Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Definitely not 5 anymore

Nolan woke up this morning nearly giddy at the idea of being 6. He was the first one up of the kids, and relished me singing Happy Birthday (now that's saying something!). We blew up a ton of balloons and put them on his floor so he had to wade through them to get to the door, and he thought that was cool. He also got more presents today, that he got to open this morning, which just made him even happier. Obviously a day doesn't make a difference, but this kid, going from 5 to 6, he just seems older. Ready. For what, I don't know, but he'll be proud of it whatever it is.

I am most dumbfounded that he's 6. He wasn't even 2 when we moved into our "new" house. He was only 3 when Max was born, and not even 4 when I quit work (didn't I "just" do that?). And now he can read, has a bunch of friends that I never even met, and is (gulp!) a big kid. Time, time, time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NOLAN!!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Skateboarding is life

Did I give you enough time to get through the monster vacation post? :)  I'm having trouble re-assimilating to real life. I want to go back! It's also compounded by a couple of things... Ava has been under the weather. She's actually getting better now, I think, but is still off and on. On Sunday she started a fever, Monday a little more, and by Tuesday she was wiped out. I think she slept over 10 hours during the day, and even when she was awake, she just had her head on my chest. She was running a 102 degree fever, and I just felt bad for her. Hopefully she's on the way to recovery... even though I don't really know what she's recovering from, other than fever and sleepiness!

In addition, work has been busy. I have a couple of new projects starting, and since I wasn't around for a week of vacation (and, let's face it, checked out for at least a week on either side), I'm trying to catch up. Instead of my normal 10 hours, I'm already over 20. It might not sound like a lot to you, but to me it makes my life super busy!

But anyway... I know I've mentioned some skateboarding things in the past. Nolan got a skateboard for Christmas from Dave's sister and he loves it, now that it's nice enough to be outside using it. And since he got a big one, he wrapped up his little one for Max, and Max loves that! So, since he loves skateboarding, we decided to get him skateboard ramps for his birthday. And, since they came in three huge boxes and we were cleaning the garage, we decided to give them to him early. And, he LOVED it. He, and all the kids, have really gotten a lot of use out of them already, and he's only had them since Saturday. We're waiting for the first major accident, but so far, so good!

Here's Nolan modeling them. With his helmet... a must!

The first couple times down, Nolan cried. "They're not supposed to be so fast!" he said. I just laughed. By the end of the day, he was up and down like he'd been doing it forever.
It works with the scooters, too, which is nice.

Here's Max showing off his tricks. The kid is crazy.
A lot of times, he ends up like this.

And it all just makes him so, so tired!

I couldn't let the post go by without a rememberance of Dominican. I miss Abby's braids. But I love her shirt!

And this baseball is made of soapstone--made in the Dominican. Just perfect for Nolan's souvenir!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Happy Two Year Anniversary!

Well, the blog turned two years old this week. I wasn't sure if I would hit two posts, much less two years! For those of you with me through all the years... I'm impressed! For those of you who have joined recently... thank you. I've gone back and read some of those early entries, when Max was Ava's age, Nolan wasn't yet 4, and Abby hadn't even started school yet. And Ava? Wasn't even a thought!

My how we've grown.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The trip in pictures

Oh, it's so hard to know where to start! I thought I could get my pics all in order, but it's hard. And if I try to do too much, I'll never finish. So, in kind of random order, with random stories, here we go...

Here's... sleeping! One of the amazing things is that Max got a nap each and every day. He was so tired, and even on days when I thought I'd never get him down, he just laid down and fell asleep. Here, on the beach bed, Max, Nolan and Abby all took a nap! We don't have a picture of Abby because we were afraid we'd wake her up, but she was just to the left of Max. I can't remember the last time everyone slept during the day!

This is the picture called "Dominican Butts." Dave took it, Max and Nolan titled it, and they thought it was FUNNY!
The kids ready for our party Monday night. This was after the nap on the beach. It was a great party they throw every week. Fireworks, bon fire, huge buffet, it was great until the rain came. (Luckily, though, that was the only rain all week.)
On Tuesday, day 3, we went to Ocean World, which we actually walked to from our resort. There was a sea lion show, a dolphin show, a shark show. The bigs got to go snorkeling in a coral reef with all kind of fish. There were birds and a swimming pool near a tiger grotto, and then the ocean, with a big inflatable slide. What I really liked is that it was big enough, but not overwhelming. Max and Ava actually napped during part of it, and Dave took the kids to do some other things, and I didn't feel like we were missing too much to just sit an relax. That's what made this vacation so nice--the sitting and relaxing!

The kids under the waterfall by one of the cold whirlpools by the beach beds. They hung out in these whirlpools for hours.

Playing in the sand by the beach beds.

Dave and Ava enjoying the whirlpool, double decker beach bed to the right.



Ah, the drinks! Even the kids loved it. All-inclusive is certainly the way to go for us. I didn't stress if the kids ordered something they didn't drink or eat. It was just really nice not to have to bring money and think about how much you've spent.

Do you just love Abby's hair?? I do! We got this done day #1, and it was so worth it. No combing, putting ponies in, crying! We finally took it out just this morning, so she got to wear it to school one day. It took about 45 minutes to get it done, and about 2 hours to get it out! I wish I knew how to do it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.


