Yesterday, we might have pushed the boys just a little too hard. It was fun, but they’ve now been on vacation 10 days (keep this in mind for the future) and vacation is thrilling, but it’s also occasionally overstimulating. Here’s what happened:
1. We took P, S, & G for a 7 mile morning bike ride. Gilbert’s bottom started to hurt on the ride, Porter fell asleep twice. We did observe a coast guard helicopter and jet ski plus a police boat. We saw the tourney towns (the piers with the rides) and planned our next adventure.
2. The boys went with Nana on a field trip to the police station.
3. We ate left overs at the house, and then waited for our food to digest for a trip to the tourney towns.
4. We went to the tourney towns and rode some awesome rides. The boys particularly enjoyed the Zoom Phloom, which is a log ride in water. It was fun, but they liked the splash zone near the ride even more! I got some cute pictures. Fortunately, Gilbert is just right at 42 inches for the rides. It would have been a sad day if he couldn’t go on some of these rides.
5. We came back after 2 hours in the sun, exhausted but happy. The boys had 45 minutes of quiet time, but Porter kept them from falling asleep.
6. We ordered dinner from Tony Luke’s. Seamus ate 3/4 of a huge sandwich of spinach and cheese. The boys went with Nana to pick up the sandwiches so that they could get some pickles.
7. After dinner, the boys wanted to use their new pens from the police station. They did some writing and drawing about their day. My camera battery died. But Seamus, in his post dinner happy time, wrote “I had lots of fun today. I ate lots of food. I had fun on the rides. I am happy now.”
8. They weren’t up for a walk, so we kind of messed around, and then I said Seamus could watch some of the Phillies game. It was rain-delayed for an hour, and he had to go to bed. I said he could play with the kindle a bit to have a Sodoku game. Gilbert took it away, Seamus ran away to cry, and I made Gilbert give it up.
9. We put two sobbing children to bed. Porter, having already crashed at 7:15, was doing a little better.
Can you spot the problems? I take full responsibility as they’re mine, and I know how they get.
- Dehydration
- Calorie mismanagement
- Lack of downtime/resttime
- Overstimulation
It was actually a really fun day except for the half an hour before bed. We had a blast, but I think they were just running on fumes and it caught up with all of us.
Today is better. They woke up and said they had had “Alexander’s No Good Very Bad Night” but that today would be better. It is so far. They’ve drawn with sidewalk chalk, walked to the grocery to get some fruit and yogurt for breakfast, and we’ve battled the ant problem of Porter’s carseat…
We leave on the ferry tomorrow; I know they’re sad that vacation is ending for a few days.
Academic Leigh Speaking 