I have to say that I have been enjoying Facebook's "On This Day" feature. It turns out that our family life is pretty cyclical and we have consistent times throughout each year when we manage to visit my scattered family.
Mid-to-late March seems to be when we see my sister and her family. Facebook let us know that this is the weekend we were together last year and also a few years ago. Yay for quick snapshots of recent years.
The last five weeks have been a bit crazy in our household, we have been traveling non-stop: St. Augustine as a family, the Cayman Islands for a girl's weekend, Daniel going to Cleveland, Ohio for a week of training, and then the boys and I going to Tallahassee to kick off spring break. I think we are all ready for some time at home.
With all of our recent comings and goings, it made sense that this trip to visit cousins needed to be a long weekend instead of an entire week... I'm not sure I could have handled being gone that long.
I always enjoy trips to see my sister and her family. Normally our brother Mark comes with me, and Daniel stays behind to catch up on work (this weekend he was doing some weekend-warrior projects on our house). Unfortunately Mark was unable to make this trip. This meant I had my first long road trip without another adult to help out.
I downloaded a ton of podcasts to listen to (Story Pirates for the kids and The Homeschool Sisters and Wild & Free Children for me), loaded up, met Daniel for a late lunch in downtown Chattanooga and then headed south.
The boys were troopers and made it to supper time without any complaining. Really, they were great travelers and we only had to stop one additional time before arriving in Tallahassee for a late bedtime.
On Friday we decided to be lazy. Angela made us banana bread, the kids played outside, running as wild as they wanted. Florida was experiencing a cold snap, but the kids didn't care and soon had the hose out and were wet and muddy.
I helped Izzy make our families traditional Pistachio Cake – we make it for birthdays but the green cake seemed fitting for St. Patrick's Day. Jack made his favorite green smoothie for his cousins (they were not impressed).
After lunch, we made our way to a local park. The kids had a blast, and then managed to find a sprinkler post (evidently these are common in Florida, I have no idea if that is what it is called – basically a post that has a water fountain and a sprayer).
Before we knew it, the boys were soaked. Again. With no spare clothes in the car, we made them strip down and ride home in their skivvies.
After dinner we settled the kids down to watch Pete's Dragon on Netflix with a slice of pistachio cake. Isaac was a "good little brother" and bugged Jack until Jack gave up the prime seat on the couch. It was a good way to kick off our time in Florida.
