Another weekend has been put in the books for the Young Household. This weekend was actually a bit less crazy than some of our others, I think but still filled with fun and some new things.
We started Friday afternoon when Steven was able to come home an hour or so early. We started getting ready for our big Saturday plans and then made pizza and sat down to watch a movie. We love this Friday tradition. We try to do it at least a couple times a month. We used to order pizza but when we started watching our finances closer, we determined that it was better for us to make pizza either homemade or frozen (and the kids like frozen pizza as much as pizza from a restaurant right now so we will continue to capitalize on that for a while... Will loves homemade but Kenzie is in a current anti-homemade stage because she is weird). Anyway, we made a frozen pizza and some cheesy bread. Then we sat down together to watch Inside Out. We picked it up at the library last week and never had a chance to watch it. None of us have seen it before so we were excited to have a movie that we would all actually want to watch. We loved it! Kenzie and Will watched the entire thing and enjoyed it. Kenzie probably didn't get a lot of the nuances of it but Steven and I certainly did. I can see how it could be a great tool in therapy with children. Sometimes the school psych in me pops out and that is definitely what kept crossing my mind while watching. Now the kids have been told that they can meet Joy and Sadness at Disney so I think we are going to have to do that next time.
Saturday morning started pretty early. We had plans to head out to Deleon Springs State Park. This is a new park that we haven't visited before. It is about an hour away from us but when we looked it up online, we thought it looked really nice. Earlier in the week I stopped by Wekiwa Springs State Park with the kids and picked up a family annual pass for the state park system because we have plans to hit up quite a few state parks in the next year. We are definitely adding Weeki Wachi and some others to our Summer Bucket list this year so we figured it would pay for us to have the pass. Plus, we try to do Blue Springs at least once a year when it is colder out to see the manatees and our trip to the Keys will take us into a few state parks including Pennekamp and Bahia Honda. We are actually keeping a list of the parks we visit and how many times so we can make sure that the price of the pass ends up worth it... and because we do weird things like that. Plus, we live practically next door to Wekiwa and the kids love that it has a playground, nature trails, hiking, and fishing so we plan to go there often. We are even thinking about braving the springs sometime this summer. Kenzie was super impressed with the "pool" as she keeps calling it. I think I've mentioned before that we love the "Old Florida" feel and Deleon Springs (and Wekiwa Springs) are perfect Old Florida parks. They are truly beautiful areas.
Anyway, Saturday morning we packed up a picnic lunch and set out for Deleon Springs. We decided that we would bring our little grill and some picnic supplies. Plus, this Saturday was the day that anyone could fish freshwater for free. Usually you need a license for most ages (the kids are young and don't need one) and although Steven has one, I never got a new one so I don't. I usually have to help the kids and then pretend like I am not doing anything just in case, though it's not like they usually care about us. We are a family with two small kids pretending like we might catch something. When we got there we first walked around some to get the lay of the land. The food smells coming from the Old Sugar Mill were phenomenal!! We went inside later and determined that our next trip will be for breakfast because we NEED to eat there. They actually have griddles on the tables and you make your own pancakes. So fun! The kids were super excited about all the pieces of the old sugar mill that used to actually exist (before it was a restaurant). Kenzie was really interested in all of the information posted around about the history of the area. She made us read quite a bit to her. We decided that she is definitely ready for a vacation that consists of going to places like this. She just loves to learn new things and was soaking it all in. We even managed to get a family picture.
Then we wandered over to the spring itself where you can swim. Kenzie was so excited that she HAD to try it out. We didn't have suits and it was too cold for me anyway but we decided to let her put her feet in. She loved it. She insisted it wasn't too cold for her but she only went to her ankles so she has no idea. Will wanted to try it too but we didn't want to take his shoes off and then listen to the possible screeching that would ensue when he realized it was cold. We finally pulled Kenzie out of the water though she was all prepared to fall in headfirst on purpose, I think. We decided to check out the Visitors' Center next and the kids picked up some coloring pages to do later this week.
Then it was time to go on a "hike". Okay, the trail was paved and it was mostly flat, but they thought they were hiking. It was a half mile trail so it wasn't too crazy and along the way was Old Methusela, a 500 year old Cypress. The kids were quite impressed with the size of the tree. They turned our hike into a nature walk and picked up a few things along the way to add to their "nature collection". We even found a leaf in the shape of a heart which Kenzie thought was amazing.
