Road Trips

We've been busy the last few days. On Friday, the kids and I headed out to Clermont to see Cindy and Field one last time before new baby Zach is born. Those Farrars sure know how to party... for toddlers, that is. They had one of those huge blown up water slides for the kids to play on. Field was a natural, and had to show my scared kids how to climb up the thing and slide down. It took James a while to want to get wet and climb up there, but after the first slide down, he was hooked. Kaitlyn was the one that needed my help climbing the foot hole/handle slippery wall. Of course, I didn't bring a bathing suit either, so I got pretty wet. Nothing a good ol' hot Florida day can't fix. I was dry in about 1.4 seconds. Cindy and I watched the kids play while we caught up, then we had lunch time. Kaitlyn even got to have a nap in the big guest bed. What a big girl!
James was incredibly sad to have to leave Field... he cried, and cried, and cried. He's getting back into (has he ever NOT been in to?) the tantrum phase. Kicking, screaming, all of that hullabaloo. It's crazy. Nathan and I try to talk him down most of the time, but in this instance, he needed to go chill on the "naughty spot" for a few minutes. Man, he's getting strong and heavy!
On Saturday, Nathan and the kids and I drove to Lakeland to see Trippi and the rest of the McGlinn family (Toby, Madey and Tobyn). I was originally going to go down by myself to photograph their family, but we decided to all go and spend the day. That was much more fun! :) I did shoot photos, and I'm still working on editing through them and such, so check my blog in a few days for the photo highlights.
When we arrived, we heard the dreaded story that Madey had cut Tobyn's hair. It's a little strange, really, since when Trippi had texted me in the car that their morning had been awful, I said to Nathan, "Madey probably cut her hair... or Tobyn's..." Funny! Ok, not really. Ha. Granted I hadn't seen what Tobyn's hair was like before the "day at the salon", but I didn't think it looked that bad... Trippi thought it was a bit mullet-like. :)
James and Madey have so much fun together. Madey knows way more than James about death, doom and destruction due to her parents' fantastically weird obsession with horror films. At one point, Trippi and I were watching Madey pretend she was dead while lying in a closed bench that sits at the foot of her bed. Weirdo. ;) I was shocked that even James wanted to try it though!
One of the highlights of the trip, for me, was when Madey had brought out her "boom box" and started playing a slow Christmas song... I can't remember which one it was. About 2/3 of the way through the song, I looked over and down the hallway to see Madey and James holding hands, swaying back and forth, dancing together. AWWWWW! Serioushttp://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2602857&id=750477753ly! I tried to get every one's attention to look and see, but it was too late. Oh my goodness it was just so cute!
Kaitlyn had another nice nap in Toby and Trippi's bed, and after she woke up we played for a bit in their back yard. We fed Sully, their tortoise, leaves and flowers and played on their play scape. There was even some jumping rope going on at one point. We had a blast!

Before we headed to Lakeland, I made the kids clean up. ;) JK.

Madey getting ready to hide in her trunk and be "dead". I'm tellin' ya... kids these days. Sigh. Ha ha.

Madey and James

Trippi "punking it out"- look at that bomb of a mess on the floor. :)

Sully! He eats leaves and flowers, what a cool looking dude!

Chomp, chomp, chomp... "Thanks Mike."

"Uh, Mike? Do you think you could rip me off another one of those leaves?"

"Oh come you, you expect me to get full on that?"

"What? Do I have something on my face?"

Tobyn on their playscape.

Tobyn and Kaitlyn loved playing with the rocks by the fire pit.

"Hey Kaitlyn, if you be quiet, we can throw these rocks in the fire pit and make my daddy mad."

"Witches unite!"

Mike pretends to throw Madey into the fire pit. Ha!

On our way home, we hit TGI Friday's for some dinner. Check out this photo that I snagged with my phone that is just awesome....