It's a Hard Knock Life

Yesterday I took the kids to play tennis. Baylie loves to play, Jalen not so much. We were getting ready to leave when somehow Jalen tripped over his own feet, failed to catch himself or break his fall and face planted directly on his nose and mouth. I was on the other side of the court and just remembering what it looked like when his head hit the concrete makes me cringe. He got up bloody and screaming. It took me a while to calm him down and assess the damage.

I had to push his bike with one hand and put my other arm around him to guide him home while trying to keep Baylie from freaking out. By the time we made it home and I got him cleaned up, he looked like this.

His lip was so swollen he had trouble breathing and he couldn't talk very well. He sounded like he had a bad cold. He had knocked three teeth loose, his nose was scraped up and his lip was bleeding. He was hurting pretty badly. I coated him in Neosporin and Anbesol. Unfortunately, David works late on Thursdays, so he didn't get home until after Jalen was asleep. We had Jalen sleep between us so we could keep an eye on him.

This morning he looked like this.

His nose looked pretty bad and his lip was still really swollen. We were worried about him getting bumped at recess or PE and decided it would be better for him to stay home. I'm pretty sure he's going to lose his front two teeth. Thank goodness they aren't permanent. He mostly laid around and watched TV, which is a big sign that he's not himself. He also took a pretty good nap.

The swelling has mostly gone down so now we're just doctoring the nose and hoping it doesn't scar, especially since he scars easily. And we're waiting for the teeth to fall out.

He a tough little nut, poor guy.

Starting School

The first day of school came way too fast. Baylie was very excited, Jalen was nervous. I was a little heartbroken. I think David just took it all in stride. 

On Sunday, David gave the kids father's blessings. I love this time of year when he exercises his priesthood to bless our children. It brings a special spirit into our home. Afterwards he gave me a blessing too. When he was finished with mine, we were surprised to see that Jalen had tears in his eyes. He said, "I'm glad you got married." It was very tender.

We asked the kids what they were most excited about. They both said they were excited to do school work. We asked what they were the most nervous about. Baylie said she was nervous about making friends. She tends to have social anxiety. Jalen said he was nervous because we wouldn't be there. It broke my heart a little.

We woke up early to be sure and have time for pictures and videos. David likes to do a brief interview on video before the first day of school. Baylie's video can be viewed HERE. Jalen's can be viewed HERE.

The traditional picture on the porch.

They are really happy with their lunch boxes.

Baylie was very excited to get Mrs. Price. We know some kids who had her last year and the kids and parents love her. Plus Baylie already has some friends in the class. It's going to be a great year.

Jalen had met Mrs. Roberts over the summer when she came to our home to work with him. We knew right away that she was the perfect teacher for him. As an added bonus, Mrs. Chambers in the kindergarten aid and she was the aid for Baylie as well. We already love her. He is in the best class possible for him.

Mrs. Roberts even sent us pictures of him during his first day. I was so grateful for that. His smile is a little forced here.

But this picture put my heart at ease because my little boy loves to play.

They both loved their first day of school. I have to confess that I liked having the house stay clean. There was no arguing and no one asking me to do anything. It was strange. It reminded me of when I first got home from my mission and didn't know what to do with myself. When Grammy asked them what their favorite thing was, Baylie said writing and Jalen said recess.

Kindergarten is all day here, which I think is kind of brutal. They only start half the class at a time. Jalen had school Wednesday, but then didn't have school on Thursday when the other half of the class went. So we went to the zoo. It was fun spending one last day with just me and my guy.

We like to start on the garden side and catch the train over to the zoo side. There was hardly anyone at the zoo.

We rode the carousel a few times.

We fed the birds. (Jalen chickened out at the last minute.)

I can never understand why my kids seem to be more interested in the fake animals than the real ones.

It was a fun day, but Jalen was ready to go back to school on Friday.

There was a back to school activity a little before the first day. The kids got to go inside of an ambulance, fire truck and a tank. I had never seen inside a tank before. It was pretty cool!

