I think this blog may be better titled, "The Summer Struggle is Real". Not bad. Just real. It's hard to believe we are four weeks into this summer. First because it seems like it shouldn't be that long as if it just started last week and then because it seems like summer has been going on for-ev-er.
This weekend we were able to take a long weekend with Steven. Our plans were almost derailed on Wednesday before the weekend when something came up at work for Steven and we thought he would end up having to work most of (if not all of) the weekend. We lucked out that he was able to figure everything out and still take the weekend. THEN on Friday after Will's swimming lesson and drop off for VBS had already taken place and we figured we were home free, Steven got an email from work that something happened out in Melbourne and he spent the next 2 hours on the phone trying to troubleshoot the issue with the people out there. So, that sort of mixed up some of our plans for the day but we made it work. Steven has been working so hard lately and this was definitely something he needed. Having some time off to spend with the kids (and me) was good for him and so desperately needed. Plus, this weekend started July. In our family, July is like the big game we train for all year. Our playoffs and Super Bowl, if you will. We prep the month of July a few months out just because we know how crazy it is going to be. We like schedules and although we try (key word: try) to be a little bit less crazy about schedules in the summer, July just canNOT work like that for us. If we started laxing off at all, we would be up a creek without a paddle come mid-July. And mid-July this year involves our almost week long trip to the Keys so we can't play around. =)
Like I mentioned when I said we had five days with Steven off work, we started our long weekend on Friday. This was the first day that Steven was able to take off. The major bonus of this was that it meant that he would get to see swimming lessons and take Kenzie to VBS with us. We started our morning bright and early at swimming lessons with Will. Due to VBS, we had to reschedule Kenzie's lesson as we didn't have time in the morning for both. Will is doing amazing with swimming so far this summer. I will have a full lesson recap (complete with pics and some videos) coming once their lessons are over in a couple of weeks. Drop off with Kenzie went well and she was excited to show Daddy where VBS has been taking place for the last week. We took Will to get some breakfast as Steven had not had time to eat before we had to leave. Then was when we hit the slight snag in our plans. We had plans initially to run down to Track Shack to pick up race packets but that didn't work out when Steven had to make a work call. As it turned out, Will and I had to leave to pick Kenzie up alone as Steven was still on the phone. Right as we were getting to the church, Steven finished and headed towards us. He met us there as we were coming out of VBS all ready to head to swimming. Swimming for Kenzie didn't go as we hoped it would. They were a bit behind schedule so her lesson started a little late. The combination of being tired from VBS, not eating lunch yet, and her unsure-ness related to floating made her a bit emotional at the end of the lesson. She full-on tried to refuse doing her final swim because she knew she was supposed to roll to her back and float. It took a good 5-10 minutes to get her to do it. Swimming is so important to us though and we feel that safety is first and foremost. Especially with how much time we spend in the water so we didn't back down and she did eventually do it. (And did well... she just lacks some confidence in her skills related to rolling and floating.) This wasn't her best lesson, for sure. The kids have two left and we have next week off. One will be the normal lesson and the final will be in clothing so hopefully that doesn't throw the two of them off too much. They do this every year though so they should be fine. We were glad to keep their lessons together on the same days though because if Kenzie got too far behind we were looking to need to push her lessons into August due to the remainder of our schedule through July. It made for a really long day and we ended up eating lunch really late. We decided to eat a very small lunch and try to get Will to take a nap. He argued for a bit but eventually fell asleep. With his new nap issues, we are learning that more than about 45 minutes of nap is not good for him if it is a normal day as far as sleeping at night so we knew he wouldn't be asleep long. Nana and Papa were actually in town for a work related meeting so they came over when they were done to spend some time with the kids. Will wasn't happy that we woke him up initially but once he realized he could play with Nana and Papa, he was set. Steven ended up running out to finish up some birthday shopping for me and we decided to meet him for dinner at Froggers with Nana and Papa. Dinner was good and we made it home with plenty of time before bed. We got the kids in bed fairly early because we knew it would be an early morning the next day.
