Winter break vacation is the best idea ever!

 We totally cut out the whole part of break where everyone just loafs around the house and gets mad at each other and screams that they’re bored and breaks all their new toys. It was awesome! We had a fun family celebration, went to the beach, and then everyone went to school and I am on breeeaaaaak— it’s perfect.

We rolled into Madison on Saturday to unpack the car (required a ladder— car topper **eye roll**) and immediately hit the grocery store for chicken and salad. (We ordered one more garbage dinner for the kids and cooked for ourselves because after our final pizza lunch we just could not even with the fattening restaurant food). We shoveled out and restocked on Sunday and then the kids went back to school Monday. Harry still has 2 more weeks at home, and I have 3. **chef’s kiss**

Ben! Had a winter break! For the first time since he was a professor at Blackhawk Tech! And this made aaaall the difference. We are already talking about where we’ll go next year (WILL I BE A FREQUENT FLYER BY THEN? I HOPE SO).

This photo series is definitely my favorite memento from the trip

 Jack got a fancy camera and tripod for Christmas, so he brought it along to take awesome family pictures

We ate at our favorite IL pizza place on the way down and then ate there one more time on our way home (mostly to pick up Minnie’s Owala, accidentally abandoned on 12/28). We played euchre, pool, Cards Against Humanity, lots of Go Fish, and even Candy Land in a TN hotel lobby. Ben and I listened to a book in the car, and we all enjoyed Stockard Channing reading Ramona and her Father. Harry and Jack got to do a few things on their own, as did Ben and I. Everyone doted on Minnie. Car fighting was minimal. All three bros played on Cooper’s MetaQuest the whole trip.

EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME.

And now we’re back to reality. Sigh.

I will say we really screwed ourselves over by leaving the house kind of a mess. It looked clean when we first walked in, but then we noticed the overflowing laundry hamper, all of the trashes in the house that needed to be emptied, a fridge full of expired food, coffee dregs in both pots, etc. Next time, I will take care of Future Me before I go. It would have been wonderful to have a Costco Instacart scheduled to arrive and also a casserole or a pan of enchiladas in the freezer waiting to be cooked. Also! I forgot to water my wonderful plant ladies before we left and they were very sad and wilty.

Oof— and we left Minnie’s lovey in TN (and I could not call the (really awful— will never stay there again— if you are reading this blog, you are too old for Tru by Hilton) hotel to ask for her because I used my actual real name to leave them a 1-star (pretty snarky) review. SO I had to rush order a new one. Plus the Ziploc bag of kid medicine got drenched in liquid ibuprofen, and Coop is allergic to ibuprofen, so we had to throw it all away and start from scratch (meds, ointments, etc). But! Still! Plus one for winter break vacation!

Road Trip

 Minor rant: When you spend over $400/night on hotels for your giant family and break your road trip into 2 overnights each way because weather, a road trip is not a cost saver. I AM JUST SCARED TO FLY. Anyone want to go on a quick weekend vacay with me in the next couple months so I can practice flying before dance and dive nats? I AM SO FUN.

Truly, I have been in a BLACK MOOD since we left our house. MY  FAMILY IS SO LUCKY TO HAVE ME.

I love my car, though, you guys. We put the extra seat in the middle row and put Minnie in the middle of that row, and it is a game changer! She has TONS of space, and Jack and Dorothy (next to her on either side) have… enough.. space. Harry and Cooper are on the third row, and they, too, are ok. We put a car topper on top, and it is sort of windy between storms, so that’s freaky. We changed our route to avoid (MOST OF) the mountains and add a ridiculous stop (more about that tomorrow— don’t want to jinx it because it is a BUCKET LIST item for me, literally), and we are currently trying to dodge two giant storm bands and avoid night driving.

Pre-trip mani/pedi

Her little hands. 

Dorothy, too, of course, but we are right now white-knuckling it through a mountain tunnel (WILL OUR CAR TOPPER FIT?), and the picture I took of her at the salon won’t load. STORY OF HER LIFE.

They still love a crappy hotel pool.

Jack doesn’t, but Minnie asked him very nicely to “please lifeguard me,” so what could he do?

Girls’ room— Dorothy was hanging out with the boys, who had a bigger room

She really makes herself comfy

We had pizza twice yesterday. I ate a salad WITH my lunch pizza, but when dinner rolled around, I could NOT have pizza again, so I got a (terrible) salad and added boneless wings. LOL/sob. Today, I am going to try to eat like an adult. I missed hotel breakfast because we needed to leave fast (storms), but I HAVE had a super sugary Dunkin coffee and a Zbar— baby steps.

Monical’s has THE BEST side salads— the whole fam gets in on the act. It’s a gateway salad.

Sad Kentucky pizza place salad though? **sad trombone**

(I am still angry about yesterday's food— that’s how crabby I am, you guys).

We Heart Sea Pines

 We had a delightful Hilton Head trip. There were jellyfish and sting rays and also a rip tide. But still! It was wonderful.

Ben did some work, and I adored solo parenting from the beach. He also took the big boys to Savannah, and I took the youngest three back to the beach one day.

Coop likely has a future in civil engineering given how amaze balls his sand castles were (he stayed through the tide coming in every afternoon to see how many waves the could withstand).

No one got sunburned. We ate delightfully terrible food. Ben and I went to Salty Dog sans kids every night. We also got to take a lovely beach walk in the mornings. It was a dream.

I always curse my fear of flying midway through a driving trip. And also, we need 3 suites at Embassy these days, so a drive is not exactly a cost savings, especially because we eat a lot you guys. But still— it’s a journey, to say the least. 

Journey pics:

(Yes we did spend HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS at Bucc-ees. And Ben was the most spendy, even though he started the whole stop out by saying we only had 10 minutes and setting a timer. And then suddenly he was CHANGING HIS SHIRT IN THE PARKING LOT. He also bought me and Minne matching 4th of July t’s. Jack got a button down (LOL), and Dorothy got Jibbitz for her Crocs AND jewelry. It was ludicrous.)

Our place was right on the beach and had a lovely pool. We went to the Sea Pines beach club every day, hit all of our favorite restaurants and shops and playgrounds. **chef’s kiss**

We got dressed up for dinner, ate Stu’s on the beach. I said fuck it and wore bikinis on this year’s body— very one had giant hair. We loved it!

One night we were all hungry and had to wait 90 minutes for a table, and Minnie was kind of losing it by the time we sat down and then! I found a random roll of washi tape in my purse, and she was happy all night. 3 year-olds are SO WEIRD.

Sea Pines is so great- it’s hard for us to leave until we have a solid plan to come back— that’s how much we love it. Can’t wait to see it again soon.