It's been a long time since I wrote a poem, but I wrote this one.

First Day of School

Take your time, they said.

Enjoy every moment.

It will be over before you know it.

They grow up so fast.

I tried, I really tried.

I held her all day. Every day.

I hugged him.

And filled his life with adventure.

And still the time passed

Too quickly. Way too fast.

My house is clean. And quiet.

And I find myself missing chaos.

On the Road Again

We got up thinking we'd have a leisurely morning swimming and packing, but at about 9:15 we realized that checkout time was 10 a.m. Whoops! David took the kids swimming while me and my parents rushed to pack everything up. We finished at about 10:10, just as the cleaning lady knocked on the door. 

The drive home is normally 6 1/2 hours, but we decided to take a more scenic route in order to enjoy the ocean view. The first few hours were pouring rain and we actually couldn't see much of anything ocean-wise.

David loved how the palm trees just grew wild around the other vegetation.

 The rain had calmed down a bit and we came to Datona Beach.

We decided to stop and wade around a bit. The sand was really hard. It also had a blue tint to it. It was quite different from any we had seen before.

Once it cleared up a little, the view was fantastic. We were along the coast for quite a ways.

Beach houses.

Eventually we came to St. Augustine. It was a very picturesque town with a beautiful lighthouse keeper's home. We all agreed we'd love to go back and spend more time. My sister and her husband went there for their honeymoon.

I thought this pine tree growing up in the middle of the oak tree was interesting.

Cool buildings in St. Augustine.

Castillo de San Marcos - the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States.

Castle Ottis looks like an ancient building, but its not. It was actually contructed in the 80's.

It ended up taking us until almost 10 p.m. (about 10 1/2 hours), but the drive was worth it. It was truly beautiful. On the way to Disney, I realized that I was seeing a huge variety of license plates. I decided to start keeping track. I saw plates from all but 12 states: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. I also saw plates from Quebec and Ontario.

My mom and dad flew home today a little before 6 a.m. We headed to the airport a little before 5. I'm amazed at all they do considering they are over 70 years old. They don't look it so sometimes I forget that they can't do everything the same way they used to. I hope I can do even half of what they do when I'm their age. My parents are so good to us. My children love them so much.

It has been a crazy, busy summer, but it has been the best summer ever. We have had so much fun and have spent so much time with family. There is nothing I would rather do. I can't believe that school starts in a few short days. I'm not even close to being ready, especially for early morning seminary!

Final Day at Disney

Jalen woke up Thursday morning and asked, "Is it another Disney Day?" Unfortunately, it was time to go home, but Wednesday had been another fantastic Disney Day - our last one.

We were going to take the monorail because on Monday the ferry took so long, but ironically, the ferry was much faster. It may have been because we got an earlier start and got to the park just as it was opening. 

We have worn matching shirts every day and have had people comment on them every day. But the bright shirts we wore yesterday were definitely the biggest hit. The designs were Mickey ears shaped like Tinkerbell for the girls and Tigger for the boys. I had at least three people ask me where we bought them.

We had afternoon fast passes for Peter Pan's Flight, Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. Normally we book the fast passes for the morning so we can get more after we use them, but because I had changed ours so late, only afternoon times were available. We wanted to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and the lines are always long, so we headed there very first thing. Unfortunately, it was having a mechanical problem and was closed down. We were afraid that if we did't wait in line, we wouldn't ever get to ride it so my parents sacrificed and stood in line while the rest of us did rides that were close by.

We rode the Prince Charming Regal Carousel. (I cracked my shin on the foot rest and it still hurts!)

We were joined by Cinderella's wicked step mother and sisters.

Afterwards Baylie got their autographs. These were the only autographs we got all day. I'm so glad my kids don't care about getting autographs. We had asked them before we even came if they would rather wait in line for rides or autographs. They chose rides - YAY! (That being said, I think every little girl needs to meet the princesses at least once and Jalen did say he would have liked a Power Rangers Sing a Long.)