Saturday morning we got up really early to finish loading up the car for our beach day. We even had to wake the kids up. My how the tables have turned... Kenzie was initially upset but got up when she remembered we were going to the beach. Will was less excited and we ended up just putting him in the car in his pjs instead of trying to get him dressed. He woke up pretty quickly once we were on the road though. Our original plan was to stop at the Chick Fil A we always stop at when we are heading to Palm Coast around breakfast. We got off I-4, got down the road and realized that it was closed for renovations. The main issue was the time we wasted getting off and then back on the interstate. Oh well. Nothing we could do. We then just headed on towards Palm Coast and ended up stopping at the Chick Fil A right in Palm Coast as we got off I-95. We ended up making it to the beach right on time somehow, but we had already called everyone else and told them we were running late so they didn't need to rush. It meant we were there a bit early but it gave me time to sunblock both kids, get onto the beach and get the tent up before anyone else got there. Kenzie pretty much took off for the water immediately. Will was less enthused. Jungle Hut is our usual hangout in the area and a typical East coast beach so the waves were rough-ish which never sits well with him. I tried to take him down to the water's edge which set him off. He was NOT happy with me and a lot of crying ensued. I admit, I got frustrated and basically told him if he didn't like it, he could walk back to the tent alone. Well, he was already upset so that didn't work. It ended up making him less than excited for a while after that. He wasn't in a good mood. Totally my fault. We know not to push him but sometimes I get frustrated (still human after all). I remember Kenzie being the same way around this age and now she thinks she is a mermaid basically so I know it will end. Grandma, Grandaddy, Aunt Juju, Uncle E, and Evie met us at the beach. We were super excited to see Julie, Eric, and Evie as we don't get to see them very often since they live in Atlanta. Kenzie and Will were so excited to play with Evie. Eventually we lured Will back closer to the water to play with everyone but he still wouldn't get in it. He decided a bit later to go back to the tent to play in the sand while we jumped waves with Kenzie. I spent quite some time trying to locate the turtle that we kept seeing break the water's surface but never could get close enough to take a picture or video. Finally, Steven decided he had enough and he grabbed Will to take into the water. He wasn't happy, as you can probably guess. Steven handed him off to me at some point and he eventually calmed down and let me hold him in the water. He was even laughing some when we would jump waves. And in typical Will fashion, although he wasn't sure about being in the crashing waves, when one would go over us or hit us in the face, he wouldn't say a word. Just spit water back out. Will was tired too which wasn't helping and I think if I had remained in the water with him too much longer, he would have just gone to sleep. After a bit everyone went back to the tent to dry off some and get out of the sun. All the kids played in the sand a bit before Julie, Eric, and Evie headed off to get cleaned up as they had plans later in the afternoon. We hung out on the beach and ate a picnic lunch with Grandma and Grandaddy. We were just debating getting packed up and heading to their house when the rain started. It was a downpour but in true Florida fashion, it only lasted a few minutes. It was funny to see how it cleared out so much of the beach though when it started. I figure a lot of those people weren't locals and didn't know that in Florida, we just wait 4 minutes and it often clears up. When it slacked off, we packed up quickly and got back in the car just as it started raining a bit. We elected to not clean up too much as we planned to shower and Grandma and Grandaddy's house. That worked out well and we were all cleaned up and showered without issue. Going back to the house let the kids continue to play with Evie for a while which was fun. We were sad when they had to head out to meet up with some other family members because they couldn't play anymore but they were here visiting for the weekend so they had some other plans too. We stayed around a while and let Kenzie go through Steven's Legos from when he was little picking out some more to bring home. She built a few "inventions" for us too and Will played with some of the horses and Lego men for a while. It's so funny to me sometimes in how different the kids are and what we allow them to do. We would have never allowed Kenzie to even think about touching small Legos at Will's age. Will plays with them all the time though he doesn't us them to build yet. We don't let him play with them when we aren't nearby but he is just a different kid too and rarely puts things in his mouth unlike his sister. Anyway, then we decided to go to dinner before we drove home. For anyone keeping track, you may notice I never mentioned a nap for Will. We are still in the not sure if we are dropping a nap or just having a slight regression stage so we didn't push a nap and he was doing just fine. We thought he might fall asleep for a few minutes on the way to dinner but he didn't. We decided on Cracker Barrel. It was super yummy. Kenzie really wanted to try fried shrimp as she has had popcorn shrimp before and liked it, but we weren't sure about that. Instead, I got the shrimp and she tried it. Although she ate the entire piece, she said she didn't like it. She loves shrimp but apparently just didn't like this. If I get it in the Keys in a few weeks, I will let her try again. It's so nice to have her more willing to try new things lately. I can't wait until we get Will back to that stage. (The kids still loves a good salad though so I guess at least we have that going for us.) We finished dinner around 6 and headed home. Here's where it all got interesting. We did NOT want Will to fall asleep on the way home. Although we had woken him up at about 6am and he never napped, we knew if he fell asleep too early, he would be awake too early on Sunday. To keep him awake, we had a family sing along on the way home. When that fun ran out, we had him "high five" any signs we drove under. We managed to keep him awake almost the entire way home before he just couldn't do it anymore. It was almost 7:15 though when he passed out so that was close enough to bed time we figured. When we got home I put him in his bed fully clothed (he had a pull-up on already since we knew he would likely fall asleep). He stayed in bed for about 10 minutes before he woke up crying and confused. Turns out, he wanted his pjs so I changed him and he immediately went back to sleep. Kenzie has been fighting going to sleep at night so she called us a few times from her room but eventually went to bed. No different than a normal day. At least her fighting it is normally more of asking for random things over and over again like drinks of water or her covers and not actual crying or anything.
