The Day I Felt Like a Frog

So on Saturday, our day started with breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Fayetteville, North Carolina, french toast, eggs, the peg game, and lemonade. This is one of my favorite days of the year, the day we arrive at Kiawah. The kids are always excited for this trip.

 Four hours after leaving Fayetteville, we were driving on the road that leads us to Kiawah. It is a pretty road, lined with live oaks. Their branches are out stretched over the road and the Spanish moss hangs down from their branches. I took these pictures with instagram. I took all of my pictures on Saturday with my phone. I really do love all the different filters you can chose from to enhance your pictures.

I really love these large trees. Some of them are huge, hundreds of years old and yet they seem to be so welcoming. Some of their branches hang so low to the ground as if to say, "Come, climb my branches, sit in my shade, I am here for you to protect you from the heat of the day." Today, that shade was definitely welcomed. As I sat in the car, checking the weather on my phone, and seeing facebook updates from friends at home, the highest reading I saw was 107 degrees in Ashburn. But the further south we got, and the closer to the beach we got, the cooler our temperature got. Don't get me wrong, it was hot and there is that southern humidity when we got out of the car when we finally arrived, but it was not 107.

We got to Kiawah about 2:00. Our house was not ready yet so we walked around the town square and took lots of pictures with instagram.

I love these frogs. There are a number of these whimsical  frog statues around the shopping center at Kiawah. I told Molly that I think these frogs were reading Frog and Toad.

Here, I was trying to take a picture of Molly in the ice cream shop through the window. Can you see her on the bottom left of the window? But I mostly got a picture of my own reflection.

                                         There's Molly.

After we were done with our ice cream, the kids were standing outside the shop and I took another shot of the window with their reflection.


The rental agency was having trouble getting there units ready for the new week. We had our ice cream, we did some shopping in the tourist shops, and then did our food shopping and finally our house was ready.

Our view

After we finally got to our house, unloaded the car, unpacked, and put the groceries away, we made it down to the beach. Chris and I sat and watched the kids in the water until Chris went to pick up some pizza for dinner. So I  was sitting in my chair alone, with only the blowing ocean breeze and the crashing waves at my ear. I watched the kids in their own world of happiness jumping in the waves after being in the car for two days. I sat as I watched my kids and thought about the frog statues we had just seen in the shopping center and then I thought of one of the Frog and Toad stories. I loved the Frog and Toad books as a kid. When I was young, I struggled as a reader but the Frog and Toad books made me feel like I was reading a chapter book because they had a few stories in each book. So as I was sitting in my chair at the edge of the water, I thought of this one particular story from Days With Frog and Toad. Toad had gone to Frog's house but all he found was a note on the door that said he wanted to be alone. Toad was very concerned. Had he done something wrong? Does Frog still want to be Toad's friend? Toad searches for his friend Frog and finally finds him sitting on a rock in the river, sitting alone. Toad thinks that his friend is sad, so he decides to pack a picnic basket to cheer him up. He asks a turtle to carry him out to Frog but before he gets to him, Toad slips into the water, along with his picnic basket and all he had left was wet sandwiches. Frog pulls Toad from the water and Toad tells him that he had made the lunch for them because he wanted Frog to be happy. 


Frog replies, "But Toad, I am happy. I am very happy. This morning when I woke up I felt good because the sun was shining. I felt good because I was a frog. And I felt good because I have you as a friend. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to think about how fine everything is."


As I sat in my chair, watching the water like Frog did in the story, I felt very much like him. After 6 hours in the car with the kids the night before and another four hours that morning, sometimes as a Mom, you just need to be alone "to think about how fine everything is." At that moment in the chair, I felt good because the sun was shining. I felt good because I was a mom and I felt good because I have four amazing kids that are mine.

My quiet, alone moment did not last long before the kids started to come running back from the water but sometimes all you need is a small moment to rejuvenate yourself and be reminded to be thankful for the things that you have.

It is going to be a great week.

Eighteen Years and Counting...

It's the fourth week of summer for us and this week is sandwiched in between coming home from the Poconos and getting ready for our Kiawah trip. So far it's been a week for maintenance. Three kids have gone to the orthodontist, two had their annual check-ups, one of us has an eye doctor appointment, in addition to a parent meeting for travel soccer, picking up new cleats, a soccer practice, a horseback riding lesson, a basketball game, and a swim meet. And then there is always the laundry, more maintenance. Laundry that needs to get done from our last trip and laundry that needs to get done so that we can pack for our next trip.


But in between all this maintenance, there are things on my to-do list in anticipation for next week. Our bike rentals were booked today for Kiawah, one of my favorite things to do there.  Our fishing boat trip is now booked. The kids can't wait for that. There is anticipation. Part of creating memories is the anticipation of something. This is our fourth time to Kiawah. We now have our favorite things to do. The kids ask; Are we going to go to Hyman's Seafood? Are we going to get the bikes again? Are we going on another fishing trip? They are anticipating. They know that the waters are filled with sand dollars and starfish. They know when and where to look for the dolphins. We know the markings for the loggerhead turtle nests and whether they have hatched or not. There is talk and anticipation of what we will be doing next week. 


The summer is a time to do things that you usually don't get to do during the rest of the year. As I write this, it is almost 10:00 at night and Shannon and Molly are in the kitchen making cookies. That is something that does not happen at other times of the year. We have trips planned and hopes of doing fun activities during the summer, but there is always maintenance. You can't get around it. 


