This is NOT what we signed up for

When I go on vacation, I liked to relax.  Some people sight see and go go go.  I like to sit and read.  Because of this, I don't mind paying more for a place with a view.  I am not going to spend money on activities, I spend it on the location.  While on vacation, I perch myself in front of that view with my book, maybe a coffee or some wine, and ahhhhhhh.....

Our condo was on the Florida Gulf Coast right on the FL-AL line.  The first night we were there was a Saturday.  There was a bar playing loud music next door.  My family and I were sitting outside trying to enjoy the sounds of the ocean and this music was slightly annoying.  Slightly in the fact that it was Saturday night so some what understandable.  A little forgiving even if we ended up spending some time at that bar and it be worth it to be so close.  That bar was the FloraBama.

Doesn't look like much.  Apparently, it is kind of a big deal.  So big that Kenny Chesney wrote some song about it.  Oh wait, this is country music.  So big that some unknown song writer wrote a song about it that someone else bought and Kenny Chesney sang.  

Our first day at the beach we saw some white blocks in front of the FloraBama.  We wondered what they were for.  I even think someone might have brought up they heard that someone, Kenny Chesney?, was giving a concert on the beach on Saturday.  Who?  Well, that is annoying.  Oh well.  Good thing we will be gone by then.  

Day #2 we woke up to this:

O...K.....  That is weird.  What are they doing in front of our condo?  I think by this time we were starting to figure things out and that this vacation wasn't going to be exactly what we pictured.  There was a security guard right at the end of our boardwalk and he seemed very excited to tell us what was going to happen.  He also thought we should be very excited as well.  We weren't.  Well, if they were going to put a stage in front of our condo, I was totally going to let my kids dance on it.

Every morning they started at 6:30 am.  The machine noises weren't really so bad, but with every vehicle there was the "beepbeepbeep"  every time they changed directions.  They worked some at night, but when we tried to sit out the listen to the waves, the generators hummed all night keeping the stage area lit and secure.

Day 4, I think this was Wednesday, brought the crane and the fence.  I realized that my kids were NOT going to dance on the stage.  Couldn't even run through the site screaming with our security freaking out and making James cry.  Bummer.   I tried to strike up friendly and mutually put out conversations with other people staying at the condo.  Never went anywhere.  It took me awhile to realize that was because most of the other people staying at our condo were involved with the show.  The stage manager was in the condo below us and ran constantly in and out and all around.  

I think Wednesday was also the day that the "free" tickets for this concert were available for pick up and traffic picked up considerably.  Leaving our condo became a questionable activity.  One time it took us an hour to go 1 mile to get back.

Maybe Thursday, the place where my parents rented the condo from called us.  They wanted to be super nice and give us the option to stay an extra day for HALF PRICE.  We were supposed to leave on Saturday morning, which was the day of the concert.  What they didn't say is that they probably had to call the people who were supposed to come after us to tell them they absolutely could not come because of the horrendous traffic.  And honestly, we thought about staying.  It might have been fun.  We would have been essentially trapped in our condo all day and really wouldn't have gotten to see anything, but it would have been neat to see how this thing ended.  But I don't know any Kenny Chesney songs, and we had things to do back home, so we kept with the original plan of leaving Saturday morning.

This is not something we took lying down.  I mean, there isn't a whole lot we could do, but I put some funny tweets out there that go retweeted.  And one evening we got the kids involved in putting our own stamp on this concert.  I guess Kenny Chesney is the No Shoes Nation.  Good for him.  We made our own sign out of seaweed.  As I told James, it doesn't matter if someone is threatening your family with a gun or a stage, but you fight back and humor is one of the greatest weapons you can wield.  But someone is always one step ahead of me and removed the "S".  Doh!

