Beach Bound

Finally, nearly nine years after our return to the Lone Star State, we headed back to the sunny beaches of Florida. That beloved state was the first home for the Fab Four before adding darling Arlo, our only true Texan. Prior to this trip, Rob and I enjoyed a week away sans kids at the same beach to celebrate our anniversary. My search consisted of one requirement being that it was secluded compared to some of the beaches we frequented while residents of Florida. I discovered Navarre Beach which is squeezed between Pensacola and Destin. It was a perfect destination for us, and we could hardly wait to take the crew! Their happiness and excitement brought tears to my eyes. One of the great joys of parenting is seeing your kids experience something so lovely for the first time. 

My favorite photo from our time there....

We departed home on a Friday afternoon post our morning at school. Rob packed up Gus the Bus, our new (to us) Expedition, and we were on our way! A note on Gus: we finally upgraded our vehicle in late summer due to the fact that Trusty Rusty had really been limping along for the past few years. It would really honor him if I wrote a post about his life with us, a job for another day. He served us well for many years, but an even more trusty vehicle with an abundant amount of space is quite nice.

Back to the ride. I'd like to know why kids are so hungry seconds after they are in the car. In no time at all, we were at Dairy Queen stuffing our faces with delicious, greasy food. 

Our destination for night number one was a hotel in West Monroe. The girls, who had been watching Duck Dynasty with their super cool dad, were pleased to know that the headquarters were nearby. Our stay here was probably the worst decision of the whole trip. We had seven people to a six-person room which meant this mama was in between Arlo and Owen in a queen bed. This sleeping situation might have been tolerable had multiple people had not been recovering from some sort of illness. Charlotte had a panic attack when she realized I had packed the sound machine in a different bag and was tucked in nice and tight in Gus. Rob described our experience as sleeping in a zoo with a ridiculous amount of coughing, nose whistling, snoring and sleep talking. Alongside the zoo was what sounded like a drag racing strip ALL NIGHT LONG. He eventually gave in to laughter, the best medicine for all the sickness among the Valentine crew. Look! We were so happy before bed! You would have never guessed the next eight hours would be so awful!

Day two we were headed straight into Mississippi. Quickly informing the children that there were only two "Ps" in Mississippi, our fearless leader drove onto the "rollercoaster bridge" over the wide, wide river. The kids soon figured out the first of many dad jokes on the trip to mean that they could only have two potty breaks in Mississippi. I do not like potty humor, but he was just SO funny. I let it slide.  

Early afternoon was the perfect arrival time to check into our home away from home, a mere four houses from wide open beach where the closest person was too far away to hear you yell. Perfect for five excited children!  Our Texas baby was immediately accustomed to the sand and sea. 

After a quick visit to be coated in sand, we hit up Publix, our favorite grocery store of all time. We shopped like our family was twice the size with two carts. I almost collapsed right on the floor when I even imagined what the total would be. I told Rob I couldn't even look. Our plan was to eat at the house the majority of the time, so we had to stock up like a hurricane was imminent. 

A good night's sleep came and went, the sun had risen, and I had my pumpkin spice latte in hand while watching Rob and his five ducklings make their way to the beach to catch some breakfast. Sadly, they caught nothing, and we were stuck with cereal. Little did they know that the relentless casting would soon pay off. 

The rest of the week was devoted to hours of:

-digging holes large and small

These holes were deep enough to break your leg, and were worked on all while singing a made up  "dig, dig the pit" song. I still get it stuck in my head sometimes. Arlo looked like a little beach gopher     hiding out until I called his name and he would pop his head up and smile at me. We also took plenty of slo-mo videos of kids jumping into the holes and disappearing.

-learning to boogie board

 

The house had some boogie boards we could use and by the end of the week the kids had purchased their own. Owen even tested his out on the floor of the gift shop. I had ZERO intention of getting in because it was chilly with the wind, but my sunglasses fell off and I dove to rescue them. End of that story, I found them and had a blast with the kids in the ocean. Jumping over waves was exhilarating and honestly, being pummeled by them brought some good belly laughs and provided plenty of video footage. 

