Vacation, The Second Dose

After our short overnight stay in Nashville, we headed out the next morning towards the Florida Panhandle.  It was a full day of driving.  Alabama is too dang tall of a state if you ask me.  We got into a traffic jam in Birmingham and while creeping along with all the other travelers, Caroline was able to spot 28 of the 50 state license plates.  Starving and nearly out of gas before we finally got through the jam, we found fuel for the van and ourselves.  Who would have ever thought a Golden Corral could have saved the day, but it did.  We were happy, full, and content campers by the time we left there.

We had stayed in that area of the Panhandle known as Florida’s Forgotten Coast three years ago on our trip to St. George Island.  Not long before we left home this time, I found a house to rent on Cape San Blas for three nights and it seemed online like just what we were looking for.  It happened to be a newer house that was built in a private neighborhood thats development came to a screeching halt at the time of the economy’s downturn.  That situation totally benefitted us since we had a modern and beautiful place with all the amenities, but virtually no neighbors. 

We stopped at a grocery store in St. Port Joe to stock up on groceries since we would be nowhere near an actual full-grocery store for a few days.  This guy greeted us at the entrance of the Piggly Wiggly.  

I just now noticed Grant’s fist bumping the pirate!  haha

We loved our house, suitably called No Worries, and were very comfortable there other than coming to no kid agreement on who got what bedroom.  Sam and Caroline were happy with the bunk beds room, but Jack and Grant both wanted the queen bed room each to himself.  We ended up doing a rotation so every kid had the pull out sofa one night, and everyone got at least one night in the bedroom of their choice.   Gary and I had the upstairs to ourselves and it was deee-luxe.  Also, there were all kinds of water toys and boogie boards and beach chairs available to us and that was great.

 

This was our pool. 

I quickly decided I need this at home.  Like really a lot. 

 

We had fun at the beach everyday, just a short walk past the pool, and you can tell we are very much on our own here.  Very few people around.  We saw no stingrays like we did on St. George, but no dolphins either.  We did find a jellyfish that had washed up, but that was about it for spotting ocean critters.

  

Looks like Gary’s spotted something here, but now I have no idea what.  We did see a jogger that we thought was Uncle Neil but in reality, it was probably Larry David.  But then again, I don’t really know Larry David, but I’m thinking maybe jogging on a hot sunny beach isn’t his style. 

The shells were fun to collect.  Big duck clam shells and giant cockle shells were very prominent.  The bay side is known for its scallops (whereas St. George was the oyster capital).   Too bad I don’t do either.

  

You can see we take our sun protection very seriously.  Well, unless you are an individual that actually has pigment in your skin and hair and eyes and then maybe you can show a little skin.

     

Don’t you love the beachwear?  Gary had gotten tired of wearing big baggy jam trunks so I picked these Old Navy cuties up right before we left.  They looked good, but unfortunately, didn’t make the comfort cut.  Bye bye.

We also take our family sand castle building seriously, too.  Jack typically gets them started and then the rest of the crew gets into helping. 

This was what remained of the castle by the time night was falling. 

The next day we ventured to the tip of the Cape to a state park noted for its outstanding beach.  I didn’t have my camera along unfortunately, but I found this picture online showing the beach where we were.  Beautiful and perfect.  We had to hike in quite a ways from the parking area, but it was definitely worth the walk.

This below also was a found Internet pic that shows you the Cape itself.  The state park is at the northern tip there on the top left and our house was closer to that bend near the bottom center.  Lots of miles of undeveloped beach. 

    

On this leg of the trip, the kids discovered Hungry Howies, a pizza and more chain that they loved. 

We adults really enjoyed the peace and solitude of this place, and I’d say this is when the true relaxation portion of the vacation really got started. 

Vacation, in Little Doses

I have been waiting for a chance to sit down and type up a vacay post about our recent fun trip, but I cannot get seem to eek out the time.  Right now I am supposed to be mowing but I have to want to do this instead.  Ok, so here’s just a little start. 

Actually Day 1 was the Day of Disaster at the Walton House.  I removed the post at Gary’s request since we hadn’t yet closed on the house, but now I figure I can repost and include it since it is How I Spent My Summer Vacation, page 1.  Everything turned out fine from the flooding, so yippee.  Hope the new family is loving that place.  We did.  

So, here we are heading off in the van the day after the disaster, not getting to leave until the afternoon since there were still all kinds of loose ends hanging.    

But finally!

 

I think maybe Miss C was mad because she was only allowed to bring one boa and it was a ten day trip?!

 

 

 

 

 

Sam’s quiet for hours with a Lego magazine.

