Evan!!

Our Visitors

Our family had a great treat this summer. Rob's little sister, Chastity, and her four year old, Evan, who is three weeks younger than Gemma, came to stay with us for ten days. We had a great time while they were here. The girls adore Evan, and I don't think I've ever met a better behaved four year old. It also gave the girls a chance to see what it's like to have a boy around. Okay, I learned a few things, too. One day when Chastity and Rob were out, Evan needed me to take him to the bathroom and I was a bit nervous, because I didn't know what he'd need help with. Turns out, he only needed his pants buttoned and unbuttoned. Also, boys don't have to use toilet paper after they go pee. I guess that's a good thing to know, but it seems kind of unsanitary to me.

Our Itinerary

We went to a nature trail one day where we saw several critters, but the highlight of that trip was seeing three manatees! Chastity has always wanted to see a manatee, so we were really lucky.

Another day we went to the zoo. It's a small zoo where we have an annual pass. Evan loved it because he got to see bald eagles. There is a petting area there, and the kids got to pet goats and

alpacas and llamas. At one point, the goat she was petting started eating Juliet's ponytail. I didn't feel she was in any immediate danger, and tried to take a picture. A dad standing right beside

Juliet, though, felt she needed rescuing, and did just that, as I was saying, "No! Don't save her yet! I want a picture of that!" Well, Juliet's hair is VERY long, and all the goat could really do was chew on it. It would have made a good shot. An alpaca tried to eat Clara's hair, but nobody saw it happen, and she managed to extricate it herself. I would have helped her immediately. Her hair is much shorter than Juliet's. Rob loved the goat. He made me take about fifteen pictures of him with the goat. I don't think the goat cared much for Rob. Rob had no hair to feed it. There was a snake in the petting section, and its handler set it on the ground so the kids could all see it. Out of nowhere, with no warning at all, Violet decided to hop over the snake. Thank goodness she didn't land on it. Needless to say, the handler put the snake up after that.

The temperature that day was a sweltering 90 something. For the first time ever in my life, my hands swelled up so badly my fingers looked like white sausages. I found it quite alarming, but every day afterwards that we spent out in the heat, my fingers did the same thing. The doctor said it's okay; drink more water.

The most exciting thing that happened at the zoo was when a wild gorilla got loose and attacked Zoe on the boardwalk!

The day after the zoo we went to the science center, mainly to get out of the heat. Guess what? The air conditioner at the science center was out that day. Of course. My fingers puffed up like sausages. The kids enjoyed themselves immensely, though. Violet particularly enjoyed making a Mr. Potato Head from all the pieces available at that display. We also got to see feeding time for the alligators. Stinky, but neat. Evan's favorite thing was fixing a car.

We spent two days in St. Augustine. At least, we would have spent two days in St. Augustine, but it took us most of the first day to drive there. It shouldn't have taken that long, but we made many, many potty stops on the way, and we had to stop and fix the air conditioning in the truck, and stop to eat, and stop to buy honey roasted almonds. You get the idea. When we got there, we headed straight to the hostel where I'd found cheap rooms that would let each of us have a bed to sleep on. But when Rob and Chastity went in, they said it wasn't what I'd expected when I booked it, and there were creepy looking old men all over the place. We had to pay $40 to cancel the reservation. We ended up in two rooms with two double beds each at a chain hotel, but the kids got to swim in the pool, and they were exhausted at bedtime anyway.

I love St. Augustine. We got to see the Castillo de San Marcos and walk around the historic district. But it was really much too hot, and the highlight of the entire trip was eating at a nice restaurant in the Spanish quarter. We were all cranky, hot, and tired. We didn't get to take the ferry out to Fort Matanzas, and Evan was sorely disappointed, because that was something he'd been looking forward to. The ferry, that is, not Fort Matanzas. I told Chas they have to come back down when the weather is better. Like in December.

The day after we came home from St. Augustine, we had to take Zoe to cheerleading camp. She was gone two whole nights. She's never been on her own for so long before. She handled it much better than I did. That evening, we went to Downtown Disney so Evan could ride the ferry. He enjoyed that and the Lego store, which is unbelievably expensive. Then Chastity treated everybody to dessert at the new T-Rex Cafe. The kids loved it. I was sad Zoe wasn't there. Downtown Disney is best at night in the summer. Not unbearably hot. This is one of my favorite places to go on date night.

On Chastity and Evan's last day, we picked Zoe up from cheer camp and got to watch the different squads compete. The girls were all very impressed by the cheerleaders, and every day since Zoe's been home, they've had her teaching them and the neighborhood girls cheers, and they've planned their own fundraisers, along with the neighbor girls, to buy cheerleading costumes. They even had a peprally in our driveway yesterday. Better than that, they were all also very impressed with the university that sponsored the cheer camp, and they all want to go there when they graduate from high school. This is great because the four oldest ones have been asking me what they have to do to be able to go there, and we get to talk about grades and extracurricular activities and community service and saving money and applying for scholarships. I had seniors at the high school who didn't know these things, so I'm glad the girls are getting the idea now, when there's time to prepare.