But even though for the most part, this week is about getting things done, tomorrow is the Fourth of July. I love the Fourth of July, not just because we get to celebrate our wonderful country, not just because we get to see fireworks and have backyard barbecues, but for Chris and I, we celebrate our anniversary. It's been 23 years together and 18 years of marriage. 


Way back when, I remember Chris and I looking for venues for our wedding. We were on a tight budget and we had already looked at a lot of places but none of them felt right. And then one afternoon, we were at The Westbury Manor and I knew this is where I wanted it to be. It was beautiful, an old Victorian home with beautiful gardens but of course it was way over budget.

 I remember sitting in the office with the gentleman that showed us around. I remember trying to figure out a way to make it work and it really was going to be too much until he suggested getting married on the Fourth of July. My initial reaction was "no." But then he explained that the Fourth of July was a Monday and so we would get the week rate and not the weekend rate. He went over the figures with us and there was a significant difference, enough to consider getting married on a Monday. If we were to have our reception here, it was going to have to be on Monday, the Fourth of July...and the rest as they say, is history.

Now, 18 years later, I love our anniversary being on the Fourth because Chris always has the day off and no matter what the plans are for the day, we are together as a family. There have been years that we were in the Poconos and there are years that we were at home, watching fireworks in our community with the kids, but always together. 


So even though we have a lot of "maintenance" going on this week in anticipation of our next trip, we also have the recollection of a wonderful day 18 years ago. The very beginnings of the Nealon Family as we know it today...and the story isn't over yet.

Sometimes I Remember the Boring Stuff the Most

So another Nealon Pocono trip has come and gone. Last night at the dinner table, I asked the kids about their favorite memories of this year's trip. This is what they came up with:


treetop adventures~cousin dinner conversations~almost catching two bass~pool~doing the "Uncle Peter"~ doing the YMCA as they were coming down the big slide~hot tub~Chris the lifeguard (a different Chris)~pick up basketball at the gym with the crazy dude~flips off the diving board~bungy jumping~batting cage~mini golf~playing spoons~scategories~sleepovers in the loft~fishing~catching the biggest sunny ever~using Molly's sunny to catch the bass that then got away~the hotel for sunnies~Nealon comedy night and talent show~Mikey's jokes~ playing pool~ping pong~ziplines~Nealon baseball game on the beach~playing PB & J~family dinners~badminton~track ball~Sunny Cove~Uno~painting fingernails~hide 'n seek~outlet shopping~Friendly's~ a baby deer on the beach~Timmy's and Dad's race around the Timber Trail circle~watching ALF~watching Shawshank Redemption until 1:00 in the morning with mom because she had never seen it before~singing "Call Me Maybe" at the cousin dinner table every time someone walked by on the road~driving home in a torrential thunderstorm


These are their memories. These are their stories. Some of these things they have done year after year. Some of them are new memories unique to the 2012 trip. But what all of these memories have in common is that they all are memories with family, with cousins that they only see a few times a year, with Grandma and aunts and uncles. When I asked Molly what her favorite part of the trip was, she said it was the cousins dinnertime conversation. Since we are such a large group, at dinnertime, the adults eat in the dining room and the kids all eat on the screen in porch outside. When I asked Molly what they talked about at their dinnertime conversations, Molly just looked at me and said, "I can't tell you...I can't tell you any of it." And as she said that, both Ryan and Timmy shook their heads in agreement. I love that the cousins had a space just for them, a place to be themselves with one another, a place to tell their jokes without parental ears listening.


After a week of being almost completely "disconnected" from electronics, last night the boys were in the basement playing xbox, Shannon was at a sleepover, and so Molly and I snuggled in bed with a movie. We watched UP. I love this movie. I have a number of favorite parts but there is one that really resonates with me. Russell, the little boy and Karl are walking along with Karl's house tied to them both. Russell is talking about his dad and tells the story about how his dad used to bring him to his badge ceremonies and afterwards they would get ice cream and then sit on the curb and count the cars. His dad would count the red ones and he would count the blue ones and whoever had the most won. And then Russell says, "It might sound boring, but I think the boring stuff I remember the most."


As a mom, I am always trying to create memories with my kids. We have our summer bucket list of things we want to do. I have a list of places that I would like to visit with the kids someday, if not this year, next year or the year after that, just like Ellie and Karl wanted to go to Paradise Falls. But sometimes I need to be reminded that it may be the "boring" stuff that my kids will remember the most. I look at the kids' list from the Poconos and some of it may fall under the "boring" category...pool, fishing, dinner conversation, basketball. These are all things that they could have done at home, everyday summer stuff. But what makes it special is that they were with family, they were with their cousins and aunts and uncles and grandma. That is what makes these memories special...doing the things you love to do with the people that you love to do them with the most. Then all of a sudden the "boring" stuff doesn't seem so boring after all.

 Nealon Baseball

It's was cold at the beginning of the week.

Aunt Kathleen and Timmy both won a dollar from Uncle Paul for getting a hole in one.

Molly doing a little dance while Timmy tried to get her fish off the hook.

Striking a pose even while fishing.

Ryan's fishing pole...always a bird's nest.

Jessie trying to reel in a big bass that ended up snapping the line and then got away.

The memories they make today are the stories they will tell tomorrow.