Sunday was actually my birthday. Kenzie woke up and wished me a happy birthday which made me smile. The kid loves to wish people happy birthday or to have a good holiday (any holiday... it could be Flag Day or something and she will tell someone "Happy Flag Day" if she meets them in a store). Will did the same but I think Daddy probably reminded him. Or maybe Kenzie. I decided to go on a short run in the morning since the Runners World Run Streak was still going on. I did 3.3 kilometers. It translated to just barely over 2 miles but I didn't have the time or energy to do 3.3 miles that morning before church. I did catch an amazing sunrise though. Lately our sunrises and sunsets have had the most brilliant colors. I don't know if it has something to do with all our rain or something but they have been magnificent. We all got dressed for church and headed out. The message was good and I felt ready to face the week when we left. Always a good way to leave church. The kids enjoyed their classes. It was nice too because neither Steven nor I worked it so we got to sit together. Though we did come in a bit late and ended up sitting in a weird place in the center which is not where we normally are. It felt funny. Even the music sounds different than it typically does where we sit just because of our positioning to speakers and what not. Immediately after church we headed next door as it was our neighbors' little girl's 2nd birthday party (her birthday is the day after mine so we officially have another July birthday in our midst). The kids had a blast. Unfortunately, during it Steven got another call from Melbourne (or maybe it was Cocoa because I know they had an issue too over the weekend but there were so many calls at one point that I lost track of which one was which). Either way we worried he might have to go out to a plant. I told him to tell them it was my birthday and they should be ashamed. Not like they knew that but they were calling him again for something he didn't have much to do with. Thankfully the figured it out and he made it back to the party. When the party ended we went home to try to get Will to nap. The busy weekend was catching up with him and he went right to sleep. We ended up waking him up after about an hour and a half because we didn't want to have issues with him sleeping at night. I opened my gifts from Steven and the kids when Will got up. I got a new (wannabe) Yeti and handle along with a vinyl made by Julie for it, new shorts for running, a bag, and this cool measuring cup I have been eyeing. For dinner that night I requested that Steven grill burgers and hot dogs. We had some frozen fries that we made to go with it. Super easy but I LOVE a good burger. We sat down to watch Moana with the kids while we had dinner. It was the perfect end to a birthday. We tried to catch the rocket launch but it was aborted at t-minus 9 seconds. Oh well. We tried. A rocket launch would have been an awesome way to cap off the day.
