The Long Drive Home

This is actually a photo of granddaddy’s new ride taken a few days before, but it illustrates the view we had this entire day. Our hotel reservations ran through Saturday night and the boys had to be in school Monday morning, so we had to make the drive home in one day, something we had done many times before. The 800 mile drive usually takes 13 to 14 hours with stops, but we had trouble from the start. The interstate was a parking lot for a couple of hours due to a gruesome accident just south of Ocala. By lunch we had only made it as far as Gainesville. The afternoon flowed better, but we only made it as far as McDonough, just south of Atlanta by suppertime. After a quick meal we pushed on and were delayed again south of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It was so late on this Sunday night that we breezed through Nashville and had almost made it home when we were stopped by an accident right on the Daviess County line where a car was on fire. After a 30 minute delay, we continued home arriving at 1:30 am. It had been an 18-1/2 hour drive. We won’t be doing that again.

Orange Blossom Cannonball

Everybody who knows us knows our boys love trains. They have seen trains in 38 states and ridden trains in many of those locations, but they had never ridden a real, full-sized steam train until today. Grandma Karen made special reservations for us to ride the Orange Blossom Cannonball. We originally planned to catch the train in Tavares, Florida, but a festival caused a traffic stalemate, so we drove on to Mount Dora to board the round trip. This tourist train runs between the two cities. It was a beautiful day and the temperature was just right for this authentic open air passenger coach. It gave us a real sense of the excitement of 19^th Century travel.

Pirate's Dinner Adventure

This morning we attended one of those presentations where Hilton wanted to sell us a timeshare, and one of the parting gifts was dinner at Pirate’s Dinner Adventure. I was really excited by this opportunity because I fondly remember visiting a pirate themed restaurant in Florida when I was about 7-years old. This place was fun! Guests are seated around a replica 18^th-century Spanish galleon anchored in a 300,000-gallon indoor lagoon with sky lighting. The show includes a dozen actors, singers and stunt performers engaged in a bounty of action-packed exploits. It was loud and entertaining! The boys loved it!

Happy Birthday Sandy!

One of the best things about spending Spring Break in Florida is the opportunity for Sandy to celebrate her birthday with her parents. This was our last day at their house, and we spent the day by the pool just unwinding and relaxing, which is something that Sandy truly needed. The grands treated us to a nice dinner at a seafood restaurant and then cake and ice cream back at their house. Sandy’s sister Kristin even called her with birthday greetings. It was a wonderful day!

Airboat Ride

Grandma and Granddaddy Roe planned an exciting adventure on Wednesday when they treated us to an airboat tour through the everglades. Caption Bill of Marsh Landing Adventures took us out from Shingle Creek on a 6-passenger boat into the swamps to find alligators.  Along the way, he stopped at various intervals to share Central Florida history and point out various varieties of plants and wildlife. The boys were excited to see several nests of baby alligators and we were all thrilled to see a few of their granddaddies measuring some 14 feet in length. It was a great day!

Lego Land

On Tuesday we visited Lego Land, which is just a few miles from the grandparents’ home. This was our second visit to this park, which we first visited almost exactly three years ago. Just the four of us went this time as the grandparents had a few previous appointments. It was interesting to see the difference in the boys approach to this park. Where they were tentative as 4-year olds, they were daring as 7-year olds, which made the experience much more enjoyable for them this time. Before long their adventurous spirit will take them to extremely thrilling rides to their great delight, but they’ll have to go alone. Daddy personally draws the line at entry level roller coasters.

A Day at the Beach

On previous visits to the Roe grandparents’ house in Florida, we visited the beach at Saint Petersburg on the Gulf side. Over Easter dinner the idea emerged to visit the beach on the ocean side, allowing the boys their first dip in the Atlantic. Grandma Karen suggest going to Vero Beach, which was about 100 miles southeast. It was a great idea and choice. On the day we visited the crowds were minimal, the weather was wonderful and the surf was exciting!

Benchmark

We took this photo just before we left for vacation. Today the boys are 7 years and 4 months old. They are happy, active first graders, who are discovering much about this big world. The first grade curriculum these days is amazing. It’s been a while, but my first year of school was nothing like this. I remember the ABC’s and 123’s and reading very basic “Dick and Jane” stories. Our boys read a simple book every day, are read to and tested every day, can add, subtract, multiply and divide, can draw and sing. Davey struggles with a short attention span and to always talk clearly. Benji struggles with some testing anxiety and with confidence. However, they are each excellent students overall and well-liked by their teachers and friends.

Easter Sunday

It was an absolutely beautiful Easter Sunday morning today in Florida. Everyone dressed appropriate for the heat and looked wonderful. Sandy’s parents are members of First Presbyterian Church of Haines City. It is a beautiful and modern church just a few miles from their home. Easter is the best attended service in most Christian churches, but especially so in Florida. The friends and realities come for a spring visit just before the “snowbirds” leave. We had a wonderful time and quite enjoyed the sermon and music in “big” church while the boys enjoyed games in Sunday School. Giving thanks is a wonderful way to start a vacation. 

Game Ready!

Part of the reason we left for Florida on Friday afternoon was to insure we made it to the Grands’ house safely before the Saturday night tip off of the Kentucky/Wisconsin Final Four Game. Kentucky had had a dream season in 2014-15 and had entered this contest with a perfect 38-0 record. For some time the experts had said the only team who might be able to beat UK was Wisconsin. It was a close game and UK had their chances, but couldn’t make the shots late to win. I’m so glad we had this vacation to take our minds off of coming up two games short of a historic perfect season. We are still proud of our cats!

