A much, much, much, much, much needed day. :) Hooray for spring break-ation! I was running around at 6 am freaking out about just getting home last night, doing laundry, and repacking for the beach... but it was all worth it in the end! As long as the kids can deal with frantic, crabby, whirlwind mommy... at some point, like, right this minute with the kids in bed, as I am sitting on the balcony looking over the Atlantic... yep... my mouth hurts, I think I cracked a smile. :) Maybe I should wake the kids up to see that mommy actually can smile, occasionally.
I love people. I want people. I need people. I can't live without people. But sometimes, it's so nice to have just my neat and tidy little family of 5 in the car with the windows cracked, and no other people around. Sometimes that's when I am the freest. . (That word looks like it is spelled wrong, but my spell checker did not highlight it. Hmmm....) Anyway, it was a beautiful day for a drive. And I knew it was going to be a good day because Vicki got to sleep in and when I got her up, I showed her her schedule and she did a little knee slap jump up and down excited dance. :) And she only asked for her favorite song 'Dancing in the Moonlight' one time in the car and when we told her 'later' she didn't mind at all. It wasn't 'Dancing in the Moonlight, yes, Dancing in the Moonlight, yes, Dancing in the Moonlight, yes, You have to wait, Dancing in the Moonlight, yes'. You get the picture, right? But today Vicki was so happy to just be in the car and ride and ride and ride. She held onto her new little Barbie she got in her Easter basket last night for most of the trip. The only bad thing was that I had to keep looking back at her because there was a little bunny that Barbie held and yellow bunny ears that Barbie wore, and she kept trying to put them in her mouth. We did have a little moment when she dropped the bunny ears on the floor and couldn't find them, but she got over it pretty well. I was very proud of her.
I love watching all of my kids faces when they see the ocean for the first time in the distance. Their eyes dance, they start bouncing up and down in their seats, and they actually look up from their books or activities to look outside. :) Oh, I had a minor freak out... I am not a fan of bridges at all. And instead of taking the main road with the big bridge, we took a smaller side road that had a draw bridge... it scared the crap out of me... The bridge actually swivled open and then closed... The kids loved it. Me, not so much. :) But it was cool that Margaritaville was on the radio while we were crossing over the bridge to the beach.
There was no screaming or crying or not wanting to get out of the car today. :) Vicki jumped right out and was very excited to get in the elevator. We used to have trouble staying in hotels because some corridores in hotels look a lot like doctor office complexes. But she definately knows what the trip picture and the beach picture mean on her visual schedule. No doctor on the agenda today! We got to our room and the first thing Vicki did was go to the balcony, which, yet again, I am a freak about. I keep thinking she will look over the balcony and drop her glasses. :) Anyway, she pulled up a chair and parked herself on the balcony overlooking the ocean. She could have stayed there all night. I am such a big believer in the power and magic of the ocean breeze. And the power and magic of sand to exfoliate and make my feet soft. :) Anyway... I was a little nervous that Vicki wouldn't come in from the balcony. We wanted to go down to the ocean for a closer look and she did a little scream or two, and lots of people looked up from down below. She finally came in and at first didn't want to put her swimsuit on, which was so odd, Vicki loves everything about the beach. But once she was willing, she got that excited dance going full force again. :)
I have to share one of the most exciting things that happened on our beach walk this evening. Ally is my seashell girl. Joey is my digger, explorer man. And Vicki loves, loves, loves the water. Brrr.... it's a bit too chilly for my liking today! And my husband, bless his soul, holds Vicki's hand and steers her. :) Well, all of the kids tonight were enjoying writing things in the wet sand. Ally wrote her name and drew lots of hearts. Joey wrote 'Joey is awesome'. And Vicki wrote the entire alphabet. Then she did the coolest thing. And she did this without any prompting at all. She wrote, 'Ally Joey Dad Mom' in that order. Then in front of 'Ally' she wrote going from right to left, 'i-k-c-i-V which of course ended up spelling 'Vicki' and she did it starting at the i to get the spacing completely right so her name was in front of Ally's. It was amazing. (And I have to say, it took me about 2 minutes just now to spell Vicki backwards.) We were all very impressed. We almost had a little incident because Vicki wanted to go to the pool after our walk, but we were all getting pretty chilly. I must admit there was a little bribing involved with say, hot cocoa and pie. It worked. :)
What a difference a day makes! I can't wait for the sunrise in the morning!!!! Our adventure awaits us! Maybe I'll go searchin' for my lost shaker of salt. salt. salt. salt. :)
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