Shortly after Christmas break, on a Friday night there was a lovely storm that started out as rain and turned to sleet and freezing rain, and was topped off with a morning of snow flurries. The kids played outside and had a blast. They also got three days off school, and the day they went back to school it was 70 degrees! The school district certainly has an abundance of caution when it comes to safe travels.
Katy playing with toys in the fridge. She loves lining up her toys and her slightly intelligible conversations are precious in her little chirpy voice.
Girls making a plan and giving a cheer! Nicole is a great help with her sisters and helps them do their part to keep the house clean.
Despite our best (and lengthy) efforts to keep the grout in our shower tiles clean, we had to replace our shower. Jim was never so happy to see a solid slab of wall with no grout!
Katy played a ton in the snow, I think this is the first year she remembers it. She experiences new things quietly, but if you watch her face and see her reactions you can see how much fun she has.
Hours of fun on our snow-covered ice. The funnest day was Saturday before the freezing rain and snow had a chance to harden in the single digit overnight temps.
John scooting around to gnaw on spare mittens. He is a slobbering mess as his teeth are starting to come through. He rolls and does a worm-like move to get around very slowly, but surely. John is a determined, vibrant baby.
I love watching the kids explore in the snow.
Jim was out for a while, but came back telling me they were having so much fun with their imaginations that they didn't care to play with him. He took them to a big sled hill in the neighborhood later, but the morning was all about the wonder of snow!
In the meantime, I made a cinnamon roll wreath and played with John. I also served as the dresser for the many kids who had to go to the bathroom minutes after I dressed them for the outdoors.
We had church at home after it was cancelled, the kids each shared talks and testimony.
These special memories in front of the fireplace make for sweet family times.
Michael sharing stories and relating them to gospel principles.
The three oldest made primary lessons for D and Katy. Nicole was reading the lesson while Diana colored.
Katy was totally not paying attention, but the boys faithfully followed her around the house telling her the lesson.
The boys woke up really wanting to play their favorite game Stratego. The game has pieces that they move on a board to discover the opponent's flag. The boys came up with the idea that they could sing a song from the hymnbook each time a piece was captured. Jim and I had a good laugh over some of the selections!
Jim and John
Nicole loved following animal tracks in the snow.
And here we are on our last snow day. Half the kids are in shorts, nobody really needs a coat and we are playing tennis. We were all a little stir crazy at this point it was great to get together with cousins.
Flare laid her first clutch! She had 22 eggs, and only these 5 look to possibly be fertile, we'll just have to wait the 45 days or so to find out.
In the meantime, we keep the eggs humid and warm in the incubator and keep our fingers crossed!
One of the funnest feelings is seeing my boys line up to go in at the same time in a basketball game. Michael has not fallen down this season, an amazing transformation! He has also scored a ton and is actually "getting" the game. Jacob is already very into the game and hoping his teammates will pass to him more. He almost scored in the last game and it's so fun to watch them try their hardest and work together.
John passed out in Relief Society. I love my little heating pad during church :)
After another holiday for MLK day, the kids went to school and then we drove straight from picking them up down to Myrtle Beach. It's a three hour drive going through a lot of little back roads. We were surprised at how this destination really had no main roads from Raleigh. We found an oceanfront hotel, with a 2 bedroom and kitchen for 89/night. The hotel also had 4 waterslides, 2 lazy rivers, hot tubs and pools. Jim even got us some free breakfasts each day by calling to make the reservation.
Since the waterpark didn't open until 9am, and there was no possibility of sleeping in past 6:30 when there was so much to do, the kids got up early and played games.
The girls shared a room and the boys had the living room sofa sleeper. The girls played with little pokemon figures and read books.
Chillin until pool time.
And finally the fun at the waterpark commenced!
Katy and I played in the kids area, but Katy was NOT interested in the bucket that kept spilling tons of water so she stayed on the fringes.
