” He cracks himself up.

Sunday afternoon Jacob and Ethan came over so Alice and Ronnie could go to a NASCAR party ({cough} redneck {cough} ). It was raining most of the time so the four boys stayed inside. Not as bad as it sounds, they played well together. We broke out the play-dough and they had fun ducking and hiding from bad-guys while armed with their nerf guns. Ethan kept calling me “Nanny.” I had to laugh but I really don’t mind. I liked having him all to myself. If his Mommy or his real Nanny is around, he never wants me but on Sunday he didn’t have many other choices (sorry Lance).

Tuesday the boys and I met Alice and her two at Pump-It-Up (an inflatable indoor playground). They all had fun doing that and then eating lunch afterwards. Ethan was still calling me Nanny, but that is OK. At least he let me hold him in Alice’s presence. I’ll take it.

Wednesday we took the boys to the Georgia Aquarium. We all enjoyed that. Lance and I had been, but not with the boys. There were lots of “Wows” and jaw-dropping moments to witness. There are several spots where the kids can crawl through a little tunnels and pop their head up in a plexi-glass bubble so it looks like they are in the aquarium or habitat with the animals. They especially loved doing that with the penguins. The beluga whales are mine and Lance’s favorites, they are really fun to watch. It seems like they are performing for you as they swim in front of the glass for you to watch. Riley said he liked the alligators, piranhas and the sea lions. Owen liked the sea lions and the whale sharks. It wasn’t a cheap afternoon (over $100 for the four of us to get in plus lunch!) but it was a lot of fun.

After the aquarium, we headed to Byron to meet Mom and Dad. Byron is a good half-way point for meeting between home and Parrott. They took the boys with them to Parrot for the rest of the week. I had to go back to work Thursday and Friday. It’s been raining since they’ve been there. Poor PawPaw and Nanny are stuck in a camper with my two wild boys. They did find a few breaks in the clouds yesterday to get some 4-wheeler riding done. Hopefully they’ll be more of that today and then Saturday it is supposed to be nice a sunny. I definitely enjoy the break when they are gone, but Lance and I both commented on how quiet and boring it is without them around. I started on our taxes last night (didn’t get much farther than installing Turbo Tax) and we watched Survivor and American Idol (flipping back and forth). We really know how to have an exciting, kid-free night – pizza, taxes, American Idol and Survivor.

I’m not sure what the plan is for tonight. Maybe we’ll treat ourselves to a date night – dinner and a movie sounds good.