Livin on beach time

The James Gang (along with Brad's side of the family) packed up and headed off to Florida last week. So, picture eight adults and five boys ages three, 21 months, 13 months, 12 months, and three months living in one house for a week. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time outside at the beach and the pool. The house wasn't so bad, I guess considering it had two floors, and five bedrooms.

I'm pretty sure Brad and I had the quietest spot in the house since we had the only bedroom on the first floor with only one baby. The secret of course was to put the playpens in the walk-in closets. There was not an empty closet in the house and all of the babies got in some great naps at some point on the vacation.

Now, back to the fun. We started off the week by playing "Chopped." Brad and I had no idea what exactly "Chopped" was because we aren't Food Network junkies like his mom and sisters. And, needless to say, I'm still not a Food Network junkie even though I sat down to watch some sort of cooking show almost every day on vacation because that's pretty much the only channel that played on the TV(besides the Disney channel in the mornings). So, each night one of the couples made dinner while the other couples watched their kid or kids. At the end of the competition, we all voted to see who had the best dinner. Brad and I(shrimp scampi over linguini with a little help from Emiril . .. or E-Meryl as Brad calls him) were a close second to Beth and Clark(steak oscar). Our kitchen stadium was a fun place to be on those nights.

Probably one of the most memorable moments or pictures for me is that Taylor, Josiah and I had never been to the ocean. I wasn't shocked or overwhelmed by it, but I do think it is interesting that I am almost 30 and never had set foot in the ocean. I can finally mark that off my list of things to do.

At one of the beaches we went to I did get a moutful of saltwater, so I can tell you what the ocean tastes like, too. Not too tasty if you ask me. Its one of those look and don't taste types of scenery.

My boys were polar opposites when it came to the ocean. Taylor said the ocean was scary and would not set foot in the water. He had to be coaxed constantly to go into the ocean. He would sit at the oceans edge and play in the sand, but he did not want to go into the "big water." Josiah on the other hand confirmed that he is a water bug. He would squeal and scream and happily be put into the water and play in the waves and smile one of his big Josiah' grins. He got a little carried away and decided to eat the sand, too. This lead to a nasty case of diaper rash that is finally going away.

Taylor did enjoy the sunset cruise on Sunday night. He liked the boat and looking at the different things out in the ocean. He even got to steer the boat for a little while.

To sum up our trip, for the record Clark and Darren put on their flippy- floppies and swim trunks and went on a boat while Taylor ate Fruit Loops in Florida--that's what she said.

We are glad to be home, but I'm not so glad that I have to go back to work in a few weeks. Being home with the boys over the summer has been fun and I wish I could stay home more often, but work calls along with those student loans that have to be paid off. Oh well, I'll have something to look forward to next May.