Vacation - FUN

To be honest, I didn't take all that many pictures, but I did take a few.  They were all in the condo.

This is what we were greeted with after waking up that first morning.  The kids playing quietly, all together.



Perhaps a challenge was issued.  Perhaps it was accepted.  Yes, there was talk about a dance contest, and here are the boys practicing.







Uncle Brian couldn't make it, but there was wrasseling with Aunt K.  Turns out her kryptonite is blowing on the back of her neck.  You all feel it now, don't you!

Vacation - Food

We went to the beach recently.  I don't know what anyone else does on their vacation, but we eat.  We eat special food that we make every vacation and really, it is as important as the trip itself.  It deserves its own blog post, so here we go.

DINNER:  First up, Cooks Illustrated Baked Ziti.  Make sure it is the Cooks Illustrate version.  It takes a little doing, but it is so good and so worth it.  You can make it ahead and freeze.  It is good to eat on the day we get there, and then we have the leftovers for the rest of the trip.  Just a tip, unless you have at least 6 adults (plus 1 Uncle Brian), cut this recipe in half.



Not pictured - LUNCH:  BLTs.  Beach time is tomato time, so what better way to combine both with BLTs.  I forgot to take a picture though!

LUNCH - Mufflettas.  Can't remember why we started this, but we eat it once a year at the beach.  The olive salad is really the only tough part, which you can make ahead.  The only other tricky part is finding a decent bread for this at the beach.  This was enough for 5 adults.





DINNER:  Low Country Boil.  This one is easy.  Find some local shrimp, in season corn, potatoes, sausage, oh and garlic, boil it all together and dinner is served.  It always takes longer to cook then we think, but it is always worth it!

Lightning Strike

I am not sure what it means when your house gets hit with lightning, except that the deductible is lower then when it gets hit with hail.  What I do know is that it is never a good sign to come home from getting some margaritas with the ladies and seeing a) the step stool, b) a flashlight, and c) some string in the hallway.  Just FYI people.  However, I came home from going out and saw just that.  Mark says to me, "don't worry, I have an idea."  This is also not a good thing...

So, while I was gone, Mark was sitting watching some tv, when yes, there was a storm, and yes, there was some loud thunder and bright lightning, but it wasn't really anything remarkable.  But then the smoke detector went off.  That is also not a good thing.  So, Mark went up to investigate and found this:





Many of the phone jacks/cables were black and the modem had been"shot across the room".  Also, the desk top computer that we had plugged into that modem no longer turned on.

Mark then went into the attic and saw this:





The way Mark describes it was "I looked up and saw the sky." which if you are in your house, no, not a good thing.

He then went outside and saw this:



The siding was blow into the trees.  He also saw this:



Gilbert caught a rat.  Not a mouse, a rat.  Mark is usually a liberal hippie when it comes of the lives of vermin, but inasmuch as our house just got hit by lightning, he let Gilbert enjoy his toy.

The next day, we saw this:





Really, we can't say enough on how lucky we were.  Not only that no one was hurt, but we had roofers out the next day to put a tarp up, and AT&T out the day after to repair internet and phone lines.  PLUS, for some reason, this was the catalyst to do many upgrades and clean out rooms and closets, which was also needed. PLUS, now we can tell people, "yeah, we had a lightning strike."

Rainbow Falls

It has been really hot here.  So hot that I had this idea we should go hiking in the mountains.  I knew it was going to be hot there too, but I was just hoping it would be less so.  The boys aren't really into that, but we talked them into it, by allowing them to bring their camera and/or leap pad.  They were cool with that:



But eventually for safety reasons, we had to put them away:



They took to running down the trail instead.  I don't know it you are thinking what I was thinking at the time, but it was something like they sure aren't running back up here!



We had some water and snacks:





Crossed a stream:



Eventually realized we shouldn't be there at all:



There was one last push uphill to get to the falls.  Andy just took over.  He did awesome.  "Mom, look how good I am doing!"



He was excited to reach the falls, although you can't tell by this picture.  This picture is really a tribute to this being Andy's day because he was so amazing.  Also, to prove he really can't take a good picture.



