The Lion, The Witch, and The....Booboo.

This past weekend we had the pleasure of going to Camp Kulaqua for a church retreat. Camp Kulaqua, which is owned by the Florida Conference of our church, is the equivalent of Camp Winnekeag that I frequented as a kid (side bar here...I had NO idea the cost of camp was now in the $350 - $400 range.  Holy Cow!).  However, it definitely has a leg up on Winnekeag considering it has its own water park and zoo.  The strange this is that I've lived here almost 14 years and haven't been there once.  It's not that far away really - - about a 2 1/2 drive just to the north of Gainesville.

Duncan was able to get out of work early and we set off at nap time for the drive which went uneventfully for us but presented a slight problem for Jennifer and the boys when her car started overheating or something like that.  Fortunately the Isidros were with them and Alan was able to diagnose the problem and they were able to continue on at a slower pace.

Our accommodations had the fancy name of a mini-lodge.  It had three bedrooms on the bottom and one larger one on the second floor.  We choose the one on the bottom that also had a door to the outside (remember this fact).  We stayed with the Isidros and Jennifer and her boys so we ended up with an extra bedroom that the girls bunked together in.

Our mini-lodge

Our room.

We had supper at a nearby diner.

Vespers at the fire bowl.  Nothing like a fire when it's 85 degrees out!

The kids had a tough time falling asleep and I even had to drive Brady around in the van to get him to sleep.  He ended up waking up again around 11 and just came out with the adults for some conversation for a good while before finally going back to sleep.  And then it was up again at about 6:30.  He and I and then eventually Braelyn hung out enjoying (see the spin I put on it) the early morning hours while everyone else slept...That is, until a mysterious figure appeared from down the hall.  A ghost?  An angel?  A witch?  No, just an old lady in a long white nightgown roaming our hall looking for the bathroom.  The only way in was the door in our bedroom.  I was astounded. She finished her business, came out, and headed in the same direction until I said "Ah, excuse me.  Would you mind going out the front since there are people sleeping in that room back there?" I mean, who comes into a strange house, finds people sleeping in a room, and continues on?  When I asked Duncan about it later, he said he woke up and couldn't figure out why I was looking in the closet and then peering into the bathroom.  He didn't have his contacts in so I suppose its understandable that he would confuse me with a 70-year old women.  But yes, she didn't just walk through.  She stopped and looked all around the room and saw our bathroom in the room but couldn't get past the stuff blocking the door.  We eventually determined that she was staying in a tent nearby and can only surmise that she couldn't make it to the public facilities.  I think the bottom line to this story is that, when I'm 70, I better not be at a church campout in some tiny tent with no bathroom.  Ain't gonna happen.  Anyway, it gave us a good laugh. (By the way, I had locked the back door when I went to bed but apparently the door hadn't been shut all the way or something).

The rest of the day went great.  We had breakfast at the Deininger chalet where Lisa and I were in charge or breakfast preparations.  There were six of us families of friends and we split the three meals up by families of two.  This was to avoid paying the exorbitant prices to eat at the cafe.  Actually, I'm sure it was reasonable if you consider it "eating out" but at $9/adult and $8/kid, we weren't about to drop like $150 just for eating over the weekend (and that's excluding Aubree who didn't have to pay yet).  We did, however, eat at the cafe for Sabbath lunch and it was delicious.  After lunch, we paid a visit to the zoo where we saw many, many monkeys, a bear, a tiger, and yes, a lion who was pacing his cage and eyeing us up.  He did seem particularly antsy or maybe some would call it playful.  We also visited the nature center which held a huge python and Calleigh quickly pointed out that this is the one that could eat a deer.  Yes, I did show her the picture of the one that ate one in the Everglades.  When we got back to our cabin, I couldn't find my iPhone and I got that panicky feeling.  I figured that I must have left it at the sink in the nature center where the kids had been washing their hands after touching a snake (NOT the python).  Duncan hastily went back and sure enough, there it was.  Thank goodness this was a church retreat!

Sabbath afternoon crafts

The pacing lion.

The girls did not want to touch the snake but as soon as they heard Brady had (with Dad's help, of course), they both went over and petted it fast as they could.

For supper that night, Allen and William cooked up some Mexican food for Cinco de Mayo and it was fantastic.  I noted this was the anniversary of the last time I ate meat and I was very careful to make sure that  there was no repeat.  All good, I think.  Allen had gotten a pinata for the kids to whack away at and that was loads of fun.  Calleigh ended up being the first kid to do some damage to the thing when it broke off from the top and fell to the ground.  She burst out into tears even though people were yelling and excited.

All the kids, minus the three youngest (Maddy, Kohlden, and Brady).  As you can see, we need a few girls added to the ranks.