Nicole and Jake playing basketball.
Jim and Diana in the lazy river, Diana was nervous that a bucket of water would tip while she was under it.
Diana was all-out at the water park. She had no fear and thankfully the water was 3 feet everywhere so she could go anywhere without help. She went on the slides countless times, and they had to swim across the river to get back on the stairs to the slide, so she was playing hard for the entire time.
At first, I held John and watched Katy. It worked well enough, but it turns out that we were there during the slowest time of the entire year. We had the entire water park to ourselves more often than not, sometimes one or two other kids would be there, but it was prettymuch empty. So we got John's pack n play and set it up in a corner while he slept in the warm air. And I was able to play with the kids and float in the lazy river and play around with the kids in a way that is usually impossible with an infant.
The hotel also had kids activities throughout the day, so we opted to paint sea shells that morning.
We ate lunch in our room (the kitchen saved us a lot of $) and went for a walk on the boardwalk. It was fun to walk around with ice cream and seeing the sights.
Beautiful views from the boardwalk
Diana loving her bright blue ice cream.
After our boardwalk adventure, we went to the other side of the waterpark at our hotel.
Waiting for the huge bucket
Diana has no fear. She went down a very long fast slide and came out practically dancing with joy!
John and I watched the kids and cheered them on. John is a drooling machine, and so far has two teeth to show for it :)
That night we went to look around at Broadway at the Beach, a collection of stores, restaurants, museums, and aquarium.
We gave the kids choice of where to eat, and of course the pirate place won! Key West Grill had a pirate ship over the water and fun décor inside.
Also a real parrot hanging out.
There was nobody else in the restaurant. It was crazy how deserted the whole place was- apparently there are two weeks in January that are dead. The weekends are still busy but somehow we lucked out on our choice of days. This did make for any of the kids sounds to be magnified in the quiet atmosphere! Our food always came out pretty fast :)
Nicole about to devour an oyster
I really enjoyed trying these salmon, plantain, pineapple skewers. So good, although I could only eat so much grilled plantain.
After a whole day at the waterpark, we spent the next morning at Ripley's Aquarium. There were literally fewer than 10 other people in the place the whole time we were there. It was so awesome.
Freshwater aquarium
Meeting an eel.
The kids were thrilled to learn that lobsters pee on each other during fights to impress females, and had fun at the pee shooter gallery.
Jake can't wait to show his class these huge nasty sea slugs
The kids got to pet some bamboo sharks!
Katy steering the pretend ship
They had a moving walkway that takes you under an aquarium filled with 22 sharks, rays and tons of fish.
We got to watch the feeding time and the sharks went up to the side like a McDonalds to get their food. This saw shark jerked his head to the side to impale the fish, then he swam to a spot away from the others and jerked his head again to loosen the fish and ate it. It was crazy to see how fast he got that fish!
Watching these huge sharks eat fish was incredible. All of the little fish would peck at the food, but when the sharks swam by there was no competition.
Octopus in a barrel
The ray bay
We went on a glass bottomed boat and the kids were really good. I think it was the sharks at their feet that kept them obedient :)
Jim and John. Jim really wanted to do the scuba dive in there but couldn't find his dive card. Maybe next time (eek!)
When we stepped into the boat, Katy didn't realize there was glass and was not interested in putting her feet down!
Michael was riveted!
Hard to see, but the sharks were close to the surface here, and you could see the telltale fins above the water.
They only have one sea turtle and it passed under us three times, which the tour guides said was really rare. So beautiful!
We went to see the jellyfish next.
I couldn't believe it, but they let you touch jellyfish! They had a species that only gives a mild sting. The man in charge gave directions but didn't seem too worried about things. I guess the sting gives it's own lesson, and I was surprised that Diana actually followed directions.
They are like slimy membrane, some thicker than others.
Diana designing her own jelly
At the reef to talk with a diver. There were two other kids besides ours and when they asked for questions, it was so fun to have the kids interact.