We started Monday at our usual time. Early. Haha! Not too early though. I think the kids slept in until close to 7 which is about normal, if not even a little late, for them. We laid around for a bit and then got ready to head out because we had some plans for the day. We started by running by Dollar Tree for some snacks for the movie we planned to go to later in the day and then ran down to Track Shack to pick up our packets for the Watermelon 5k. I haven't been to Track Shack in over 7 years. I want to go back now without kids with some time to browse for myself. =) Pick up was easy and we were on our way again. We had to get home to eat lunch early so we could make it to the theater on time to see Cars 3. We thought it was such a cute movie! The kids did fairly well. They actually did better when I took them to see Trolls but I think a lot of that was that there was singing which always helps to keep their attention longer. Will was getting antsy towards the end when there was more talking and not as much action or racing. He was totally focused during racing scenes though. My favorite part was at the beginning when one of the characters gets hurt (I don't want to spoil anything for anyone that hasn't seen it but plans to) and he turned to me and asked, "Oh no, Mommy! Is he okay?" and he was so concerned. The plus was that there was hardly anyone in the theater so Will was able to take over our aisle towards the end. He was tired and wanting a nap so he was getting a bit overtired. Both kids ended up falling asleep on the way home. We were able to transfer Will but Kenzie woke up when we tried to move her. Not surprising. We had a quiet-ish afternoon before heading out to Freedom on the Waterfront in Mt. Dora. We ended up meeting Nana there. She was coming into town for the race the following day and got off work a bit early. Momma loved Mt. Dora so we have plans to go back without kids one day to spend some time browsing all the shops and everything. When we got down to Elizabeth Evans Park, it was starting to cloud up. There were no bounce houses this year but plenty of kid friendly give aways so we walked around collecting far too many hand held fan things along with some other fun stuff. The kids had fun playing in an open area with blow up beach balls. We were watching some pretty severe looking weather roll in and the lightning looked to be getting close so we decided to head back to the cars. On our way out the kids each found a painted rock so that made the entire day amazing for them. They plan to keep these rocks but we also have plans to paint a few more before our Keys trip so we can drop some in the Keys as we make our way down US1. We then elected to stop at Pizzamore in Mt. Dora for dinner. It was so good! We will definitely be going back there one of these days. The service left a little something to be desired but the food more than made up for it. I've since heard that service is usually fine so maybe they were just having an off night. We will still definitely be going back sometime. After dinner we went back to the house and made some s'mores before putting the kids to bed. Our grill is somewhat broken and we have one burner that just shoots flames up in the air so we used it to roast the marshmallows. Neither kid really likes s'mores but they like the components that make s'mores so they had those and the adults had actual s'mores. They were really good. We called it an early night because we knew we had to get up super early the following morning for the race.
The 5am alarm clock came really early on Tuesday. It was the 4th of July and the date of the Watermelon 5k. We wanted to get there early because we wanted to sign Kenzie up for the kids' run which was free but the first 150 kids signed up were given a free shirt and we knew Kenzie would love that. We made it down to Winter Park easily (it was 5:30 in the morning after all and every smart person was still asleep). We found the race site and got the kids dressed as we had put them in the car in their pjs in the morning. We got Kenzie all signed up and she was so excited to get a shirt that basically matched all of ours. She was stoked to get to run the race but first we had to finish the 5k. This was my first race pushing a stroller. It was also ridiculously hot and humid. The humidity was probably the worst part. While we were standing around waiting for the race to start, I was sweating already. It was pretty bad. Finally, they sent us off and we started our 3.1 mile trek around Winter Park. Steven elected to run the race and he was off ahead of us. Momma and I stayed together. We didn't want to be super slow but we both knew we shouldn't push too much. I also had to stay over a 12 minute per mile pace per race guidelines with the stroller so I couldn't run too much anyway. The main downfall to the race was the amount of cobblestone we had to go over. It just made me a bit nervous. I had the stroller to balance me but Momma did not. I didn't want to hit a bump though and fling children out of said stroller either. We made it though and the cobblestone wasn't on the entire course. When we could, Momma would run ahead and I would either walk faster or run to catch up with her just so we could keep a good pace. At just under 3 miles we saw Steven coming back towards us. He had already finished and was walking back to find us. This was a "fun run" meaning it wasn't as serious as some of our other runs so him being back on the course wasn't a big deal at all. He finished the 5k in 37:16 which was super impressive with it being so hot and humid. He decided to run back ahead at the end to try to record us finishing. Momma and I finished in 52:20 at a 16:40 min/mi pace. Not too shabby. Definitely not a PR for me or anything but it was my first with the stroller. It was a PR for Momma though as she was slightly slower at Iron Girl. When we finished we found the place for the kids' race and waited for Kenzie's age group to be called. She ran the 100 yard dash with other 4 year olds. Steven stayed with her at the start line while Momma and I found the finish line to record her running. She told Steven that she wanted him to run with her and he told her he would be right there behind her. She seemed excited and nervous. He said when they had all the kids line up though for the start, she went right up and was