-marveling at creatures flying above and scurrying along the beach

 

We also saw a shark, manta rays, dolphins, a "pack of fish," too many jellyfish to count and some sand fleas which were adorably called "sand flies." This beach is near an air force base, so we also saw the Blue Angels and a helicopter fly over. 

- attempting to stay warm

Apparently, the massive dip in rental price correlates with dip in temperature! I find great value in maintaining warmth, but knowing the beach would be almost empty AND that we could pay half the prices was enough to convince me to go in October.  Owen on the other hand would have spent every penny he could ever make to be there in July.  We did our best to keep him warm. In fact, all minus the head fisherman enjoyed multiple cups of hot chocolate while staring at the sea. If the sun wasn't shining and the wind picked up, he and I were popsicles. Arlo was quite chilly on the first morning at 7am and Rob was trying to warm him up. And sweet Charlotte, that girl has purchased an absurd number of hoodies, but they sure came in handy on this trip!

-braving the ocean

In my younger days I wouldn't say I was fearless, but I certainly had less fear than I do now. Rob was super fun dad and swam to the sandbar with multiple kids and guided them through all those jellyfish! What is a group of jellyfish called? I think it's called a swarm. If so, that is an accurate description as they were swarmed on their way out and back!

-just enjoying being together

We flagged down the only person that walked past us one of the days and had him snap a picture of our family. I'm pretty sure that a fishing pole started bouncing around right after the picture was taken. We laughed looking at this one saying we could be an advertisement for Huk fishing company. 

- enjoying the sunset each night

It's funny that our last beach trip was with a four-year-old, two-year-old, and two babies. Oh my goodness, how stressful, haha! In comparison, this trip was a breeze. 

These people are my favorite people.

Master Chef Jr. Challenge

Master Chef Jr. has been a long time favorite cooking show for our family to watch together. We binge watched the first few seasons a few years ago over the holidays and are still working through the rest. Sadly, we have the cookbook and some fun spoilers have looked ahead to find out who the winners are. I have seen them all before but thanks to my poor memory, it's all a surprise to me! We do love to be in the kitchen together and have taught them as early as we can to cook eggs, grilled cheeses and quesadillas. They do lots of chopping of fruits and veggies and pay close attention to all the elaborate recipes Robby cooks. Even Arlo can hold his own in the kitchen at the Valentine Nest!  

Another night of our 12 Days of Holiday Fun we planned a Grilled Cheese Challenge. All the contestants donned their new aprons I made them for Christmas, we met in the kitchen for the run down from the head chef and judges (us), they viewed the ingredients then sat down to write down a plan. 

Here is a closer look at the options.....

These two were paired together and were fairly happy with the arrangement. We set the timer for 15 minutes and they were off! 

Robby and I sat at the table as each dish was delivered. We imitated Gordon Ramsay and the other judges with all their critiques on textures, plating, color, flavors that compliment each other etc. They often hold up a piece of food on their fork and stare at it for a moment before taking a bite....we did that too. 

The combinations were delicious, some played it safe while others were full of adventure. 

All said and done, dinner was delicious! It's funny, there are events that don't include the disasters or explosions of frustration between siblings but this night, it was pretty great. 

The Fool's Café

Just before Christmas we decided that we needed to up our game in the "be a fun parent" realm so we came up with the 12 Days of Holiday Fun that extended into the new year and wrapped up before school & work started again. The lengthy commitment (that we questioned if we were really serious about wanting to be that much fun) included simple things like looking at Christmas lights, hot chocolate and Holiday Mad Libs on the back porch, or surprising the kids with special ornaments to hang. 

