Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I’m Baaack!

I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was as great as mine. We had a fabulous time in Galveston. We kicked it off Tuesday, oh yes – Tuesday. We were supposed to leave Wednesday, and I was in the mind-set to leave then but The Hubs came home around 2:30 Tuesday afternoon and announced we were leaving. Thankfully I had already packed the kids bags, but this meant that my clothes and The Hubs clothes were kind of just thrown in and away we went. He does this to me every time we go anywhere, I should be prepared by now, but for some reason I am never ready for his “Let’s leave a day early” craziness he puts me through. Thankfully the only thing we forgot was his OTC meds, like melatonin (that was fun when we arrived at the hotel that night and discovered no sleepy pills for him, which I was totally blamed for.) And his heartburn meds was left behind (my fault as well).
So we got no more than fifteen miles down the road and the storm of the century hit. Ok, maybe it wasn’t that bad but it was ugly. We trudged 140 miles through visibility that was 10 yards at most in traffic where we were pretty sure nearly 90% of the other drivers were suicidal. It wasn’t pretty. So in Baton Rouge we decided to find shelter. We got a nice big suite at a brand new Holiday Inn Express with 2 beds plus a sleeper sofa. We all climbed into bed only to have the kids fight over the sleeper sofa. Oh no – it wasn’t who was GOING to sleep in it but rather who HAD to sleep in it. “I wanna sleep with mamma.” “You always get to sleep with mamma! It’s my turn!” “I love my mamma!” “Not as much as I do!”
Yea, I should feel super-duper loved but I just wanted to get some rest. It was finally decided: boys in one bed, girls in the other. It worked. I got settled in nice and comfy, ready to drift off into dreamland when the buzzsaw started. My husband snores, and when I say snores what I wanna  do it mix the words “snore” and “roar” together because that’s what he does. It’s horrible. So I laid there and listened to him and mentally poked voodoo pins into a voodoo doll of him. Around midnight, suffering from complete delirium I said “So help me, if you don’t stop that snoring I will go get my own room. Now shut it!!!” I’m not sure if I worked magic or if he was just too scared to go back to sleep but he didn’t snore anymore.
I was up by 5:30 in the morning and ready to get on the road. We changed routes and decided to take the ferry over to Galveston Island. So. Much. Fun. The kids flipped out. It took about 20 minutes and the whole time dolphins were swimming all around the boat. It was great.
So we got to the beach house. The cousins were already waiting for our kiddos. They hit the beach and had a blast. It was windy and chilly, but that didn’t stop them from getting soaking wet, with all their clothes on. Thank goodness the house had an outside shower downstairs, cuz let me tell ya, we wore that shower out!
The house is gorgeous, just beautiful. Here’s a pic with KK headed up to it:

(A huge thank you to Grandpa Ken and Jo! We love you and are so grateful for your generosity!)
Every morning we would walk the beach in search of shells. And without fail there would be 20 or so bright blue jelly fish washed up on the beach:


Thanksgiving was great. We had a feast!
On Friday we took the kids to the Rainforest Café for lunch and afterwards they rode the boat ride. Then they shopped in the store. Jon discovered the Build-A-Bear workshop that was there. I’m not sure they have ever even seen a Build-A-Bear store. He was amazed. He immediately picked out a frog and announced we needed to “make a frog”. One of the workers came over, and I have to really give them props - they were great. They had Jon pick out a heart, talk to the heart, rub it and put it in the frog, and then they let him push the pedal to the fluff machine while they filled the frog. They “sewed” him up, and sent him over to bath and scrub his frog, then clothe him and name him and make him a birth certificate. Jon picked out camo clothes for this frog who he named “Froggie”, as well as camo boxer shorts.
Well, KK was A-Maz-ed!!! She NEEDED one to. I don’t blame her; with all this I wanted one too. KK picked out a penguin. The guy who worked there was just as awesome with her. She went through all the motions of cleaning up her penguin, and brushing her up, picked out clothes, named her “Happy Feet” (yea, original I know – but she’s only 5) and made a birth certificate.
After this we hit the Strand, which is a big shopping place. And guess what? Palace horses!


That’s what KK called them. Too funny! I love that girlie-girl!
We had a great visit with Jack, Gloria, Jill, Richie (Or Rickie as my kids insist on calling him) Eric and Joshua.  A storm blew in Saturday so we headed back a day early (yes, driving again in the rain –fun!). And this time when we stopped for the night I warned The Hubs “If you snore tonight and ruin my sleep I will mess you up!” He still snored but I just jabbed him in the side and he’d stop. Magic!