Myrtle Beach

Sometimes, you just need a vacation.  That may make it sound like we were spontaneous and went on a trip, but we are too big of a planners to be that spontaneous :)  Knowing ourselves and the busy times that were heading our way, we planned a long weekend in Myrtle Beach, SC, for the end of October.  It was a fabulous vacation!  We didn't go with much of a plan for each day, but we had done our research so we  knew of some fun options we had nearby.  The goal was to relax, have fun together, and create some great memories.  The kids all shared a room and had a girls bed and a boys bed.  They giggled as they fell asleep each night :) 

We spent the first morning at Alligator Adventure where we were introduced to some very fun reptiles and stories about reptiles.  Sam loves all creatures that seem unlovable to everyone else, like alligators, snakes, skunks, sharks, etc, so he loved this surprise trip!

The alligator handler brought several animals around for the kids to pet and ask questions about.  I was surprised with how eager they were to touch everything!

The kids had to get a picture of these flamingos, mostly because they love to tease Grandma Z about her dislike of flamingos. :)

There were so many cool animals that we don't get to see very often and the kids loved it so much!  There were many requests of, "Mom!  Take a picture of me with _______!!!"

One of the favorite exhibits we went to see a couple times was the albino alligator exhibit.  

We went back to the stage area for a second show and the kids touched each of the animals that came by.

It's hard to see, but the next two pictures show a piece of Utan, the biggest alligator in the world.  He is 18 feet long and 2000 lbs.  

We stayed and watched the Galapagos tortoises as they rambled around.  The kids tried to coax them over so they could pet them, but no one had any luck.

The exhibit that made the kids laugh the hardest was the lemurs.  There was some screaming battle going on between this lemur family and they were SO loud!  It was sibling rivalry at it's finest...and noisiest.

We basically spent the rest of our time at the beach and the pools, building sand castles, wading, collecting shells, and body boarding.  Then we went back to the hotel for a yummy dinner, a jacuzzi bath, and movie night.

House Projects

One of the intimidating blessings in having a new house is knowing how you want to decorate, organize, and set everything up.  It has taken me a good long time to figure out what on earth we want to do with the house, especially because I want to do it once and do it right.  Thank goodness Roy is patient with me while I explore different ideas, over-analyze our options, and do comparison shopping!  

With Nora's due date swiftly approaching and my nesting instinct increasing, I was spurred into action the last few months.  We decided over the summer to set aside a piece of our budget each month to doing the things we wanted to for the house.  The first two month's budget paid for the stain we needed for the fence (so much stain it isn't even funny...I'm pretty sure we bought 17 gallons of it!) and our 35+ hours of manual labor saved us thousands.  It was a big project, but it looks so good and we learned a lot about what we are capable of doing and how well the kids can entertain themselves when our hands are busy elsewhere.

One high priority for the kids was hanging things up in their rooms.  It had been on my list for over a year (embarrassing!), but I just hadn't tackled it.  Over Christmas Break, they each made a wooden display board to hang above their beds.  It was really fun to see each of their unique and creative personalities come out as they picked paint, scrapbook paper, shapes, and ways to glue down the clothespins.  

After the kid rooms were done, I really wanted to hang up my Danish Mother's plates and Christmas plates.  Notice the gap in the middle?  That's for Nora's plate!

One of my big projects was installing shelves in a few closets.  It's a time commitment to do these shelves, but I'm grateful to have them done and grateful that we have been able to keep them organized so far.  Installing these shelves was also a great project to do while Roy went to China and hung out at the Disney Institute.

And my most recent project was (finally) hanging curtains in our front room window.  Putting in blinds in all the other windows was one of our first projects last fall, but this window just kept getting pushed aside.  Andrew was my awesome entertainer as I hung them and even clapped for me at the end.  I've always felt at home with our family, but these changes have been a fun way for me to make our home into our home.