Get 'em and Go

Our daily routine on Sutton School days has me dropping the boys off at 7:30 am every morning and picking them up every afternoon at 3:00 pm, but today was a little different. On this sunny afternoon Sandy was with me in our new minivan, fully loaded and ready to head south for spring break. It is a long haul to the grandparent’s house in Florida, and we elected to break the driving trip into two days with a stopover in Calhoun, Georgia. We called ahead and made a hotel reservation, which turned out to be prudent as the highways were crowded with vacation travelers. The drive was difficult through heavy rain, and it sure was nice to have a new vehicle with excellent windshield wipers.  We didn’t arrive until 11:00 pm our time, which was midnight local time.  Thank goodness for modern conveniences.

Edds Minivan 3.0

Whoever designed the minivan had a family with small children, that’s for sure. While not sexy, it is the perfect tool for family transportation. Before minivans, families usually chose station wagons for this duty, and while they were more functional than a sedan, the hauling capacity was still limited. My family had a full sized van, which could haul a ton, but was uncomfortable and more difficult to park than a car. Our minivans seats seven comfortably and can haul a lot including our camper. We purchased our first one, a basic Dodge Caravan, just after the boys were born. After about three years, we updated to this white 2005 Chrysler Town and County. It has been a good one for 4 years and 38 states, so we chose a 2014 T&C for the family adventures ahead.

Our New Car

We’ve waited a long time and saved our money to buy a new car. Yesterday we finally took delivery! Here’s my dream car – a new Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat! Equipped with all the bells and whistles it costs as much as a small house. Powered by a supercharged 6.2L HEMI with 707 HP and 650 lb-ft of Torque v-8 engine, this baby has a top speed of 204 mph and do a quarter mile in 11 seconds. This car is AWESOME!

Final Swimming Lesson

Today was the boys’ final swimming lesson for a while. We will take a break during the rest of baseball season, which tends to dominate their schedule for about 6 weeks. Most sessions are twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Thursdays for 45 minutes each. This session was different for us as the Y allowed us to attend two sessions on Tuesdays back to back. This would allow us to attend baseball practice on Thursdays (we had no idea there would be so many rain outs). Going back to back required much more effort and was an endurance challenge, but our boys completed the task with smiles and always slept well on Tuesday nights.

Extreme Decorating

Each month, our Pack 10 members are decorated to mark the accomplishments they have earned over the last 30 days. Tonight, each of our twins received a uniform makeover with a large number of new rewards. Awards come in the form of belt loops, pins, discs and patches. Sandy was responsible for helping them earn these many commendations, and unfortunately, she will now have the unenviable task of having to sew, pin and otherwise attach all these items to their uniforms. No good deed goes unpunished. 

My Snuggle Buddy

In our normal routine, there is a wind down period between 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm every night. At about 7:00 pm the boys take turns showering to wash away the day’s dirt. (It’s hard to believe people just a few decades ago commonly bathed just once a week.) After they have each put on their pajamas and brushed their teeth, the boys usually relax to a bedtime story read by their mother. Benji usually showers first, and then during Davey’s bathroom time my mini-me climbs into bed and snuggles next to his daddy. I love his clean smell and warm closeness. It is our special time to just hang out together and watch TV.

Frozen Home

With so many baseball practice rain outs this spring, Coach Hood wanted desperately to have an Orioles workout this morning. There were clear skies and the sun was shining brightly, but unfortunately the temperature on this crisp Saturday morning was just 24 degrees with a northerly wind blowing a biting wind chill. The players tried courageously to play through the cold. Several slipped on their batting gloves to keep their hands warm, but then found they couldn't grip the baseball well enough to throw it. The cold wind found its way around hoodies and up warm-up pants to create an unbearable situation for the seven year olds. After 20 minutes the coach conceded and another practice opportunity was lost. This is why the Major Leaguers hold spring practice in Florida.

Library Escape

You would think that living just one block away from the Daviess County Public Library would encourage our constant attendance, but the fact is that we underutilize this wonderful resource. Now that the boys are getting older, this will change. Certainly the library offers more to curious youngsters who can read, and now we have two of those. In addition to train books, they boys have shown increased interest in cowboys, animals and automobiles. In addition to books, the library offers a playroom full of educational toys. We needed to get out of the house recently, so I brought the boys over to the library where I read a book while Davey made some new friends playing with a Thomas train set and Benji built this interesting gear-mobile.

Bowling Badge

We took off our baseball cleats Monday night and laced up our bowling shoes. The boys’ scout den had an outing to Diamond Lanes South to bowl a game and earn a merit badge. We drove to the lanes directly from baseball practice. This was really exciting to the twins because ever since they bowled the first time with the OMOMs last year, they have been bugging us to go bowling again. For the little guys the venue raises the gutter guards to keep the balls on the alley. Even with this advantage, the boys were awful, and for once I let them go. We can develop better techniques later when they’re stronger. On this night, Benji finished strong to beat Davey 75-72. They finished 3^rd and 4^th in their group, but had a wonderful time. 

Between Practice Practice

This has been a very wet spring. Almost every practice has been rained out, which makes it really difficult to prepare for the coming season. The league has a prepared practice-field schedule, so if it rains on your scheduled time, you can’t just postpone practice to the next day. Davey and Benji need to practice, so today we bundled up after school and headed to the diamond. We’ve done this several times, and the boys really enjoy it when Daddy hits the ball and “runs” to first base. They LOVE getting me out! And, they really rub it in. Forget that I’m hitting the ball directly to them. Forget that I’m walking to base at a brisk pace and slowing down for close plays to give them the out. My boys LOVE to “bust my chops” with every out they make. If it motivates them and improves their game, bust away!