my kids are rockstars!

--kiddos and i just got back from our trip south. we drove 12 hours from va beach to athens, al, on the 19th. we stayed there with my aunt carroll and uncle larry at their house on the tennessee river. the first day we were pretty spent, at least i was. aidan and sierra were so happy to be out of the car, they ran around for a long time after dinner before i had to drag them to bed.

--the next day we went out on the boat on the river. aidan hadn’t been on a boat since he was 18months old…at least not a “personal” watercraft. he’d been on the touring boats out of the inlet in virginia. he loved going “big fast,” which i took as “really fast.” sierra wasn’t too sure at first of the speed, but ended up loving it so much i was holding on the back of her lifejacket as she leaned over to see the water go by. aidan liked looking at the “wave path” (the wake) that the boat was leaving behind us. :)

--we spent another night there, and the next morning we went to the nasa space center in huntsville. since aidan (still) says he will be an astronaut when he grows up, i thought it’d be a great place to take him. they both really liked it. so did carroll and i too…i hadn’t been there since i was about twelve or something. we toured the outside part with all the rockets, missiles, helicopters, etc. sierra climbed on everything that had a “do not climb” sign on it. i guess i shouldn’t be surprised by that, considering i found her this morning sitting inside her top (four drawer) dresser drawer putting all of her ponytail-holders on her fingers as rings…and no other drawers were open. how does that happen?? she must have pulled it out, done a pull up, and climbed right in. and she’s fast. i pretty much came in there right after i heard movement in their room. crazy girl...guess she's enjoying being back in her room?
--after the outside section, which also had a replica of the moon surface, we went inside. aidan and i did a simulation ride of a rover on the surface of mars. we looked at the different exhibits, many of which the kids didn’t care about…unless there were buttons and switches. they got to play in a replica of the space station, and each got to try their hand a landing the shuttle. after that we went to a 3D imax film “fly me to the moon,” about three flies that pack their suits and get in the helmets of the astronauts that first landed on the moon. pretty cute. it was the first film sierra sat through for the most part. she even let me hold her glasses on her head and she jumped nearly every time something came near her and tried to reach the flies. cute.
--after our film, we had lunch in the café and then took off on our five hour drive down to mobile. got there at dinner time and spent time with my mom and stepdad. we spent most of the rest of the week in mobile hanging out with them, my aunt connie, and going to lucedale to visit my grandparents.

--in lucedale we played inside and out, the kids loved the swing set and the dogs. sierra liked telling the dog “no, dog!” although one of the dogs got that from all of us. deedaddy and aidan played baseball, and they all looked at the cows when they came trekking through the first pasture.
--saturday, we packed up and went to dauphin island…the southern-most part of alabama. there’s a fort on the island (ft gains), with a sister fort (ft morgan) in gulf shores, that guard the entrance to mobile bay from the gulf of mexico. the whole “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” thing was at the battle of mobile bay. anyhow, we had a house on the bay side, and three condos on the gulf side…yes, my family is huge, although we still were missing many of them.

--aidan spent most of his days swimming in the pool or beach at the condos, and fishing (he tried to catch a fish for two days) and playing/wrestling with my cousins at the house. he was younger by at least five years, sometimes more, but he held his own,…minus two busted lips. i was glad that it didn’t seem that they were just accommodating him, but actually wanting to play with him and have him around. one naptime during the week scott and matthew showed up at the condo wanting aidan to come out and play. that was cute.

--sierra spent her days getting in and out of the water at the pool or beach, running around the house on the deck, trying to climb upstairs to the big kids, or playing with my cousins’ boy. that was cute. jackson is seven days older than sierra. after they got over their original shyness, they were following each other around and even competing for deedaddy-lap-space…which as a former competitor myself, is know to be valuable real estate! :)

--i spent the time chasing children, but mostly letting other people chase children while i hung out with my family, helped cook, got sunburned, read three books, and swam occasionally. one morning i went fishing with deedaddy and four of my cousins. we didn’t catch as many white trout as the group the day before, but we held our own. they were yummy the next night for sure!!
--after a week on vacation with the smith family, which i haven’t been able to attend in six years, the kids and i packed ourselves into the stuffed car and drove 950 miles home. it took 16hours to get back, but my kids are troopers. i got the occasional “are we almost there?” from aidan, and we had to stop every couple hours, but never a complaint out of the back seat. sierra cried for about 10minutes at around 9pm that night when she woke up and couldn't understand why she was still strapped in her chair in the car. we had been traveling since 7am (eastern time). so, in all fairness, i guess i understood her frustration!