All kids went to bed quickly that night (no naps for the girls) and I myself was exhausted and didn't manage to stay up much past 11.  The next morning we ate breakfast at the Z's chalet where Amy and Jennifer were in charge.  Another great meal.  Then, the Grodack mobile had to leave because the girls had a date with Grandma and Grandpa to see "The Lion King" musicale at 1:00 pm.  The timing was unfortunate because we didn't get to stay and do the water park or ride the go-carts or ponies but we promised we would do it next year.  Duncan and I were happy to get back anyway because we had some house hunting to do.  We let the girls watch "The Lion King" movie on the way back since we had been advised that the musicale would have more meaning if they had seen the movie.  Well, about an hour into it, Calleigh yells from the back that she doesn't want to watch it any more because it has bad words in it (namely, stupid).  So that was that.  Fortunately, she didn't have a problem with watching the musicale and it was reported that she watched intently the whole time.  Aubree, on the other hand, got a little disengaged at the end but she's only two after all.

The whole crew having breakfast.

Fooling around with Rob...future father-in-law?  I did discover Luke is left handed so he's gone up a notch even.

Brady played in the shower while I packed. 

We've had a pretty uneventful week since then.  Some of the week has been spent working on the girls' birthday party which will be taking place on Sunday.  Calleigh has been in "counting down" mode for about the last three weeks and pretty much anyone we run into, anywhere, she's quick to inform them that her birthday is in only nine days or whatever number we're on.

The one eventful thing that occured was that on Wednesday, Aubree had her first swimming lesson.  Calleigh had done her private lessons with Zoe from The Swim Squad last year and since it was such a rousing success, I decided to skip the Y with Aubree (which Calleigh did at three) and just go right to the private lessons.  The great thing is that Zoe is now working on her own so the lessons are cheaper.  I was a little concerned at how this would go since Aubree is, how shall I say it, a bit more of a clinger, whiner, a baby, than I remember Calleigh being at this age.  My fears were unfounded, fortunately.  She hooked right on to Zoe and was talking to her a mile a minute like they were best friends.  She did everything Zoe had her do which was a lot of feet kicking and blowing bubbles.  So it's off to a good start.

The other big thing was that on Tuesday, Calleigh suffered a little mishap.  We were walking to get the mail and she had skipped on ahead.  Suddenly she came running back holding her cheek and crying and reports that she had fallen on the sidewalk. Sure enough, she had fallen right on her face or something because there was a big scrape under her right eye and also on her forward.  All I could think of was, thank goodness it wasn't the teeth!  I have this extreme paranoia (I think ever since I saw Shiloh Jolie-Pitt with her gap toothed smile) about something happening to their teeth.  Her knee and elbow were also damaged.  Thankfully she was able to walk back to the house or I'm not sure what I would have done.  I certainly couldn't carry her back and push Brady in the stroller at the same time.  Anyway, the scrape looks a lot worse than it did at first and I'm sure it will be there for a good while.  I'm a picker but I vow not to pick the scab.  We need that thing all healed up in time for wedding on June 17.  

It looks WAY worse now.

We've been doing a little more house hunting but we're in a bit of a lull right now.  I think people were under the impression that we had looked at hundreds of houses but just couldn't make up our minds.  But the truth is, we've now looked at the insides of a total of only eight houses.  Duncan has been looking at houses on line for months and months so it probably just seems like we've been searching for a really long time.  We aren't in a big hurry so we don't mind being patient.  Last Thursday, we went and looked at six (including one we had seen before) after Duncan got out of work which was quite an adventure with the kids.  Calleigh has actually been excited about looking at them (even wanting to know if we were going to be on House Hunters).  However, when I had asked her about how exciting it would be to get a new house, she pouted and said, "I don't want to buy a new house because then you won't have any money to get me any birthday presents."  

Look at those cabinets in the kitchen!  If only the rest of the house were as nice.

The girls loved this swing at one place but clearly if we were to get this place, there would need to be another swing.  They almost came to blows over it.

Brady is now 11 months and I wish I could say he's growing like a weed but I don't know that it would be a true statement.  I can't really weigh him any more on the baby scale because he moves around too much.  He often out eats the girls now so I know he's getting food in him.  The nursing has actually been going much better the last few weeks and I can see the end in sight...my goal is to get to 12 months at the least. I'll go longer if he cooperates but I will not, however, be the lady on the front of Time Magazine with the suckling 3-year old son, I'm certain.  For the record, I fully support anyone, myself included, to nurse a 3-year old.  What I do find repulsive, is to go on the front of a magazine and display it.  Incidentally, Brady developed a cough a few weeks ago and I started to think "Here we go again" but it seems to have petered out on its own.  Thank goodness.

Before I close, I have to take a moment to talk about my husband.  Since I'm sure he won't mention it, I have to say that he was promoted to Assistant Vice President.  I'm so proud!  Nine years ago he started off working at the hospital as a volunteer while he finished his degree.  He's come a long way since then.  I am so very blessed to have such a hard working husband who takes such good care of us and supports my being home with our brood.  And he's pretty cute too to boot.  Man, I do have it all.

On that note, good night and have a Happy Sabbath.  

"Is my face red?"  She asks me as she sucks on her lollipop from her wedding goodie bag.  They took a few licks and then put it away and I threw it out the next day when they forgot all about it.  That was a big sucker!

How they fell asleep last night.

Looks whose Dad went to Apple!

Relaxing at Grandma and Grandpa's pool with Daddy this afternoon.

Calleigh is OBSESSED with taking movies and pictures of herself on my iPhone.  Forget games and movies.  This is all she wants to do now.