Vacation Update

After the post earlier this week declaring all the things we have NOT done on our vacation, I want to tell you about all the fun we HAVE been having.

We spend the days hanging out at home with M and R, my niece. We laugh and play, hang out in the splash pool, and watch movies. We kiss and cuddle, throw balls and read silly books. We tell knock-knock jokes, eat yummy food, and shop. We spend a lot of time staring at Nona's new vegetable garden.

My SIL, L, has been doing VBS each morning, so we've had R while she teaches. Yesterday, we had the privilege of keeping R all day and we had a blast. The girls had more fun giggling at each other and splashing each other in the pool. We met L and my brother, T, at one of our favorite restaurants for dinner last night. It's so great having my entire family together. H is at home this week doing secret projects. His absence is so very apparent. He is the jokester of the family. L tries to fill in--she does a pretty good job.

Today we didn't get R this morning, so we decided to head downtown to check out the art museum. The museum was hosting three separate photography exhibits! We had so much fun. There are lots of interactive exhibits, so one of us would stay with M while the other two would go see the more adult exhibits. M didn't quite understand the idea of being quiet in the museum, so the interactive areas were good for her. The museum was nearly empty, so we never disturbed anyone. That is until I let M climb a few of the stairs. One of the docents called down for the upper level, "Ma'am...Ma'am? Is that your child?" "Yes," I replied. "She doesn't need to be running up and down those stairs." WHAT?!?! M doesn't run anywhere. Her idea of running is so slap her feet a little harder against the ground. With her sweet little feet, she just don't have great gross motor skills. Not to mention, it's a museum that professes to welcome everyone. They don't want the reputation of being exclusive. They have designed their exhibits to welcome people of all ages. Is M the ONLY child who has ever climbed four stairs and then turned around and walked down. And then repeated the process ONE time??? That just about ended our fun at the museum. Luckily, we were finished. A quick trip to the gift shop and then we were headed out of there.

I think Nona could tell my feelings were hurt, so she took me right away to my favorite paper shop: la paperie. This shop is my own personal therapy session. Every time I walk in, I feel myself relax. 90% of the time, I never buy a thing in there, but today...oh, I couldn't drag myself out of there. I wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon in there. I finally decided on a momAgenda. Not what I would normally splurge on, but I completely love it. I completely love the man who works there. Today, he was enchanged with M. Exactly the kind of experience we needed.

Next, we headed to OB's (that's my dad) favorite book store: Shaver's. I can not begin to tell you how much joy just being in this store brings. The major chain stores are seriously lacking in something when you compare them to Shaver's. If Shaver's could bottle their charm and sell it, this world would be a better place.

Ahhh...then we hit the Cupcake Emporium. Great cupcakes. Shopping is less than desirable. As we sat there enjoying our banana cream (Nona and me), vanilla with chocolate icing (M), and key lime (OB) cupcakes, we brainstormed tons of ways to improve their merchandise. More about that in a few weeks, I hope.

Then, the biggest hit of the day: a trip to The Crab Shack to feed the alligators. M was less than thrilled last night when we mentioned we would feed alligators today. OB gave her some alligator toys this morning and showed her how we would feed them. By the time we got there, she was TOO excited. My brother, Z, works there right now, so he came out and helped us feed the gators.

We came home after all those good times. We were pretty tired after our busy day!

A few funny things M said today:
While shopping at la paperie, she was told she had to wait a little longer to get a cupcake. She mulled this over and then said, "Watching a movie with OB will help me wait."

We were doing Ring Around the Rosy in front of an exhibit at the museum (this sentence would make sense...you know, why we would do such a dance in an art museum and all, but it's too complicated to explain. Trust me...it was appropriate museum behavior.). We all fell down. M jumped up and said, "Now let's SKIP around the rosy. C'mon. You can do it!"