Brittain and I decided that it was way past time to take a vacation. And, for us, we don’t consider a trip a vacation unless it involves the sun and the beach (a pool is also an added plus). Where better to spend this vacation than at Aunt CC and Uncle Matthew’s new house in Jacksonville? It had been what seemed like forever since we last saw Aunt CC…and it actually HAD been forever since we had seen Uncle Matthew. After spending the 4th of July with good friends Matt, Jenny and Ava, we loaded up the car the next morning to what was sure to be 5 days of sand, sun and fun. (Side note: Dan stayed home to catch up on some things he needed to work on. Seems that tasks are much more easily accomplished without a wife and child vying for his attention.)
The trip down was a breeze because Brittain napped for a good part of it due to the fact that she hadn’t slept well the night before. (Yes, this also meant that I hadn’t slept well either, but at least one of us caught up on the way down.) We arrived at 3:30 that afternoon, took a grand tour of the new house, and then walked down the street to spend a few minutes at the pool and the playground. We didn’t stay very long because we wanted to get back to the house to do things like eat…and sit…and drink wine. So, we headed back after about an hour to commence in the eating, sitting and wine drinking.
Since we were on our vacation, I let Brittain stay up way past her bedtime. I was hoping this would go in my favor and we might be able to sleep in a little, but I have to admit that it didn’t come as a huge surprise that she woke up at 6:39 a.m. on the dot each morning we were there. And even though I had the best of intentions of keeping her out of Aunt CC’s room, most mornings the best I could do was allow Aunt CC to sleep until 7:45 or so before Brittain decided to take it upon herself to just go down there and wake her up herself. Poor Cec…she was a good sport the whole time.
We woke up Monday morning ready to soak up those Florida rays, but were shot down immediately when we looked outside to see very large rain clouds forming. We figured it was just those terrible “scattered thunderstorms†so we didn’t think much of it…until it began raining…and never stopped. No, I don’t mean that it never stopped that day. I mean, that it never stopped the ENTIRE five days we were there.
I learned that when you take a trip to a place where the main entertainment is supposed to be outdoors and then it rains the entire time, you have to get creative. Oh, and you also have to go broke. Unfortunately, Brittain was not into spending all five days shopping at stores that we don’t have in Griffin. We were forced to find things to do that “children†enjoy doing. But we did it. We sought out the best kid places Jacksonville had to offer. And I gotta tell ya, my little Brittain had the best vacation of her life (so far). Sun? Beach? Sand? I think by the time we left to come home, she hoped that every trip to Florida would involve rain.
One of our outings was to a place called The Hands-On Children’s Museum. I remembered passing it on our way into town, so when we were racking our brains trying to think of things to do, Cec and I did some quick research and found the website of this place. It sounded great as it offered a “You’re the Star Stage†where kids could dress up in costumes and come out on stage to perform; a puppet stage; a 50’s diner with 1950’s prices!, a 12’ fire truck, a Winn Dixie lil’ grocery store, and tons more! The only thing that seemed questionable in our minds was the activity of “wheelchair basketball†but we decided that perhaps it was some sort of attempt to raise awareness of handicapped people. We arrived early this particular rainy afternoon…and so had every other child in Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. There were kids EVERYWHERE and they were all running around like wild monkeys who had just been let out of their cages. Cec and I looked at each other with an “ohhhh…now this is going to be fun†look and then began the adventure. Surprisingly, all of these activities that were featured on the website, fit into a room that seemed no larger than my living room. If you sat right in the middle, you could see everything it had to offer. Brittain started out climbing up and sliding down the McDonald’s Climbing Tube and Slide. But it was clear right from the beginning that this was McDonald’s REJECT slide. But she didn’t care. She absolutely loved it and the only problem happened right at the beginning when she climbed up into the tube and we heard her saying that she needed to go tee-tee. We couldn’t see her nor could we fit ourselves up into the tube. Fortunately another child up there helped her slide down. The “You’re the Star Stage†seemed like it was going to be a great idea, but when you took a moment to look at the “costume closet†it was plain to see that the costumes were donated Halloween costumes that looked to have been passed down for 5 generations before being donated here. There wasn’t one full costume to be had in the place. All bits and pieces. And not one pair of matching shoes.
After I had taken these next 2 pictures, Cec asked me if I had gotten “the big foot†in the picture. I didn’t even know what she was talking about until I looked back at these.
I do have to say that the Winn-Dixie Grocery store was really cute. And, out of everything there, it was also the most organized. There were children’s grocery carts and they even had cash registers with conveyer belts that worked! I’m not sure whether Cecilia or Brittain had more fun with this. (When Cecilia was little she always said she wanted to be a cashier at a grocery store. I think there’s a part of her that still does.)
