Singing in the Rain

I came out of the office to find Kristen dressed and ready to go. She sang, she danced, she splashed, and she posed.

Risks

Amy and Misha had their last swim team practice for the season yesterday. It wasn't really a practice as they just let the kids play. I agreed to Kristen's request that she swim as well. Amy convinced Kristen that she should go down the slide. I waited, watching for her to hit the water, when I saw her little legs climbing back down the stairs. She was too scared. Somehow Amy convinced her to go up again with her and Misha. First Misha came down sliding on her stomach. The lifeguard started blowing her whistle right and left at my girls. "Slide on your back please." Didn't take her long to blow the whistle again when Amy and Kristen came down together. "You can't slide down together!" Amy walked over to me. She knew she was going to get in trouble from the lifeguard for going tandem with Kristen and said, "But it was worth it 'cause now Kristen will go by herself." Indeed she did as she marched right back up those stairs. Sometimes a calculated risk is the only way to go.

Swim Meet

Our girls joined the swim team for the summer. It was a little late in the season, but I figured it would be good, consistent exercise for the summer months. The normal season for swim team begins in October where the kids work on their strokes, dives, endurance and speed throughout the year. I think they begin having meets in January and then again in July.

For the first couple of sessions, Amy and Misha would come home exhausted. "Mom, they make us work so hard." For that very reason, both girls wanted to quit. Fortunately, they had friends who had joined at the same time whose mother also felt the experience would be beneficial on so many levels. They kept on going. "Murmur murmur murmur".

A couple of weeks ago, they had their first swim meet. I forgot my camera. It began at 7 am--that's seven in the morning--on a Saturday. None of us were too happy about that. Both girls did well, placing in most of their races. The last meet of the season was this past Saturday--again at 7 am! We missed two of the meets which were on Sunday, but they were not required to participate. Amy and Misha both have areas for improvement, but I was impressed with their efforts.

I learned from the previous meet to bring stuff to keep Kristen occupato. She's watching a movie on my iPod.



Amy was a little pooped after her race.



Misha waiting for her heat.

Glasses

Chris and I were headed into town for an appointment Saturday morning. He arrived back home from weeding at the church farm not too long before we had to leave and went directly to mowing the lawn. Thinking that he would save himself a little time, he stuck his glasses and the car keys on the sunroof of the van. Before he left, I had to run an errand and hopped in the van to go. I arrived home, ran in the house to get a drink, and came back to Chris frantically looking for his glasses and realizing that they were no longer on the top of the van. Insert a few bad words. Granted they are $500 glasses with his special lenses. In my defense, I never look on the top of the van; shoot, I can't even see on top of the van.

Our only choice was to hop in the van and go look for the glasses and hope to high heaven they were still intact. We got to the entrance of our neighborhood and his glass case was laying on the road just barely outside the yellow line of the lane. Whooooosh. A car race by and narrowly missed his glasses by two inches. I jumped out of the van, ran to pick up the glasses before anyone else drove by, unzipped the case, and.....they were fine. They had been laying in the road for probably 15 minutes. If they had just landed a couple inches to the right, they would have been toast.

James Cash

Kristen's curiosity about this world is limitless (her talking as well). She asked the other day as we drove up to JCPenney, "Mom, what does the J and C stand for?" I didn't really know at the moment but replied, "Well, it's probably something like John Charles." She thought for a minute, "Or maybe it just stands for JCPenney." I shook my head and replied, "Or maybe just JCPenney."

Perhaps my conversations with my children don't always translate well to blogging, nevertheless, they are always interesting. And if you try saying them with just the right inflection, you might feel as though you were there.

We arrived at JCPenney after having been at Costco where Kristen picked up a sample of dark chocolate-covered acai berries and blueberries. She's not normally a blueberry lover. Her comment, "I don't really like blueberries, but I sure like brown berries."

Skateboard Girl

All Misha wanted for her birthday was a skateboard, helmet and safety pads. Getting the idea past Mom and Dad was her biggest hurdle. Thanks to generous grandparents, she purchased her equipment yesterday.

More Misha

Misha came in to this world as the younger sister. Amy could do this; Amy could do that. And always, Misha was in the 'Amy shadow'. Misha never felt that she was the "artistic" one simply because she didn't do art the way Amy did. And somehow, the way Amy was artistic was the only way to be.

As a mother to Misha, I have had to relearn a few things and understand new things and realize that there is more than one way to be artistic or tie one's shoe or love someone or whatever. Misha's artistic abilities shine in a completely different way, and if you let her express herself, her creativity is out of this world.

