Until next year.

Another week down the shore has come and gone.

We did all the usual things: hung out at the beach, took the kids on the rides, ran on the boardwalk, ate ice cream at the "train place," had dinner with the entire extended family, went crabbing, rented bikes and road them on the boardwalk, went fishing, had a night out with my husband, stole coffee from my parents' house next door, played arcade games, hung out with my friend Lanette and her son, built some sandcastles, played miniature golf, visited with my grandparents, and had lots of help with the kids from my parents, sister and niece.

We did all that, and yet still, I feel like the week just flew, and we didn't really do anything.

I think it's because this time I didn't really get to do any shopping. And come on, what's a vacation without bringing home a couple new outfits, a few pairs of shoes and cool pieces of jewelry?

Persistence Pays...but next year I'm opting out

When we go on our annual family vacation to the Jersey Shore, we ALWAYS take a day to go crabbing. It's tradition. But this year, it almost didn't happen.

My husband went to the run-down marina we always rent from yesterday, only to find out that the pontoon we needed to rent was broken down. However, they said it'd probably be fixed the next day.

So we came the next day, and as promised, the boat was fixed, sorta.

First of all, we waited for over 40 minutes for the marina guy to get some gas for the boat.

Then once we finally headed out, my husband went the opposite way that we usually go (against my suggestion to just stick with what we know). We landed near some pier (that happened to jet out from some nuclear looking plant!). While there, we were in a bunch of mud and muck, which wouldn't allow the engine to start back up. We had to call the marina, where the head guy came out and got us started back up.

So we headed back toward the marina, to go the direction I originally said we should go...where we knew the crabs were. When going by the marina, we decided to make a pitstop there to pick up a bushel to hold the crabs (kinda important). However, when we stopped, we couldn't start again. The marina guy had to actually get a new battery for the boat. Finally it started, and off we were again.

And out into the bay we went, until my husband decided to stop and throw down some traps...eventhough we pleaded with him to just take us right to the bridge, where we know the crabs hang out. We anchored briefly, and threw down some traps, but it was too deep, and no crabs were taking the bait. So we decided to pull up the anchor, and go to the bridge.

Except we couldn't get the anchor up. Both Melvin and I pulled and pulled and pulled, but the thing was stuck. At the same time, Melvin tried to start the engine, but it wouldn't spark. He turned the key and turned the key, but still no fire. And the anchor was still stuck. Thinking that maybe there was some sort of correllation, Melvin climbed down the back of the boat checking to see that anchor rope was not lodged around the engine/propeller. The poor guy got all wet, only to discover that everything was fine. We pulled and pulled at the anchor again, and finally, it became dislodged from all the mud and muck at the bottom of the bay. But the engine still wouldn't start.

So we had to call the marina again and wait for a rescue. In the meantime, it's hot, the kids are getting antsy and we're quickly running out of juiceboxes!

Finally the marina guys came to try to get us started. They tried, and tried, and tried. But still the motor wouldn't turn. Finally, Melvin tried once more, and for no apparent reason, the boat decided to start.

Now any normal kind of people would take that boat right back to the marina and just go buy some crabs. But not my husband! With his usual determination, he was bound and determined for us to catch our own crabs. So slowly, very slowly since the engine wouldn't allow us to go at some normal speed, we made our way to our bridge. And.......

JACKPOT!

Sandy Suits

Just another rough day at the beach!!!!

Ocean City 2008

One word for today's post:

VACATION!

Running with Mickey

Part of getting back to my regular life involves running....a marathon.

My friend Lanette got me interested in running long way back in 2000. That's when I completed my first marathon...The Suzuki Rock N Roll Marathon in San Diego.

Ever since that year, when I haven't been having babies, we've run a marathon together. In addition to the Rock N Roll Marathon, we've run Twin Cities, Chicago and the Nike Women's Marathon in San Fransisco (Lanette has run a couple more). Lanette, my sister Dana, and I were supposed to run the Marine Corps marathon last fall, but well, cancer sorta knocked that run off our racing circuit.

We don't run fast. We even walk when we need to. We're not out to break any records...or to qualify for Boston. But we're fine with that. We spend our race talking, telling stories, and catching up...especially since we now live 1000 miles away. We have fun.

So once I got this breathing issue under control and figured out when I'd be having my reconstructive surgery(probably mid/end of January), I just had to find the soonest marathon I could be prepared to run. Just so that I could feel like I'm back to normal (although I know many people who wouldn't consider running a marathon normal).

On January 11th, I'll be running the Disney Marathon. Lanette and Dana will be joining me. The course works its way through all the big parks, and we even get to run through the big Magic Kingdom castle. My mom and husband will be running the 5K, and we're going to register Cameron for the mile run.

It should be a lot of fun. Anyone want to join us?