Jacob asked a ton of questions, he was so curious and soaking up everything. I loved how personal the experience was for the kids.
The person watching the horseshoe crabs showed the kids how to safely pick these guys up.
Jake was so excited to show me what he could do.
If there was something to climb, it would be scaled!
Some last pictures in the tunnel under the sharks
We went back along the walkways to the restaurants and there were tons of these nasty sucker fish hoping we'd feed them. There were 25 cent feed stations all along the walkways.
For lunch Katy got her mac n cheese in a guitar plate and she was in awe.
We also stopped at a fudge store. Because there was no way to pass it up! The lady gave us a bunch extra and it was slightly stale thanks to the slow time of year, but it was fun to taste the different flavors and hear what her customers like best.
Nicole and I went to breakfast the next morning (the oldest four took a turn with mom or dad each morning)
And the sunrise was beautiful
Nicole walking along the beach
She couldn't resist chasing the birds!
Going to visit Wonderworks
The premise of this upside down house is that it was a science experiment gone awry. The place turned out to have over 500 middle school students there for a field trip. So we decided to come back our last morning instead.
The kids were thrilled when we chose to go back to the boardwalk and an arcade there. Once again, there were just a handful of people there so the kids spent 10 bucks in an hour or two of fun games and loved earning their tickets. Our first choice was bop the three stooges, and Diana had lots of help from her brothers!
Diana had one ride. She chose the train and didn't know what to think of it. I think she would have preferred I not turn it on at all :)
Baseball
The kids each earned little dinky toys with their tickets and couldn't have been happier with all the fun games to try.
Friday night we went to Medieval Times, a dinner show with jousting and horse skills and swordplay.
My little prince
You can buy these suits of armor at about 6k each.
Let the dinner begin! This production is usually sold out, but was only 1/2 full at most. We got great seats :)
Staying true to the time period, no utensils were provided. The kids loved this! We had soup, chicken, garlic bread, corn and cake.
Pictures can't begin to do the show justice. I loved the horses and how talented they all were.
Our section was the Blue Knight and we cheered for him during the tournament.
Riveted on the performance. We couldn't understand some of what they said, but frankly it wasn't really necessary to know the gist of it.
I wish I could have video or a better picture but I was too in awe. This horse did some amazing leaps and tricks. It performed several military maneuvers and walks as well as airs above ground. Beautiful grace and control!
The horses bowing
Falconer- he sent the bird around the arena several times and the kids loved it! It reminded them of the week before when a bird had flown into our house and up into the boys bedroom before Jim caught it :)
Thanks to her jubilant cheering, Diana was gifted with a carnation thrown to her by our blue knight. No surprise Diana's volume got his attention!
Katy drinking from an enormous mug. Michael and Jacob at the end of our table were both enthralled the whole time. Michael told me he enjoyed it so much that he wants to play knights for the rest of his life.
Nicole got a carnation as well, we were lucky since they only did this twice with a handful of flowers. She was so happy it was precious!
Michael and Jacob totally riveting during the swordplay. I guess I was too since I didn't get any pics of it. There were sparks flying, and they used a variety of weapons. The jousting especially looked dangerous and their swordplay was all very rehearsed. They were leaping off horses, dodging maces, and did a great job of limping off stage when vanquished.
While waiting for the king and knights to come out after the show for autographs, the kids danced to some fun music playing. The boys started reenacting the swordplay. Glad we had no swords!
Meeting the knights
Dancing a bit more after getting autographs on their crowns from all of the knights. We learned that our knight was only on his second performance. Some of the knights absolutely love what they do and you can tell they enjoy it and love their horse.
Saturday we finally got to go inside the Wonderworks upside down house. The kids went in this shack to experience 80+ mph winds.