Happy Birthday Misha

My sweet Misha turned 9 on July 9th. When it comes to having three girls in the home, it is nice to have Misha to balance out the girl girly attitude that surrounds us all. She still loves to read and can often be found sneaking away with a book. She LOVES comic books and animation and has begun to draw her own characters. She does not like to be alone or to do things alone. Her swimming skills are improving. She has a caring disposition, and she loves, loves, loves the color red.

Chris was in Salt Lake the day of Misha's birthday. I agreed to let her open one present in the morning but told her she would have to wait until her dad arrived home to open the rest. You can imagine the pleas I heard all day long. Amy and Kristen gave Misha a 6-month membership to Club Penguin--they were all excited.



We love having Misha in our home. Happy 9th Misha!

More Kristen

Kristen came downstairs wearing a Sleeping Beauty dress. I greeted her, "Yes, m'lady?" She replied, "You don't call me m'lady. You call me 'Your Majesty'." Note to self.

Hidden Valley Eye Care

Last summer, Christopher and I spent a couple of days in Utah helping two of my brothers prepare to move their Optometry practice from its original location to a larger, more spacious facility just a short distance away. The weekend ended with me backing our rental car into a light standard--and that was after I had had my eyes checked!

All of my girls began having eye check-ups early. Chris had a lot of eye problems as a baby and began wearing glasses at an early age, and we wanted to avoid a similar situation with our children. Both of my brothers are amazingly talented in working with children and visiting "Uncle Brad" or "Uncle Dallin" was a pretty fun experience.



Misha, we discovered, was hyperopic or farsighted and began wearing glasses for reading, computer time and tv watching at 3. She looked pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself. Fortunately, her eyes have improved as she has grown, and she wears her glasses less and less. Now she wants to wear glasses for the cuteness factor. I think her uncles could probably hook her up!



Last summer, when Hidden Valley Eye Care a.k.a. "the Practice" (as we like to refer to it) moved, my brothers added an additional dimension with FramedOptical, focusing more on sunglasses. They are exclusive carriers of Chanel, Custom Eyewear, and Tiffany & Co. as well as a number of other lines: Maui Jim, Prada, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Ray-Ban, Revo, Gucci, and Tag Heuer. Hmmmm. Which one to choose?

Kristen

Kristen to me, "What did you want to be? A grown up or a little up?"

Hmmmm, What to do?

Chris and I had been thinking for weeks prior to the 4th of July weekend that we wanted to go somewhere. We tried to find condos in Estes Park and Steamboat Springs through Chris' parent's timeshare. Nothing. We checked in to using Hilton Reward points in the Steamboat area. We'd check availability, put off booking anything, look again.... We looked, but nothing felt right. Last Friday morning, Chris suggested that we go to Colorado Springs. I immediately responded that "the Springs" was a great idea. I had thought of it off and on during the past couple of weeks, but because I knew we would be going in September, I never suggested it. It simply felt right that we should go there instead. So Chris was able to get us rooms using his Hilton points, I rearranged a few kid activities and put a stop on the newspaper. When I told the girls, they quickly retrieved their suitcases from the basement. They were packed in no time; I, however, had to unpack them and check to make sure they had everything. The forgetful curse lives on though as I forgot to pack Misha's Sunday clothes. Oh well.

4th of July Weekend

Chris finished work shortly after 3 pm last Friday, and we were packed and ready to go by 4 pm. You can imagine traffic on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend. We opted to take the toll road and miss most of the delays. The girls watched a movie, and it was actually peaceful and quiet in our van. So nice. After driving for an hour and a half, we checked in to our room at Homewood Suites in Colorado Springs. A bigger room really would be more ideal, but it is nice to have a separation between our room and where the girls sleep in the living room.

We had dinner at Fiesta Jalisco. I'm always up for Mexican food and this restaurant didn't disappoint. We were right next to King Soopers, so following dinner Chris and the older two went in search of a Redbox movie while Kristen and I stayed to pay the bill. We purchased a few snacks at Soopers and were set for an evening of movie watching for my girls... and a little quiet time for Mom and Dad. Homewood Suites was situated across the street from Briargate Promenade, and we took the opportunity to shop at a few stores.

Saturday the girls were up at 7:15 when I returned from exercising. My fault; I probably woke them up when I opened the door and left the room. Boo. The breakfasts at Homewood were great, but you needed to get there fairly early if you wanted any chocolate dipped strawberries or muffins--always something different. We weren't in any rush to be anywhere after breakfast; the girls were thrilled to play in the pool for an hour or so. We're pretty good about applying sunscreen before swimming outdoors, but I have to say my girls are nicely browned.







