This week we managed to check quite a few things off of our bucket list. The week itself was pretty low key though. (Beware: Super pic heavy post coming up!)
We started our week by having Kenzie's 4-year-old well check on Monday. After a quick breakfast and some play time at Chick Fil A since we never went for her birthday, we headed over to the doc's office. Her appointment went really well. She did so great! She is officially 41 inches tall (77th percentile) and 37.6 pounds (70th percentile). Her weight percentile has jumped; however, when you compare it with her height, it makes her the perfect BMI apparently. They also took her blood pressure for the first time ever with the cuff. It was pretty cute. I had to google blood pressure in children and learned that the levels are dependent on sex, age, and height percentiles. So, after all that, I figured out that her BP is at the 50th percentile so it is spot on for where she should be. The doc also had her bend forward so she could check her spine and she shows no signs of scoliosis. That was great to hear seeing that her Nana has it pretty significantly. Since she was in such good health, the doc decided that we would go ahead and give her the shots that she needs for not only VPK but also for Kindergarten. So, now she is all set for a couple of years. She did so great during her shots too! They gave them to her in her leg and she laid on the table and held my hands. She just said "Ow!" when they gave them to her and jerked her leg slighly when they did the second one, but otherwise did nothing. She took it like a champ. I was so proud of her.
Tuesday morning we decided to head over to Toys R Us. We didn't have a chance to take Kenzie before her birthday to get her birthday balloon and hat. Plus, by waiting, we had her birthday money available to spend on a gift for her. She ended up getting her balloon and crown but they also had one super big book left that tells the story of Geoffry the Giraffe. The lady behind the counter ended up giving it to her. She thought she was hot stuff. Haha! She picked out a couple of new toys including a Tinkerbell doll with her birthday money. She only used about half her money but I decided to not tell her that and let her pick out something else maybe in a few months when the birthday hype finally dies down.
Tuesday was also a big day for Steven and me. It was the day that early registration opened for annual passholders to Disney for the Star Wars 10k. I admit, I was so nervous about this registration process. I have heard such horror stories. Steven and I got on the phone together about 11:50 with 10 minutes left until the registration went live an we sat refreshing our respective pages and waited. And waited. And waited. Right at noon, the links finally worked and we both got in really easily. You have 15 minutes to finish the registration once you get in and we both did it with no issues. In less than 15 minutes we were registered for our first 10k. Training for 6.2 miles starts now. Eek! We are so excited that we got in (a week early) and are all set to go for the 10k. As it turned out, I didn't need to be worried. About 20 minutes after registration opened, the 10k was still available so it didn't fill nearly as quickly as the Princess, which I would expect. Anyway, we are in. There is a post here detailing more about the sign up process and why we chose this race for anyone interested. We will post some random updates on our progress as we move towards the race. We also have a race coming up in November that I will update on soon. Plus, we are looking at a possible 10k in January at the vineyard not far from here. Is there free wine on the course or once the race is over? If so, count us in for sure.
This is an honorable mention for the week, but I loved this picture so I'm including it. I have started running at night since Monday morning when I went to leave for a run and they were arresting a kid right outside our house at 5:30am. Night running it is! I'm not a huge fan. I'm tired. It's hard to determine when to eat and if you eat, how much to eat so that you can still function. And it's HOT and way more humid at night usually. Anyway, I've gone twice at night now and I'm starting to get the hang of it but I had a moment on my run on Wednesday night that I had to just stop and take a picture because it was a moment that I had to take it all in. How beautiful this Earth is that we live on. My grandfather used to love sunsets. He would stop on the side of a highway to take a picture of a pretty one. When I turned that corner and saw the sunset, I had to stop. For him. And for me. I had to stop and reflect for a moment about all the God has given me. He paints the prettiest pictures of all.
Thursday we ended up going to the pool with the neighbors and all the girls. The kids had a blast. Will kept asking me for "I swim!" and wanting to have me help him "kick kick kick". Then he would swim by himself back to the stairs. Over and over again. Kenzie realized that she could walk part way into the shallow end and then spent the next 20 or so minutes swimming back to the stairs. We are almost to the point that the kids are fairly self-sufficient in the pool! Yay!! I still watch them like crazy but if I have to take my eyes off of Kenzie for a minute to deal with Will, I worry less. We only spent about 45 minutes at the pool because all of our suits with rash guards were packed for our weekend away so the kids had normal suits on and I didn't want to risk too much sun. We went early though and my rule is to be out of the sun by 10am usually.