 

Yes, Gary’s gotta work out even while he drives.  I sit there and enjoy my maple nut goodies and creamy bulls eye caramels.  (So puzzled... do you put it as bull’s eye or just bulls eye or is it bulls’ eyes?? I don’t know!)

We made it to Nashville just in time to walk in for the 7 pm show at the Opry.  Here’s Dan the Opry Man, and I gotta say, he’s the closest thing I ever had to a brother.  Little guy from Xenia has done very well in Nashville.  Thanks to him, we had VIP parking and got to go in through the artists’ entrance.  The kids got to each pick their own dressing room to go pee. Yep, that’s some special treatment.

The black line here at the top of the stairs shows how high the water was in the Opry building during last year’s flood.  The nearby mall is still closed even more than a  year later, but they’d done well reopening the Opry itself.

This is Little Jimmie Dickens’ truck, with a band-aid on the door. ??  He’s 90 now and still drives himself.  Danny told us Little Jimmie had worked all that afternoon with him and then we saw him perform that night.  Every time we’ve gone to the Opry he’s performed, so I’m thinking he is there probably most every show.    Some of his jokes are so good and some so …aren’t.  Gotta admire his longevity, though, and he’s obviously loved by the country music community.  Caroline took this picture of him.  She said she loves his sparkles.

We watched a huge, shiny black tour bus pull in right by us and was so curious just who was gonna step out.  It turned out it was Steve Holy!!  Yeah, we didn’t know him either.  Danny apologized that we didn’t really hit a night of big names but hey, that was ok.  It’s still fun to go.

 

Grant was determined to sleep here on our balcony once we made it to the hotel.  Sure, it’s only a four story drop, kid. 

     

 

See how vacation agrees with me?  Looking perky and relaxed, I must say.

 

 

 

We all pretty much were having a good time by this point.

Jack was, too;  he just wants no pictures around to prove it.

Gary’s wearing his mood ring and I will say he wasn’t totally to the relaxed state at this time even though I’m thinking green means happy?  Maybe, or is it tense?   I think his expression was actually saying:

Would you just quit playing around with that camera?

Back to It

And by it, I mean school.  Today was the kids’ first day.  Everyone got up and on their way pretty easily actually.  Even Sam who rides a bus all on his own this year.  Caroline goes to her own new school and the two older boys are both at middle school.  Again this year, four kids, three schools. 

Next year, four kids, four schools.  Aye yi yi.

All I wanted this morning was a simple picture of the two middle school boys, but Grant was too busy with the cat to pose.  Then Jack gave up posing, so this is what I got.  Grant’s saying, “This sun is too bright.”

 

Then there’s Grant bringing up the rear because stopping to play with the cat again. 

Jack has no time to waste.  He’s all about getting to school to learn, learn, learn.  He’s practicing his spelling and grammar on his phone all the time. 

K!  C U @ schooooool!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Then ding, ding, it’s Round Two for bus stop with Sam and Caroline getting on the next hour.

 

Someone loves her new backpack.

It is only half the size of her whole body.

 

And just look at this big guy.

Kinda makes me think of…

But first, a little play time.  What a beautiful morning!

 

Then they’re off to the bus stop.  It’s a quarter mile away.

And look who has to stop and play with the cat.  I swear those boys ARE twins, just four years apart.

 

*PS*  Grant and Jack are back home already as I type.  Grant says he is not going back tomorrow because they will be dissecting frogs and worms.  And not tomorrow but later in 6th grade, but still he is not going tomorrow. 

The Walton House--Continued

In the garage, I can still see all the boots we had, ranging from tinys to adults.  I had it covered for boots at any age, any size.  

There were a lot of boots.

And bike helmets.

 

 

 

The hard, wooden basement stairs that every one of our kids tumbled down.  Since Gary actually witnessed Sam going down, he quickly put up the tubular bars as a railing.

 

The growth chart on the door trim of the basement.  I considered recreating it at our current house.

Plenty of open space to play Sharks and Minnows now.  Except it was never this open and clean when we lived there when it was filled with train tracks and Lego's and fire trucks and baby dolls and dress up clothes and tractors.  And stamping stuff.  And books.  How could I ever forget all those books? 

Finishing the basement was a big project for us and was ongoing for years it seems.  I remember freaking out over the carpet Gary brought home for it.  It was four or five different colors/patterns of carpet squares that he got for a deal and I could not imagine what he was thinking and how would we ever make this into a suitable looking place with that kind of craziness.  It turned out rather cool, I will admit.  We used the different colors to define different “rooms” of the basement, including the partial checkerboard as a play area. 

