Island Views

We were only able to stay on the Island (Pensacola Beach is on an island off of Florida) for one day.  Which was hard.  I think we all wanted to stay longer.  We were in the pools first thing after breakfast and the kids had the pools to themselves! 

Before we left the island we drove around and I snapped pictures out of the window.

We never stopped to get out.

We are on day 7 of our vacation at this time.

Kids are holding up great.  However, their sleep schedules have been totally messed with.  Naps are sketchy and few & far between.  We wake them up in the morning as to get them moving and going before the day is gone.  That is Jesse!  I would of picked sleep some mornings – but he is an up and get going kind of guy.

We took the kids to get souvenirs before we left Florida.  My kids each picked out a stuffed turtle!  Mallory has a baby tiny stuffed turtle that I was given at my baby shower when I was pregnant with her.  She still hauls that turtle around and so her baby turtle needed a momma!  And Max has to match so he picked a stuffed turtle too!  The daddy turtle, of course!

Ellyn picked a glass dolphin.  A blue one, of course.  I was trying to steer her away from the breakable stuff- but she was sneaky and went and asked Jesse if that could be her souvenir and he said yes.  To which she ran over to me and said “Jesse said I can get this!”  Hmfph!  But in the long run that will last forever and it was a good pick for her.  Better then the alligator tooth necklace she was eyeballing at the alligator farm!! 

We were scheduled to go meet up with Jesse’s cousin in  Mobile, Alabama.  His wife had a waterpark pass for us to use.  But when we looked back and saw this…

We decided those are some pretty exhausted kids!  We should start to head for home and get home a day early and have a day at home before we went back to work!  We canceled out time with Jesse’s cousin and headed home.

Stock Yard & Florida

Wednesday morning down in Mississippi is Stock Yard day!  Of course we went!  Flea Market and Animal Auction!  It was so blasted hot!  It wasn’t fun!  I couldn’t even look at flea market treasures because I was hot and whiney and I had two kids who were hot and whiney and when they are hot and whiney their legs don’t work and they want to be carried! 

We went into the stock barn to see the animals.

I think I would love a little hobby farm!  I want some chickens, a goat and a donkey.  They had all that here except my donkey.

Ellyn didn’t come to the stock yard – she stayed back and made a cake with Jesse’s Aunt Diane.  She was so proud of this cake! 

Aunt Diane taught Ellyn to cook and taught Mallory how to play Jesus Loves Me on the piano.

After lunch and dessert (Ellyn’s cake) we hit the road again and left Mississippi and went to Florida.

Jesse and I stayed in Pensacola, Florida on our honeymoon.  Well, we found the exact hotel we stayed in (10 years ago) and went to go stay in that hotel!

Ellyn didn’t want to come to Florida with us!  Seriously!  Can you believe that?!  She wanted to stay at Aunt Diane’s!  She asked a couple times if she could stay and we could pick her up on our way back.  We didn’t let her!  She didn’t understand what we were about to do!

We got to our hotel and were upgraded to the Executive Suite!  It was perfect for out little family!  Everyone got a bed!  Jesse and I had a nice balcony with a view of the ocean for when the kids went to bed we could still see & hear the ocean without leaving our room.

We quickly got into our suits and headed to the beach.  I am so mad about this –but I do not have a single picture of the kids at the beach.  None.  Not a single one.  So mad.  I’m kind of a nervous mom when it comes to water and then an ocean!  Um… no time for a camera.  I brought it with me but it stayed in my bag.

Ellyn thought the ocean was amazing.  She was glad she came with and didn’t stay behind.  She was face down in the ocean looking at all the treasures at the bottom and watching fish.  The trouble was she didn’t realize how quickly she floats out and she just learned to swim a few weeks prior.  She isn’t a strong swimmer yet.  Jesse and I each had to take one of our kids and keep them in our arms.  It was too stressful!  I didn’t like it!  We stayed for a bit longer and then headed to the pools at our hotel.

Sitting poolside soaking up sun while watching the kids was much more relaxing to Jesse and I.

We stayed out until the sun went down.  Then went in and ordered a pizza.  The kids thought it was the coolest to eat pizza (with no plates or forks) while watching TV.  Tucked the kids into bed and sat on our balcony and looked around the island trying to remember what it looked like 10 years earlier.  And what we were like 10 years earlier.  How much our life has changed in 10 years.  What we have all accomplished in 10 years.  Jesse with his Doctors.  Starting a business.  2 beautiful kids.  Selling a business.  Owning a home.  All in 10 years!

On the Road, Gators & Sharks

After leaving Illinois we had a long drive down to our second destination – Mississippi.

Over many bridges. 

Day 3 of being in a vehicle and the kids are still smiling and so are Jesse & I!  That’s huge, right?!  Max was being a stinker and wouldn’t look at me! 

We played some travel games that I found on my phone.  A huge list of things we had to find.  It was awesome.  Kept the kids entertained and on the look for stuff instead of “can we watch a movie?”  Also kept Jesse and I entertained.  Jesse and I kept track of license plates as well. 