We decided to fish after that so we located the fishing pier. The kids were thrilled. We brought out both of their poles as well as one for each of us. Unfortunately, when I went to use mine we learned that the reel was broken. It was a cheap pole so we are just going to toss it but it was sad. There were a ton of small bass and bream right next to the pier so we put some bread on the kids' hooks and literally just dropped their lines in the water. The fish would take the bread pretty quickly but the kids were remarkably excited with just dropping their hooks in and reeling them back in. Will might have done it all day if we let him. He liked watching the fish swim around it. He didn't seem to care that nothing was biting. I think we had hooks that were too big for those small fish through. We put the hooks on the night before and used what we had at the moment because we didn't want to go through all the tackle we had but we will likely need to switch them to smaller and lighter hooks. Kenzie got bored at some point but spent a good amount of time trying to fish. Steven and I took turns helping them and fishing ourselves. We were having a hard time because the couple on the dock next to us kept casting into our lines. We even had to reel our line in once and spend 5 minutes untangling them from our line. Eventually we switched to artificial worms which apparently told Will that we were done with our "bait" aka the bread and he proceeded to eat about half of it while Steven and I fished some more. When we were finishing up, Kenzie just tossed a whole slice of bread in which made the fish happy and Will not as happy. I guess he planned to eat it.
For lunch we decided to bring out little grill and some hot dogs. We found a picnic bench in the shade (or mostly in the shade) and grilled our hot dogs. After lunch we let the kids play on the playground for a few minutes before we had to head out to make sure we made it to the beach with enough time to play.
We didn't plan to swim but wanted to go to the beach since we haven't been in a while. Our initial thought was to go to New Smyrna Beach. We have never been out to NSB before so we did some research and found a few options but they all seemed to have entrance fees so we decided to instead go to Winterhaven Park in Ponce Inlet since we didn't plan to spend too long out there anyway. We didn't want to pay $10 or so for an hour at the beach. We were hoping the kids (namely Will) would fall asleep on the drive over. We knew it would be about an hour drive so that would give him a good amount of a nap. We lucked out that he did fall asleep. Then, we had to stop at a Big Lots on the way because we realized that I totally forgot our beach toys at home since we packed up shortly before leaving that morning and it wasn't on my list for some reason. That combined with pretty annoying traffic on the way there meant he got about an hour and a half nap. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Kenzie to nap. Too bad.
When we got to the beach we found that Winterhaven Park was a lot like Lori Wilson Park that we usually go to in Cocoa Beach except with a much smaller parking lot. We ended up getting super lucky and found parking spot immediately when we entered. We sunblocked everyone in the parking lot. We learned years ago that putting on sunblock in the parking lot is so much better than doing it on the beach. The kids get crazy when they see a beach and end up covered in sand about 2 seconds after we find a spot so applying sunblock on the beach is sort of like getting a full body exfoliation.
The beach was sort of crowded but GORGEOUS! It was soft, white sand and the water wasn't crazy rough. We arrived as the tide was going out. The farther out it went, the better the beach became (as usual). There were awesome tide pools and a great sandbar that the kids loved. When they figured out that they were able to walk through the calm tide pool water to the sandbar, all bets were off. We were a bit worried about Will because we didn't know if he would act like he did at the beginning of the summer last year and be somewhat afraid of the water but it only took him about 37 seconds before he was running, laughing, and splashing with his sister. This year is going to be great!
