Spring Break

Since we are all (except for Matt) now slaves to the school calendar, the Schroeder family decided to take advantage of Spring break and head south for a week.  After much deliberation (and many hours on VRBO) we decided on our old standby-Navarre beach.  It's such a perfect beach for us...very family oriented, minimally developed and man! are there a lot of good shells.  And once again, it did not disappoint.  However!  Before I report on the trip, I want to back up a bit to fill you in on why this particular beach trip was so well timed.

About 3 months ago, after yet another incident of Chassie/Matthew/Ben dirty paws all over our 'used to be white-ish' carpet, Matt and I decided that this was the year.  We were finally going to replace all of the carpet in our house.  We had not ever done it and it was really, REALLY grody.  And then Matt had the brilliant idea to have it installed while we were already out the house for spring break and that way we could just come home to a newly carpeted house.  Sounds amazing, right!?  

And it was!!  HOWEVER.  Did you know that if you get carpet replaced, it's not like you can just leave your house as it is and then come back to find it just as it was except for the new carpet?  Because you can't.  Apparently the carpet places don't want to have to mess with things like, all the random junk that has collected under your bed in the five years that  you have lived there.  Or the seriously overcrowded closets that belong to the children and possibly the adults as well.  They are happy to move big things (emptied dressers and disconnected television shelves),  but not all the random stuff.  And as it turns out, we have a LOT of random stuff.  Which I found out in the seven hours it took Matt, Me, Nana and Dee to collect, box, and find new, temporary homes for all of said junk.  HOLY BANANAS we have too many things.  

BUT!  We did get the job done, and because of all that unpleasantness just prior to the trip, we were especially glad to go to the beach.  Somehow seven hours in the car didn't seem so bad....

And when we got here everything was just perfect.  The kids were so thrilled to be at the beach...the weather was amazing (75 degrees at the beach is great.  Hot in the sun, but the breeze cools you right off), the heated pool was perfect and the Target was just close enough.   We made the most of all of it:

Matt-horsing around in the pool with the kids during an evening swim.  I opted out...decided to take pictures instead of freezing :)

I don't know who had more fun...Matt or the kids ;)

Easter morning sunrise

Little sillies!

And of course the beach trip would not be complete without nighttime crab hunting!  

Someone had made a couch out of sand-we couldn't resist the photo op!

One of the best parts of our trip was going to the Gulf Breeze zoo.  It was one of the best zoo's we had ever been to-it was HUGE and there were so many animals.  The first part of the zoo was a petting/feeding area where we got to feel goats, llamas, guinea pigs, and our very favorite...the giraffe:

He was so sweet!  Very very gentle and even Ben could easily feed him!

And the zebras!  Pea was especially happy about those.

Part of the zoo was a train ride around the 50 acre wildlife preserve-

We got even closer to the zebras!

So so much fun!!

The weather was a bit uncooperative toward the end of the trip, and since we were anxious to get back to the new flooring, we cut our vacation a day short-which was good because it gave us a little more time to put the house back in order.  

Overall, it was another great trip though.  And we are all really looking forward to the St. Simon's trip!

Hockey!!

It's official: we love hockey! We got to go to a Gwinnett gladiators game last week and was so fun!!!! No- we don't know the rules or any of the players but the excitement and craziness was great. Hopefully we'll be back soon !

Here are some pix:

I'm back!!  Again!!  This time you can thank Stephanie :).

Everyone has grown since we were here last-  Here are my two pretty girls; Pea and Caitlin.  Both growing up too fast-

 And everyone...tackling Matthew.  Which, given that he is a nine year old boy, is all any of us feel like doing at any given time.  I'm pretty sure he is okay with it.

 And the two boys...growing up? yes.  Maturing? notsomuch.

 Sports are in full swing again, and this year Matthew is in 'kid pitch' baseball.  And guess who is pitching just like his Daddy?

 And the boys again.  Still not maturing (it's like, 8:15pm on a school night.  But apparently it's always sunny when you are cool.)

 Hannah and Ben are doing very well in school.  So well in fact that when they get home from school, Hannah drags Ben up to her room to play a little more school.  Ben is so dang happy that Hannah is actually letting him in her room that he will put up with just about anything.

 And we can't forget the Patty cat (Chassie declined her invitation to be in this blog post.  She's getting older and she has put on a few pounds, and she doesn't feel quite as comfortable being photographed...)  Patty is desperately trying to be an inside cat, and will occasionally come in...but it will never happen.  Ever.  ;)

So yes.  It' s a quick and dirty (though not as dirty as it would have been had Chassie been involved) update, but hopefully it will get the ball rolling on more updates :).

Happy Saturday

Yesterday we spent the WHOLE day (skipped naps!) at Vogel State Park in Blairsville.  It was a gorgeous day and the temperatures were ideal for a family hike.  We started the day at the lake:

.  The kids insisted on immediately pulling out the fishing poles and dropping in a line.

Ben and I decided to walk around the lake instead and hunt for treasures.  And photo ops:

We reconvened a little bit later and decided to go for a hike up Blood Mountain.  We got all ambitious and decided that the 5 miler was not going to be a problem at all.  WE CAN DO IT!  It will be EASY!!

Or so we thought.

The first mile or so went great.  We found some cool places to take pictures and all the kids enjoyed the GIANT lollipops I got for them for the hike. (I figured full mouths would be less likely to complain.  Mother of the year I am).

 However, by about mile 1.1, Ben decided that 'yes this was all scenic and stuff but could someone please carry me because this walking thing is for the birds.  Also I can't see a thing down here.'  So up on Matt's shoulders he went.  And stayed there for everything but the flat parts. (he didn't even want to do the downhills).

We walked on.  And on.  And ON.  AND ON.  Two hours later we got to...the halfway point.  Which admittedly made the entire trip worth it because firstly it was the lookout point.  The top of the mountain, overlooking the gorgeous 22 acre crystal clear lake. Photo op?  Yes please:

You better believe that was one happy peanut butter puppy.

And secondly...we got our Christmas card picture! ( I can't show you here because that would make sending Christmas cards out seem unnecessary and honestly after an hour and a half of trying desperately to decide between 2 different card designs on Shutterfly and eventually going with an entirely different card altogether,  I just can't make the Christmas card unnecessary).  However!  I can give you a hint.  Here's a picture of Matt and the kids previewing the picture we took on the McGuyvered tripod Matt managed to make using a tree, two sticks and two hair rubber bands.  I swear there's an engineer somewhere in there:

After the photo session (during which the dog was the most uncooperative member of the party. She would look straight at the camera until RIGHT before it was taken, and then decide that now was a good time to lick her bottom.  Which is just what we all want to see on a Christmas card, yes?) we started the loooooooooooooooong climb down.  And here the pictures stop because scenery be damned, all we wanted to do was to be back to our car.  Seriously we must have said, "This has to be the end.  I think i can see the parking lot" at least 45 times on our way back.  Ben was heavy, Pea was whiny and the snacks were getting dangerously low.

Eventually we made it back however and were never so thankful for an hour and a half in the car where we had nothing to do but sit still.  It was glorious!

All joking aside though, it was a wonderful wonderful trip.  We got to bond as a family away from the pressures of work and school and just be our crazy silly family selves.  I can't wait to do it again soon.  Maybe this time though, we'll stick to the half mile trail....