Spring Break 2011

Jon and I took Michael and Spencer to Florida for Spring Break. Spencer had an assignment for class to keep a journal during the trip. His teacher expected the finished journal to be 70-100 words. Spencer likes to exceed (sometimes far exceed) his teacher's expectations (and rightly so I think). Spencer's completed journal was over 1000 words. He may be a (tiny) bit of a showoff, right? Spencer began his journal while on the plane down to Florida. He noted what time we left the house, what time we got to the airport, what time we boarded the plane, etc. This practice of documenting the particulars of our days continued for the first three days of our vacation. Spencer noted what we ate at each meal and what activities we engaged in during the day. I suggested to Spencer that he should include his impressions of our activities, what he enjoyed particularly in a given day, etc. I read over what he wrote the next day. He interpreted what I said as a suggestion to add adjectives to his account of what we did. So, instead of "we ate hamburgers for dinner," Spencer wrote, "we ate yummy hamburgers for dinner." He also wrote, "we ate cool cereal for breakfast." In addition, after Nichole's family joined us at the house, and we dragged four beds into one room for the five boys, he wrote, "we went to sleep very snug." The journal was a very good account of what we did. I would like to include it here, but unfortunately it is currently with Spencer's teacher. The boys and I flew down to Florida on our own because Jon was on a business trip. Jon met us in Florida later on the first day. I mention this fact not because it was difficult to travel with the boys alone, but because both boys were very concerned with the timing and schedules of the airplane departure, the taxi and the water taxi. I attribute this to the fact that they do not trust my abilities with regard to travel. As evidence of this assertion, before we left the house, Michael started plotting the timeline. He needed to know what time we had to be to the airport. From that he determined what time we should leave my mom's house (we were dropping Luka with her) to get to the airport and thus what time we needed to leave our house to get to my mom's house. At the airport, both boys were concerned with how long it would take to check our bags, and how long it would take to get through security (although both lines were short and we were at the gate early). Their concern continued while waiting for our luggage ("what time are we supposed to be at the taxi?") and while on the taxi ("what time are we supposed to meet the water taxi?" and "how much longer until we get there?"). Are they nervous travelers or don't they trust me to get us where we are going? The house we rented was very nice. It was bright and sunny inside and had numerous patios and decks for reading and/or enjoying the warm, sunny days. We spent most of our time on the beach and at the pool. We also enjoyed taking short, golf cart excursions to the ice cream shop. We spent an hour or two each morning looking for shells on the beach. We ended up bringing home a lot of shells. Last night Michael suggested that we should give shells to various people. He is concerned that our family and friends will feel sad if we do not give them some of our sea shells. Perhaps he is right. Interestingly (at least to me), after a few days of collecting sea shells, we began to learn the names of the various shells we would find. This was largely due to a poster in the house that showed names and pictures of common Florida shells. The boys assigned different characters to different shells. for example, spiny jewel boxes are warriors, lightning whelks are horses, calico scallops are dwarves, and olive shells are wizards. There were half a dozen others, but unfortunately I cannot recall any more. Michael did write up a cheat sheet (because that is how he rolls), but (sadly) I am unble to locate it.

We saw a great deal of wild life in Florida. I have included pictures of a number of animals that we encountered. We saw dolphins on three separate days. One day, a large group (or pod) of dolphins swam back and forth in front of the beach for quite a while. It was fun to watch. We saw a number of animals on a sunset cruise. Unfortunately I neglected to bring my camera along with me on the cruise so we have no pictures of those creatures. The boat stopped and gathered up a starfish and a giant conch, both of which we were able to hold. We also saw skip jacks (which are fish). A small shark swam past the boat and later we saw a manatee (or, more accurately, the nose of a manatee). Finally, we saw a lovely sun set.

In addition to collecting shells, we enjoyed making sand castles on the beach. The boys and I thought this was great fun. This fact is clear (I suspect) from the number of pictures of sand castles that I have included. Note: there are at least a dozen more pictures of sand castles which I have not included. We typically built one big castle with a large wall protecting it from the waves and then constructed other buildings which we would connect to the main castle. As each new building was added, or when a structure was improved, the boys would ask me to take new pictures. The boys took a lot of pride in what they built. Given the amount of time they spent and the effort they expended, I believe their pride was well placed.

One morning we went kayaking on the ocean. I enjoyed it very much. I would like to spend more time with the boys and Jon hiking or canoeing or kayaking. The boys enjoyed it as well, although they did not like the water dripping on top of their heads and backs as we paddled. Wimps! As mentioned earlier, Nichole and Andy and their three boys joined us for the last four days of our vacation. It was great spending that time together. All five boys played very well together and seemed to like running around the house, playing hide and seek, looking for lizards and swimming in the pools, as well as taking nightly trips for candy bars and snacks (bugles were the hands down favorites). I also learned that Sponge Bob Square Pants in on the tv 24 hours a day. Nobody shall convince me otherwise, even if they have a tv guide in hand.

The boys enjoyed our vacation very much. The weather was perfect - warm and sunny. The trip was relaxing for Jon and for me. All was good. And continues to be so.