Vacation - Chapter 2

I guess I forgot to finish up Sunday night... and this is part that I can't believe I forgot to include! For dinner, we (me, Brad and the kids) drove to Broadway at the Beach. Not wanting to take the kids to a seafood restaurant and having the temper tantrums follow within seconds, we decided to go to what we thought was a kid-friendly restaurant... Senor Frogs. Well, if any of you have been to Senor Frogs, you're probably already cracking up. The place was, as we expected, totally kid-friendly. It was extremely loud, so much so that we were yelling to talk to one another. The kids could have screamed, cried, and cussed and not a soul would have paid one bit of attention, which is kind of a relief when you spend a lot of time in a restaurant trying to keep children happy. There was a bar atmosphere, but also a family feel to the place. Children danced in front of the stage where contests were held, music was BLARED on the speaker, and people seemed to be unusually busier than most restaurants.

We sat down at the table and were getting settled into the menu, when out of the blue, a server/employee in a cowboy/robber style mask comes up from behind me, shoves a fistful of napkins under my chin, pulls my head back and begins pouring what I am at this point hoping is a non-alcholic pink lemonade. Total shock for me and the kids, but quite hilarious when I look over the table and see them doing the same thing to Brad, who is yelling, "What the hell is this?" As the employee keeps urging Brad to drink, he keeps asking what it is. Finally, he gives in and the employees disappear into the chaos, leaving us with two totally shocked children to console. Upon getting them calmed down, I am surprised with another visit from our robber-style friends. They come up behind me, swing my chair out into the aisle, tilting me back and again, giving me another drink of pink lemonade. By this point, the kids are totally freaked out - Jake is reaching for me from the booster seat that he's considered hopping out of and Bailey is looking at me with her jaw dropped as far as it will open. Both must have been terrified. And Brad and I both looked at each other in disbelief. All four of us seemed to be thinking the same thing, "What the hell is this place." After we got into the routine of seeing all of this chaos and dancing along to the music and contests, we had a great time. Jake enjoyed standing in my lap and letting me move his arms for the YMCA. Bailey enjoyed dancing too, but was more mesmerized by the huge green frog footprints that were painted to the floor. Our server had told her that there was a huge frog hopping around some place in the restaurant. All in all, we had a great time and would recommend it to someone with kids, as long as they were prepared for the possible ambush! :)

That night ended early on Monday morning. Brad and I ran out to the store to get a couple of things and to mail some things out for our health insurance - a whole other story in and of itself. While we were gone, we kept noticing the black clouds that were rolling in. We were completely disappointed that we would be stuck inside all day, especially with five children under the age of 7 who were dying to get out on the beach. When we got back to the condo, the storm was coming in and so was Mom, Angela, and all of the kids. Fortunately, Bailey was exhausted. By about 2 p.m. that day, she was barely able to hold her head up and Brad convinced her to take a nap. It was an interesting day at the condo... kids were bouncing off the walls, watching tv intermitently, fighting some, and eating more food than we could imagine. I think they went through about 40 packs of Scooby Doo gummies in a day and a half. :)

With Cory being gone, the boys decided it was time to test the waters. It was cute, at first, but by the end of Monday all of us were ready to kill them and Bailey and Jake. Jake had decided it was time to start acting like the big kids, so climbing to stand on the tables, running up and down the hallway shrieking, and throwing things (which he's done forever) were his favorite things to do all day. They were all going to push the envelope as far as they could (who wouldn't - it was vacation!). Even the most patient person there, my wonderful husband, separated them all and raised his voice (if you can believe that!). It was definitely the hardest day of the week and we were all concerned that we would be stuck inside with them everyday.

By Tuesday, the weather cleared and we were able to get out on the beach. More later this week... I should have been writing while I was on vacation. :)