It is 8:45 pm here in Orlando. We're back at the Grande Vista after a fun beach day at Cocoa Beach.
Last night Joseph made ambitious plans to leave between 5:30 and 6 am to go there to watch the sunrise. Younger siblings wanted to come. Then he sent a text around midnight saying his plans had changed and he and Eliza didn't want to get up that early. I didn't tell the younger siblings, but I didn't wake any of them up this morning. For J&E that would mean only 5 hours of sleep, and they did that Christmas eve and then had headaches Christmas Day. I still got up early to make oatmeal for any early departure-ers, but then I went back to bed with K and there wasn't any stirring in the house until around 9. I knew I wouldn't be going to the beach early, cause Corey had gone to bed early with K, and I didn't know his plans, and I didn't think I could get out the door with everyone without his help. Little K got whatever sickness Abi had on the plane. Katharine had a fever yesterday and still sick last night and slept with us. It was fun to snuggle her. I usually don't get to cause she wants Abi.
Right now she only wants me. Her fever went away after I gave her some tylenol last night after dinner and she slept well after that. Around 9-10, kids were debating what to do and costs. Still might be fun to go to he Kennedy Space Center. Hmm... As we talked about options, Mel made ham sandwiches for lunch, we packed up a bin full of dried fruit, I grabbed some chips and other stocking stuffer leftovers, and we eventually all agreed on the beach and we left for that around noon. Iy was an hour drive. We all got free 90 min parking spots that we went and rotated after our first round of time was up. The older kids got their first game of spikeball going (Owen's one of the big boys now)...
Peter was excited to bring his t-rex wood skeleton puzzle to bury in the sand "So I can be a paleontologist!"
We'll find out later if any of the pieces got left behind in the sand. Hyrum set to work creating the Star Wars scenes he envisioned.... Can you tell what this one is?
The little umbrellas and a hotel kitchen cloth made a good beach towel for the clone troopers, enjoying a day off at the beach.
And Hyrum recruited his siblings to help make the space port Mos Eisley
We ended up creating some fun scenes that I'll share in a second. As the afternoon progressed, Lily dug a hole and we put Peter in it. Once he was helplessly stuck, we pondered what to do with him. Hmm - Ethan decided to go for a field goal.
Then Mel had the idea to change him into a spider. Most of us were squirming "gross!"
Our imaginations are a little too real so we all thought that was disturbing and yucky, but he felt cool to be Spider Man. After a few pics, the girls got to work creating something sweeter.
Aww, baby sea turtle just hatched out of his egg! Hurry to the ocean before the seagulls get you like they did yoda!
Katharine still wanted me most of the day. I held her, carried her to the water a few times, but she didn't want to touch it. Mostly we just sat and I rocked her and we listened to the waves. Good grounding time.
"
Can you see the world in a grain of sand?" - (We listened to the killers on our drive Christmas Day, to help me stay awake) Was just as well K needed me, cause I didn't have a place to change into my swimsuit anyway. I would have gotten in the waves to play with the older kids, but there was no public restroom where I could change. Or for any of us to use for the bathroom. I held it all afternoon. I hope the kids did too. Cocoa Beach might want to provide some public restrooms unless they are encouraging ocean wees. I walked around quite a bit looking for a place, but every restaurant said "restrooms for Dine in customers only" - boo. Once I got her curious about sand, I was able to leave her.
And that's when we did the Star Wars photo shoot. Hyrum was up for the sunrise, cause he wanted to photoshop it and make it a double sun photo of Luke on Tatooine. But instead they made this -
Han and Chewie read to fly out of here, if they can get past that giant pink dressed monster past the ship hanger...
C-3P0 and R2-D2 escaped from the Jawas. The kids had fun.
And that was my vision when we decided to give most of the Star Wars toys to Hyrum. I knew he'd make some magic happen, and he did. Thank you Hyrum! Pic of the kids is at the top of this post and I did a selfie of us with K, cause she didn't want to get in the pic with her siblings.
If you look at the sibling pic, you'll see Luke on the top of a building, and he just shot a clone trooper, so there's some live action falling, but Luke better hurry cause he's got a trooper ready to get him. Corey looked ok at the beach, but he's been horizonal since we got back. He probably got what Abi had on eh plane. He slept and the rest of us went swimming while E&B made dinner, Jungle Cruise playing on the jumbo screen (I don't love having a huge movie screen there by the pool). Ethan came and told us dinner was ready. Spaghetti and meatballs with broccoli. Then I stayed and cleaned up with Bella and Eliza, J&E went to play fooseball and ping pong, and MHWLSODP went swimming again. Joseph and Ethan came back and now they are playing chess and Bella and Eliza playing
Bananagrams.
Corey is in bed, Natalie is asleep too, she has a fever, I'm here blogging, K talking to herself in the other room, I'm glad she's feeling better.
Ok, kids all came back and we had Ferrero Rocher chocolates for dessert and we just finished a few rounds of Secret Hitler. We all had fun playing this last night, so everyone was up for playing it again tonight. On one round, the fascists ended up being JMEH and E was Hitler, but then H put down a winning Liberal card (it was his first game, I made him chancellor, I gave him a choice for fascist or liberal and he didn't feel he could lie about his mother so he put the liberal card and that gave the liberals the win, and his fellow fascist Ethan explained to him why that was not the right move. "Sorry, it's my first game..." It's also fun playing with Owen cause we could not tell the difference in how he acted. We were pretty sure he didn't know how to lie, or if he was lying he was very good but more likely he was still learning how to play the game. On one round, I was Hitler and I didn't know this but Owen was one of the fascists, he put down a fascist card, cause he "had to" (aka only got two fascist cards to choose from) then looked at my cards and totally outed me "She's a fascist! And she's Hitler!" We debated whether to keep playing or stop, since me being Hitler was now known to everyone. Joseph said he'd like to see how it played out. Turns out at the end, Owen plays the final liberal card to give the Liberals the win, THEN we find out he was a fascist! Which adds to the curiosity of why he outed me! Funny, so then Ethan explained the rules of the game again "Owen, if you get a fascist card, you want the fascists to win... which means if someone is a fascist (like mom) you lie and tell everyone she is liberal..." "Ooooh!" It was funny. After that round, Owen got a fascist card again, and I was a fascist and Joseph, and Abi was Hitler, and that time we won it! Owen put down a liberal card, people were suspicious, I was President, checked him, and lied and said he was a liberal. Eliza tested me later and gave me a choice between fascist and liberal and I put liberal as a strategy and got a little bit of trust, then later I was President again and this was near the end and people were campaigning hard, I was able to give the chancellor position to Abi, Mel was the the final "yay/ja" vote we needed, and wit that fascists won! That was Joseph's 4th or 5th game as a fascist and he was glad that his fellow fascists finally got it, haha. Good job Owen!
We are doing a game of Skull King now but it is very late and we should go to bed soon. Don't know what the plan is for tomorrow. It's ok - that relaxing flexibility has made this feel like a real vacation!
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