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Journal Key:

Green = Steve | George = navy | Janet = Purple | Evelyn = Black

7/11/13 (Thursday)

Dropping Owen off was a lot easier today! We got him to school at ten.

It was swimming day! However, I got the kids to the Y thinking that Owen's 4:00 class started at 4:30, so he didn't get to go in. Poor little guy! He wasn't too upset. We still got to have a treat from the machines, and Owen and I had a very good time coloring with his color wonder markers on the Scooby Doo pages. I showed Owen how, if you brush the marker over a wide open area like the sky, images will appear. We found stars, moons, and bats. Owen colored Shaggy red. He colored Fred blue. When Cara came out of class, he didn't want to leave: he was coloring.

Eventually, we managed to convince him to come with us.

7/13/13 (Saturday)

Today was another trip to the airport! It wasn't until the afternoon, though, so I had time to mow the lawn (yay). Then we dropped our car off, got shuttled to the terminal, and the kids were happily running around in the open terminal and Owen was throwing his lion around when Grandpapa, Grandmama, and Aunt Claire joined us! We had an exciting lunch at a diner-type restaurant near the gate, which was made more exciting by the fact that Owen decided to poop in the middle of it. He ended up eating a lot of his lunch on the plane.

We arrived in West Palm Beach, having taken off in the rain and landed in the rain--a theme of our vacations thus far. At the rental car agency, there was another couple with a little boy, who was about the same age as Owen. The boy, whose name was John, was much more outgoing than our boy, and wanted Owen to run around the agency. Owen, instead, ran over to me and hugged me. John, not to be outdone, ran over and hugged me too! That was interesting for his parents, no doubt.

We did eventually get our car seat, and after having to break down and actually read the dang instruction manual, we managed to install it well enough, and off we went to Grandma Anne's house. Owen succeeded in charming people pretty easily. There were presents on everyone's plate on the set dinner table, but Owen very patiently waited before opening his. It turned out to be another pair of ninjas, like the ones he got the last time he was in Florida! That was nice. After dinner it was already quite late, so he had a very, very splashy bath and eventually got to bed. Cara and Owen slept in side-by-side beds in the back room (which was also filled with lots of little dollar store toys, that the kids were thrilled to be able to open--it was like Christmas!).

7/14/13 (Sunday)

In the morning we went to Nancy's house for bagels. The kids enjoyed playing with Calvin the cat, who is a very playful cat and liked taking some of Owen's guys in his mouth.

After that we took the kids off to the pool. The pool is always a fun place to be! We had brought some pool toys with us as well. All this pool time on our vacations, combined with the swim lessons, has been some really good experience for the kids. Cara, at least, definitely increased her swimming skill during the trip. Owen had fun jumping in and getting carried around.

Cara met a little girl at the pool and they hit it off so well that she went away with her for a playdate in the afternoon! This was rather amazing, and a little scary. But it turned out just fine and Grandpapa picked her up just before dinnertime, a happy little girl.

7/15/13 (Monday)

We started the day--Claire, Evelyn, myself and the kids--at IHOP. Mostly we enjoyed ourselves, though Owen was disappointed not to have gotten any watermelon in his fruit cup. Serendipitously, when we went to Nancy's house it so happened that Anne had bought watermelon!

I admit I did not take much part in the doings of the late morning and afternoon. George and I wandered off on our own to go see a movie. The kids and most everyone else went to the local mall to shop for earrings for Cara. The mall had a train ride. It was not a little train that ran on a tiny little oval track, like we have in our mall; it was a trackless train which actually rode through the entire mall! The kids got on, the grownups waved goodbye, and they were off for a tour of the mall. They returned, still happy. They also got to run and jump around in the kiddie play area there.

7/16/13 (Tuesday)

Our last full day in Florida. We decided to spend the morning--all of us but Janet and Nancy--at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. It wasn't exactly the ideal day to go for a walk in a big open garden, because it was rainy! But the kids were thrilled to be there and Owen took off at a run almost as soon as he could. It really is a beautiful place, with winding paths, lovely trees, waterfalls, fish, stone sculptures, bamboo, and a whole crowd of turtles, who came wondering over to us at the edge of their pond because they like fish food.

There also is a very small museum building, set on a kind of island, which has a bunch of little rooms showing what life is like in modern Japan. There was a cute little model kitchen with fake food and appliances, like you might see in a Japanese house; a tatami mat, where the kids had to take off their shoes; and--Owen's personal favorite--a set of seats and a doorway which simulated a bullet train. Owen loved going on the bullet train.

After lunch with everybody at Applebee's, for the first time ever on either of our vacations, we actually took Owen back home to give him a nap. He took a very nice, very long nap, and afterwards we all drove down towards the Atlantic Ocean and had dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant right near the shore.

Earlier in the day, Grandmama and Grandpapa had spotted a huge playground in the area--a sort of giant, wooden fort--and Grandmama volunteered to take the kids there. It was our last night, and we had to get up early in the morning to go home; so we ended up saying goodbye to everyone at the restaurant, and Evelyn and I got in our car to locate our children. It was already dark by this time, so it was an exciting few minutes hunting for them at the playground! But we found them. And thanks to Great-Grandma Anne, we were able to give the kids some red-white-and-blue glow sticks, that they waved in the dark, as we wandered along the street and found an ice cream place.

Owen had no interest in going to bed, even after all this excitement. "Okay," said his mother, "I'll go to bed and you can stay up and pack." Owen thought about this for a little bit, then turned to Grandmama. "Grandmama, we can play a game on my Nook. But we can't play Swampy, because that would wake Mommy up." He had his evening planned.

7/17/13 (Wednesday)

Back to the airport! Again we had to explain to Owen the sequence of events necessary before we would be back in New Jersey: a car ride to the rental agency, a shuttle bus to the airport, a long airplane ride, a walk to the baggage claim, another shuttle bus, another car ride: home. Grandmama and I got to sit with Owen on the plane ride. As it happened, he got the window and I sat next to him in the middle. After a while, Grandmama and I switched places. Owen did not fall asleep on the plane ride, but kept busy with all his many distractions.

Even once we were finally home, there were more adventures to have. It was playdate night! We decided to go through with it and ordered some pizza, to be delivered to the Loefflers' house. Then we all got to go in their pool, and eat pizza. It was lovely.

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