This bike could do a full 360 if you pedal hard enough. Michael kept pressing the emergency stop button whenever they got too high for his liking :)
A lot of this museum worked through motion sensors- this was an air hockey table that you use the shadow of your hand to hit the shadow puck. It worked pretty well.
In this game, you try to get stars and avoid sharks- all by moving around in front of the blue screen.
Random arcade game of basketball. The kids were stoked it was "free"
Jim testing how high he can jump. He jumped a lot higher than I can!
This virtual screen had a bunch of sports where you'd throw or kick balls depending on the game. The kids are pitching in a baseball game here.
And taking turns kicking against their opponent they created- an alien on a field in Egypt.
Jake trying to land a space shuttle.
Picking up space rocks
Bubble play- Nicole tried to see how far she could go on Katy's head. This did result in soapy heads for D and Katy.
Jacob on a bed of nails!
Michael was grinning the whole time, he said it felt great!
Nicole making her mark
Rollercoaster simulator- Jacob really REALLY did not like going upside down and pressed the emergency stop button. He gave it another try just in case, but again stopped the ride. Michael, however, got out of his ride with another kid and asked how he could go again and again!
Diana wasn't tall enough so she kept making a million body impressions.
We took a break for lunch. Katy is showing her souvenir from Wonderworks- her fingerprint.
Quite a view! We shared this 600 person restaurant with another couple. Diana tried playing hide and seek on the way back from the bathroom and Katy kept trying to take utensils from the table next to us, it was hard for the kids to feel like they were in a restaurant when the place was so empty!
I tried snapper and wow it was amazing!
We went back to Wonderworks for more fun. This was a fun place to change how your picture was reflected- you could choose different types of mirrors
At this dance room, the more you move, the cooler things look on screen, so the kids went wild!
Jim, Nicole, Mike and Diana experienced a 5D movie of being on a runaway cart on the wall of china. Jim said that it was really intense and at first Diana said it was scary but then was doing her Diana yell of delight!
A major favorite was laser tag. None of us, Jim or I included, had ever actually played and we were in a game with four other people. I was holding John and the kids were chasing me like crazy. The attendant made so my gun didn't need two buttons pressed to shoot, so I was able to get the kids too. We were laughing and running around like crazy for our turn. Jim went with Katy and Diana especially loved chasing us around.
I went with the oldest three on a high ropes course. Jacob is not a fan of heights apparently and walked up the stairs and straight back down. 6 years old is pretty young to try it, and I'm glad he is a careful kid.
The whole course is above other people and all of the stations below, and the course has two stories!
The double rope was the hardest, and on this single rope I imagined how crazy you'd be to do this without a harness over a river.
Michael and I planning our next route.
Nicole was fearless as well, I was impressed because I don't know that I'd be so brave at their age.
After this, the girls started having a meltdown- a whole day of lots of stimulation at the end of a big vacation- and we made a grand exit with me holding Diana and Jim pushing the stroller while the little ones were going bananas. Thankfully we were able to calm things down (and go back in and get Michael who thought we had disappeared- yes, out the exit!) and get in the van. On our drive we listened to some fun audio books- "7 habits of happy kids" and had some audio reading of the Book of Mormon and even started "Candy Shop War". It was raining, foggy and got dark, but we got home safely. Diana was hilarious on both the drive there and back. On the way there, about 2 hours in, she started crying and I asked her what was wrong and she said "I want to go home" and that she didn't want to be in the van anymore. I said you don't want to go on vacation and with a half wail she said "Y-eeee-sss." After much drama, I finally told her the hotel was closer and she finally agreed that yes we could go on vacation. On the way home, she kept asking to go back home (and this time she meant the hotel). She finally was okay when I told her we could go to Chikfila and only if she kept an eye out for the sign for one. I told her to keep her eyes wide open and watch. Within a few minutes she was fast asleep for a blissful hour of our drive.
I can't believe how much fun we had. I think the place being so empty this time of year made a huge difference. I'm so grateful for the family memories and fun we had together.