We set up our tent since we planned to stay for a bit but we ended up not spending a ton of time under it. Although, if we did, I could have sat there all day watching the kids play and listening to the waves. The beach is definitely one of our favorite places ever. The kids kept wanting to go down to the water where the sand was better for sandcastles and where they could dig and put water in the hole to sit in. One thing that ended up biting us was that we didn't bring their suits. Our thought was that it was going to be too cold to go in (and it was 69 degrees) so we wouldn't need suits but next time, we bring the kids. They definitely could have used them. They definitely didn't care that it was cold. We did bring a change of clothes for each kid but suits would have been better. It wasn't long before they were soaked and sand covered. Once the tide went out enough to get to the sandbar, they spent a long time going back and forth from the beach to the sandbar. Even Will who had to walk in just over knee high water to get from one to the other was loving it. The water is like a pool though and calm so both kids loved it. Kenzie loves the waves but Will is definitely still better with calmer waters. Our goal was to be home in time to make dinner on Saturday night as we didn't want to need to eat out. The kids were having so much fun that it was hard to pull them away. Then... they were covered in sand. I mean... COVERED! It was crazy. It took a little longer than I thought to clean them up but we managed. The kids both talked the entire. way. home. It was crazy. Traffic was bad again around Daytona Shores getting home but we were home by about 6:15 so we were able to eat at home. Mission accomplished! Everyone was exhausted. The kids went to bed about 7:15 and both were OUT almost immediately upon laying down. We wore them out.
Sunday morning started normally. We had church in the morning. Originally, neither of us were supposed to volunteer but Steven was asked on Saturday evening if he could help out because the person that was supposed to do it was unable. Oh well. We tried to go to a service together. The kids had fun in their classes at church. We love to hear about what they learned about each week. Kenzie is at the point that she tells us all about it. Will is at the point that his favorite part was what kind of snack he had but he also loves to show us whatever project he did during class. Because Steven was volunteering, I had to deal with the kids along again after church. We ran over to Publix for our Sunday paper and so that the kids could get cookies and balloons. The highlight of their week. We have started to limit their cookie intake at Publix to Sunday (and Will gets one on Thursday when we do our main shopping) and their balloon intake to Sunday. They were getting a bit out of hand.
Sunday afternoon we broke out one of Will's Christmas presents. We usually hold a few presents for each kid at birthday and Christmas to give them throughout the year. They get so much and we don't think they need everything at once. This works out way better for Kenzie because her birthday is midway through the year. Will's is so close to October that his birthday and Christmas gifts start to run together. So, he has quite a few things right now on top of his closet that haven't been opened yet. We used money sent by my grandmother (their "Grammy") at Christmas to buy him a Mile from Tomorrowland space ship thing. It looked awesome and we knew it would be a bit hit. We decided to open that up in the afternoon and both kids loved it. The only downfall is that it belongs to Will and Kenzie sometimes seems to forget that fact. There has been some arguing but they mostly play together nicely. Thankfully.
Then we took a quick trip over to the Amphitheater to take a picture. Our church is having Easter service at the Amphitheater and they asked people to make invites and post them on social media to invite their friends so we wanted to do just that. We posted one last week and decided on a new one this week. =) We are super excited for Easter Sunday's service this year. Last year, the service was amazing. I still get chills thinking about parts of it. I'm sure this year will be even better.
Sunday evening we had plans to meet up with our friends and their little guy. We have been trying to get together with them for about 2 months now but every time we tried, someone in our family was sick so we finally set up another time to try. We had a sort of crazy February and March as far as sickness goes for some reason. We did so well earlier in the school year but February and March hit us hard. Initially our plan was to find out if they wanted to come to our house but we live sort of far apart so we decided that we would meet about halfway at a restaurant and have some time to chat and hang out. We decided to meet at Wing House. What? I like the wings. =) We had a great time catching up. I'm glad we were finally able to make it work and hopefully we won't wait almost 4 months again to see them. Having kids though can make that difficult sometimes.
Next weekend is going to be a bit different. We don't have anything planned as far as Spring Happenings goes because I won't be home half the weekend. We have some friend's little girl's second birthday party and then we are meeting Nana and Aunt Danielle in Clearwater to pick up our race packets for Iron Girl which is on Sunday. The kids and Steven will stay around and we plan to hit up the beach for a bit before Steven brings them home. I'm staying in Clearwater overnight with my mom and Danielle so that we are local to get to the race. Last year, my mom came and drove in with me Sunday morning for the race. We had to leave about 3:30am. This year we are all running/walking it so we thought it would be easier to already be out there. I'm super excited. The recap will be coming shortly after the race as well as some thoughts on races for the upcoming season. We have been talking a lot about what races we want to do this year and I think we finally have some things figured out. I'm excited for next weekend. I know my mom and Danielle are too and I'm so excited to see them partake in their first race experience. It's like catching a bug. I don't think it will be their last.