perfectly fine. Then it was time for them to go. She ran the entire distance. Yeah, it's not exceptionally far but this was her first race and she LOVED it. They gave all the kids ribbons for finishing and she was so proud of herself. We were so proud of her too. She likes that she is now a "runner" like Mommy and Daddy. I admit, I might have teared up as she came running down the course towards the finish. She was focused and doing her best. Will was a bit upset that he couldn't run too but the age limit is 3 so he will have to wait until next year. Kenzie is already talking about when she gets to do her next race and next time she will be 5 so she can run the 200 yard dash. We decided then to go grab some breakfast. The original plan was to find an actual breakfast place but we determined that because of the heat and how much we had been sweating, it would be better for everyone involved if we just stopped at McDonalds. That made the kids happier anyway. Will didn't eat much (he hasn't been eating much lately) but Kenzie's run must have made her hungry. 2 hashbrowns and a sausage mcmuffin later, she was STILL asking for food. Plus she ate almost a whole rice krispie treat at the race. Usually we don't eat much breakfast so this amount of food was surprising. We finally made it home and all took turns taking showers. It was nice to not smell any of us anymore. I don't think we have ever sweat so much at a race. Momma headed out shortly thereafter because she needed to get home and we wanted to get everyone calmed down and ready for nap/rest time because we had other plans for the evening. We woke both kids up early so we were hoping for good naps. We woke Will up after about 3 hours. Kenzie never napped though. We tried. She just didn't want to. I think the kid could be exhausted and barely keeping her eyes open but wouldn't nap. The only time she naps is if she is sick usually. After that though we got everyone dressed in our Old Navy flag shirts and took our annual 4th of July picture. It's always one of my favorites. We even get Jack in it. He usually isn't super happy about wearing a bandana for it but he goes along willingly with the picture. We then headed out to the Apopka Fireworks at the amphitheater. We got there a few minutes before they opened the bounce houses so we had to wait. Once it was time though, Kenzie was off! She bounced for a bit before deciding she really just wanted to do the obstacle course again. Last year she did it over and over again and by the end, she won a couple of the races (there are two side by side and two kids go at once). This time she did it twice and both times came out first (against bigger boys nonetheless). Will tried the toddler bounce house but decided it wasn't his thing and got out. Kenzie didn't like them much at this age either so we will see if he ends up liking them as much as Kenzie one day. After the second time Kenzie went through the obstacle course, we noticed the lightning getting closer. It must have been close enough because they shut down the bounce houses then. We knew we weren't staying for fireworks so we then decided to head to the car. As we were on our way there, the lightning alarms went off. This is also our city fields for sports so they have alarms. We heard them turning everyone around at the gate and telling them to go back to their cars. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, we heard that they actually evacuated the area and sent everyone there back to cars or shelter. By the time we got in the car, the rain started and it poured. We went to Publix to pick up some chicken for dinner and then home. We initially planned to do our own fireworks but they were sold out of the small packs at Publix and with the rain we didn't know. We made a few more s'mores as a treat after eating. After dinner Steven decided to go over to Winn Dixie to see if they had any. They had a small pack so he picked it up. We took the kids out to do them when he got back and invited our neighbors over. The kids did sparklers and we had small fireworks. It was enough for the kids though and they were enthused. Kenzie burned herself on a sparkler (she touched it when the sparkler stopped even though I told her to put it on the ground) so she decided that she didn't want to do them herself anymore and watched everyone else. Will thought they were awesome though. He liked the fire and wanted to do one after the other. This was the first year we let him do them and he loved it. As we were finishing, our other neighbors came home from dinner and we stood outside talking. We planned to go in and get the kids in bed but we talked so long and spent so much time watching the rest of the neighborhood light obviously illegal fireworks that it was time for the Apopka fireworks to start and we were all still outside. We ended up bringing our chairs across the street and we all sat and watching the fireworks over the hill. The amphitheater is right behind our neighborhood basically so we had a good vantage point for most of the fireworks. It was a super fun night and a great way to end our long weekend. I must say, our neighbors have some serious fireworks too. They were almost as impressive as some of the Apopka ones. These people should get together one year and we could have our own display.
We managed to check a few more things off the summer bucket list this weekend. Steven is back in Melbourne for a couple of days this week and then home for the weekend. Being that he worked so much on his long weekend off, he might be able to make it a shorter day one of these coming days so that will be nice. This weekend we have plans to meet family in St. Augustine to celebrate some of the July birthdays. And we have another birthday party for one of my college roommate's little boy on Sunday. So... lots more to do. I think we are ready for it because just after we finish this weekend coming up, we have one more week and then are off to the Keys for a week. This trip has been a long time coming and we are super excited. We are starting our packing list (yeah, does anyone that reads this blog actually feel surprised that we make a packing list... would it surprise you to know that I plan our clothes day by day and sometimes coordinate them as well?) and getting everything ready to go.
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