Once we were actually able to find the entrance to the parking lot at the America the Beautiful Park for the Pikes Peak Arts Fest, Chris quickly snatched up a parking spot. Parallel parking no less (he's really good at it).

The Arts Fest included a live music stage, food vendors, arts and crafts vendors, kids activities and the coolest rotating fountain ever--even had life guards.







I was standing in the same spot when I took these pictures. So cool how it turns.







Amy and Misha both took a turn at the pottery wheel and really wanted to bring their masterpieces home. Chris nixed it.



On our previous trip to Colorado Springs, it had been rainy and overcast. We had passed by Manitou Springs, but the traffic was so backed up, we decided to skip driving through town. This time, the sun shone brightly and even though the traffic was just as backed up, we patiently waited to see what there was to see. It was a quaint Estes-esque town with touristy shops and people milling about.







Our next stop on Saturday was Fort Carson. They had advertised an afternoon of family fun. It was ok. The girls rocked the schleppy booth kind of stuff--beads, tattoos, balls, pens, toothbrushes, flags, slinkies--some of it will secretly disappear on garbage day. We stayed for a little while and then left to get dinner.





Kristen was kind of funny with her slinky later at the hotel. She bent over with the slinky hanging from one of her eyes. It bungeed up and down, and she joked as though she were reading her fortune, "Wow, I can see my future....." Chris and I were the only ones that caught the humor in my reply, "What? A downward spiral?"

Sunday was a sleep in day. Unusual for some of us, but I don't usually exercise on Sunday, so there was no early morning door opening/children waking going on. We slept in until 8 am. Ok, slept might be a strong word for me. We had a late breakfast and then got ready for church at 11 am. That's when we realized the error in packing for Misha AND that the alarm at home had been tripped that morning--movement in the living room. CRAP! Chris began calling neighbors, friends, police to see if someone could check on our house. We were just a little bit worried. Because it was the 4th, no one was answering. Chris finally reached the Weld County cops who promised a drive by. Our Home Teacher, and the only member of the Bishopric at church on Sunday, also called Chris back. He agreed to go and check things out for us.

The way Chris tells it, Craig left his car running with the door open while he entered our house. Surely a big no-no to enter if someone actually had broken in, but things looked ok. Thirty seconds after opening the door, the alarm sounded. It's not a quiet alarm. Kind of unnerving. Chris guided Craig through disabling and resetting the alarm, and informed him that the cops might be coming by any time. All was well....until the alarm went off again later in the day. But we now think it just got fried last week when the power kept going off. Should have gotten that whole house surge protector. A cop friend came by later that evening after the alarm went of a third time and disabled it for us.

Back to church, Misha wasn't too happy about wearing shorts and flip flops to church, but we only stayed for Sacrament Meeting for her sake. So cool to see men wearing their uniforms. It was an inspiring meeting. We returned to the hotel for a lunch of left overs and mac n' cheese. The weather was much cooler, not so promising for an evening of fireworks with rain in the forecast, but nice enough for an afternoon at Garden of the Gods.

We hiked a different trail than on our previous visit. Kristen's cautious nature and little legs slowed us down some, but still it was fun.





We left the Garden of the Gods around 4 and headed toward the Air Force Academy. They had planned a lot of kids activities, music, food, and fireworks. We anticipated that it would be pretty spectacular to be there for the 4th. We arrived early enough to get a fairly good parking spot, loaded up our arms with blankets, snacks, and jackets. The girls were thrilled to spy all of the jumpy castles AND the activities were all free. We staked out a spot on a practice field, but with all the wind, Chris opted to stay on the blanket and hold it in place. I don't think he was too disappointed.



You could see the darker clouds just starting to move over the mountains. That wind was whipping up something not so great. The girls had fun and the lines were short. We were there early enough to avoid a lot of the crowd. I realized after awhile that the stage for the Air Force band and Colorado Springs symphony was at the opposite end of the field from where we had placed our stuff. I told Chris that we should move closer--even though the clouds were closing in. We were hopeful. We were just about to move from our second location closer to the stage when it started to sprinkle, then rain, then hail, then pour. We were soaked and along with many others started packing up our stuff. Chris and I were pretty disappointed to miss the performances but sitting for hours in wet clothes wasn't a pleasant thought either. We left. Oh well, maybe next year.



