Family Vacation Part 1 - The Beach

On Wednesday, July 4, we got a later start than we were planning, but we still left at a reasonable time. The minivan was packed, and here's our family on my back window (thanks for the clings, Mom, and for putting them on, Shawn!). When Joshua saw the soccer ball on the minivan, he was SO excited! Daddy, is that for me because I like playing soccer and I'm going to play this fall?!?! He was THRILLED to have it on there. So cute!

Our first stop was the beach. We ended up trying to go somewhere that was semi-on-the-way to Baltimore (not really on the way, but not hours and hours away either). We stopped in a place near North East, MD. It was a national park where you had to pay $10 a car load to enter, BUT they had bath houses with restrooms and showers, along with a nice playground and the beach was nice. We didn't use the picnic areas, but they also looked nice.

This was Ryan's first trip to the beach. I wasn't sure how he'd do, but he seemed to enjoy it.

He loved to play with the toys that we brought for the kiddos.

Next time, though, I think I'll bring the baby pool and blow it up there like we did the last time we were at the beach. When he got hot, I took him into the water, but at this particular beach the stones and shells were toward the shallow front part making it not a great spot for him to splash and play.

Shawn took the two other boys out swimming. I stayed back with Ryan, a little concerned that Daddy had two boys to one parent, but he did just fine. :) :) :)

Then he gave them each some individual time out swimming with him.Caleb played in the sand trying at first to make a castle. But, as much as I LOVE Caleb, he is a mess! Sand was everywhere - on the beach blanket, on our towels, etc. I explained that we need to be a little more gentle with how we play and scoop the sand.

He still had fun, and Ryan was having a great time watching him. When Ryan discovered that he could crawl off the blanket toward the sand, he decided that it looked good enough to eat. YUCK! I spent the rest of my time trying to convince him to come back to the blanket area and not eat the nasty sand.

Soon enough, it was Caleb's turn to go to the water.

And Joshua came back to play with Ryan and me.

We enjoyed seeing the boats and all the people that were there. It wasn't terribly crowded, surprisingly.

Eventually, we decided that it was time to start packing up. Ryan & I were getting hot even after going into the water to swim with the boys. The older kids were a little sad to leave, but we convinced them it was time to eat our lupper (or lunch/supper).

This was one time I was glad I had boys! I went and grabbed a quick shower by myself in the ladies room while Shawn changed Ryan. Then I came back to the car and took the baby and put things away while Shawn went into the showers with the two older boys. Shawn said Caleb sang out "I'm NUDITY!" loud enough for everyone to hear. I giggled at the thought. The three of them got dressed and came back to the car. We agreed to let the kiddos have some fun on the playground since Ryan was now napping in the car A/C.

It was a HOT day! The rubber on the ground of the playground probably seemed like a good idea, but it was on fire to touch it.

The boys crossed the balance beam, Joshua taking all kinds of precaution and Caleb running across it with ease even though they are wearing the same shoe size.

Then they climbed up a couple play houses and went down the slides.







Joshua desperately wanted to go across a swing zip line that I wasn't sure Caleb was old enough for quite yet. The bigger kids at the area also didn't seem to be sharing. I took both boys back and asked if Shawn would want to show Joshua how to use it. He agreed it was a good idea, and I took Caleb back to the car with me.

 Shawn made sure the older kiddos at that area let the Bean have a turn, along with the other younger kids who were there, and he showed Joshua how to do it. Joshua BEAMED! He was so happy to have done this activity, and I'm glad we took the time to let him go.

We left there and drove to a Red Robin since we had a gift card from my birthday to use. The restaurant took a little bit to get to, so the boys all slept on the way. It wasn't that much further to our hotel, though, so it worked out great. I was impressed with Shawn mapping out our vacation so well. We were STARVING by the time we got there, and our service was terrible even though it was early for a dinner crowd. But, we ate and were satisfied. Then we went and checked into our hotel. More on our vacation to come!

Sparklers & Packing

On Sunday, July 1, the boys begged Daddy to do more sparklers. Since we had bought plenty for the night before, Shawn agreed. They were already in their PJs (since it gets dark so late these days - not that I'm complaining!).

First Shawn lit a few car things and multi-colored firework thingies (very mild - nothing like that one year!) first while I got a bucket of water ready. Then the kiddos started their sparklers.

A small spark startled Caleb so he was nervous to do more. But, Joshua kept going! It was fun!

On Monday, I spent the day cleaning and scrubbing the house and doing all the laundry. The house was spotless, and I felt good about leaving it and coming home to a clean house. As I was cleaning, I noticed a whole bunch of dirty hand prints going up the stair case. I tried to remember that some day I may miss these little hand prints!