Yes, at the bottom of the falls was an area to swim, but it wasn't really kid friendly.  There are collage aged kids jumping off cliffs down there!  We saw them on the hike back and I  told them how cool it was that they did that, but then I told my kids to NEVER do that.  I think that made them feel bad:



We did find another little swimming hole on the way back.  It still wasn't kid friendly, but a little better:





The hike back was tough, but  we did it.  All in all, a fun day, but I don't think we will get James hiking again any time soon!

Reserving Judgement

Even though I work at a university, no, I do not get summer off!  Because of this, I had to find something for the kids to do since their school was out.  Unfortunately, there really aren't many options for kids who are not in elementary school yet, so we signed the kids up for the YMCA camp.  I have heard from other parents that they do use this camp as their summer day care so I figured, no big deal.  However, if you have been around me/talked to me at all this past month, you have probably heard me complain about this camp!  They are unorganized, they make the kids play outside in the rain, they make the kids play outside in the 100 degree heat, their bathing suits are destroyed, their clothes are ruined, James got sunburned, Andy had a tick, I don't like the drop off girl, blah, blah, blah, blah.  I am sure it has been very annoying.  However, we did go to the first Family Fun night, and it was....nice.  It was nice to see the kids being involved in their camp and doing camp things.  First of all, there was the pizza dinner.  This is James eating pizza!



It was a pretty nice spot.  It was at "The Waterfront".



After eating, the kids ran off to be crazy:



They eventually gathered in their groups.  That is their counselor, Magenta.  They all have funny names:



All the kids lined up to sing some songs.  I believe they were actually doing the "YMCA" here:



"This is a repeat-after-me song"



Then each group did a chant and a skit.  Both kids started off in "kinder camp".



It was really cute and it made me think that maybe this camp thing wasn't so bad.  James and Andy each got a special award.  James got the "Big Brother" award for helping out with Andy.  Andy got "Mr Smiles".  What?!?!  Andy Mr Smiles?!?  Well, hopefully it will still be ok!

NinjaGO! Andy is 4!

Andy turned 4 this past weekend.  He still lets me sing lullabies to him, but more often then not he wants to do the singing.  In one way he is not a baby is that he likes the show Ninjago.  Don't get me wrong, James likes it more, but Andy seemed to like it enough that when I asked him if he wanted a Ninjago Party, he said YES!  Whew, because the CARS party we were going to have was going to be pretty lame.  First thing up, cool cake.  I got a cake topper from ebay and put it on a cake I made.  Andy LOVED his cake.  He kept wanting to look at it and show it off.  So cute:



We had the party at a local park.  Truth be told, this is the FIFTH party I have had at this park and truth be told, I really have it down pat.  First of all, to make sure it is not just another lame trip to the park, I bring lots of outside toys from home, such as chalk and the rocket blaster:

 



As kids arrive, I like to have a laid back craft/activity and the one for this party was Throwing Stars.  I  halfheartedly mentioned it to Mark and before I knew it, he had made 15 of them using these directions.  The kids practiced throwing at a target.



And some kids made and decorated their own.



Then we had ninja training.  Turns out, teaching ninjas is a lot like teaching kickboxing:





Just wanted to point out in the back, there is another party.  I had reserved the shelter/park for this party, but they just showed up.  I was a little annoyed.  Perhaps that is wrong, but it is one thing to go to a park where there happens to be a party.  It is another to have a party where someone is already having one.  Just my two cents.

Anyways, after training, I tried doing an obsticle course, but the kids were ready for the main event...the scavanger hunt!  I just took pictures of different areas of the park to show where the next "clue" was.  I  have done this at past parties so I tried to increase the level of difficulty this year.  I had hard to find places and 8 clues.  The older kids were all over it.





At the end of the hunt was the "full potential"  in the form of ninja headbands:







Then we had cake and party favors.  Since Ninjago is pretty new, I had to be creative.  Everyone got a plastic snake (The Serpentine), a Lego Mini Figure (these were a big hit), bubbles, cheese its, Scooby Doo fruit snacks, bubbles, and stickers. 



Andy ended up having a great party and a wonderful birthday!