Friday started our big push of getting some bucket list items marked off. We started our day by bringing the dog to Nana and Papa's house. Well, the kids and I did. As it turned out, we needed 2 cars to get to Grandma and Grandaddy's house because of the dog and all the things we need to bring back to them following Kenzie's party so I left shortly before lunch with the dog and headed towards my parents with the kids so we could meet Nana for lunch and see Papa. The kids and I got to Nana and Papa's and dropped off the dog. Then Nana, Uncle Rick, the kids, and I went to Zaxby's for lunch. It was pretty yummy. We don't have one near us so it was a nice treat.
The kids and I left straight from lunch because it is actually way faster to go straight from my parents' house to Grandma and Grandaddy's than to go home or something first. The drive was uneventful. Will fell asleep about 30 minutes out and Kenzie fell asleep about 10 minutes out. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, Kenzie sat bolt upright and yelled, "We're at Grandma's house!" Um... yeah. I pulled Will out of the car and held him a while since he wasn't fully awake. As it turned out, he did not wake up happy and eventually exploded into tears. It took him a while to recover, but thankfully he did and then was fine.
For dinner, we packed up a picnic lunch and headed over to Washington Oaks. We got there and realized that it was going to start raining. Luckily, the picnic area has some covered areas and I think we might have been the only people in the park. So, we relocated the picnic... and just in time. We were almost entirely set up and the sky opened up. It ended up raining through our entire picnic. It cooled it down though, but then it got pretty humid. It was still cooler than Orlando though. There was a squirrel that spent our entire dinner time trying to sneak up on us to grab some handouts. The kids thought it was great to chase him around after we were done eating trying to shoo him away. We ended up giving him a tomato slice that we didn't want to save. He seemed pretty happy with that.
That evening when we got back to Grandma and Grandaddy's house we played Candy Land. Kenzie was given it (by Grandma and Grandaddy) for her birthday and we had not yet had a chance to play it. She really surprised us with how quickly she picked up on the rules. She won both games we played... and trust me when I say it wasn't because we let her. Beginners luck, I guess. Both kids went to bed really easily. Thank goodness. Kenzie slept on a mattress on the floor (so she wouldn't fall off the bed) in one guest room and Will slept in the pack n play in Grandaddy's office. They went down with no issues. At that point, Steven and I decided to go for a run. We headed down to the path by the intercoastal with plans to run about a mile and a half in one direction and then turn around. It was a nice run. The entire path is mostly flat. The only issues we had were that it was getting dark and some areas lack lighting. Also, the path ran out about 1.25 miles so we had to run part of our route on the street. Not a big deal since there weren't a lot of people around. Steven made the three miles in under 37 minutes. He ended up heading back towards me because he was about 3/10 of a mile ahead of me. He encouraged me to run my last 2/10 of my route when I totally planned on walking. I finished in under 41 minutes thanks to his encouragement. That's one reason I really enjoy being able to run at the same time. It was nice to get out and run though. I'm surprised we actually got a run in when we were not at home. It's also nice to run together (although we don't technically run together) sometimes.
We had quite the experience Saturday morning about 3:30am when Kenzie called me into the room and told me she had an accident in the bed. She has been nighttime trained for probably 6-9 months and this is only her second accident. She drank A LOT before going to bed and I guess was just so tired she didn't wake up. She ended up requiring a bath from me while Daddy and Grandma changed sheets. Thankfully I wasn't alone or something with her. It was a rough. She went back to bed but never fell back into a deep sleep. She probably called us into the room around 8 times asking if it was morning until she finally decided it was light enough outside and jumped into bed with us to say good morning. Will woke up around 7 and we had breakfast before packing up and heading to the beach for the morning. We decided to take a picnic lunch and set up camp on the beach. Will spent almost the entire time digging in the sand. He is still iffy about the rough waves. We didn't push him. Kenzie on the other hand spent almost the entire time in the water. Even without us down there. She rode her boogie board in a lot and we spent a lot of time out in the water with her jumping waves. Her and I were taken out (twice) by big ones. We both went under. She laughed. I choked on salt water. Who is this kid?? We also checked off a bucket list item by finally getting to fly a kite on the beach. We wanted to do it the night before but couldn't because of the rain. She loved it! We had a bit of an issue with Will after lunch. Something upset him. What? I don't know. I had to hold him for a while. He spent about 10 minutes asking for his chair to be returned to him so he could throw it away again. Weird kid. He eventually calmed down though and we had a good time until we had to eventually pull them away from the sand and surf.