The 12’ fire truck was nothing more than some plywood nailed together and painted red. But hey, what can I say? She still thought it was great.
We really thought we’d hit the jackpot when I saw a sign that said “Face Painting.†No line or anything. There was a boy sitting there just waiting for his next customer. When Brittain sat down, he asked her to choose which design she wanted. There were several stamps laying on the table with different designs. She chose a dragonfly. At this point I expected for him to paint a dragonfly on her face while looking at the stamp as a guide. But nope. He picked up that stamp, put some paint on it, and stamped it right on her cheek. The best part? He then dipped his paint brush in the paint and proceeded to make some kind of marks all the way around the dragonfly. Why? We have no idea. Brittain decided she wanted something on the other cheek so she chose a heart. Same thing again. We couldn’t stop dying laughing at this.
Since we were there around lunchtime I thought where better to have lunch than the 50’s diner they advertised? And at 50’s prices? This was an added plus. Cecilia continues to make fun of me for this. Yes, there was a 50’s diner at 50’s prices…because it was all pretend, cardboard food. Nice.
The last straw was when Brittain decided she wanted to play basketball. The “wheelchair basketball†was a small fenced in area with 2 basketball goals and 4 wheelchairs. Not sure why the wheelchairs were even there because no one was using them. Hogging the court the entire time we were there were large children and an adult male who referred to himself as “Uncle Johnny.†Uncle Johnny was clearly reliving his younger years where he sucked playing basketball against the kids his own age. This was his time to shine because as a 35 year old he was clearly better than the 12 year olds he was playing against. After a few attempts of Brittain walking onto the court and getting hit in the head with balls that no one would let her play with, Cecilia and I decided it was time to leave when we saw visions of us jumping Uncle Johnny and every other kid that merely ran into Brittain while she was trying to innocently have a good time.
We still had to drag her out of there, but it was easy enough with the promise of an ice cream…with colored sprinkles.
By far the highlight of the trip was going to a place called “Sweet and Sassy,†a salon and spa for little girls. They host parties, but you can also go in to have a la carte services. There was a package that included a manicure, makeup and an “up do†so while there looked to be a tsunami forming outside, we stayed dry inside and got great enjoyment watching Brittain get pampered. After the first hurdle of not messing her nails up before they were dry, we headed to the other part of the salon to get her makeup and hair done. Poor girl…while enjoying it immensely she was also SOOOOO tired and couldn’t resist the temptation to just take a quick nap sitting straight up.
But after the primping was complete, she got her second wind when we introduced the stage and runway to her. It was all over after that as we then spent another hour just dancing and watching Brittain strut her stuff.
Because no vacation is complete without a trip to a Chuck E. Cheese’s, we found a similar place (Cec, please remind me of the name of this place as it has suddenly left my brain) to go to as it continued to rain. Here again, lots of children who don’t know how to behave and whose parents don’t seem to care that their kids are pushing others and acting like they’ve never been let out of the house before. And to make matters worse? No wine like they advertised on their website! While this was grounds to leave in mine and Cec’s opinion, Brittain disagreed. So we decided to make the best of it. Turns out it was “Rollerball†that proved to be Brittain’s favorite activity. And she was actually pretty good. At one point an older child playing in the lane next to us turned around to me and said, “Did you just see that? She just got a strike?†Yep, my girl makes me proud.
The day ended abruptly when she dropped the rollerball onto her foot…which had no shoes on them. I know, I know…bad, bad mother. But it was nothing a “big coke†couldn’t fix. Before we knew it we were safely in our car headed back to Aunt CC’s house…where there was wine and pizza that we were really looking forward to.
The day before we left we saw the sun peer through the clouds. When it happened we didn’t waste any time. We threw on our bathing suits, jumped in the car and headed for the beach. It was great for that 45 minutes of sun and sand and waves before we felt one raindrop that turned into a downpour and left us running for cover. Good times. Good times.
Oh yeah, in the middle of all these activities we did manage to just have some fun, relaxing time at Aunt CC and Uncle Makew’s new house. And you know we didn’t let the week go by without at least one dance party:
P.S. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may remember my “Mommy Brain” post I did a couple of years ago. Since then I’ve come to the realization that you don’t have to necessarily be a mommy to have embarrassing things happen to you. If you’re taking care of a child, then you’re just as susceptible. Case in point. This is a picture of Cecilia that I took with my cell phone one day when we were out shopping. I was shopping. She had taken over mother duties. It’s just what happens when you stop focusing on yourself and start completely focusing on the child:
