Whew!

It has been a very active couple of days. The Cheeseball clan set out on Tuesday afternoon to visit family and friends in Florida. From Atlanta, we went to Bradenton, FL to see Jenny (sister to SereneMama) and her adorable son, Sam.

They (including Dave, who we weren't able to see) are the sweetest family ever. We didn't get to their home until 4am and she had no problem guiding us in and letting us crash on her floor. I worried for a moment because no one wants to wake up to let in some random friends at 4am until she assured me, she's a nursing mommy and is already up so it's no big deal. All of us crashed hard, especially Super who didn't want to sleep most of the way to FL. The babies and ladies got up early (what child will let their mothers sleep in?) and went to breakfast. Sam is such a calm baby that it was a joy to go out with him. Super on the other hand, was determined to eat every single sugar, Equal and Sweet N Low packet on the table and decided that my breakfast didn't function properly without his hand in the middle of my eggs.

So, we went back to Jenny's place to pick up Grout Daddy and off we went to the beach! I love the Gulf coast, the water is warm, the beaches are white and clean. Sam slept through the whole thing in the comfort of his carrier while Jenny, Grout Daddy and I ran after Kamikaze Super who was determined to go swimming all by himself.

He LOVED the waves and would chase them into the ocean... until they came back and chased him up the beach. We didn't bring a suit or swim diapers (because I'm never prepared) so we let him go naked. Watching him run around, bare booty, in the sand was hilarious. He would squeal and laugh and run back for more.

We only stayed on the beach for 30 minutes or so. The sun was intense and we were more than ready to take a shower and head out to Orlando. While the beach is fun, it wears the boy out and he slept the entire way to see the family. He even slept through my fun mishaps. Halfway between Tampa and Orlando, we stopped for gas. G-Daddy and Super were both sleeping so I was quietly cleaning the car of junk food wrappers and water bottles while the car was filling up with gas ($45 a tank!). Grout Daddy woke up and decided he needed a snack and thank goodness he did. In my cleaning efforts, I forgot that I left our ATM/Debit card in a plastic bag and I threw it away! Thank goodness I don't have any shame or I would have been pretty embarrassed having 7-8 strangers watch me dig in a public gas station trash can. I found the card, we got some snacks (I can't get enough Slurpees) and we headed off again!

Until I went the wrong way on the highway. When I lived in Florida, I had a really great sense of direction, all of that has gone after being in Georgia for 6 years. I no longer watch the sun and know which way I need to go home. Now I barely watch road signs and I get confused in which way is actually east or west. So, after wasting more time having to drive to the next exit to turn around, in a vehicle that was wobbly due to a bad tire and no A/C with the sun beating down on me and Super, we were gaining ground again. After reaching Orlando, Super and I got a chance to relax at my parents house while G-Daddy took the car to get fixed. Super and Tiny Tot got to explore the back yard and play with the chickens my parent have. Super loved the wind chimes and played with them as often as he could.

This was the best picture we could get of the 3 of them. The boys were not cooperating...When he came back we found out that there is nothing wrong with my radiator! To me, it's been a problem for years, not enough that I've done anything about it but enough that I had it checked out a few times and every time I heard something different that I needed to get fixed. Well, I'm glad I was never motivated to get a new radiator! We didn't have to watch the heat of the car the whole rest of the trip! Apparently, GM temperatures fluctuate and I have a back up fan! Whoo hoo! We didn't sweat the rest of the trip (and I got some awesome new tires).

Later that night at Bro's house, my Lil Sis and her boy toy Neil (good guy, he makes her really happy and they've been together almost as long as me and G-Daddy have been married) brought over her Wii and Wii Fit so we could all play. There was 6-8 of us all taking turns with the 4 controllers. Lil Sis and Neil are awesome with those things. We played Mario Kart and I attempted to use the little remote thing.... it's not as easy as it looks on TV. At one point, I thought I was getting the hang of it and was so proud that I won a race! Only to find out that I was looking at a different square the whole time and my character had actually been driving in circles and never even completed a lap. This is me embarrassed...but I was tired enough to laugh at myself and not care. I later found out that G-Daddy tried the Wii Fit and with his big feet made a fool of himself as well.... hey, we're good for a laugh. I quickly passed out on the couch while everyone was still playing. It's rough trying to hang out with young 20 somethings. I'm not old but I crash at 11pm while everyone else stayed up until 2am. Well, for those that stayed at Bro's house, they now know why I don't survive past midnight anymore and Super screaming the next morning at 7am was not the wake up call they wanted.

The next day that family went to Rock Springs, the place of our youth. When I was little, we would pile a TON of people into our vehicle and drive to this park that had a "river" that was fed by a spring that maintains temperatures from 68-72 degrees all year. We'd play for hours and have several families get together with us. Needless to say, I have some really great memories there. It wasn't a super sunny day and the park was pretty empty, too bad Super wasn't having the cold water. He did stand up in water up to his waist but was done very quickly and wanted to snuggle his freezing body up to mine. Hubby and I did manage to do the run once with Lil Sis and Neil and without Super but Grout Daddy made sure that every part of him that didn't have to be underwater wasn't. This place is called Rock Springs for a reason. I felt so bad for the man, the water was very shallow at places and there is nothing you can do to fold him into the water and he had to walk on sharp rocks. Ouch! However, we all survived and the boys had a nice nap on the way back to my Bro's house (in which I got lost getting home then too).

