More Hilton Head

Sister Hugs in the ocean:

Attacking the ocean with her shovel:

Catch in the pool:

Nose Dives/Swimming in the pool:

Petting Zoo/Horse Stables:

Family Vacation Hilton Head

Family Picture:

We spent the week in Hilton Head Island, SC for our family vacation. We rented a house in Sea Pines Resort. I love Sea Pines, it has beaches, pools, tennis, bike trails galore, petting zoo, shops, restaurants and of course the Salty Dog.

Trying to pack the car with a week’s worth of stuff, four kids*, two dogs, beach toys, stroller, pack and plays (2), etc proved to be a bit challenging for hubby. He had to get a canvas roof top carrier. He said he would upgrade to one of the plastic ones next time. He was sweaty and exhausted before we even left home at 8:15 am.

It is about a 4 hour car ride that we managed to turn into around 5 due to eating and bathroom stops. The kids did really well. Miss D decided that when we were all stopped to eat would not be the ideal time to drink her bottle so instead as soon as we got back on the road I had to wrangle my arm back to hold her bottle for her. The girls, dogs, sitter and I slept. The dude stayed awake playing PSP and DSi.

We got there before check-in and had some time to kill so we hit up Wally World for some wine/beer last minute necessities like sunscreen and snacks. Really to get hubby some flip flops cause he forgot his. They only cost a mere $95 by the time the six of us walked out of there.

We rented the house through a website called Homeaway which lets you search for vacation rentals by owners. They used a rental company to manage the house. The house was nice, clean, and spacious. Had some nice TVs, a wonderful sun room (that hubby spent a lot of time on), and the best part was our own pool. We rented some bikes and got them Saturday afternoon. Sea pines has so many bike trails that we probably rode at least 40 miles during our trip.

We spent the vacation riding bikes, visiting the petting zoo, going to the beach, eating, swimming in the pool, going to watch live music at salty Dog and a lot of relaxing. The kids enjoyed the trip and it was a nice break from work and daily stress.

Miss M's favorite parts were attacking the ocean, dancing, swimming, and getting her first ice cream cone. She also developed a love of Dora because we brought our PS3 set-up with Netflix.

Baby D's favorite parts were eating playing in the sand, dunking her head under water in the pool, and trying a bunch of new foods.

Dude's favorite parts were playing in the ocean (after the jellyfish trauma** wore off), playing catch in the pool, and riding bikes. He also loved the Cookie Monster ice cream at Salty Dog.

Miss M guarding her toys, sibling rivalry already. D wanted every toy she had:

Cooling off after the Jellyfish sting**:

Thumbs up, he is okay and ready to go in the ocean again:

Ice Cream Cone:

Jake the Salty Dog:

*We brought our wonderful babysitter to help wrangle entertain the kids.

**Dude and the babysitter got stung our first day out in the ocean. It was a bad day for jellyfish and they stung a bunch of people. Luckily, the life guards were prepared with tons of vinegar spray called Jellyfish Ash.

Wordless Wednesday More Bike

Wordless Wednesday

How the kids enjoyed Mexico

Here are some pictures of how the kids enjoyed their time in Mexico.

The kids in the pool, one of my absolute faves. They really do like each other and make each other smile all the time. Makes me realize that I am so happy we were able to finally give C a sibling:


Me, my mom, and Miss M in the pool:


Miss M lounging on the chair under the Tiki Hut (Did I tell you how much I loved the Tiki Huts and chairs on the beach?)


We got to see and hold baby Sea Turtles. They had hatched at the resort so they gathered them up for the governement to come and get and deposit in less populated areas. They were so cute and small. You can also see in this picture that Maya had her hair braided while we were there. A lady on the beach did it and it was super cute!


A great picture of daddy and the kids in the pool:


We went to the Mexican Fiesta night at my mom's resort and the girls paid a lot of attention to C. She gave him a kiss and left lipstick on his cheek that we were not allowed to wipe off.

Mexico

We took the kids to Mexico last week for a family vacation. We originally had planned to go for Spring Break, but because of M's adoption we had to postpone the trip. Pesky little things like birth certificates and passports kept us in the country.
So we booked the trip for November 6th through the 13th. I hadn't been to Mexico since I was 20 and hubby and the kids had never been. We didn't know what really to expect on the vacation, but loved it and would definitely go back.
We went to Puerto Vallarta which is on the West Coast. It is surrounded by mountains and has very pretty beaches. The water was a little chilly but we did go in the ocean swimming some. C and I even snorkeled while hubby and M sat tight in the boat. The flight from NC was really easy about 2 hours 20 minutes to Houston and then another 2 ½ hours to Puerto Vallarta. It seemed easier than or just as easy to get there as it is to get to West Coast of US.
We booked our vacation at Paradise Village which is just north of Puerto Vallarta in Nuevo Vallarta. The resort was great for families. You can do pay as you go or an all-inclusive package. We opted out of all-inclusive since we had a kitchen and would be spending some time with my mom at her resort, Villa Palmar de Los Flamingos. The food was pretty good at the resort, but glad that we were able to cook some as C wasn’t a huge fan of the food. M loved having guacamole every day though. Paradise Village had great kid activities like pool volleyball, beach soccer, pool basketball, bingo, water polo, bocce ball tournaments, and dancing lessons. C loved playing with the activities staff. I played the pool volleyball, too. The pool was great, it had two large waterslides lots of area to swim, a kiddie section, and nice hot tub. The beach was great and the resort has a ton of little Tiki Huts to sit under while you relax on the beach, very nice for me since I burn so easily so it was nice to sit in the shade while M napped on the beach. There was a market, dominoes, McDonalds, café, and Starbucks a very short walk right outside the gates of the resort. The resort also had Tigers on site and a few exotic birds. Our building had a pool and hot tub right outside. The room was really nice, too, it was a 2 bedroom, 2 baths with full kitchen and washer/dryer.
My mom’s resort seemed a little stuffier, but also had a fantastic pool. Our resort had a bunch of kids and there were hardly any kids at hers. But the rooms were really nice, too. We did do a theme dinner night, Mexican Fiesta, at her hotel and that was so much fun, the staff was very entertaining and the food was great.