Friday things got real.  Kenny showed up.  He looked at our sign and gave interviews on the stage.  His handlers yelled at my mom.  Wish I was there for that.  We never met him.  I would have kind of thought someone would have talked to us, apologized.  It was probably better than no one did.  I don't trust myself in what I would have said.  James would have just asked Kenny Chesney if he sang any Minecraft songs.  ;)

Security had been around since Wednesday, but the day before the concert it was much more visible.

Yep, it was VERY relaxing laying in my bathing suit watching my kids in the pool.  Not.  Security, honestly, not always the sharpest knife in the drawer.  We had one guy tells us we needed wrist bands and another say we paid our money, we get to do whatever we want no matter that there is a concert going on.  (um yeah).  Just a tip though, make friends with security.  They need to know they are appreciated.

We also found the 2 other families who were NOT involved in the concert.  One was told a week before his vacation and was given the option to pick another week.  But he couldn't switch and choose to come anyways.  The other family was like us.  They had no idea this was going to happen and was very unhappy.  They were even more upset then we were!

We did end up venturing to the FloraBama for a little reconnaissance.  It's just a dirty bar y'all.  WTF.  We had a drink.

One was too much for Andy apparently.

And Saturday, the day of the concert, it was crazy.  People were lining up for a 4pm concert at 8am.

I took this picture in my jammies.  That's right.

I think we left at 9am and got the heck out of there.  Mark actually gave money to these people and purchased the CD.  If anyone would like a pirated copy, let me know.  

I know in the grand scheme of things this is Not A Big Deal.  Over time and re-telling, we will laugh and it will be just one of those things.  Remember that time that Kenny Chesney built a HUGE stage in front of our ocean front condo and ruined our vacation?  But I'm pretty busy, and I was so looking forward to this vacation so I could sit on that balcony, listen to the waves, feel the breeze, and just chill.  It didn't destroy our vacation, we still had fun, but it was not fair.  We didn't get what we wanted out of our vacation and we didn't get what we paid for.  This is one case that there really isn't anyone to blame.  What could we have done differently?  What could have any one done differently? It just was, unfair, but that was life.  Hopefully our next beach vacation will be more what we pictured!

This is what we signed up for!

The kids are at an age that I really enjoy.  If they are upset, they tell me why.  If they need something, they get it themselves.  And if they are bored, they can entertain themselves.  Juliet likes saying, "this is what I signed up for!"  At our summer vacation it was so obvious that we are in a different stage in our life and yes, this is what we signed up for!  Gone were the days where I have to get up at 5am and try to keep the kids quiet for 4 hours until everyone else gets up.  Books I bring, I actually get to read.  And I get to actually talk to people.  Bring on the relaxation!

Wouldn't you love to look at that all week.  Me too!  Foreshadowing...

The kids were so excited that first day about going to the beach.

Here is Charlie literally falling on his hands and knees and the soft, sugar white sand.

 After about 30 minutes that first day, they decided they hated the beach and wanted to go to the pool.

Every day we had to drag them to the beach complaining.  They ended up enjoying it, but man.  This year there was lots of floating on rafts and boogie boards.

Our beach base.

We took a couple of side trips.  One, to see the BLUE ANGELS.  So cool.  Again, it was hot, so the kids were not impressed for long.

Also, we went to Build a Bear.  James and Andy were in heaven.  Weird, I know.

And I like to bring activities to do in the condo.  I brought Minecraft Papercraft

Window stickers, this was a bit hit.

And of course, the vacation puzzle!

Cats just happen

Most of you probably know, but we had to put Gilbert down in the spring.  He was a good cat, but it was time.  We cleaned up all of his stuff, gave away his food, but we knew that we would get another cat one day.  One night on the news a couple months later there was a story that there were a lot of kittens needing homes and we decided that it was time.  However, we were going to wait until after we went to the beach.  We knew we wanted a kitten and that we wanted to get two, so we still were going to wait.  But, there was a plan in place, but as you know, cats sometimes just happen.

A friend at work was walking her dog and found two kittens.  Unfortunately, the dog got to one of them first, but it made them feel responsible for the second kitten.  However, again, dog-kitten, its not like they could keep it.  She told me the story, and I checked with Mark, and well, as you probably have guessed, cats just happen.

