Fun for the Whole Family...Maybe Not

Fun for the whole family...is there really such a thing? Jerry Seinfeld says, "There is no such thing as fun for the whole family." It is not easy with a family of 6 to find activities that we all enjoy. There is always someone that is not happy or at least less happy than the others. But part of being a family is doing things together...right?!?!?

One of the things that we do when we go to Kiawah is rent bikes. It is what one does when one goes to Kiawah. The island is covered with bike paths that are shaded by the huge trees and that makes for a pleasant ride. When you are out and about on your bike, the cars slow down and give the bikes the right of way, people say good morning as you pass by others riding in the opposite direction. People of all ages ride their bikes. I have seen grandmas riding with their grandkids to get ice cream, I have seen dads with their young children still learning to ride with their training wheels, and groups of kids with towels hanging around their necks on their way down to the beach. But fun for the whole family? 

Last year I made everyone go on our rides...this was a family vacation and you can "hang out" and watch tv at home, we didn't travel 10 hours to just "hang out!" But this year I just asked who wanted to go. I wasn't so animate about everyone going. Kiawah does have fun for the whole family, but not everyone thinks all the activities are fun. So our first trip was just with the boys. Shannon, being the teenager, wanted to sleep-in, and Molly who likes to follow in her big sister's footsteps at times stayed behind as well. So it was just me and my three guys.

Our first stop was the Nature Center where they have some of the local animals that were found injured on the island. They also had a poster of how many Loggerhead Turtle nests have been found this year on the island. 

 After the Nature center, we made our way down to The Sanctuary, the hotel on the island. There is an ice cream shop inside and we always make a pit stop for ice cream somewhere on our bike rides.

My three guys just "hanging out" after a hot bike ride and some refreshing ice cream.

 Timmy just soaking in the sun.

The next morning, we had lost another rider. Timmy wanted to venture out on his own. I think sometimes with four kids in the family there are not many opportunities to have alone time. I think Timmy just wanted to go exploring on his own. So with a map in hand he headed off. Now our group was down to three, Ry-ry, Chris and myself. Just as Timmy wanted to go off exploring on his own, I think Ryan was loving having his mom and dad all to himself.

So the three of us started our journey to the east end of the island. We spotted an alligator in one of the ponds on the way. I know he's hard to see but he was there, right at the edge of the water. 

 Water break.

Time to climb a tree.

Enjoying the scenery.

On our way back, Ryan found a small sprinkler which was just enough to hold him over until we got...

ice cream. 

Our next adventure was to ride to the west end of the island on the beach. It was low tide, the best time to ride on the beach. You can see all the tracks of the bike riders that were down there before us.

Some finds on the beach.

Our view in front of us...

and our view behind us...no one was on the beach that morning.

We finally made it down to the west end. One thing that we have learned about Kiawah is that the tides are drastic. They come in and go out quite quickly. Notice our bikes sitting in the sand. In just a mere twenty minutes, the water will be up to them.

Chris walked out onto a sand bar and then the water came up.

Chris and Ryan then had to find a way back to shore.

All of a sudden, the water was much deeper than they thought.

It was time to go when we saw the water getting closer to our bikes. The hard sand was being overcome by the water and it would be too hard to ride our bikes in the soft sand. We love coming to this place. You never know what you may find. You may even be lucky enough to see some dolphins feeding.

So bike riding fun for the whole family? Maybe not. But for Chris, Ryan and I, we certainly enjoyed our adventures together...

...and all the ice cream.

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.