We rode the teacups again.

Disney has some awesome play areas where kids can play while parents wait in line. The ones we saw were at the Winnie the Pooh ride, Dinoland and this one at Dumbo.

Dumbo is always a classic favorite.

I am not a good selfie taker.

Trying to pull the sword from the stone.

Family photo ops.

My mother has never met a stranger! Here she is making friends on the People Mover.

More people movers.

I ate a chocolate banana EVERY DAY! This was a favorite when I was a kid. The past few times I bought one at Disneyland, they were way too hard and I couldn't even bite into it. The ones at Disney World were PERFECT. I was in heaven. Another favorite is churros. We were buying three churros to share and the cast member told us he liked us and so he gave us two extra churros for free. Awesome! In all my times at Disney, I've never had that happen before.

We rode It's a Small World again. I love this ride. It's a classic, plus you can relax and cool off. It was kind of weird to have it start inside instead of being a huge outside ride like at Disneyland.

This girl and her poses!

My dad calls this part of It's a Small World the Celestial Kingdom.

Woody and Jessie from far away.

Buzz Lightyear a little closer up.

Riding the rails.

Jalen "read" this sign for us. It says you can sit, but not dance on the train.

Waiting for the Electric Light Parade. We sat up on the balcony at the end of Main Street. It was a great place to watch the parade and the Celebrate the Magic light show. We had to get there early and really hold on to our spot because people get pretty pushy once it gets close to show time.

Baylie had wanted to stay until the park closed at midnight, but she and Jalen were both too exhausted. We left at 10:00 p.m. They fell asleep eating popcorn and watching t.v. in bed. I think that was their favorite part of staying in the hotel.

Our Disney Days were so perfect. It was wonderful. It was crazy hot and humid - much more so than in South Carolina, but about the same as Houston - but we just ignored the sweat and heat and had fun anyway. There are some things I like better about Disney World and some I like better about Disneyland. The Magic Kingdom park at Disney World is much more compact than Disneyland. It's a lot easier to get from one side of the park to the other. I missed things like New Orleans Square, but it was nice that when there was a short line, we could get there quickly even if it was on the other side of the park.

We didn't have to wait in long lines. We had one 40 minute wait for Thunder Mountain Railroad the first day and my mom and dad had to wait over an hour for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train to get fixed. Other than that, we only had 20-25 minute waits. I think we rode every ride in the Magic Kingdom. We did the best rides in Animal Kingdom. We missed Soarin' in Epcot and the Rock 'n Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios. There was nothing else I would have wanted to do. I'm amazed at all we were able to accomplish.

We didn't do a meal plan (you can't do one unless you stay in a Disney property), but I think we saved a lot of money that way. We ate breakfast before we headed to the park, packed in a lunch and ate dinner in the park two nights and Chick-fil-a the other night. We had ice cream every day. I packed in snacks like fruit leather, dehydrated fruit, cookies, etc. We had our own water bottles that we just kept refilling (although the water was warm and not terribly refreshing).

I went back and found a picture of myself the last time I was at Disney World about 12 years ago. I was shocked when I looked at the pictures from the last visit. I knew that my energy level this trip was so much higher. My feet didn't hurt, I could fit on any ride I wanted to and didn't have to worry that the seat belt wouldn't fit. I was able to walk all day without getting tired. It was a completely different experience. There was one point where I was holding Jalen on my shoulders and my feet started killing me. I realized that I used to carry twice that amount around on my poor feet.

I noticed so many obese people at Disneyland. Many of them were on motarized scooters. I wondered if they were disabled or just unable to move themselves around the park all day. I'm so grateful that I am not one of them because I know that without this surgery, I would have become one of them eventually.

Because of my surgery, I am able to be the mother that I always wanted to be. I am able to keep up with my children. I am able to share their joys. I am able to more fully participate in my life and theirs.

Truly this was a perfect vacation.