Family Time

Last Monday night our family headed to the beach. And not just our family of three....our much larger Lavigne family.  There were 8 men, 7 women, and 8 kids in 4 different condos.  It was a 4 hour drive, and I had to work Monday, so the 3 of us didn't leave until 6pm. Within 5 minutes, we were in traffic.

Tucker said "mama," I said "what?" He said, "I like to go to da beach."  I cracked up laughing, he is so cute.  Especially because he really does not like the beach.  He likes dry sand, and he likes the waves, but he does not like the part in between where the ocean meets the sand and all of the sand sticks to him. He gets very mad and tries to clean himself off, which of course results in more sand and more mess.  I think he was at the beach for a total of ten minutes in 4 days....and I was there even less! (At least I avoided the awful sunburns that some people got...ouch!)

Tucker loves traveling, loves hotels, and loves the swimming pool, so we all still had a good time.  It was very hard to keep him out of the hot tub, though, which he thought was a perfect Tucker-sized pool.  It was super hot, though, and I didn't want to boil my child, so he just had to stay in the big pool or stay in time out.  He spent a fair amount of his days in time out....

Our family from Kentucky came down to the beach with us, and we hadn't seen them since Meagan and Chris's wedding two years ago.  Tucker got attached to John Michael right away! And I mean attached....he has a buzz hair cut, which Tucker loves to rub, so I had to pry Tucker off of his head after the first day. 

We bought groceries and cooked most of our meals, Chris and Maw Maw cooked breakfast every morning; and we all took turns cooking lunch and dinner.  It was so nice, and on the last night, when we waited for aobut 40 minutes to get in a local restaurant, I was happy that we made that choice.  Tucker was very good that night at the seafood place, he licked about 95 crackers and then a bag full of fritos, but I don't think he would have done so well if we ate out every meal. That would have really tested his patience!

So we didn't spend much time at the beach, and just spent about an hour a day at the pool, so what did we do all week?? Sleep!! It was great:) The first night we got in around 11pm and didn't get to sleep until after midnight. After that, we slept about 10-11 hours a night and then also took 2 hour naps each afternoon.  We also ate alot....really too much! My BIL Chris cooked a delicious pastalaya one night, and we all ate at least two full plates. 

We also did a lot of visiting and just hanging out, especially with our Kentucky cousins.

We also fought Tucker to stay out of Uncle John's room....just like at home! Well, at least he is consistent.

My grandparents had one bedroom, my Uncle John had another room, Meagan, Chris, and Aliyah had the living room, and we got the big king bedroom. That was very very nice of everyone to give us that room considering we didn't pay anything for the condo.  But when Tucker needed a time out or a quiet place to zone out, it definitely came in handy.  Every morning, Tucker woke up before us, just like at home. He would cry to get out of the room, go around to each room to see if everyone was awake....then once they were awake, he would go back to sleep!  He is terrible about that.

We all went on a dolphin tour one morning, where we filled up a boat and they took us out in the bay to see dolphins. It was neat, and Tucker got to "drive" the boat. He was happy until it was the other kids' turn to drive the boat, then we fought him the whole time to keep him sitting with us. By the end of it, the 6 of us (Townsends and Champagnes) were tired and ready to go to the condo.  Everyone else stayed out for lunch, but we left.  So we drove the 20 minutes to the condo only to realize we had locked ourselves out...so we took the drive back to get Paw Paw's key, with Tucker screaming "go to da hotel!" the whole time. 

That night Chris and I took Tucker to a playground we saw near the dolphin cruises. It was huge and had tons of slides and swings. He had a lot of fun playing until it was dark and we all went back to the condo...the best part was that no one was there, so Tucker did not have to wait or take turns, just play with his Mommy and Daddy, which he loved.  On Thursday morning we tried to go parasailing, but it was too windy.  We spent most of that day back at the hotel cooking and watching TV.

We ate seafood our last night in town, and we all enjoyed talking and eating.  We all packed up Thursday night, then had a big breakfast Friday morning and headed home.  John Michael and Grace rode home with us, as they are spending the whole week with my grandparents. I guess they thought riding with us would be fun :) I hope we lived up to their expectations!  When we got home, my grandparents came over and picked up the kids. Tucker went around our house asking "Zhon Mikah? Zhon Mikah?" wondering where John Michael was, poor baby! So after a few hours we brought him over there to see the kids, and he sat outside with them on the swing, he was so happy.

On Saturday we took the kids to Bass Pro shop, and they seemed to really like that, but other than that I think they have had a calm week. Chris and I went back to work yesterday, and that was no fun at all.  Vacation had to end, though, I am already looking forward to the next one....maybe with just Chris and me, so that I can spend more than 5 minutes on the beach ;)