After a day in the car the kiddos were revved up to get out and burn some energy. I think they would have been happy doing anything but we decided that a good dip in the ocean would do them all some good. It takes a while to get us all lathered up in sunblock and out to the sand but we eventually made it right around the time the sun was a massive ball of fire directly overhead.
Today we left for our family vacation at the beach. We had plans to be in bed early and on the road by four so that we could get the kids out of bed, still sleeping, drive most of the early morning and arrive around lunch with an afternoon of swimming to look forward to. But after finally getting into bed somewhere near three-thirty four didn’t sound so appealing. We did eventually get on the road but not until after nine. Not too far down the road, right before pulling onto the expressway, Carol was curious if I shut the garage door. Of course I did…right? We had to go back into the house several times for this or that prior to leaving and neither of us could remember if we shut the door the final time. We called in a favor and the thought paid off – sure enough I had left the door wide open to the world.
We had a great time this past weekend spending some time cooling off at the Duluth Town Center Fountain. The Sun was blisteringly hot and the air might as well have been dripping water, but the water coming from the fountain was refreshing and cool. We grabbed some Chick-Fil-A along the way, ate on the curb, and headed in. Once they all got used to the water they had a great time. Isaac didn’t need any warming up and was racing in circles as fast as he could swallow his chicken and fries. Piper was on his tail but needed her hand held for the first few minutes – that was until she got wet and started play. Violet needed a bit more prodding and she wasn’t having anything to do with me taking her through. Carol grabbed them all took them on a few laps to get them all good and soaked – that’s all it took to get Violet all revved up as well.
I am not normally a nervous person. I speak well in front of people, rarely with a slip of the tongue or bead of sweat. I remember ideas instead of lines to get my point across more on the fly, rolling with any punches that might get in the way, than by recalling words from memory. I can ramble with the best of them to keep a conversation going while I figure out what point it was I was trying to make…this list can go on and on but I might start to get an ego, and regardless of how inflated my ego might get, not a one of these traits, trained or otherwise learned over the years, helped me one bit on a very special night in November of 2009.
Halloween has come and gone. The loot has been categorized into various zip lock bags and put into deep freeze for behavior based distribution. The kids had a month of various Halloween activities: Netflix provided movies, Carol provided the arts and crafts and I provided labor for scooping out pumpkin guts. Costume selection happened about a month ago and the kids are already planning what they want to be for next year. The costumes were fun. Jacob was Ninja, Isaac was a Special Ops Soldier, Piper was Silvermist and Violet was Ariel. The all looked great and the got to pick their own costumes – thank you Internet Gods for not making us drive all over creation looking for the perfect costume.
Our household is down to one vehicle following an accident in the Xterra. Thankfully nobody was severely injured. Carol took the brunt of the impact with the airbag, seat belt and steering wheel. Jacob and Violet had seat belt burns and indentations but where otherwise unhurt – well maybe emotionally scarred a bit. Jacob was shaken up a bit as was Violet but neither had any significant injuries that weren’t healed within a day or two. Whenever we mention the truck now it is funny to listen to Violet tell us that it is broken – “truck go boom boom daddy, truck goes boom!!!”
It has been a while since I have posted on Princess Hell. For good reason as well. Much has been being sorted out and there have been a lot of changes to the family and household in the past months. The princesses now have two castles to call home. They also have two princes that are slowly becoming siblings – or at best, gallant knights to defend against Decepticons, Cobra Commander or flights of angry dragons. All this following a divorce of Missy and myself.
I recently sent out a letter to various family and friends both telling of the divorce and introducing some new family members. Below is that same message to all of you that weren’t on the mailing list. (more…)