We made it back to Grandma and Grandaddy's house before Will fell asleep so we managed to get an hour or so nap out of him when we got back. Score! He wasn't super happy when he woke up and we actually worried he might be getting sick, but once he recovered and ate half a peanut butter sandwich, he was fine. Guess he was still just tired. It had been a big morning. We hung out around the house until time to get ready for dinner. Before dinner we took the kids outside and got a few good pictures of them and the rest of the family. I had high hopes to get a pic of the four of us on the beach but was a bit afraid we could get rained out again so I wanted to get some before we left just in case.
For dinner we tried a new place.... Hidden Treasure Raw Bar and Grill. When we got there we learned that the dining room was reserved, but they have a boat house you can eat in. The service was great and the food was even better. We started with fried pickles, of which our children polished off more than half of. The kids had chicken tenders and grilled cheese (they shared each one). Steven and Grandaddy had crab stuffed flounder. Grandma had grilled shrimp and I had a shrimp po'boy. It was all sooooo good! They had homemade chips too. I was sold! Everything was super yummy. The boat house didn't have central air but I don't think but wasn't too bad. It had windows that snapped down. I would think it would be an awesome place to go in the winter months. They have live music (at least on the weekends). The boats were coming through. Both kids were quite enamored with a large sailboat. It was definitely a win of a restaurant.
After dinner we headed back to Jungle Hut Beach for a bit more kite flying. The weather had remained gorgeous for us so we ended up getting a pretty good family picture. The tide was low so Kenzie had a blast shelling. Will really, really wanted a shell but was still not sure of the rough waves so he made me carry him down there, retrieve a shell, and then let him run back to Grandma and Grandaddy to show them. I think Kenzie would have just jumped back in the water if we had given her the go ahead. Kite flying wasn't as productive. The wind was pretty variable so it didn't last as long as it did earlier in the day, but both kids still gave it a go.
When we got home we ended up playing another round of Candy Land before bed. This time Grandma won. Kenzie took it pretty well. We were wondering what was going to happen when she actually lost. She wanted to play again and win but we eventually convinced her that you win some and you lose some. Then we moved on. Both kids went to bed really quickly. Will cried for about 15-30 seconds and then was OUT. Kenzie went right to bed (after one last potty break... we learned our lesson). It was a jam packed day and both kids, as well as all the adults, were exhausted.
The next morning Will got up around 7. We actually think Steven's alarm woke him up but 7 is a normal time for him anyway. We ended up waking Kenzie up about 7:30 because we needed to have breakfast. After a yummy breakfast, we headed out for Fort Matanzas. Another bucket list item. This is the free fort but it is first come, first serve for the boat ride over to the fort so we wanted to be there as soon as they opened. We made it right on time. Will knew there was a boat ride coming so we could barely hold him back as he tried to run through the parking lot yelling "BOAT!!!" I guess someone was excited. Since we were early, we got on the first boat but had to wait a while before they were ready to board. That let us take a few pictures. My favorite part of waiting was watching Will stick his finger down random crab holes. Typical boy. Had he been pinched... I might have laughed. Would have served him right. We told him not to. Eventually we got in line to wait to board the boat and Will and Kenzie were so excited. Will wanted to be the first person on the boat. When we got to the fort, it was apparent that the weather was going to be sort of iffy soon so we went into the fort right away and looked around. Kenzie has been there before but she was about Will's age so she doesn't remember. She loved it this time. Steven and I climbed up to the very top. Not too many people were willing to try it but Kenzie though we were awesome for going up there. Haha! We are the cool parents. We were heading back to the boat when the rain started. We made it on time but the rain pelted us while we road the boat back. Before we left we decided to buy the kids a National Passport book and get their first stamps. We should have done it back when Will was a baby because we have visited a few national parks since he was born but didn't. Oh well. We wanted to have one that was just for us as a family. I have one and Steven does somewhere too but we wanted a family one for the kids. Kenzie was so excited with her first ever stamps. There was also a nice ranger that gave the kids Junior Ranger pins. The kids thought they were so cool.