We ended up at Olive Garden for dinner and spent an hour talking to our girls about manners and the importance of having them.

My shoes were soaked so no exercising Monday morning for me. GASP! I know! The girls slept in again though, so maybe that was a good thing. We were in no rush to get home, so the girls swam for an hour or so after breakfast. Chris knows I love a good outlet mall, so we spent a number of hours at the Outlets in Castle Rock. Everyone came away happy.

"You Hurt My Feelings"

Since Kristen turned five, she's had a personality malfunction. Part of the problem is that she has a difficult time having her sisters around full-time, and since they are on summer break, that's a problem she's going to have to learn to live with. Where she was once sweet and thoughtful and kind, she is now purposefully annoying to her sisters. She will spit, she will yell naughty words, and she will hit. All behaviors that have garnered her some unhappy attention.

Chris went camping with the older two girls this weekend, so Kristen and I were hanging out at home. To break up the monotony, we went to Target--I needed to find a birthday present for Misha's friend and get Amy and Kristen new goggles. Most of the time shopping with Kristen is not a problem, but today she flipped because I picked out water goggles for her that were the wrong shade of pink! Just think this next comment very saucily, "I like lighter pink things!" Well, I finally took the goggles away from her, set them on a pile of clothing and started to walk away with her and the cart. Crying, more crying, loud crying, crying so the whole store could hear you, crying, crying, crying. I don't often tell my kids to "shut up", but they usually know that when I do, I've reached the end of my patience rope. No one sent Kristen that memo today. She looked at me with a horrified expression and kept on cry/talking loudly throughout the store. "I can't believe you say that to me. You hurt my feelings. I want the goggles back," Wah, wah, wah throughout the store. Finally, in the shoes, I take her out of the cart and make her walk. Well, that was the right thing to do. More crying and wailing. Yes, it was wailing at this point. We walked past one lady who said to her, "Aw sweetie" as though I am torturing my daughter. Kristen's torturing me!

So, now her wailing changes to, "You can't just walk away and leave me. You just can't." I'm not, though I'm wishing I could. And she's cried so much that she's now got to pee. Great. I walk with her by my side to the bathroom while she continues, "You can't just walk away from me", send her in to the bathroom next to the pharmacy, and stand outside the door to wait. My instructions are, "You better come out of that bathroom happy." I wait by the door listening to her crying. I have exerted great patience while all the people in the store probably think I'm horrible. I still haven't found a present for Misha's friend, so when Kristen emerges--unhappy still--I head over to jewelry and hope to be inspired...and to have some peace. Kristen whimpers, "I know I am a cute girl. I'm sorry I just can't be one today." So what do I do? Take a moment and write it down in my notepad, and I'm finished shopping at Target. No birthday present.

On the way home, Kristen thoughtfully asks, "Do you think I am on Santa's naughty list." I tell her it is quite possible. "Well, I don't want to be, because then I wouldn't get any presents."

Loving the Pool

My girls started swimming lessons this week. That combined with swim team twice a week for Amy and Misha makes for some tired little chicas. Love it.

In Full Swing

We are in full swing with summer vacation. I try to keep track of the funny sayings going on around here with three kids adding to the mix.

I dropped Misha off at the library on Thursday to pick up some books while I went to pick up Kristen from a play date. While en route, Misha was kind of snuffing her nose, and I asked, "Do you have stuffy nose? Are you getting sick or just have allergies?" She responded that she was fine, but I demonstrated the sound of her snuffing her nose and said, "That doesn't really sound fine." Her reply, "I'm just sighing through my nose." What?

Kristen contributed this next one. Previously on that same day, Kristen and I drove past a field with horses in it. She proceeded to tell me that she knew of two other places where she has seen horses. The first was at her great aunt Lori's ranch and the other was at an old lady's house. "But we don't tell her that she is old when we go to her house, right Mom?"

For the finale, I was waiting in the car with my three wonderfully behaved, non-whining children while Chris returned an item to Home Depot. Misha was playing games on my ipod, and Amy was reading in the backseat. Kristen wanted my ipod and proceeded to begin asking, complaining, whining loudly and finally said, "I don't have an 'i anything.'" Amy, from the back of the van, pleaded, "Can you call Dad and have him pick up some duct tape?"

Call Me Crazy

For the past number of years, we have gone "Camping with the Hansens" with a fun group of friends. I told Jen that we would be there this year as well, and then I realized that it was just days after getting home from Disney World. Knowing how exhausted we were even before coming home from Orlando, I just couldn't fathom packing or camping, but we had already committed to go.