We arrived at Jesse’s cousin’s house that night about 7pm.  Our kids and their kids hit off and were gone playing.  They had plotted and planned sleeping arraignments – Ellyn was sleeping with the older girls in their room and my kids and Jesse & I were sleeping together.  Ellyn was so proud that she got to sleep with these girls and have a little slumber party.  No one told them when to go to bed – and they stayed up late doing who knows what!  Listening to music and talking, I think. 

The next morning after sleepy Ellyn got up and moving (I think we woke her up) we loaded up and went to an alligator farm.

Mallory touching an alligator.

Ellyn feeding the alligator.

It was incredibly hot!  So hot!  A heat we were not accustom to!  I think it was in the 90s (and it is well before 11am) with a heat index of 110.  It was intense!

This alligator farm had airboat rides.  We wanted to go on it so bad – however Max wasn’t old enough to go.  We tried to talk them into it – but rules are rules.  So we walked over to watch it leave.

Mallory feeding that sneaky alligator in the picture above.

Since all the people that were there went on the boat we were by ourselves.  So the kids got to hold an alligator.

Ellyn went first.

Then Mallory.

Maxwell next!  If you zoom in on my picture you can see that Max is holding it all on his own.  He is saying that he was heavy and kind of grunting about how heavy he was.

After the gator farm and the massive heat we headed to Pascagoula for lunch and to check out the coast line.

We saw this dock when we drove by and wanted to walk out on it.  We went to find a parking space in the park across the street.  We pull in and we notice this very very sunburned man walking across the parking lot.  We pull into our spot and he comes and stands outside our truck.  I think he is homeless and is going to ask us for money – but he doesn’t.

Jesse opens his door and he walks over and says “You wanna buy a shark?”  A shark?  “Yes, a shark.  I just caught a 42” shark off the dock and I’m trying to sell it for $20.”  We are from out of town we have nothing to keep a shark.  “I’ll fillet it for you.”  We have no way to keep it cold & fresh.  “Oh okay, do you have a cigarette?”  Nope.

I still get the feeling that he was lying to us – that he just wanted to get a quick $20 and there would be no shark.  So we walked out on the dock.

And there was a shark at the end!  I didn’t get a picture because I was too distracted by the guys fishing.  They were risky-looking.  They had fishing equipment that Max wanted to touch.  There were dead fish and chunks of fish all over that Max & Mally insisted on picking up and throwing into the water.  Then we found the shark in a cooler.  The guy by that cooler kept snorting snot and spitting.  Like not just once – he did it every 10-15 seconds like it was a nervous twitch he had.  It was disgusting!  So disgusting!  I just wanted to get away before I threw up!  So taking a picture of the shark to go with this story never crossed my mind!

We walked back to let the kids play on the playground but it was so incredibly hot it was no fun.  We needed a water activity!  And this coast line was not a swimming coast line.  It was yucky.

We headed back to Jesse’s cousins, who were having a birthday party at a pool!  Here are the kids in their suits driving across the road to the family pool.

Before we left we can see a storm coming in.  They watched the radar but it looked like it was going to miss us.  We risked it anyway and went to the pool.  Literally the kids get in the pool for 3 minutes and we see lightening.  Everyone out and running back to our vehicles to go home.  We were all drenched – but it wasn’t from the pool!  It was from the massive rain!  No swimming that day!

Illinois

Our second day of travel was kind of big day.  We drove until lunch and then stopped at a wayside.  Much to our surprise they had a playground.  It was awesome!  The kids could get out all their wiggles!

I could not get all three of them to look at me at once.

And there was running room!  You had to run from one play equipment to the other.  You can be sure that I made them run too!

Mallory climbing.

Little Max attempting to get those short little legs to climb.

Even Jesse had to get his wiggles out.

Mallory wanted to try on the short bar.

Then Ellyn tried.

Mallory wanted to try on the big bar- so I handed the camera to Ellyn to help Mallory and Ellyn started taking pictures.

This is the only time you will see me the rest of the vacation.  : )

Three months of living with us and Ellyn starts posing like me!!  I’m sure she picked up other great habits of mine too.  I have noticed her say some things and it totally makes me giggle.  Potty training Max for example – she takes him to go and she is the bathroom with him telling him how proud she is of him for keeping his underpants dry.  Now, would she have talked like that before?  Nope.  She has heard me praise him over every potty break that she does it now!

After everyone wiggled we sat down to eat a picnic lunch.

After the wayside stop we only had a few more hours until we were to our final destination of Mount Vernon, IL.  My Aunt & Uncle live here and invited us to stay with them.  The last time I was there was when I was 11 or 12.  They had a pool that the kids were dying to get into.

While Ellyn was living with us I signed her up for 4-weeks of summer school.  Which was such a blessing for her.  She loved it.  She got to go be with kids her own age.  She had fun classes.  She got to be a big kid and ride her bike to school – by herself!  And the biggest blessing – she learned to swim!  She didn’t know how to swim before and now she swims and swims and swims!  You don’t ever see her above water.

Mally had two weeks of swim lessons this year too and she did great and actually passed her class!

My kids found Uncle Bruce’s side-by-side and sat in here and played pretend.

The next morning we were off for Mississippi.