Calm Before the Storm

Today was a water day around here. The kids spent lots of time plunging in the pool, jumping and splashing around. We didn't do anything super exciting but the kids had a blast playing together and Cort was VERY happy to get to swim in the lake even though it was a little rough! 4th of July festivities kick off tomorrow evening!

Made It!

We got our wish! Traveling was smooth today, with just 1, maybe 2 extra short bathroom stops.
Traffic wasn't an issue and we made it to Bay just after 4pm where Keaton and Bexley were waiting to play with the kids. Now it's time to unpack, unwind and enjoy a week of vacation!---weeeeellll kind of...Kyle has some work he has to do in the next couple of days...THEN it's vacation time.

On The Road!!

All loaded up and headed North! By the time the cartop carrier was on and packed, everything loaded, lawns mowed, it was about 11am when we pulled out of the driveway. By the time lunch was acquired and the tank filled with gas we hit the highway just before noon.

We made more stops than we were hoping to between eating and bathroom breaks but overall morale remained high as we knocked out about 10 hours of our drive. By the time we reached the hotel in Charlotte, SC...

we'd checked off quite a few states and Nora's marker eye "make-up" had gone from a light daytime look to a smokey evening look.

Tonight we're hoping for some actual sleep and kids (and a Cortland) who will calm down and settle in at the hotel and tomorrow we're hoping to reach Bay by dinner time with fingers crossed for patient travelers and condensed stops! Big push to finish!

Burgers and Bags to Pack

Pretty much every day for the last couple weeks, after swimming lessons, Nora has asked if we can go to Shake Shack for lunch. I've been putting it off due to timing, things to do and the fact that Shake Shack is not the easiest restaurant to eat at with three on my own. BUT as it was becoming more and more clear that we were not going to leave this evening due to a lack of having things packed and ready, I figured it'd be as good a day as any to get out of the house and do something special. So, first we stopped at the paper store for the sidewalk sale and then popped over to shake shack for a surprise lunch. We started outside until the big rain storm blew in (we made it inside just in time to avoid getting VERY wet) and we finished lunch while it was still raining so ended up getting soaked anyway on the run back out to the car. The rest of the day was spent watching plenty of PBS Kids while I did more laundry and got more stuff ready for our rescheduled departure sometime tomorrow morning. We'll get to Ohio eventually!

Moving on Up

Nora rapped up her summer sessions of swimming lessons this morning by getting the go ahead to move up to the next/highest level. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and getting to work on packing and cleaning up. So much to do and we're supposed to leave sooooo soon. Also, I'm not really feeling as much of a sense of urgency as I should be...I've been in bed and sound asleep by 9pm more than once this week. Soo randomly tired! Without having late night work sessions prep for our trip is going at a snails pace with mowing and packing and car clean out left to go!

Tappity Tap Tap at Target

Today's post swimming lessons, pre-trip stop was a snack related Target run. Fun fact we discovered today...Target sells tap shoes! Sooooo for today's episode of draining every last drop of mom's patience before lunch-time there was a 25 minute (not joking) tap shoe try-on session for Nora and Lincoln that concluded with a brief test run in the middle of the store. I will say this...Nora's excitement was pretty fun to watch and her determination and commitment to properly fit her brother with his own tap shoes was admirable as well! Now she's on a mission to save her dollars to get herself some real live tap shoes while I'm saving my dollars to have to refinish our floors!

Summer Stuff!

As we prep for our annual trip to Ohio, I asked Lincoln's teacher, Miss. Jessica, to work with him in a life jacket, just so he had a little experience in the water with it on before we went boating. The way he comes out of the water makes me laugh every time!

After swimming lessons we made a quick smoothie stop and then popped over to the ABC store to pick up some Florida beers to take North with us. Pro-tip: smoothies keep tummies AND hands full while in a store with lots of kid height things to touch...BUT can also be spilled by toddlers while mom isn't paying attention!

And finally, to solidify the start of summer Nora and I traded ankle bracelets. She picked out her colors for two different bracelets (I owe her one more) and taught her how to make a simple one...which she made for me. Ankle bracelets on = summer in progress!