Friday morning I got to hang out with Big Sis and her cubs. We attempted several times to get Super to sit in a bike trailer and be pulled by one of us but he wasn't having any of it. From the time we put his feet in until I picked him back up... it was screaming, red face, sorrowful why-are-you-doing-this-to-me looks and trying to climb out of a it. This nifty contraption is very similar to something my mom used to use when we were little to go on bike rides and get Slurpees, I was sure Super would love it, oh well. Next time we go, I think I'm going to climb in the back of it just for old times. I was shocked when I tried to ride a bike after not being on one for so long, I was wobbly and awkward and got made fun of. However, it wasn't a "normal" bike so I didn't feel too bad about myself. Especially after finding out that the person who was making fun of me, looked just as stupid when she first attempted to ride. So instead of riding bikes to the park, I took Super in the car and we went to watch my father fly his model airplanes. It was fun to watch and interesting to see how many people actually fly models for a hobby. One guy even crash landed on a trash can. So funny!

This pic stolen from Big Sis's blog, MassageMama pulling Tiny Tot and BubbleBooty.


Afterwards we went back to my Bro's house (where we were staying) so Super could nap and I could pick up G-Daddy whom I left to sleep in. The boy got some sleep and I got to sit around and get to know Bro's new gal, Danielle. She is adorable and I totally love her. She's Brazilian and Jewish and I love that combination in her. Hilarious stories about her two sides of the family, she has crazy from every angle. She is quite talkative but I think a lot of that was just nerves. I'm really glad that his taste is getting better as he gets older. Heck, my taste was terrible when I was young and it only got better so I'm not saying anything negative, I just really like her and I hope she sticks around for a while (as long as Bro is happy). This girl graduated college at 20! She has a big brain and isn't afraid to use it. These two would not take a good picture! They ganged up on me but HA HA I posted their funny pictures on my blog! This was at Starbucks right before we left town.

We had dinner with the family that night. 9 or 10 of us around the dinner table, elbow to elbow, enjoying some ribs (oh my gosh, no one cooks better meat than my parents, seriously) and yummy sides. Super is a pretty good eater and chowed down... until he dropped some food on the floor by accident. The next words out of his mouth were not my fault! That food hit the floor and he reacted with "Oh S***!" All of the talking stopped as everyone laughed like crazy. Which, of course, is encouraging for a little boy that likes to be the center of attention. We couldn't get him to stop saying it. Oh well, like grandmother like grandson. S### was my mothers first word and my grandmother couldn't get her to stop either. *Sigh* I'm going to have to watch my mouth better.

It was a fun family night. The boys wouldn't cooperate in taking a nice picture. But me and my sisters did! Aren't we adorable!

Big Sis, Cheeseball, Lil Sis.

Uncle Grout Guy and BubbleBooty Annie Bananie!

We tried to take a fun picture with the 3 kids in a bucket. Nope, the boys dove out as soon as we put them in there.

Miss Annie and Lil Sis, BubbleBooty can't keep her tongue in her mouth.

It's so adorable because she was like this the whole time. At first I didn't think she liked me very much (I've really only met her twice before) until I put her on my shoulders and trotted her around a bunch of times and from then on, she loved me. She is so soft and snugly and would crawl around the house looking to be entertained. Apparently, this child is the spitting image of me when I was a baby (she really is) and seems to have a similar temperament as me and Super. She is in for one heck of a life! It's gonna be awesome! I had to laugh when my father said that he really didn't know why we call Super the Great Destroyer. We really watched that kid while we were there and he only managed to shatter one thing the whole time. I was very proud of him. Plus, he was very preoccupied with this exercise ball that MassageMama has. It looks like a regular ball that you buy at a grocery store but it's 8lbs. Super would pick it up and bring it to me or he's throw it as far as he could (which wasn't much) but he never gave up. Tiny Tot aka Alex tried to take it from him but it ended up on the floor with Tiny saying "It's too heaby! It's too heaby!" Oh my goodness, it's so cute. Super is just a monster, he's been lugging around gallons of water since he was old enough to walk. I have to watch out because that kid is going to constantly surprise me.

Alas, the next day we had to leave. So G-Daddy, Me, Super, Danielle and Bro went to Starbucks for a quick frap before we hit the road. We decided to try a different way home so we could stop at the beach again for some more fun in the sun. So we went up the east coast and arrived in Savannah. We finally find a beach and it took an hour to get there, we sit in traffic, can't find a place to park, we finally find some where and we stepped out of car just in time to have a few drops of fat, cold rain hit us. Poor Super was so sick of being in the car but it POURED so we made it to the beach, just only to the parking lot. Then we had to sit in traffic for another 2 hours trying to leave. Ugh, I'm never going to Savannah again. We tried to go once on our honeymoon but we're cursed and there was a hurricane that time. So after being rained out twice, I'm not going back, I'll stick to FL beaches.

We finally got home and crashed! It was a fun break and good vacation. It's awesome to see how much everyone is growing and growing up. I can't wait to get everyone together again!