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Monday, August 13, 2012

Myrtle Beach (part 3)

Both Ryan and Jason came into town for the last week of the vacation making it the first time in over 2 years that we were all together again.


Boy do the kids love their daddy's.   The kids had a blast showing them the ropes of the beach.  We continued to get some awesome weather.  At the beach instead of tons of small pools of water there was a little river type thing at low tide which worked out perfectly for 'boating/boogie boarding'.  The kids each held on and we towed them around like a speed boat.  I must say, Eli was definitely the most skilled at this.  They would hold, go skimming across the water until they couldn't hold on and flew off the board into the shallow water.  Good times :).  After playing at the beach, we'd take the kids home and strip them and use the outside shower to clean them off. 
Our game playing as definitely lacking this trip.  Between kids and the Olympics we didn't play many nights.  So here's us 'watching' the Olympics with a little technology...just makes me wonder what technology out kids will be playing on in 20 years.

When we go back to the States, I buy a lot (since aside from food and travel I don't really spend money in Belgium).  This time I bought Kevin and Kherington's Halloween Costumes.  Kherington picked out Rapunzel for herself and Tiger for Kevin (from Costco)...so here's a little sneak peak of what they'll look like on Halloween...uh...assuming we can find something for them to do to celebrate this year.
One afternoon we went over the to playground.  The kids had a blast and enjoyed watching the geese.  I on the other hand was trying to finish the book I was reading before I lost it that evening.  I had started in the night before and got half way through, but it was a library book that was about to expire...so I missed out on some of the fun, but did finish the book :).
With everyone home, the boys setup a time to play some 2 on 2 basketball.  They had only been playing for a couple minutes when Adam came in with blood gushing from his forehead.  He had collided with Ryan's defense.  He ended up going to get stitches (game over).  While he was gone, Ryan was outside watching Kevin and Kevin fell down the garage stairs and got a big bonk for himself.  We didn't get stitches for it, I'm sure there will be a scar.  Moral of the story: Ryan's bad luck.  No...I was really ready to have daddy around again.  The kiddos like him better than me and whine less when he's around to play with.

Speaking of playing.  Well, Kheirngton and I went to the store to get some fun toys to send to family and I found this foam ball of the world.  Some day I want a nice globe (not until I have a place to store it though), but I figured this would be fun to play games with and teach the kids a little geography.  Less than 24 hours later, Kevin had found and eaten it.  Yummy.  Don't worry, he didn't actually eat the foam, but he did bit it off chunk by chunk.  So much for that (and not to self, no more foam ball purchasing).

I kept up my running.  I had only planning on doing 6 on Saturday's for my long run, but Jason wanted to do 10 so I mapped up a course to run the following day.  We didn't end up running together as planned but I still did it.  It felt pretty good.  Later that day Grandma, Tiffany and I went and got pedicures.  That foot message felt pretty awesome.  The only downside was that they used the pumice stone to remove my hard earned calluses.  When I ran on Monday my entire pink toes turned into a big white blister.  Kinda gross.  It didn't really hurt though so I guess that's good.

The good food continued.  My favorite thing was the homemade granola, peaches from the farm, blueberries and chobani.  So so good!  What else did we have?  Grilled pizza, turkey burgers, spinach/feta crescent rolls, fettuccine Alfredo bar, ham & Swiss sliders, corn on the cob and more.  So much good food.  Well, we weren't very good about eating through the leftovers...then Ryan came...and he's now teaching Kevin (pizza for breakfast anyone?). We also picked up some donuts one morning for breakfast and were able to find a pink frosted one for Kherington.  Note: the Bavarian creme donut is the favorite.
I don't know who figured it out, but it finally came to light that having Kevin and Eli run around together is basically the same as having Ryan and Jason run around together when they were little.  They are roughly the same age difference.  I cannot even imagine having all boys.  I've always through Kherington was a busy body, but I do feel like boys take it to the next level.  Kevin has so much fun playing with his cousin.
Kyah is pretty much the most awesome baby ever.  She has the cutest smile and seems so content most of the time.  The kids love the bubble bath party's in grandma's bath tub.  The night before we left, Kevin and Kherington took one.  To wash the bubble off, Grandma let Kevin in the shower.  He was just playing with the squeegee and having a fun time.  No big deal.  Well, I open the shower door to find him squatting and pooing on the grandma's shower floor.  Not cool.
We were able to snag a couple family shots before everyone headed off.  The consecutive function on the camera is pretty much awesome!  Hold it down and snap, snap, snap.  I think they turned out pretty good for 5-10 minutes of picture taking.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Myrtle Beach (part 2)

Tiffany, Kyah and Eli came about a week into our  Myrtle Beach vacation.  I loved watching the cousin's run around together.  They are teaching each other all their bad habit and some good ones too :).  It is the first time they've been old enough to care there is a cousin there.  Kevin found Kyah very intriguing and was very concerned whenever he heard her crying in the back room.  He loved following Eli around.  Kherington liked having more playmates and more kids to 'take care of'...as point out what they were doing wrong and play mom to.

Exciting things:

  • Lots of grandma/grandpa time for the grand kids.  
  • Lovin' from the Oven - Smore Bars (sadly I did not get a picture...I doubled, made in a 9x13, and used Belgian chocolate instead of Hershey's...they way better if you let them sit overnight), spinach/feta croissants, banana bread, salted chocolate chip cookies
  • Playing in the rain - when it started thunder/lightening we went inside but until then the kids thought it was fun...Kevin liked to plop down in the puddles just like he does at the beach.
  • Blueberry smoothies - this was what I wanted most when I came back.  1 c. milk, 1 scoop vanilla whey powder, 1 c frozen blueberries = delicious / healthy :).
  • Water wow painting - My sister showed these to me and I love them. The kids paint on the boards with water and a picture appears.  Then you let it dry and they can paint again.  Mess free.  I order my books off amazon.
  • Splash pad - it worked for less than 24hrd before busting but it was fun to see how the kids reacted to a sprinkler type thing.
  • Cuddle time - grand kids gather in grandma's room in the morning for cartoons :)
  • Beach, beach, beach - it's even more fun with cousins :)
  • Chick-fil-a...or not - We were going to go to Chick-fil-a because they had an indoor play area and it was supposed to rain.  We got there and the line was literally out both doors plus the drive through was backing up traffic on the main road (it was the appreciate day).  CRAZY!  Instead we went down the road to McDonalds b/c from the outside it looked like it would have a play area (meaning double high building with reflective stuff on the top).  No play area and cranky kids.  We grabbed some happy meals and headed to the playground...the rain had come and gone by then.
  • Church - Kherington loves nursery. She goes right in and plays and can talk to the teacher and all the other bazillion kids in there.
  • Purses - the kids all love purses.  Kherington brought her green one and grandma broke out a couple more from her collection.  The only pictured I have though is of Eli...and he went all out with Kheringotn's church shoes and Kyah's head band.
  • Little Helping Hands - Both kids love to 'help' in the kitchen.  It's a good thing grandma and grandpa have 3 step stools so each grand kid can help at the same time :).