So Friday morning, the girls and I started bringing out the camping gear. I wasn't planning any fancy meals. Normally I take both of my dutch ovens and use them for cooking, but this time we had hot dogs. Yes, hot dogs. It was quick. It was easy. And the girls had fun roasting them and the marshmallows.

That simplified the packing process a little when I eliminated all of the cooking stuff, but there was still lots to do. While Kristen had her play group, Amy and I drove in to Target to pick up supplies. Misha was happy to stay home while Chris worked.

Chris quit working shortly after 1 pm, and we were out of here around 3 pm. The drive took us through Boulder and up toward Golden to Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Kristen asked every couple of minutes, "Are we there yet? How much longer?" As we neared the campground, we spied a police car sitting at the top of the hill. The speed limit was 35--amazingly slow. Chris was in first gear coasting down the hill with his foot still hitting the brakes, trying to keep to 35, when the police car pulled out behind us. I guess Chris coasted a little too fast because the lights went on, and we pulled over. Are you kidding me?

Chris tried to be nice to the guy, but I was muttering under my breath and slamming the glove box. So ridiculous. He noted that we had a burnt out brake light (I had just noticed it an hour previous and told Chris about it), our registration tag was expired by 5 days (we had the new sticker at home on my desk), and we were coasting 7 over the limit. He came back with a warning, which was lucky because I was in no mood to be congenial. Stupid cop. (Sorry to my cop friends, but this was totally stupid).

We finally arrived at the camp and got things set up. The pad site for the tent was not quite long enough for our tent, and we had to work around a tree, but it stood.







The girls were pretty excited to have arrived, and they usually are, so I tried to hold in my camping displeasure. We realized as we unloaded our gear and bins that we had forgotten to bring the air mattress that Amy and Misha usually slept on. We had to rearrange our sleeping configuration so that I, along with the girls, slept lengthwise on the two foam mattresses and Chris slept on Kristen's single air mattress.

Kristen was not a happy sleeper in the middle of the night, because she got relegated to sleeping on pillows and kept slipping off. Around 2 am, I had her bring her sleeping bag next to mine and sleep. I might have gone to sleep after that except for some camper had brought their dog, and it barked non-stop for hours. What were they thinking?

The girls had fun whittling sticks, running through the forest, playing with friends, roasting marshmallows and Starbursts, popping jiffy pop popcorn and getting dirty. Normally, we spend two nights on this camping excursion, but because we had just returned from vacation, Chris didn't have any extra days. So, it was a lot of set up and take down in a short amount of time. We were packed to the hilt; Amy's in the back seat somewhere.

Back to Reality

We arrived home from Disney World Tuesday evening last week and Wednesday morning we were up and running. Amy had band camp at 8:15 am, all of the girls had music lessons between 1 and 2 pm, and Amy and Misha started swim team at 3:30 pm. Amy's band camp goes through June 11th, so no sleeping in for this girl!

Misha continues to take violin this summer. She is improving and almost finished with her first lesson book. Amy has piano lessons and is developing quite a talent for playing. Kristen is beginning to take piano/voice lessons from Amy's teacher. We'll test it out for the summer and see how she does. I asked Misha if she would help Kristen with her rhythm assignment.

Disney World Day 8

Our last day. So if this is the first entry you are reading about our trip to Disney World, you really ought to start at the beginning. This was not quite a full day at Disney, but you know, we were a little pooped. Linda had never been to Animal Kingdom, so that was our final stop. My girls were especially excited to go on "Expedition Everest" with her. We started in that direction first thing to get a FASTPASS, but realized that the stand-by line was only a 20-minute wait. My girls were roller coaster aficionados by this point. I think it was my favorite ride of all the rides in all the parks. So, lucky us, the line was still short when we got off the ride; we got right back in line to wait again. Maybe some of us were a little less enthusiastic after the second time around. You gotta love Kristen's face in this picture:



Realizing that I had an entire day ahead of me, including a plane ride, I opted not to ride the "Kali River Rapids" again. I thought it was a wise choice on my part. Kristen got soaked this time around and Linda was just a tad bit damp as well.





We had to be at the airport by 2 pm local and didn't have too much time at Animal Kingdom, but we still had time for a few shows. Our final show of the day was "Flights of Wonder". We were all pretty enthralled by the birds. Disney does an amazing job of putting on a show, holding its employees to the highest of standards, and making dreams come true. We were exhausted to be sure, but we had an amazing vacation.