Here’s the new radon mitigation system that again is money spent for something I get no pleasure from at all. 

Phooey on that whole concept.

  

This nightlight will burn perpetually from now to eternity (or until the bulb burns out) in honor of the night Grant, about 8 years old, slept-walked downstairs into the pitch black basement and then woke up there in complete total darkness, not knowing anything about where he was.  He yelled for his parents that were soundly asleep in their bed, two stories up and out of ear shot.  Finally, he felt the distinct tubular railings, figured out where he was, and made it upstairs to save himself. 

The dining room that used to have white carpet that didn’t remain white for long with four little kids eating in there every meal, every day.  I never did tackle the wallpaper in this room, the only room that I didn’t actually. 

 

 

Little boys will throw Matchbox cars into ceiling fans. 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack’s room door had a lock high up and a childproof doorknob on the outside.  He really didn’t like the sibs getting into his room.

Caroline’s room.  It was the smallest, but so awesome since it was all pink and yellow.  Thank you, Grandma Barbara.

In her closet, there was an access panel to the bathroom plumbing. Early in the marriage we had a memorable Valentine’s Day where we had a leak and started working at tearing out the entire shower of the master bath.  I wondered why we didn’t just go at it from this access thing, but didn’t say anything because I didn’t think (at that time) there could possibly be a better alternative solution that I could think of that Gary hadn’t.  This little bugger taught me to just speak up.     

The laundry chute I loved and now miss.

Our master bedroom window.  I had two little, little boys and going out to a store or any kind of shopping was really not easy.  I saw an ad for a designer consultant that would come to your house, so I had her come.  Looking back, I’m thinking now the scope of the job was probably not quite what she was used to since all I had her do was come up with a blind and curtain rod for this one window, but this is my custom ordered wooden window blinds and curtain rod.   

The spot in our bedroom, but not the original carpet, where again early in our marriage I shook an open (didn’t know that part) bottle of bright red fingernail polish and it left stringy stripes of polish on the before mentioned white carpet.  Even before kids, white carpet was a bad idea.  I will never forget Gary asking me “Why do you wear that stuff anyway?”  I never polished my nails again, except for the rare occasion of going to something really special like a wedding.

Oak, oak, and more oak in this house.  Bathroom vanity.

 

The fanciest towel bars I had ever seen, I bought at Burlington Coat Factory.  In addition to oak, oak, and more oak, this house was brassy, brassier, and brassiest. Oh, the kids’ tub where many a naked bottom and bubble mingled.

The shower doors from hard water hell that I spent countless hours trying to clean, totally unsuccessfully despite all the good advice you can find on the Internet.

 

 

The stairs also known as the kids’ indoor playground.  There was maniacal giggling by toddlers throwing balls up and down, sliding things down the banister, bodies sliding down either on the bottom, the belly, or on some object.  Lots of fun on these stairs.  Too bad the tile at the bottom was so hard.

 

Entry way and main floor bathroom had this tile, so easy to clean, and I will forever be a big fan of tile.

The wallpaper I chose for the kitchen during the re-do and the cubbies/backpack holder Gary built.  Looking back, I think I should have skipped the floral.  Unlike the golden monkey wallpaper of the main floor bathroom!  I didn’t snap any pictures, but that wallpaper was the best on Earth and I still love it and it looked so awesome for a bathroom.

I bought these knobs for the laundry room doors because I was impressed with their heavy weight.   Gary got a lot of making-fun-of mileage out of that considering once they were bolted onto the door, you can’t tell if they weigh a half an ounce or half a pound.   

 

My kitchen window view was not bad at all, until Scooter came along and I had to see him and his messes.  Seriously, it was a great backyard.

Oh, I loved this kitchen re-do we tackled over the span of a couple of years.  Loved the granite, the slate, the window trim, the new ceiling (de-popcorned), the outlet covers, the under cabinet lighting, everything.  I so wish I had my big roomy Walton kitchen at the new place.  A most excellent kitchen.

  Strips of wet carpet yesterday out drying in the sun and the most familiar sight, Gary’s truck in the driveway.  Ok, sappy/corny warning:  One of the best sounds I remember from the years in the house, besides the kids’ happy laughing, was the sound of the garage door lifting because I knew that meant Gary was home. 

This is the door in the garage; this side is still  painted the original dark brown that the front door was when we first moved in. 

The house was so dark and definitely needed some energy and light and life back in 1997.  I painted and we eventually brought in four beaming little beings that seemed to fill the whole house with warmth. 

Walton House, we will miss you, and thanks for all the memories.  

.