We started Friday afternoon when Steven was able to come home an hour or so early. We started getting ready for our big Saturday plans and then made pizza and sat down to watch a movie. We love this Friday tradition. We try to do it at least a couple times a month. We used to order pizza but when we started watching our finances closer, we determined that it was better for us to make pizza either homemade or frozen (and the kids like frozen pizza as much as pizza from a restaurant right now so we will continue to capitalize on that for a while... Will loves homemade but Kenzie is in a current anti-homemade stage because she is weird). Anyway, we made a frozen pizza and some cheesy bread. Then we sat down together to watch Inside Out. We picked it up at the library last week and never had a chance to watch it. None of us have seen it before so we were excited to have a movie that we would all actually want to watch. We loved it! Kenzie and Will watched the entire thing and enjoyed it. Kenzie probably didn't get a lot of the nuances of it but Steven and I certainly did. I can see how it could be a great tool in therapy with children. Sometimes the school psych in me pops out and that is definitely what kept crossing my mind while watching. Now the kids have been told that they can meet Joy and Sadness at Disney so I think we are going to have to do that next time.
Saturday morning started pretty early. We had plans to head out to Deleon Springs State Park. This is a new park that we haven't visited before. It is about an hour away from us but when we looked it up online, we thought it looked really nice. Earlier in the week I stopped by Wekiwa Springs State Park with the kids and picked up a family annual pass for the state park system because we have plans to hit up quite a few state parks in the next year. We are definitely adding Weeki Wachi and some others to our Summer Bucket list this year so we figured it would pay for us to have the pass. Plus, we try to do Blue Springs at least once a year when it is colder out to see the manatees and our trip to the Keys will take us into a few state parks including Pennekamp and Bahia Honda. We are actually keeping a list of the parks we visit and how many times so we can make sure that the price of the pass ends up worth it... and because we do weird things like that. Plus, we live practically next door to Wekiwa and the kids love that it has a playground, nature trails, hiking, and fishing so we plan to go there often. We are even thinking about braving the springs sometime this summer. Kenzie was super impressed with the "pool" as she keeps calling it. I think I've mentioned before that we love the "Old Florida" feel and Deleon Springs (and Wekiwa Springs) are perfect Old Florida parks. They are truly beautiful areas.
Anyway, Saturday morning we packed up a picnic lunch and set out for Deleon Springs. We decided that we would bring our little grill and some picnic supplies. Plus, this Saturday was the day that anyone could fish freshwater for free. Usually you need a license for most ages (the kids are young and don't need one) and although Steven has one, I never got a new one so I don't. I usually have to help the kids and then pretend like I am not doing anything just in case, though it's not like they usually care about us. We are a family with two small kids pretending like we might catch something. When we got there we first walked around some to get the lay of the land. The food smells coming from the Old Sugar Mill were phenomenal!! We went inside later and determined that our next trip will be for breakfast because we NEED to eat there. They actually have griddles on the tables and you make your own pancakes. So fun! The kids were super excited about all the pieces of the old sugar mill that used to actually exist (before it was a restaurant). Kenzie was really interested in all of the information posted around about the history of the area. She made us read quite a bit to her. We decided that she is definitely ready for a vacation that consists of going to places like this. She just loves to learn new things and was soaking it all in. We even managed to get a family picture.
Then we wandered over to the spring itself where you can swim. Kenzie was so excited that she HAD to try it out. We didn't have suits and it was too cold for me anyway but we decided to let her put her feet in. She loved it. She insisted it wasn't too cold for her but she only went to her ankles so she has no idea. Will wanted to try it too but we didn't want to take his shoes off and then listen to the possible screeching that would ensue when he realized it was cold. We finally pulled Kenzie out of the water though she was all prepared to fall in headfirst on purpose, I think. We decided to check out the Visitors' Center next and the kids picked up some coloring pages to do later this week.
Then it was time to go on a "hike". Okay, the trail was paved and it was mostly flat, but they thought they were hiking. It was a half mile trail so it wasn't too crazy and along the way was Old Methusela, a 500 year old Cypress. The kids were quite impressed with the size of the tree. They turned our hike into a nature walk and picked up a few things along the way to add to their "nature collection". We even found a leaf in the shape of a heart which Kenzie thought was amazing.