I brought the kitten home and the kids were SO surprised.  James was scared of it at first, but Andy loved it and wanted to name her "Sophie".  Well, ok.

It turned out we got Sophie when she was 4 weeks old.  She had fleas, ear mites, and worms.  She weighed 1.5lbs.  We had to wait until she was old enough to treat her fleas, but until then, there were cat baths.  These got less successful as time went on.

Having a kitten is a lot like having a baby.  They eat, play, poop, sleep, repeat.  But now that she is older, the play stretches get longer, and more intense.

Still lots of napping though.  And playing.

And napping.

And playing.

And for future reference, Frontline doesn't work at all.  I found this Cheristin until Sophie was old enough for Comfortis.  It worked great.

And boy does she play.  This is why cat toys were invented.  But James was just disappointed when Sophie took over his stuffed dino Dander.  He has had to learn that cats just happen.  Its cute though.

Trip to the Smokies

Now that the kids are older, we are enjoying doing some more traveling.  It is so crazy that the Great Smoky National Park is 3 hours away and we never had really been there.  Thanks to the kids' schedule, we had a free Friday and decided to take advantage.  I booked a cabin outside of Gatlinburg and we packed up and got out of town.  This was taken on the drive in:

We couldn't get Andy out of the car.  Foreshadowing to the teenage years, I think.  

As far as trips goes, this was another one that was pretty cheap.  We booked the cabin, and I don't think we spent money on anything else while we were there.  Gas, of course, but we ate all of our meals in the cabin, and the National Park was free to go to.  We drove through, but did not stop in the craziness that was Gatlinburg.  Maybe next time.

All this is fine for me, when I go on vacation, I really like to relax.

Great view! 

Since we did spend a lot of time in the cabin, we played a lot of games.  Mostly, Apples to apples, Uno, and Trouble.

Are there scholarships for Trouble playing?  Andy was amazing at it.  He is the Green in this picture.

We also did do some hiking.  Our first hike was one of the longest we have ever done as a family:  3 miles round trip.  James usually doesn't like hiking, but he was a champ for this one! 

Andy is usually our mountain goat, but fell in the parking lot and really the rest of the day was ruined.  When we got to the waterfall he just clutched me and wouldn't let go.  

Another outing we did was to Clineman's Dome (??)  The drive up there was beautiful and the weather was completely different from the lower elevations.  The hike was shorter, but a pretty steep walk up a paved path.  

Even with the clouds, the view was still pretty good.

And of course, I wore a Clemson shirt and of course I got comments.  And of course we met other Clemson graduates AND former band members.  

And of course brothers will be brothers.

After that, we drove back down the mountain and had another little hike and a picnic lunch.  After lunch we climbed rocks in the river.  This was probably my favorite thing we did.  I think I am plotting my next move in this picture.

 We backed up to leave on Father's Day and really I felt like I could have used one more day, but the traffic was so crazy in Gatlinburg and in the park, that I think we really couldn't have done anything else.  

It was a good trip and we can't wait to go back!

Fire pit

Last year for Father's Day, we got Mark a fire pit.  I know these things are kind of trendy, but we actually enjoyed using it in the evenings.  Now, we originally just had the fire pit on our little back patio, but once we filled in the pool, in opened up some extra space to put stuff.  Not to mention we had to do something with the big mud pit.  So I had a vision:

But nicer, you know?  And less flammable.

Much better.  It took almost a whole Saturday, from after Body Pump to about 3, and 3 trips to Lowe's, but I am pretty happy with the finished product.  Once it was done, we had to try it out!

Ahhhh!  And then the grand finale.  They keep trying to not have the marshmallows catch on fire, but I think they secretly like it.

I like the sm'ores, and so does James!

Andy is a mess, as always!

I really would like to cook a whole dinner out there, but we haven't done it yet!