Bad Blogger

Yes, that is me scolding myself.

 

I was doing so well during July up until vacations began.

 

Here is a lightning speed recap and a few teaser pics (from iPhone *sigh*)...

 

• -Cameran's first trip to Chincoteague in Mid July beach trip with Pappy and Nanny (pony ride and all)
• -Swimming with "Aunt" Melody and faux cousins
• -Ryan finishes third grad course of summer (brutal for us both since I am the proof-reader of all things BS)
• -14 hour road trip to Illinois (not too bad for a 12 hour trip with a 16 month old--which I would like to point out-- that I drove all of but 3 hours.
• -Relaxing at the Taj Mahal (aka Grandma and Papa's monstrous house in the middle of a s*@%-ton of corn)
• -Going to the ER only to find out Cameran's fever of 102 is due to an ear infection---Umm, hello ear tubes, isn't that what you are for???
• -"Swimping" with Gabriella, Isabelle and the rest of the family
• -Coming to fully appreciate doors WITH functional locks (*imagination necessary*)
• -Day-tripping to House on the Rock in Wisconsin and New Glarus for dinner
• -More relaxing and shopping
• -Attempting to leave on a Tuesday, but not succeeding until Friday
• -Chicago White Sox game at Cellular Field on final Wednesday (perk of said extension thanks to the lemon car parts that were ordered by the garage)
• -A super awesome surprise from the family that will make it much easier to actually make buying a new house a reality sooner rather than later
• -Driving home and stopping "past Cleveland", checking in, then realizing that we were in fact still close to Cleveland thanks to the super ghetto dance party happening near the back entrance.
• -Walking in said back hotel entrance to a bunch of drunk guys choraling, "Hey big girl, you got wings in that bag?" and "Mmmm Ima go for some wings right now" by the girl with them.
• -Family sleeping in a King bed thanks to the institutional-style crib from the hotel.
• -NOT sleeping (well) in the bed
• -Getting home and being surprised with our new electronics that we "had to have" sitting on the porch
• -Unpacking
• -Settling back into reality that is having only one week off until a new crop of 7th graders come.
• -Cameran receiving her 4th EEG and waiting for the results.
• -Hanging out with friends
• -Staying up way too late because of being accustomed to Central time. (Which makes me think of what people who live on the cusp of time zones do if they live in one, but work in another. That would suck.)

On the way to Chincoteague!

Ready to brave the sand for the first time!

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Bonnet from etsy shop Bella Sol Bebe

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Resting with Nanny.

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Steamed crabs.  (Sorry to all who have no clue what these are, but to East Coasters they are heaven.)

Does this bikini make my butt look big??

Aww, do we have to go????

And that was a little taste of Cami's first trip to the beach.

Prelude to the beach

Now that I am back from the beach I know it's time for an update. Here's the thing...I started my day getting blood sucked from my arm to finally see if I have the crappy Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) gene or if I am lucky enough to be the first generation it has skipped...which made me late for the ultrasound that was supposed to happen this morning which I had to cancel because apparently when you are old you all flock to the lab centers before they open, causing me to be (un)lucky number 55 and have to wait for 40 minutes. Needless to say, I had to reschedule said US and now I am sitting in the Border's parking lot typing on my teeny weeny little iPhone keypad all for the sake of this update only to find out that Border's doesn't cater to the early and opens at 9:00 and not 8:00. Super. Thirty-one more minutes to go...

Anyway, this gives me time to give a little overview of our beach trip to Chincoteague/Assateague. First off, we were a little sad that Daddy didn't get to come since he decided it was way cooler to sit at home and type his grad class presentation, so we missed him. Despite all of this, I am proud to announce that with about 95%confidence I can say that Cameran is going to be a water baby/beach bum as she grows up. She tolerated the beach for about five hours each day. I made Pappy fill up her mini pool to cool off/de-sand in, and thanks to my friend Christine, Cameran had her own pop-up tent to chill in, sand-free. Plus, since my family always looks like a circus with our immense beach set-up, we also had the shade of a full canopy tent and two beach umbrellas (it was only Pappy, Nanny, Cameran and me).

When we weren't being beach bums we rode around the island, went shopping (Pappy baby-sat ALONE for the first time!!), ate Mister Wippy's ice-cream, ate steamed crabs, relaxed, played cards, and took Cameran on her first official pony ride!! We even had a campfire one night.

All is well documented, and I made Ryan sit to watch the slideshow.

Pics to come :)