We decided to fish after that so we located the fishing pier. The kids were thrilled. We brought out both of their poles as well as one for each of us. Unfortunately, when I went to use mine we learned that the reel was broken. It was a cheap pole so we are just going to toss it but it was sad. There were a ton of small bass and bream right next to the pier so we put some bread on the kids' hooks and literally just dropped their lines in the water. The fish would take the bread pretty quickly but the kids were remarkably excited with just dropping their hooks in and reeling them back in. Will might have done it all day if we let him. He liked watching the fish swim around it. He didn't seem to care that nothing was biting. I think we had hooks that were too big for those small fish through. We put the hooks on the night before and used what we had at the moment because we didn't want to go through all the tackle we had but we will likely need to switch them to smaller and lighter hooks. Kenzie got bored at some point but spent a good amount of time trying to fish. Steven and I took turns helping them and fishing ourselves. We were having a hard time because the couple on the dock next to us kept casting into our lines. We even had to reel our line in once and spend 5 minutes untangling them from our line. Eventually we switched to artificial worms which apparently told Will that we were done with our "bait" aka the bread and he proceeded to eat about half of it while Steven and I fished some more. When we were finishing up, Kenzie just tossed a whole slice of bread in which made the fish happy and Will not as happy. I guess he planned to eat it.
For lunch we decided to bring out little grill and some hot dogs. We found a picnic bench in the shade (or mostly in the shade) and grilled our hot dogs. After lunch we let the kids play on the playground for a few minutes before we had to head out to make sure we made it to the beach with enough time to play.
We didn't plan to swim but wanted to go to the beach since we haven't been in a while. Our initial thought was to go to New Smyrna Beach. We have never been out to NSB before so we did some research and found a few options but they all seemed to have entrance fees so we decided to instead go to Winterhaven Park in Ponce Inlet since we didn't plan to spend too long out there anyway. We didn't want to pay $10 or so for an hour at the beach. We were hoping the kids (namely Will) would fall asleep on the drive over. We knew it would be about an hour drive so that would give him a good amount of a nap. We lucked out that he did fall asleep. Then, we had to stop at a Big Lots on the way because we realized that I totally forgot our beach toys at home since we packed up shortly before leaving that morning and it wasn't on my list for some reason. That combined with pretty annoying traffic on the way there meant he got about an hour and a half nap. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Kenzie to nap. Too bad.
When we got to the beach we found that Winterhaven Park was a lot like Lori Wilson Park that we usually go to in Cocoa Beach except with a much smaller parking lot. We ended up getting super lucky and found parking spot immediately when we entered. We sunblocked everyone in the parking lot. We learned years ago that putting on sunblock in the parking lot is so much better than doing it on the beach. The kids get crazy when they see a beach and end up covered in sand about 2 seconds after we find a spot so applying sunblock on the beach is sort of like getting a full body exfoliation.
The beach was sort of crowded but GORGEOUS! It was soft, white sand and the water wasn't crazy rough. We arrived as the tide was going out. The farther out it went, the better the beach became (as usual). There were awesome tide pools and a great sandbar that the kids loved. When they figured out that they were able to walk through the calm tide pool water to the sandbar, all bets were off. We were a bit worried about Will because we didn't know if he would act like he did at the beginning of the summer last year and be somewhat afraid of the water but it only took him about 37 seconds before he was running, laughing, and splashing with his sister. This year is going to be great!
