cake by the ocean

last time justin was at session in carson city, he promised me he would take me on a vacation, whenever i wanted, when he got home. but i was 8 months pregnant when he got home. so no trip happened. then i had a baby who nursed and life just went on. my favoritest sister offered to babysit all of my kids when she got out for the summer.

hallelujah!

*that ugly face was for the kids to show them how much i missed them

 you know when you feel like a million bucks and the world is your oyster? that's how we felt. bahamas? mexico? hawaii? we could go anywhere! sadly our bank account disagreed with us. and this mama wouldn't leave her babies for more then 4 days. zika virus scared justin so that eliminated mexico. when porter was 11 months old, we went to florida, courtesy of justin's boss. it was such a fantastic trip that we decided to go back there. all i wanted from this trip was a WARM beach [no thank you california] and to sleep. check and check!

*that happy face was when my kids said they didn't miss me

our trip occurred right after my zobrist reunion so it was pretty hectic leading up to the trip. that just means it was needed even more! we flew to fort lauderdale thursday night with our friends, the irelanders. steven is justin's soul mate - for serious - and me and meghan are best friends. we always have a lot of fun together. we looked at several resorts up and down the miami coast but none of them seemed quite right. then justin found a house on airbnb that was perfect! two blocks from a more local beach, beach cruisers for us to get around [and not have to rent a car], our own heated pool! it was better then i expected. and cost us less money!

while the house was fantastic, it was inhabited by several little caterpillar type bugs [most likely because the house was empty for a little while] but thankfully they scattered in a day or two. but not before meghan squished some with her feet- eek! friday we all slept in until noon. it was fantastic! no one was hitting me in the face, whining for milk. no one was screaming to be let out of their crib. i didn't have to endure through the rescue bot song at 5:30am. perfection.

before we got to florida, we knew there were stormy days forecasted for the whole time we were there. justin assured me that it wouldn't be pouring all the time and thankfully he was right [don't worry- this never happens]. the first day as we were coming back from the store with arms full of groceries, we got caught in a downpour. that was the worst it ever got, thankfully.

days blurred together. we basically watched a lot of tv, slept in and napped often, swam in our pool, biked to get food, ate a lot of ice cream, and hung out at the beach. i loved collecting sea shells for my boys and got them a cool treasure chest to put them in [along with an awesome story of how i found a treasure map and had to fight off an alligator to get it. that's right, i'm awesome]. and i just love the ocean! especially the atlantic ocean. it's so WARM! everyone is in the water, unlike the pacific, which people just go in the shore and sunbathe. you forget how the current just moves you slightly, back and forth. the shore line was really big so i could go out 25 feet and still be about waist height in water. and the salt! gross to drink but it lets you float. and the sand feels great on your feet and does wonders for your hair. the humidity was not fun but luckily i had no one to impress so i wore a ponytail the whole time. i just love the beach! i could have been there for hours but no one else in the group liked it that much. in fact, i don't think steven even got in the water once.

and my babies? they somehow survived without me, much to my dismay. griffin didn't even miss me. for reals. i came home and he couldn't have cared less. it took him a day or two to remember to love on me and whine at my feet constantly. landon and porter missed me though. my sister brought some sickness with her from arizona so poor shannon had a whole lot of poopy butts to take care of. thankfully, she's my favorite sister. and i paid her in a rainbow brite snuggie.

as we were flying home from our trip, i got so excited to see my babies. i had missed them tremendously. hanging out by the ocean, sleeping in, eating whatever i wanted. it was so much fun and very relaxing, but it wasn't "the life". it was a vacation. my life- waking up at 5:30am most mornings, getting screamed at, the biting, the hitting, the crying. that is "the life". because along with all of those terrible and exhausting things, there's also snuggles, reading books on the couch, playing in the pool, popsicles on the porch, singing at storytime. i have "the life". and it's a wonderful one.

*for the record, no one knew my reference to 'cake by the ocean'. not even when i sang it. i am surrounded by old people.