The boys playing on "our beach."
More of our beach.

The swing near the beach beds overlooking the ocean.

The lobby had a fish stream going through it, which the kids, but Max especially, just loved.

The buffet restaurant. We could have made reservations in sit-down restaurants, but instead we ate here. It was perfect for the kids, so they could just get up and walk around when they were done, and the food was good. Like I said before, I think, the food was good. Not exceptionally great, but perfect for what we needed.

Max was happy to be there!

Our pool bar.

The outside of our room.
More resort pics...




Of all the kids, Abby was the hardest to keep from burning. We went through four bottles of sunscreen, and she still just got red, red, red. And those parts? Youch!

Our only family portrait.

Ok, this was taken at Ocean World, but I included it to show you this other boy here, with the orange hat. I think his name is Ole. He lives in NY with his mom, a Finnish diplomat. And as the only child, he apparently thought my kids were the ones he should hang out with, and I'm pretty sure his mom encouraged it. It got to be quite annoying, to the point where we'd be playing in the pool, and he'd come. Or he'd come eat dinner with us, and his mom would follow. Hello! It's OUR family vacation! There's a reason we didn't send the kids to the kids' program. While I'm not against it, I just didn't think they needed to make paper dolphins while we were there. In short, we wanted to spend time together, not with someone else's kid.
This pic is actually on the way home. I got one on my camera when we got there, but we just got a better opportunity before we (sniff, sniff) left.
Ava sitting on the beach. She ate more handfuls of sand than I can even count.
These pictures are from a different excursion we did, to a place called Paradise Island. It was our last day, and we hadn't signed up for it, but we checked the day before, they had openings, so we went. Of anything we did, this one we shouldn't have. They told us it was a one hour bus trip--it was over two. Then we took a speed boat to the island, and it was SO bouncy! It got a little difficult holding Ava. Then we got there, and it was beautiful, and Dave and the bigs went snorkeling. They saw a lot, and Nolan got to feed the fish while he snorkeled, but it was so choppy that it was hard to get back in. Then Abby hit her foot on some coral and started bleeding, and she had a stye in her eye, and on both the salt water got to it, and she lost it. But, we got her cleaned up, and then all the kids played on the beautiful beach for awhile before our boat came back. This time Dave, the boys, and Ava and I sat in the back where it was less bouncy, but Abby sat in the front and just loved it, bouncing all over. We even had fun on the busride back, playing games and looking through the pics on the camera. So, all in all, even though other days were better, this one still turned out lots of fun, too.
And then there was this excursion. It was called the Green Mountain Safari. We stopped to see the cocoa fruits and other fauna. Then we stopped to see a coffee plantation and a cigar plantation, and a soapstone factory. And finally, we went to the waterfalls. We walked 20 minutes or so through some serious terrain (hills, rivers, etc.--Ava was in the backpack) and got to the waterfalls. In all, there are 27 waterfalls, but you can only go up 7 due to time constraints. Nolan wasn't old enough to go, and he was pretty disappointed, but ended up being ok. And according to Dave, he wouldn't have been able to do it. Apparenly, Dave could barely do it! Basically, you climb up these seven levels of waterfalls. Some of them are through 30 feet high  by 4 feet wide caves, swimming in 50 feet deep water. There were three guides and they had to pull you up and through some of the areas. Then going down you literally slid down natural slides, until the end, when you took a big jump. It sounded like a lot of fun... next time I get to go! :)
Jump big Abby!
Just the first level. The only one with stairs.
Part of the walk.
Here's one of the guys at the sandstone "factory." It's really a few guys carving and cutting sandstone into some amazing sculptures. Nolan got a great baseball, and I got a very neat sculpure of four kids--two boys and two girls. Unfortunately, my sculpture didn't make it home in one piece. :(


This was our truck for the day. It was hard for Ava to go back into her carseat after a week of just being held in my lap!
Max found a friend... and check out their matching shirts!
Max looking at the world.
Our stop at the cigar plantation. Free cigars!
Rolling cigars.
Everyone drinking coffee at the coffee plantation
Abby grinding the coffee
Lots of kids ran after our truck--it was their fun! Abby tells everyone, "They run after the tourist buses, we run after the ice cream truck!"
Inside this crazy thing? Cocoa.
Snorkeling near our hotel. Just down the beach was a great shallow reef where the kids could see fish and other "wildlife."
Our resort from the ocean.
Abby in the top bunk of the beach bed.
Back to Ocean World! This was Max and Ava taking a snooze for a few hours.
The pool at the tiger grotto.
The tigers in the tiger grotto.
The birds at Ocean World.
Ava liked the birds... until one landed on her!
Dave and the bigs snorkeling in the coral reef.

Max with a kindred spirit! This was one of ther performers we saw at the big party they had on Monday when we got there.
And finally, I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but for about two days, Abby's forhead between her eyes and her nose got really swollen. Luckily, it didn't get too big, but it was really just strange. We're not sure what happened!

Whew. That's it! I don't think pictures do it justice for how beautiful everything was, and how much fun we had. In fact, even still, I'm sad that I can't be in a beach bed, just hanging out, or swimming in the pool, near the swim up pool bar, getting a drink. But, the pictures helped me tell the stories. If you hung in there through the entire post, kudos to you!