The rain didn't last long and we were early to head to lunch so we decided to try our luck across the street at Matanzas beach. It was gorgeous! Low tide. Powder sand. Low waves. Sort of West coast-ish. Might be my new favorite beach in the area. The kids had a blast. Will dug in the sand. He is still iffy on the water but I have this feeling that next year we will be dragging him out of it. Much like Kenzie now. Kenzie and I walked around in the water and splashed each other a little. She thought it was great. She also grabbed a few more shells for her ever-growing collection. We beat the rain back to the car. Barely. We were running the last bit to the car. It didn't help that the boardwalk to get to this beach is probably about a half mile long. Seriously. They probably could have found a more direct route over there.
After our quick (final... sniff sniff) beach stop of the weekend, we headed towards Salt Life Food Shack for lunch. We all really liked it last time and it wasn't too far so we thought it would be good. Will fell asleep on the way there but he woke up pretty nicely. Better than some of his other moments earlier in the weekend. The kids were great at lunch. So great that the server even thanked us for having such well behaved little ones. We have gotten compliments plenty of times from others for how our kids behave in public (but don't let me fool you... we definitely have our moments. We just typically remove them from the situation if they get out of control.) but have never had a server thank us. It was really nice.
After dinner we headed back to Grandma and Grandaddy's house because we needed to start prepping to leave. We hoped to get Will to nap, but his earlier catnap seemed to make him think he didn't need one. Instead he spent about 20 minutes in the room calling me at random intervals. Not crying. Just calling. Eventually we pulled him. We decided then to go ahead and try our hand at fishing. It was another item on the bucket list and Kenzie got her Frozen fishing pole from Daddy for her birthday last weekend. She was so excited. Grandma and Grandaddy have a small lake behind their house so we decided to use that. Kenzie had a blast. I had to cast for her and then she would reel the line back in. She didn't get any bites unfortunately. We had to have a talk about why it is called "fishing" and not "catching". Steven had brought a couple of his poles too. He got a bite, but lost whatever it was as he was reeling it in. Will was pretty enthused with the whole process and kept asking to try. He used Kenzie's pole but my favorite moment was him using his Daddy's fishing pole with both Daddy and Grandaddy helping him. It was so sweet. Will's luck wasn't any better and he didn't get a bite. I tried for a bit and didn't get anything. It was hot so we decided to call it a day. We will try again soon. Nana and Papa also have a lake behind their house so we will be trying there one day as well.
After all that excitement, the kids wanted to go down to the dock and feed the turtles so we headed over to do that. Will was so excited about the pool he finally noticed in the community. He just wanted to go swimming. Next time maybe, Little Man. The turtles were hungry and the kids loved feeding them.
We then had to pack up the cars and get ready to leave. We decided to go to Steak n Shake for dinner since it would be easy and quick. However, due to Will's lack of a nap, we had an issue. He fell asleep on the way to dinner. Then he continued to sleep through dinner. I eventually encouraged him to wake up and he was not happy. At all. Remember how I said the kids aren't always great? This was one of those moments. He was ticked. He kept asking for a bite of food and then screaming if I would give it to him. Or asking for his water and then trying to push it away. A lot like that chair at the beach. He gets so weird. Eventually I had to pull him out of the restaurant. We had a come to Jesus meeting outside. He calmed down eventually and this conversation ensued:
Will: Go inside.
Me:Are you done acting crazy?
Will: Yeah.
Me: Are you going to make good choices and eat dinner?
Will: Yeah. Inside. (Pointing back at restaurant)
Me: If you don't behave, we are coming back outside.
Will: Otay.
He was pretty good the rest of dinner. He was still a bit iffy but once he finally asked to sit in the high chair and decided dinner was okay, he ate most of his grilled cheese. Kenzie on the other hand was great at dinner. She asked Daddy to put together her car and then played with that and colored. She ate all of her food and part of Will's. I think she might have even downed a napkin while none of us were looking. She was apparently starving. She was asking me about the snacks I could give him when we got home later. Crazy kid.
It was a super fun weekend. We did a lot but it was nice to get away. Especially since we aren't doing a true vacation this year. We are super thankful for my parents for watching the dog and super thankful for Mom and Dad Y for putting up with us all weekend. We are down to just a few weeks left of summer. Kenzie starts her fall dance season this week and school next week but we have a few more things planned before Labor Day rolls around and "summer" ends. Should be fun!
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