Week 75

Aug 11-17

I changed my background to this cute little "Going Places" theme, because August has been such a whirlwind month for us. It seems like so many things are changing and we are still getting used to adjusting to my new job, Ed's firefighting, me toying with the idea of school, and Jack growing up. We have enjoyed the company of so many family and friends...it has been quite the month!

This week was fun because Jack's "Pap" (Ed's dad) and his wife Mary Ann came to visit us from Pittsburgh, PA. They said they really just wanted to hang out with Jack so we picked "Jack friendly" activities to do. They stayed at a hotel on the beach down the street from our house so we went swimming at the hotel pool and played on the beach.

Pretty much every night we went out to eat...we got to try some new restaurants in our area that we have never been to before. It was kind of funny because Jack doesn't usually eat out at restaurants that often and I realized that he is very well behaved. Of course he had a couple of minor outbursts...but I have developed a whole new attitude towards babies at restaurants.

I used to be terrified that Jack would throw a fit and disrupt everyone else's dinner. I felt bad that their night might be ruined. Then I realized...we eat dinner at 5:00 pm. If you look around most restaurants they are either empty, or filled with babies and old people. Also...if they have highchairs and a kids menu then they are KID FRIENDLY!

This one guy kept getting calls on his cell phone and at one point Jack was screaming out because he just wanted attention. The guy turned around and glared at us. I felt like saying something...I really almost did. I didn't want to start anything. But I didn't feel bad about it because if he wants a peaceful dinner he should go to a non kid friendly restaurant!!!

Okay I got off the subject. We were considering going to either Disney or Animal Kingdom with Jack, but we decided it wasn't the best idea since he still really can't go through the day without at least one good nap. I'm glad we waited. We will re-evaluate next year. Instead we went to our usual hot spot...the good old Brevard Zoo. :)

We had a great time checking out the animals. We went early in the morning so it wasn't quite so hot. We walked the whole zoo and then ended up in the "Paws On" kids play area. Jack was ready to cool off in the water. Even with the mist sprays and mostly shade...it gets HOT! I think if we do go to Disney next year we probably won't go in the middle of the summer.

Here are a bunch of pictures we took. Zoo pictures are always cute. We had a great time with Pap and Mary Ann!! It was relaxing and refreshing.

On another side note, Jack is starting to put multiple words together. He will say things like "hey baby" and "I love you Dad!" So cute! He is also getting his 11th tooth. I can't believe how big he is getting! Next weekend we are going to Holly's wedding in WISCONSIN! :) I can't wait! We are leaving Jack home with my mom, sister, and grandma. I'm sure he will have tons of fun and entertainment. Mommy and Daddy are having a mini-vacation!

Week 74

Aug 4-10

Beach Vacation Part 2

***extra pictures!***

We had some nice times at the beach. I found some more pictures to put up. One morning the three of us decided to take a stroll on the beach. Jack is an early riser. He is generally up around 6:30 am which is fine since he goes to bed around 6:30 pm. It's kind of nice to see the beach in the early morning because there usually aren't very many other people around. We walked down to the inlet and explored a little bit. Jack loved finding big pools of water he could play in without getting crashed by waves.

We found some fun stuff like a hermit crab. We splashed around in the water for a bit. The beach is good because Jack can just run, run, run without worrying about boundaries. It does get exhausting following him, but at least he wore himself out eventually and took good naps!!

He really liked this one chair in the condo. It was a tiny bit too high for him to climb up onto so every time he wanted to sit on it he would simply remove the cushion...which was quite the process for him, it required walking all around the chair and loosening each side...when he got it off he was able to climb up. He figured this out all by himself. I thought it was pretty clever of him.

We went out a few of the nights to dinner. Our favorite of course was New York Prime. It is by far the BEST steak place I have ever tried. Their cuts of meat were impeccable! They offered a delicious cosmopolitan as well...VERY strong! :) Thank you to Harvin for taking us to NEW YORK PRIME! After hearing so much about it for the past few years we realized you weren't kidding! I would recommend this restaurant to anyone going to Myrtle Beach. I think they have a locale in Atlanta as well.