We set up our tent since we planned to stay for a bit but we ended up not spending a ton of time under it. Although, if we did, I could have sat there all day watching the kids play and listening to the waves. The beach is definitely one of our favorite places ever. The kids kept wanting to go down to the water where the sand was better for sandcastles and where they could dig and put water in the hole to sit in. One thing that ended up biting us was that we didn't bring their suits. Our thought was that it was going to be too cold to go in (and it was 69 degrees) so we wouldn't need suits but next time, we bring the kids. They definitely could have used them. They definitely didn't care that it was cold. We did bring a change of clothes for each kid but suits would have been better. It wasn't long before they were soaked and sand covered. Once the tide went out enough to get to the sandbar, they spent a long time going back and forth from the beach to the sandbar. Even Will who had to walk in just over knee high water to get from one to the other was loving it. The water is like a pool though and calm so both kids loved it. Kenzie loves the waves but Will is definitely still better with calmer waters. Our goal was to be home in time to make dinner on Saturday night as we didn't want to need to eat out. The kids were having so much fun that it was hard to pull them away. Then... they were covered in sand. I mean... COVERED! It was crazy. It took a little longer than I thought to clean them up but we managed. The kids both talked the entire. way. home. It was crazy. Traffic was bad again around Daytona Shores getting home but we were home by about 6:15 so we were able to eat at home. Mission accomplished! Everyone was exhausted. The kids went to bed about 7:15 and both were OUT almost immediately upon laying down. We wore them out.
Sunday morning started normally. We had church in the morning. Originally, neither of us were supposed to volunteer but Steven was asked on Saturday evening if he could help out because the person that was supposed to do it was unable. Oh well. We tried to go to a service together. The kids had fun in their classes at church. We love to hear about what they learned about each week. Kenzie is at the point that she tells us all about it. Will is at the point that his favorite part was what kind of snack he had but he also loves to show us whatever project he did during class. Because Steven was volunteering, I had to deal with the kids along again after church. We ran over to Publix for our Sunday paper and so that the kids could get cookies and balloons. The highlight of their week. We have started to limit their cookie intake at Publix to Sunday (and Will gets one on Thursday when we do our main shopping) and their balloon intake to Sunday. They were getting a bit out of hand.
Sunday afternoon we broke out one of Will's Christmas presents. We usually hold a few presents for each kid at birthday and Christmas to give them throughout the year. They get so much and we don't think they need everything at once. This works out way better for Kenzie because her birthday is midway through the year. Will's is so close to October that his birthday and Christmas gifts start to run together. So, he has quite a few things right now on top of his closet that haven't been opened yet. We used money sent by my grandmother (their "Grammy") at Christmas to buy him a Mile from Tomorrowland space ship thing. It looked awesome and we knew it would be a bit hit. We decided to open that up in the afternoon and both kids loved it. The only downfall is that it belongs to Will and Kenzie sometimes seems to forget that fact. There has been some arguing but they mostly play together nicely. Thankfully.
Then we took a quick trip over to the Amphitheater to take a picture. Our church is having Easter service at the Amphitheater and they asked people to make invites and post them on social media to invite their friends so we wanted to do just that. We posted one last week and decided on a new one this week. =) We are super excited for Easter Sunday's service this year. Last year, the service was amazing. I still get chills thinking about parts of it. I'm sure this year will be even better.
Sunday evening we had plans to meet up with our friends and their little guy. We have been trying to get together with them for about 2 months now but every time we tried, someone in our family was sick so we finally set up another time to try. We had a sort of crazy February and March as far as sickness goes for some reason. We did so well earlier in the school year but February and March hit us hard. Initially our plan was to find out if they wanted to come to our house but we live sort of far apart so we decided that we would meet about halfway at a restaurant and have some time to chat and hang out. We decided to meet at Wing House. What? I like the wings. =) We had a great time catching up. I'm glad we were finally able to make it work and hopefully we won't wait almost 4 months again to see them. Having kids though can make that difficult sometimes.
Next weekend is going to be a bit different. We don't have anything planned as far as Spring Happenings goes because I won't be home half the weekend. We have some friend's little girl's second birthday party and then we are meeting Nana and Aunt Danielle in Clearwater to pick up our race packets for Iron Girl which is on Sunday. The kids and Steven will stay around and we plan to hit up the beach for a bit before Steven brings them home. I'm staying in Clearwater overnight with my mom and Danielle so that we are local to get to the race. Last year, my mom came and drove in with me Sunday morning for the race. We had to leave about 3:30am. This year we are all running/walking it so we thought it would be easier to already be out there. I'm super excited. The recap will be coming shortly after the race as well as some thoughts on races for the upcoming season. We have been talking a lot about what races we want to do this year and I think we finally have some things figured out. I'm excited for next weekend. I know my mom and Danielle are too and I'm so excited to see them partake in their first race experience. It's like catching a bug. I don't think it will be their last.
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