I wouldn't normally document the drive home, but you know that it it's out of the norm in any way, it counts as a vacation in my book.  And this was the kind of day that you talk about for years to come. We hit the road and made it to Valdosta, Georgia where we stopped to eat at the Smokin' Pig.  If you've lurked around this blog for long, you know that it's a tradition that we look forward to every time we travel, and we always save it for the ride home so that it takes some of the sting out of leaving the beach. So, as we pulled in we notice that our van was SMOKING!!!!  ahhhh!  Eric dropped us off to eat while he went looking for a mechanic.  A few hours, two grumpy kids and one cold meal later we were back on the road with no explanations as to what caused the problem. After lots of silent prayers we finally rolled back in to town around 10:00, and it feels so good to be home!

No beach pictures today...sorry and you're welcome!  I'll try to fly through this post as well. Eli woke up feeling much better, but Eric wasn't too keene on the idea of spending a whole day at the beach with a sick kid, so after talking our regular pediatrician, who called us in a prescription, the boys went to pick it up and play put-put while Ellie and I went to the beach. I made a conscience effort to be of better company and had a great time relaxing on the beach..until a killer Sea Gull swooped down and stole the sandwich right out go my hand.  Ya'll, I'm scared to death of birds.  It was an awful, horrible, hysterical moment all rolled in to 30 seconds. Eric and Eli ate lunch at Chick-fil-A before heading back from their excursion, then they spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach with us.  It really was full of such wonderful family time.  It was Mandi's birthday and she and Clay wanted to go to a nice restaurant.  We k

After reading yesterday's insanely long post, I've decided to go easy on you today and make this short and sweet.  The day started with me waking up on the wrong side of the bed and being a total "you-know-what" to everyone who spoke to me.  Sorry!  And it ended with us leaving a restaurant with a screaming four-year-old, and a near trip to the emergency room.  Let's review, shall we.  We made it to the beach, I was in a foul mood, we swam, we played, we ate, we went back to the condo to get ready for dinner.  See, I told you it was gonna be short.  The owner of our condo had left us a gift card for a local restaurant called Hurricanes, so we headed out to enjoy it. And enjoy it, we did NOT!  Eli started screaming with an ear ache.  Eric and were skeptical and chalked it up to being overly tired.  We took turns walking the kids on the beach so that they would not disturb the other paying customers.  Finally, Eric left and took Eli home while I wait

I have become slightly obsessed with Disney this past year and have enjoyed conducting dozens upon dozens of hours of research about the parks.  We plan to take the kids for a full week next year, so this was a trial run of sorts.  It really couldn't have gone any better.  In addition to the vacation series, this is going to be a "Disney Tip" post since I love reading them so much, but you'll have to take it with a grain of salt since this is only my third visit with kids...second to the parks. Let's go ahead and get it out in the open...I started the day in a foul mood. I had my heart set on the opening show but between getting a late start, a short car trouble scare, traffic, and a potty break, it just wasn't in the cards.  I must apologize to anyone whom I was rude to...cough, cough...family. Anyway, we made it to Disney World shortly after nine and headed straight for the monorail after getting our tickets at the Will Call booth.  One of my fa

Yeah, I know…another boring post.  I won't be offended if you don't read this, I promise!  I just want to do a play-by-play for personal recollection because let me tell you, having babies fries your brain cells.  For real I can't remember what I had for breakfast, so if I don't write this all down, I won't remember the details of our lovely trip.  So basically we had another predictable day.  We hit the beach around 9:30.  We played in the sand, jumped the waves, and encouraged naps.  Ellie was the only one who complied.  We did add a new game to the activity list.  Eli was Captain American and had to beat up the bad guy…it was a wave.  Judge me if you will, but it took his mind off of the ocean and helped him ease right on into the water.  After lunch it was more of the same, but we did take the kids a little treat back to the beach.  It was some kind of slushy thing with a candy spoon.  They loved it…I hated it.  Eli ruined a shirt and