All About Orlando

As I stated earlier, our trip to Orlando was wonderful. Although, I was worried about us even getting there. To begin with, just two hours before I had planned on leaving, my husband gets called to the hospital (he was oncall until 6AM...our flight was leaving at 6 AM). In addition, I had a 100.7 fever. But I was NOT going to let my illness prevent this trip. We've had a crappy year with this cancer, and this trip was not going to be postponed because of my medical issues. The kids, and I, were too excited about going for anything to stop us. So I took some Motrin, finished packing everything up, got the kids all ready, the suitcases in the van, reluctantly took my steroids my radiation oncologist wanted me to start, and waited for my husband to come home. My husband managed to finish up the repair he had to do for a midwife on time, and we were at the airport about an hour before our flight. All was good.

While in Orlando, the weather was incredible, in the upper 80s. We did Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Magic Kingdom. We also spent a day at the resort swimming.

The one thing that's great about having a husband work all the time, is that when he is around, the kids only want to be with him! My poor husband got quite the workout, as Max and Ella were very demanding of his attention. He often walked around the park like this.

Ella just loved being at all the parks. She was NOT happy when she wasn't tall enough for rides that her brothers could go on. Her new word that she learned there is "Cool!" And she also developed a new kind of temper tantrum. Instead of throwing herself on the ground and screaming when she didn't like something, she would just walk a few feet away, hang her head, and just stand there...not talking, not crying, completely ignoring everyone, but looking incredibly pathetic!

Max got to meet his favorite princess of all time. Actually, when we went to line up to get his picture, he became very shy, and wanted to run away! He was very bashful when talking to Fiona, but was all smiles when he walked away. That was definitely the highlight of his trip. However, he did note that Fiona was supposed to be wearing green shoes, not black ones (who the hell knows what color shoes a character wears????).

In years past when we've visited Orlando, Cameron was fascinated by the roller coasters. He loved to stand and watch them. But he NEVER wanted to ride them. Finally, this year, he was all about the coasters. Actually, he was quite angry that he wasn't tall enough for the upside down ones. 54" he has to be. Maybe next year...or the year after! Because Max and Ella didn't want their daddy to leave their side, I got to experience all the coasters with Cameron...and all the long lines...and all the soaking wet splashes, as we rode all the water coasters as well. Despite getting soaked, it was a lot of fun.

Although our days at the parks were exhausting, they were still a lot of fun. I didn't have any issues with my shortness of breath (I wasn't climbing any stairs though), so that was good. And although I had one night where I woke up with a fever and some serious shaking chills, the next morning I was fine.

Looking forward to many more family vacations to come!

Home BitterSweet Home

You know how people always say that they need a vacation from their vacation.

Well, as I look around this house, with all the bags to unpack, laundry to do, food shopping that needs to be done, mail to be sorted, and just the general pile up of "Things to do" that I've been avoiding forever, I realize that I don't need a vacation from my vacation.

I just need to go back on vacation.

We really did have a blast. Maybe I'll have time to write more about it later this week.

A whole lotta fun

We've made it to Orlando. It's sunny and in the 80s. Need I say more?

Salivate and/or vomit.

Any headway I've made with losing weight over these past few weeks with my marathon training (actually I don't think I made any anyhow), but if I had, all would be lost...or should I say gained...during this vacation in the South.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that everything here is sweet, fried or drenched in butter. From the sweet tea and captain crunch coated chicken fingers to the crunchy hush puppies and fried macaroni and cheese wedges.

All soooo good.....and yet soooooo bad!!!!

Hot Hot Hot

We're in Panama City Beach for a few days.

It's HOT!

How hot is it?

Today it was in the mid 90s, with a heat index of 107....very humid!

Tomorrow it's supposed to be record high temperatures.

When I walk outside from the air conditioning into the heat, my glasses fog up immediately.

But we've managed to keep pretty cool in at the various beaches and pools.

What a way to spend the day

Thanks to Northwest Airlines, instead of spending the day basking in the Florida sun, floating in the Gulf and collecting seashells, we spent our time trying to occupy ourselves for 4 1/2 hours at the Memphis Airport. And this was during essential napping hours after a 4:30 AM wake up call to my little lovelies for a very early morning flight.

HOWEVER, despite the fact that when we landed in Memphis, we were told our flight was already gone and we had no choice but to rebook on this afternoon flight, somehow, by some devine miracle obviously because surely they wouldn't lie, somehow our luggage made it on the flight that they said was already gone.

I hate Northwest...and only use them because the Twin Cities is a major hub for them.

What a vacation

My husband often talks about getting a cabin. Because out here in Minnesota, everyone has a cabin…usually on or close to a lake. I wouldn’t actually know because no one actually invites you to their cabin. They just like to talk about when they go “to the cabin.” But to me, a cabin means a lake (dirty), fishing (boring) , boating (too difficult with younger ones), woods (mosquitoes) and a lot of work (packing, cooking, etc). I see myself cooped up in an old place, trying to entertain my kids who need to be at home with their toys, friends, and places to go.