Off to the airport. We arrived in plenty of time to get checked in and have lunch before boarding. Plus a last-minute trip to the souvenir shop. Grandma loves to spoil her grandchildren. Somehow Linda lucked out and had Amy and Misha sitting beside her on the airplane. Now, there's nothing wrong with sitting by Kristen, except that she chatters and chatters and chatters. Non-stop! We set up a movie for her to watch on the iPod, but she'd seen them all already and they didn't hold her interest for long. After two hours, we decided to switch kids up. We got Misha, Grandma got Kristen. Kristen began her chatter, chatter, chatter routine immediately. We sent over coloring books and crayons and that cut her chatter down to an intermittent level.



Cue the sad music. My children were not happy to say goodbye to Grandma. In fact, they would love to spend the whole summer with her if they could. She had to change planes in Denver, so we walked with her from our plane to the new boarding area. Misha had tears rolling down her face. Goodbyes are no fun, but we had a fantastic time together. Thanks, Linda, for making the effort to come.







She sent an email after arriving home and I thought the last part was so her (she's a cryer too): I watched you leave at the airport until the 2 sets of mouse ears turned the far corner. And yes I cried. ;). Love you all.

Disney World Day 7

And our first non-Disney day of the bunch. We decided to go to Cocoa Beach. We could have gone East or West to get to a beach, but this was one of the closer ones in the eastern direction. Lunch time again, you'd think we'd plan these outings better. We stopped at Wendys. It was definitely not up to par with our hometown Wendys which has been rated the best Wendys in the nation. It had one of those bathrooms where you really weren't sure you wanted to use it. After lunch we stopped at a store and purchased boogie boards, sand toys and a hat for me. We SHOULD have purchased more sunscreen.

It was a beautiful day and this was a first-time experience to be at a warm-water beach not only for my girls but for me as well. It was wonderful. We sprayed everyone with sunscreen and came to the end of our bottle. Curses!

I took pictures while the girls and Chris had fun playing in the water. You might wonder why Chris is wearing my new hat. We got to the beach and the breeze would just blow it right off my head. Since I didn't want to be without a hat, he graciously traded and let me wear his baseball cap. I think he was secretly grateful to be wearing it for the large coverage it gave in keeping the sun off his face.









The water was warmer than the pool back at the condo. Once the girls were exhausted from the waves, they traded to sand toys; Chris pulled me out into the waves with him and the boogie boards. I quickly learned that I needed goggles AND to keep my mouth shut. We had a blast. I never knew it could be so much fun to play in the ocean.



We spent hours trading off sitting on the beach and then using the three boogie boards Grandma purchased. We all had so much fun. BUT, and this is a big one, when they say you need to reapply sunscreen when in the water, they mean it. Misha and Kristen both had swim shirts, but the rest of us got nicely burned. There's something different about a burn at the beach in sea water, I am convinced. My burn did not hurt for two days and then the pain came on with vengeance. And the itch! My lands, I have never felt such an itch before. Chris came up from working out, and I had just showered. I was scrambling around our bedroom trying to figure out how to stop it. I took benadryl, but it took some time to kick in. I also took Zyrtec, I was in such discomfort. I couldn't stand still and though I am not normally one who throws up, I was nearing that point.

Christopher's sunburn on his shoulders was pretty weird too. He was outside washing the cars one week later. When he finished and was getting in the shower, he noticed that his shoulders were covered in tiny blisters. Covered. They would pop as he wiped his hands over them and the skin would come too. It was pretty disgusting.

One of Kristen's funny sayings of the day: "Where's the Mish?

As we were packing up to leave the beach, a group next to us offered our girls some cheapie kites they had purchased at Wal*Mart and never used. The girls were thrilled. We added them to our stash and headed to the showers to TRY and get rid of the sand. It never really washed away until we took showers later at the condo. The girls quickly dressed so they could fly kites. The wind was perfect. Kristen's kite fell to the ground a couple of times and she would say, "Its battery ran out."



We finally decided to leave, much to their disappointment, and told the girls to take their kites over to the family that had just arrived at the park. We told them they were paying it forward just as the people who gave us the kites had done. Some of our children weren't so excited to lose their newly acquired gifts, but they were finally all delivered, and we were on our way. We stopped for take out at Chick-fil-a and headed back home. Grandma stuck her dinner in the fridge and headed over to the outlet mall. Yes, we were right next to an outlet mall the entire time in Kissimmee, and I never had a chance to go. Bummer.

Loved the beach. Not so keen on the sunburn. My girls nicely browned.