A few others are worth documenting like our night at The Fool's Café and a Master Chef Jr. Grilled Cheese Challenge which must have its own post because I experience great difficulty when trying to limit the amount of pictures to include ; ) 

The Fool's Café was recommended to me by a friend who had done it with their own family. It is a printable from a blog I love called The Dating Divas. In order to enjoy on various occasions, I laminated all the pieces & we got to work planning our evening! We told the kids that afternoon that they would need to come to dinner in a costume but they were not aware that we would be in costume too. They were quite surprised! 

In short, it is a restaurant style dinner experience where nothing happens as expected. When our "guests" arrived, they were seated at the table and then rolled a dice to see what their plate and eating utensil would be. We had them numbered on the counter to be delivered to each guest. Some combinations were a muffin tin and tablespoon size measuring spoon or baking sheet with tongs. They each received a menu with the words "wacky, silly, loco, looney" etc with numbers. Next they had to fill in the spaces to place their orders for each course unaware of what each number represented since they couldn't see our cheat sheet. This resulted in some eating marshmallows and cucumbers for an appetizer with noodles and tater tots for dessert. Certainly has the potential to be stressful for picky eaters but our bunch decided to giggle instead!

Robby and I sported the socks my brother Scott bought us for Christmas. Pencils for the teacher and some Office Convict Mike socks that said "and I never got caught neither!" I think Rob should start styling his hair like that on a regular basis.

We had a box of challenge cards that we pulled out when people broke random rules that we made up in the moment. Rob was in charge of that and had me laughing. Charlotte got stuck with eating without her hands while Owen enjoyed eating with an ice cream scoop from a skillet. 

Robby ate from an espresso cup with chopsticks and drank from a teapot....that was my favorite!

Drinking from a measuring cup is always fun too! I had the worst experience imaginable for those who don't like their food to touch and enjoyed a seven layer dip of all the options minus the napkin. It reminded me of the movie Elf when he pours syrup in the bag of noodles. 

Now these two were quite handsome....who doesn't love a man in suspenders? 

Anson had a dog tail and Arlo reluctantly wore the owl costume I made from Halloween 2013. 

We should have given the girls some guidelines because they showed up with eyeliner, their undies over their jammie pants and socks stuffed in other places which is much like I remember doing as kids with my silly friends! Eloise carried deodorant to the table and liberally applied once she was seated. Ha! 

Over all, it was a HILARIOUS evening and we felt like we had nailed it as fun parents! In the picture below, I just noticed that the mistletoe hanging behind Rob's head makes it look like he has an old TV antenna attached, haha! 

 

Celebrating Arlo- 5th Birthday

 Darling Arlo, the baby of the family, turned five in October. Birthdays are extremely emotional for me as I replay a pregnancy, birth and newborn days, and this year was no different! He requested a racecar theme and we had SO much fun setting it up on birthday eve! He even had his own "racecar" on the fireplace along with a sleeping bag and camping chair for our upcoming camping trip. He was a happy boy!

My favorite birthday decorating happens when we get to use all sorts of things we already have and we certainly did just that! Anson was SUPER stressing me out sending racecars around the track after we set the table! 

Although it is still rather warm in early October, pumpkin bread is frequently baked. Arlo decided some pumpkin muffins would accompany the sausage balls well. He has good ideas! 

We partied out front with a visit from my parents, GGran and Aunt Debbie. A Paw Patrol fire truck and a fireman uniform were the favorite off all the gifts! 

The power sprayer strapped on his back offered requested watering of plants and flowers coupled with frequent unwanted showers for his siblings and parents. He was so cute though thinking his job was as important as a real firefighter, it was hard to be frustrated with the birthday boy.

Charlotte and Arlo baked cookies together which is favorite activity of these two : ) 

Arlo is funny, expressive, oh so helpful and our biggest snuggler.  I hope that last one never changes! Some of my favorite pictures are unplanned, we are not coordinated and they take a quarter of a second to snap. This is one of them in a place where we spend lots of time, our very own yard. 

It's a shame that Arlo has on matching socks. That almost never happens!