Now me, I’m all about the “shore house.” Because at the shore in Ocean City, New Jersey, where I’ve been almost every year since I was a baby, we can:

Run on the boardwalk
Build sand castles

Boogie board in the ocean or just jump the waves

Go miniature golfing on several different courses
Go on fun amusement rides

Eat ice cream every night…watching the model trains at the ice cream store.
Get Tattoos (the airbrush kind)
Catch crabs (and buy more blue claws to supplement everyone’s appetites)

Hang out with family and friends

Ride bikes

Go for pony rides

People watch on the boards or from our front deck

Listen to polka bands walking down the street

Have our faces painted

Get free balloon sculptures

Hang out with characters


Yeah, there’s still the packing and some cooking…but with great shops, yummy food and lots of entertainment, the shore house beats the cabin…no competition.

HP Update

Barnes and Noble fooled me, and instead of getting my Harry Potter CDs to me on the 21st, they merely sent them out on the 21st…with the intention of getting it to me by the 23rd. I was pissed, and apparently I wasn’t the only one. Because as I wrote my e-mail of complaint about the fact that I was deceived, the company responded with a generic e-mail explaining to me that they couldn’t respond to me in a timely manner due to the high volume of inquiries about Harry Potter orders.

So I went right out and bought the book. By the time I got home from the boardwalk and put the kids to bed, it was after 10:30. I was able to read 13 whole pages before my eyelids refused to stay open. Then the next day, as I glanced around the beach seeing everyone reading their copy, I had to spend my time making sure my kids didn’t drown, or get lost, or run on top of someone else’s blanket with their sandy feet. So Harry had to wait. At night, after the tantrums I wrote about yesterday, due to some very late and long naps, Max and Ella were awake until 12:30 at night! Needless to say, I only got a few more pages read…I think I’ve finished two whole chapters!

But today the CDs arrived…and as I write, I’m downloading the chapters onto my iPod. Hopefully this new medium, that I can use as I run and on car trips, will help me finish the novel sometime before this year is up!

Triple Tantrum

We’ve moved from our weekly rental to my mom and dad’s house for a few days until we return home early this week. Next door to them is a rental, and the family this week has a baby, who must be close to Ella’s age. I often here her on their front porch. It’s always nice to know that there are other kids nearby entertaining the neighborhood with their vociferous cries.

“Sounds like my kids will have some competition this week,” I said as I was sitting out on the porch with my dad.

Without any hesitation, my dad snickered, “Oh no. There is no competing with your kids, Cari. I just don’t know what happened to them.” We both laughed.

This response didn’t surprise me, as my dad is not around kids anymore. And earlier in the day, we were discussing something about getting paid for what we do. My dad said that whatever it is I get paid, it’s not enough. Quite the comedian he thinks he is!

But tonight, all he said was magnified ten fold. Earlier in the day, I had warned my friend Lanette who was down with her son that my kids went to sleep very late last night and they would be in rare form. However, they actually surprised me and ended up playing quite nicely on the beach. And when we took the boys on the boardwalk for dinner and rides, all went quite well. But then something…not sure what…but something happened, and the evening ended with ALL of my kids having complete meltdowns at the same time.

Cameron decided that a couple blocks away from home, after we had just left an ice cream parlor that had a bathroom, that he absolutely had to pee right at that moment. And he couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t let him go on a tree. He continued screaming and crying, “I can’t hold it!” and pleaded for me to let him go in the bushes, as I continued walking ahead of him, assuring him that he’d make it, and if he didn’t he’d be in big trouble.

At the same time, Max, who had fallen asleep just before we visited the ice cream place, woke up in the stroller I was pushing. He suddenly started crying, for no apparent reason, and he just wouldn’t stop. Then the crying turned to screams, and no matter what I said, he continued. I finally got it out of him when we were at my parent’s condo that his scraped knees (that I had caused…but that’s another story) were hurting him, and that he wanted ice cream.

Ella was sitting in her high chair calmly slurping up the snack my mom had given her, content as could be, despite all the screaming going on around her. But as soon as I opened the door to take screaming Max back outside to get ice cream, Ella saw me leaving and began screaming and crying hysterically.

So I had one scraped-knee kid in the hallway screaming for ice cream, another in my mom’s arms screaming for me to get her, and one in the bathroom, still screaming, despite the fact that he had used the potty successfully.

My dad was right: nobody...especially tonight...nobody could compete with my kids.

Just say cheese!

Every year my grandfather hosts a dinner for our whole family at a local restaurant. Each year it gets bigger and bigger, as more people marry and more babies are born. This year we decided to get a family portrait on the beach. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

Well, this involves organizing around 40 people, with a handful being under the age of 2. Still sound nice?

Of course my two little ones didn’t cooperate very well. They kept screaming and trying to get out of our arms, while everyone else waited patiently. And the wind didn’t do much justice for those of us who had long hair. So who knows whether all of our work to have this photo done will even be worth it.

But I did get a few cute shots of my own kids, individually. One of these days I’ll get a nice family portrait with all my kids together. Or should I say one of these YEARS!