Then I packed everything we needed for vacation. I swear it takes almost as much to pack for a couple days as three weeks. After all, you still need all the toiletries for getting ready and the things for "in case" with kiddos. So, we literally had two duffel bags (the kids with their names on it), two suitcases (one for Shawn & I to share and one for Ryan), the pack 'n play, our beach bag, our diaper bag, our swim/snack bag, our beach chairs and our sand toys. And Shawn & I took our pillows because we like them better than hotel pillows. Craziness!

We were excited for vacation! While I did all the packing, Shawn booked everything and got all the directions together, etc. We make a good team. :)

THUNDERWORKS: Hurray for the Red, White & Blue!

On Saturday, June 30, we did our typical morning workout and then I did a little shopping with Mamaw. We didn't find anything, but we enjoyed looking while the kiddos napped. That evening, we headed to our friends' house for our third annual 4th of July cookout and fireworks festivities. Before eating, we took our typical pictures. This is the first time, though, that we were able to get both families together. Here are the Good and Grube Families, taken by their camera with a timer. :) :) :)

Here's our family sporting our red, white & blue. My tank says 2006 and Shawn's shirt says 2009. The boys' shirts don't have dates on them. Caleb's wearing Joshua's shirt from last year, and Ryan is wearing a shirt we had gotten for Caleb years ago when he was a baby.

I love our little family of five!

Here is the Grube family, with their newest addition of baby Aiden. This was his first year for fireworks!

We took a picture of the guys holding their boy babies.

With our hands free at the moment, Lisa took a picture of the two of us (thanks for emailing your photos to me!).

And Shawn took this one of us. Love him!

We took turns holding baby Ryan.

Soon enough it was time to eat! Chris grilled burgers and hot dogs and Lisa made her famous macaroni salad - yum! We took along baked beans, chips & pretzels and dessert. A cookout was especially wonderful since Shawn hasn't done much grilling this season. He doesn't enjoy it, and we even ran out of propane, which was a great excuse for him to skip it for the time being. Hopefully we'll get to again, soon, though. Anyway, we highly enjoyed dinner and being together with our friends. Here's some pictures of the kids table:

When Ryan & Aiden are older, we'll run out of room at the picnic table! For now, Aiden enjoyed the bouncer seat and Ryan sat in his little chair at our table so I could feed him.

Isabella and Caleb sat together.

Joshua climbed into the other side. He said his legs were long when he tried to climb out. :) :) :)

I absolutely LOVED Isabella's dress. I wish they made that style for adults!

Here's a picture of the cake we took along.

And a photo of the kids enjoying their ice cream sandwiches. Yummo!

We sat and chatted for a little while after dinner while the kids played. We love hanging out with these friends! Then it was time to head to the Marietta Fireworks. Joshua had called them "THUNDERWORKS" earlier in the week, and I thought the expression was priceless. They do sound like thunder, but we corrected him and told him they were fireworks. I still love to call them thunderworks on occasion, though. The precious things that kids say!

I realized when we were about to leave that we had forgotten to take chairs along to sit on. Thankfully they came to our rescue and brought extras for us. Whoops!

We did our sparklers there this year, to ensure we got our typical good spot.

Chris always lights them for the kids. They enjoy them immensely!

We took a couple pictures of the families doing our sparklers together. I LOVE the smell of sparklers. They remind me of celebrating Independence Day when I was growing up.

Lisa & I enjoyed doing some sparklers that night as well.

Seeing these pictures, I can't remember if Chris did any other than the time that their whole family did them, or if he was on lighting duty the whole time. :)

When Shawn was buying our sparklers, his original purchase was of these obnoxiously long sparklers. I feared the boys might try to use them as swords, so we went back and bought a big pack of regular sized ones to do. But, while we were there, he tried a couple of the extra long ones to see how they worked. :) :) :)

While we were doing sparklers, I held a very curious and pretty sleepy baby Ryan. He did well overall.

When I saw baby Aiden, I had to giggle. Doesn't he look precious in his seat below? They stuck a little rag over his head to keep him from getting bitten by mosquitoes while the rest of us put on bug spray.

Before too long, it was time for the fireworks to start. We got out the goldfish we had brought along for the kids to snack on.

I was surprised but Caleb was terrified of them this year. They were LOUD and he was scared. Ryan didn't seem bothered by them, but Caleb took turns snuggling with me and snuggling with Shawn. He also covered his ears and asked when we would go home. I would say "Pretty! That's my favorite! Tell me what color you like best!" and eventually he loosened up a little bit. At the end, he told us he loved them and would like to go back again! Shawn & I cracked up! The kid who jumped into our laps commented how much fun he had. :) :) :)

When Caleb sat with Daddy, Joshua would sometimes join Ryan and me if Isabella was with her parents.

They were great fireworks this year, I thought! We really enjoyed the display!

The kids liked them too!

Boom! Happy birthday, America! God bless the USA!

Thanks for inviting us and making this celebration a tradition, friends!