So frustrated

I am beyond frustrated right now. We received our adoption decree and our Social Worker told us it will take 1-2 months to get a Birth Certificate. My mom had been planning a trip to Puerto Vallarta that I had been telling her that we need to see what the timelines for adoption are before we confirm that we are going. After we got our decree and found out from Social Worker it would take just 1-2 months to get a Birth Certificate, we told my mom we could go.

Well, I went to Vital Records on Friday and they hadn't received word from the Adoption Review Unit that reviews adoptions after final decree and before it goes to vital records. What?!?!?! I was never told about such a thing. Adoption review Unit received it August 8th. So, they gave me the number for the adoption review unit and told me to ask for the supervisor and ask to get my adoption review expedited. Simple enough, right? I was optimistic calling. I left a message for the lady who does it for our county and she called me back that day. She said they are working on a 4-6 month timeframe to review and approve adoptions and get them to vital records to obtain a Birth Certificate. She said vacation is not an important reason to expedite and to call her at the end of September to see where they were. I was so mad but stayed calm on the phone, explained that this was a big family trip, we really want to take Miss M with us and need a Birth Certificate to get a passport issued. She blew me off and said I could contact her supervisor who is on vacation until the 13th and plead my case with her but realistically we are looking at getting it maybe by the end of the year. It is not like I asked for it tomorrow, I asked if I could have it by the beginning of October, a MONTH away. The trip is in November.

I don't see what other alternatives we have. I don't see not taking Miss M as an alternative. I am so mad, had we been told this up front we wouldn't have gotten excited and said we could go. I am mad. I got my hopes up and was excited about this trip.

I understand that we jump through a million hoops for adoption, but I thought we were done once we had the decree and now it is just a new set of hoops where these people don't care about us and she made it very clear. I hate that we are going to miss an opportunity to see my mom if we don't go and that means we wouldn't get to see her until next year.

Exploratorium

I went to the Exploratorium several times as a kid and have fond memories of driving down to San Fran, walking around Fisherman’s Wharf and going to the Exploratorium. So, for this trip to California, I had to take Christopher to experience some little bits from my childhood and it was so fun seeing it again through his eyes.
He LOVED the Exploratorium. He RAN from exhibit to exhibit touching and playing (the museum is interactive) with everything. I loved seeing how excited he got making a tornado, listening with bat-like ears, trying to walk across the pebbles when the decibel meter was seeing how quiet he could be, looking at the developing chickens and going in the weird shaped house that I remember from my trips.
Not sure that he learned a lot, I tried to read to him what the exhibits were about, but he was more interested in seeing how they worked and doing things and then running full speed to the next exhibit.
Here he is enjoying the Exploratorium of San Francisco.

Diverting Water (This was one of the biggest hits, isn't water usually though?):

Playing with Black Sand and a Magnet, I loved this as a kid:

C and Brian listening with Bat Ears:

The funky shaped room, they loved looking tall:

Uncle Ronnie, Brian and C, I think making fog:

Oh, and did I mention the Exploratorium is right down the street from the Golden Gate bridge? Pictures to follow later.

Our First Family Camping Trip

We went camping at Jordan Lake this past weekend for our first ever family camping experience. Elysia organized the trip for our interracial families playgroup. We had 10 families camp Friday night, 2 families come and hang out on Saturday, then down to 7 families of campers on Saturday night. The area was great, they had tons of room for the tents to be set up, water at the site, we were right on the lake, and there was a playground right there, too. Having the playground was awesome, the kids loved going to the playground a LOT. The bathrooms weren't too far of a walk and had warm water even. There was a huge fire pit and we had a fire going most of the time we were there.
Friday night we set up the tents and then lets the kids play on the playground while dinner was being cooked. We had chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers and a big pot of chili. Saturday morning, we had coffee, cereal, yogurt, fruit, eggs, sausage, and more. The kids played on the playground more, we fished a little (the fishing area was not that great near our campsite, but some of the group walked to the pier where it was nicer). Lunch was leftovers.
Saturday afternoon we had a few more kids and parents come to hang out, we mostly let the kids ride bikes/trikes around the campsite, play on the playground, and fish some. Then we cooked out again, pretty much the same, burgers, dogs, chicken, had pasta, potato, and macaroni salad, and stuff. The kids drank way too many juice boxes. Then we roasted s'mores.

After all the s'mores (each had 3) and eating, the kids went to bed and the adults stayed up chatting and hanging out around the camp fire. Saturday night we totally got rained on (well at least we stayed dry inside the tent). It was so loud and it seemed like it poured all night. Our air mattress was a bit defective and by the end of the night we were all sleeping on the ground. So next trip we need to make sure we have a working air mattress.
We packed up Sunday and got home by 10:00 am. The tent is drying out in the garage and we all showered for a day of birthday parties (2) on Sunday. C said the best part of camping was playing with friends and eating s'mores. I think the best part was hanging out as a family with our friends, too.

My Jedi Knight

The dude got chosen to fight the Dark Side at the Jedi Training Academy. He got to fight Darth Vader!!!!! He told everyone: I wore a brown hood, got to hold a light saver (yes saver), and fight Darth Vader. It was sooo cool!