A few of the nights when we were reluctant to go out since no one was feeling so hot, Ed's mom insisted that us "young people" go out and "make memories." We walked over to Ocean Annies (a beach bar with a live band) and were sitting around having a few drinks...trying to get into a party mode. We really weren't feeling it. We were sitting there and the place was kind of empty, the band was horrible, and there was this one drunk woman dancing all by herself on the dance floor. This was when I got an idea for a fun game.

Have you ever seen really drunk people dancing? It is hilarious! Well I proposed an idea that turned out to be our source of entertainment for most of the rest of the trip. You get into teams and take turns picking a "target" (usually the drunk random person is the best target) and you go out on the dance floor with certain moves...if the target copies your dance move then you get a point. It was soooooo funny! It almost sounds a little mean but it went from a game to a full-blown dance party. Brittany (Ed's cousin) was by far the champion of the game. She turned into the dance instructor and had a conga line going. She would make up ridiculous dance moves and the whole place would copy her.

HILARIOUS!

I recommend trying this game to anyone. It is so much fun! We were quickly dubbed the "party table" and ended up making lots of friends.

So that was our memory we made. There are many other memories and fun pictures, but I need everyone to start sending them to me so I can post them. :)

Here are some extra pictures of our vacation!!

Week 73

Jul 28-Aug 3

***note for the people who were on vacation with me***please send me any pictures you have!***we didn't take very many pics***

BEACH VACATION PART 1

Talk about a stinky vacation. When I say stinky I am not referring to quality or anything along those lines...but literally to smell. Anything that could possibly smell...smelled.

As you all are probably well aware we all started our trip off with a lovely stomach bug. Jack got it first, then 3 days later Ed got it, then 3 days after that I got it. It lasted a week for each of us. Jack was pretty much over it when we left, Ed was in the middle of it, and I had just started.

Great.

Ed and I have always joked around about this type of stuff. We always wonder why we even bother to go on vacation and get away because things always happen.

We made it to Ed's moms house (Jack's Grandma) in one piece. The plan was to stop there and then first thing in the morning head out to the beach condo. Round 1 of stinky smells...somehow a bottle of milk had exploded under one of the seats in the car and sat overnight.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Ed goes out to start packing the car and comes back in ranting about how the car smells. I'm trying to get Jack ready to go and I have no idea what he is talking about. I figured he was probably exaggerating. No. He wasn't. It was the most disgusting smell ever and it PERMEATED our new car. I know we have had our car for 2 years now, but to me it is still new because it doesn't seem like we have had it that long. It still had (HAD) that new car smell.

We did all we could in that moment and attempted to clean up the car. The whole ride to the beach was STINKY!

We made it to the beach and our condo was BEAUTIFUL! Ed's mom got the penthouse of one of the condo/hotel type buildings on the beach called the Brigadune. There was so much space for Jack to run around. I have to admit that I spent a good part of the time before vacation worrying about how much stuff he was going to potentially destroy at this gorgeous condo. I made everyone bring gates and I was prepared to do a sweep through the place before we let him in so I could salvage anything in his path. Well the condo was perfect for him. Yay!

Of course the next day it was hot and then raining so the car smell just got worse. Finally it stopped raining and Ed and I spent a couple of hours deep cleaning the carpets. The smell is gone at this point...lets just hope we did a good enough job for it not to come lingering back.

The next smelly part of the vacation has to do with the stomach bug. It was awful. I have personally never experienced a stomach bug of this caliber. When the boys first got sick I started disinfecting everything in my house and washing my hands even more than I normally do (which is probably about 20-30 times a day depending on what I am doing). I still got it after all of that so I knew it must be pretty contagious.

Eventually people started dropping like flies and having problems with the bug. Diarrhea. Vomiting. Etc. We basically tried to just ignore what we had and make it through the worst couple of days. Everyone kind of got it at different times so it was staggered. :( Sigh.

On a happier note Ed and I actually managed to get some time in for ourselves thanks to everyone taking turns watching Jack. :) Here we are eating a delicious breakfast at HotStacks! It's always so nice to enjoy a meal together without interruption from little ones.

The first part of the week we got to spend time on the beach with Uncle Ryan and Auntie Amanda! Jack had a great time with them.