I'll Walk!

After we dropped Lincoln off at school - he did not want to get out of the car this morning - it was a rough one! Anyway, Otto and I stopped at Target to pick some stuff up this morning and brought my newest solo sidekick with me. He's a handful to shop with, especially since he thinks he's too cool for the cart AND has zero - z-e-r-o impulse control and I do not, do not, do not have him under voice control 70% of the time. Anyway, if there's one thing I can do to reign him back in, it's visiting the vacuum cleaners! He wanted to get them all down today...I wouldn't let him...he eventually settled for just getting picked up so he could touch them. Oh, this kid!

This afternoon we walked to get Nora and our neighbor who is in Kindergarten and equally hell-bent on independence didn't want to golf cart home with her mom & brother so she walked with us. They made quite the cute little pair chatting it up on the walk. So it begins!

How It's Gonna Be

"Help Mommy!" "Mommy Help!" I took a strong stance of you got up, you get back down, your stool is right there. He completely missed it on his drop straight to the floor but after "I fall down" came "I'm ok!" so ya know, all good. We shifted around the send off routine this morning since it was our first day with me in charge of getting everyone out the door. Nora got her wish and after some discussion I let her walk on her own - if you can call it that. She ran into no less than 3 adult neighbors on her short jaunt to school and there are lots of kids that flock that way in the mornings. She is the mayor of her village and thrives on her independence. In other news, Otto and I walked to get Lincoln today in the very hot heat, and then walked to the car place to pick up my car that has been in the shop since we left for Naples. Thank GOODNESS they recharged the A/C because let me tell you I was DRIPPING when I got there! I was happy to get that task checked off the list though!

Back to School 2019

Here we have it! First day of school! Nora is in first grade starting at a new school. She'll be leaving her Montessori school that she's been at for 3 years and heading to our neighborhood school. We missed some of the introductory events while we were in Naples but she was able to FaceTime with her teacher while we were there. Lincoln is starting preschool. He'll be at the Montessori school now, with Nora's same teachers and everything. He'll only be in half day though.

Kyle walked with Nora and I dropped Lincoln off. He told me he was feeling a little nervous but he did great and we snapped a quick picture before he got out in the drive through line. Otto was a little upset he didn't get to go to school too! I have a hunch he'll get used to his solo time in the mornings though. At the end of the day we walked up to the school to meet up with Nora for her walk home. She's already talking about doing it all herself so we'll see how this all ends up working out once I'm flying solo on the morning routine! Another year underway and new adventures ahead! Time really does fly - when looking at it objectively anyway!

Home Again

That last day in Naples is always all about cleaning and packing. BUT, today was about something else exciting too!!! This morning Kyle took Lincoln out to practice his bike riding again and what do you know, he got it!!! We have another bike rider!!! He was really proud and really excited, but was also ready to be done after a couple laps. "It's hard!" Kyle then hit the road with our crew and stopped in Port Charlotte while I stayed to clean and drop the Columbus bunch off at the airport. While Kristin and I were hard at work getting things ship shape Marty took their kids to putt putt and they played in the pool - we made sure to snap some underwater pictures too! As it turned out with their stop and my clean up, our team all got home just after 6. Just in time to eat some dinner and get the kids ready for their big Monday!!! We can't say thank you enough to my Aunt Ann & Uncle Jay for letting us use their house as a backdrop for so many fun memories! While it's always a bit stressful transitioning from Ohio to another week away and then shifting straight from vacation back to school it's a week we absolutely love every year and a great way to close out summer!

Sundown

Hard to believe the sun has gone down on the last full day of vacation! I think we all feel like we squeezed a lot into the week despite the weather working against us in the beginning. We definitely became more invested in the Little League World Series than I think any of us anticipated! It was a lazy & fun pool day, the kids did quite a bit of swimming and we made sure to get some group shots. With it being our last night of vacation we went to our best night night sun of the week. It was gorgeous and so much fun! We stayed until well after the sun dipped into the Gulf. Most of the group capped it off with a trip to Royal Scoop.

Big Blue Watery Road

Today we were back out on the boat out of Naples this time with high hopes of dolphin sightings and water sports success! Kyle was eager to use his new offshore knowledge so he enthusiastically captained us out into the Gulf. It was really pretty and we were pretty close to what looked a like a cool beach. Marty was the first to try and have success getting up and knee boarding while we were out in the wide open water but there was enough chop that we opted not to have the kids try skiing and instead, after bobbing just long enough to leave more than one passenger feeling a little woozy we headed back to inland waters. We found a back chute of a channel, watched 2 dolphins for a bit and then decided to let the kids try skiing. The current was working against them and there wasn't much in the way of success! With eyes to the sky, we made it back in just as it started to rain. It was another pretty great boat day - the kids are becoming pros! - That or Kristin and I are getting incredibly good at packing snacks!

Resting Beach Face

Beach day!! With no red tide to keep us at bay this year we spent the late morning and much of the afternoon relaxing and of course snacking on the beach. Otto even took a nap on me, something that is pretty much unheard of these days. I made sure to document the moment because there's a chance it's the last one. The kids collected no less than 100 "sea green beans" the ones that floated were the favorites. There was lots of swimming too! We didn't see much of Nora at the beach because she made friends with an adorable 1 year old little girl that she played with the whole time. We ordered pizza for dinner and had our traditional glow pool party. It wasn't as fancy as in past years but the kids still had a lot of fun! They all crashed out pretty quickly after we got them out of the pool!