Lowes, Soccer, Florida

We had a busy weekend! It started off Friday when I worked as a parent helper for the second time at Jacob's school. I was pretty excited to see that he has made some advancements as far as talking and interacting with the other kids at school, but he is still such a quiet, shy little guy! I also learned that one little girl can already read! Great, just when I get writing your own name down, someone has to go and do this! The little boys did really good at home. I didn't even leave milk for Austin because in the past he prefers to go hungry rather than have that bottle shoved in his face thankyouverymuch. After school, we came home for a few hours and then I was off for a massage! I've been experiencing headaches 3-4x/week since having Austin and both my ob and family doctor recommended frequent massages to help with all the tension I have in my neck and shoulders from nursing and carrying/lifting heavy toddlers and preschoolers. Aaron was not pleased with their recommended prescription, but I'll take it! :) After my massage I picked up a few last minute things for our trip and headed home to pack.

Saturday I finished packing and loading the car while Aaron took Jacob to Lowes for another Build and Grow workshop. This week they made a bird feeder and enjoyed some father-son bonding. They left Lowes and headed straight to the soccer field for Jacob's first soccer game! I'm ticked I had already packed the camera and didn't get a picture of Jacob in his cute little shin guards and soccer cleats, but I guess there will be plenty of time for that! The outdoor soccer field complex is HUGE and was a total zoo on Saturday! Aaron was walking up to the field not really sure if he was at the right one when two of Jacob's classmates ran up to him and gave him big hugs! They were all "JACOB, JACOB, HI JACOB!" while Jacob stood there mute. Aaron said, "why don't you say hi to your friends?" and one of the little girls replied "it's okay, he doesn't talk much at school either", lol. Aaron said the soccer practice was a little chaotic and most of the kids cried at some point (gotta love 4 year old sports!), but that Jacob didn't shed any tears. Jacob really enjoyed himself with the skill training, but when it came to the actual playing he was not to thrilled with the giant scrum around the ball... so Jacob played goalie. It worked out well, he enjoyes playing goalie at home and I guess none of the other kids were interested. After the game the little boys and I picked him up at the field to head to Florida! We also met my mom there.

We left for Florida about 12:45 and had a rough start. Jacob needed two potty breaks within the first hour (of a 21hr trip), but Aaron said he drank a whole capri sun so what can you do? I think it was more nerves than anything else, but sheesh I thought we would never get there! We made another stop in Reed City for a late lunch and potty break and then we were able to get a big chunk of driving done and made it past South Bend where we had dinner. We ate inside at a Cracker Barrel so the kids could move their legs a bit and pick something fun out from the store. That was our last stop until Manchester, just beyond Nashville where we stopped driving at 3am and spent the night. The kids didn't fall asleep in the car until midnight (!), but they were being really good so it worked out fine. Once we arrived at our hotel, they all woke up and were super pumped to be somewhere. They ran around the hotel room like crazy and I thought we would never be able to get them back to sleep but once the lights were out they crashed hard. We woke up at 8am and after showers and breakfast we were back on the road by 10am. I did all the driving on Saturday and mom drove until 6pm on Sunday. The kids did much better on Sunday. We were able to make it past Atlanta and Macon before our first stop! We ended up going to a McDonalds for lunch and they had a fenced in outdoor section that was perfect for the kids to burn off some energy before our next leg of the trip. Our next stop was just before the GA/FL stateline and I took over driving at that point. Boy was that a mistake! About an hour into our drive (and 2hrs from our destination) we encountered a major storm. Torrential downpour and crazy Florida lightning! It was a stressful two hours! Additionally, there was construction which made it especially scary since the water had nowhere to go between the concrete dividers. We made it to our hotel at 8:30pm and ordered pizza and life was good again! The kids love our two bedroom unit and we have a great view of the pool with a pirate ship in it! Today will be a relaxing pool day and tomorrow Magic Kingdom!

The kids were great troopers in the car. Especially Austin, who pushed a few feedings to 4hrs. Jacob and Brody were entertained by lots of movies, including a few new ones, games and snacks (but not many drinks!). I picked up a bunch of little things from the dollar section at Michaels and those went over pretty well. Additionally, I picked up a dry erase/chalk board for Jacob to practice writing his name. He made a map of our route instead and thank goodness we didn't go that way! Then he gave the board/marker to Brody and Brody drew all over his sock, all over his car seat and all over his face. Jacob told him he looked like a cat with whiskers. The picture doesn't do it justice since most of the art was on his right cheek. Gotta love how Brody always keeps it interesting! I'll update again while we are down here... hope everyone has a good week!