Holiday weekend before and afters

With a long holiday weekend ahead of us,
and a great vacation under our belts,
we felt energized to get some work done around the house.

Our first project of the weekend was the massive corner driveway bed!

Before:

 It was full of weeds and patchy grass, with some mulch, but no retaining wall of sorts to keep everything from sliding onto the driveway after a good rainfall.

 

First Sean dug out the perimeter to make some room...

 

Our plan:

Very large boulders!



I don't think we appreciated how heavy each individual boulder would be.

But we got creative and used just about every piece of lawn and garden equipment we have.

 

...and eventually we got them all into place!

There were no second chances in this project. 

Once we had a boulder in position there was no turning back,

no moving it a little to the right or left,

where it landed was where it would stay!

 

After:



2 pallets of boulders and 30 bags of mulch later!

That was some hard manual labor!!

But the end result was worth it :)



Our second project of the weekend was to finally finish the mudroom.

 



Before:

While the room doesn't look too bad in the picture above,

what you can't tell is that the tiles in front of the door to the exterior were cracked and there was evidence of water damage to the flooring below.  So all that had to be ripped up.  The demo part happened shortly after we moved in, but unfortunately that's were the mudroom re-do ended.  We had too many other things that needed repair/updating and the mudroom took a back burner.

 

But recently we had new tile flooring installed...

{we left that to the professionals!}

 

And now we had some motivation (and a bit of extra cash) to get this project done!

 

So this weekend,
Sean installed new baseboard trim...

and picked out a paint color all by himself:

Well, he might have had a super cute little helper with him to make the decision.
And he put that super cute little helper to work later that day...

 

Finally,

the after photo:

 

I am still deciding on the layout for built in cabinets and storage cubbies.

But for now I am happy to have an area to store all the stuff that has been cluttering my foyer and kitchen since we moved in...

backpacks

sports bags and equipment

shoes, shoes, shoes

and overflowing groceries and cleaning supplies!

Cousin stop

We were up and on the road early Saturday morning.

Our mini van was jam packed with luggage and kids!

We hit the road about 4:30am to start the first leg of our road trip home.

 

A pit stop at South of the Border for gas, potty breaks, and snacks.

 

A short couple of hours later we arrived at Uncle Steve and Aunt Brownie's house.

We had stopped there on our way down, but we got there so late and left so early that we spent less than 12 hours there, and more of those hours were in bed!

This time we had some fun things planned for the cousins.

 

Within 2.5 minutes of arriving the kids were on the trampoline:

 

Me and Brownie

 (I think I look much better/younger in this over-exposed picture!)

 

We took the kids to Brownie's dad's house to swim in his pool.  There was also a zip line in his backyard that Aidan and Maura tried and loved!

We couldn't stay long and it was a bit hard to convince the kids to leave the mini adventure park, but we had more fun plans to squeeze in our quick overnight visit. 

Back a Brownie's house we all got changed to go out to dinner for cousin Brianna's 13th birthday.

Aunt Brownie did Maura's hair and make-up...

 

 

Riley, Aidan and Maura watching Brianna open her gifts...

 

One of her gifts was the yellow hammock thing below

(it probably has a much cooler name, I just can't remember it!)

Uncle Steve took Aidan for ride...

And then the kids took turns riding the mini bike...

 

So much fun was squeezed into one short visit!

We all went to bed super tired, to rest up for the final 8 hour drive home.

Last days in Orlando

By the end of the week I was taking far fewer pictures,

so here are the last few days of our trip in one post.

Thursday:

We spent one more day at Universal Studios

 

My little minions...

Even though it was the end of a long, hot week in Orlando,
Maura was still willing to pose for pictures for her picture-taking-addicted mama!

Friday:

A Taste of Disney

 

We made reservations to eat at a Disney restaurant.  For us it really is impossible to be so close to Disney and not stop by for a quick visit! 

 

We parked our car in the parking lot at the Fort Wilderness resort...

And took a Disney bus to our destination...

Riding the Disney bus brings back so many wonderful memories we have of family vacations. 

I guess because so many of our family vacations have been to Disney!

 

We arrived a bit early so we had some time to wander around...

(and take more pictures!)

 

And then finally it was our turn to enjoy some good ole' American comfort food at the Trail's End buffet.

 

We had so much fun during our week in Orlando, but now it's time to start the long journey home,

with a fun stop along the way!

A Universal day off

Wednesday:
By this morning Audra's temp was down to the 100 degree range and she was acting more like herself.  I called her Immunologist as soon as the office opened.  Our usual protocol requires that Audra be seen by a doctor the day of any fever, and that she most likely needs urine and blood cultures done and then antibiotics due to her immunodeficiency.  But because she was looking so much better by the morning I asked her doctor if I could just wait it out a bit longer and watch her closely.  I had researched where the local children's hospitals were and would take her in immediately if she had another high fever.  He agreed and I was grateful.  I just new that if I took her to a children's hospital that was unfamiliar with her complicated history we might be in for a long visit.  Which I would absolutely do if I thought she really needed it.  But I really think her high fever last night might have been due to heat exhaustion.  The rest of us each had drinks of our own, and all of us were giving Audra sips here and there.  But I should have been paying more attention to HOW much Audra was getting.  I don't think she drank enough yesterday and she got somewhat dehydrated.  That combined with the oppressive heat might have been too much for her.  Poor sweet girl, that won't happen again...promise!

Today was a non-park day, which was perfect timing after Audra's little event last night.

So, the whole family enjoyed some pool time...

And this evening we went to Disney Springs, formerly Downtown Disney.

Yes, yes, yes...this is an Un-Disney vacation,

but it's impossible to be this close to Disney and not get a touch of it in!



We put our name in at the T-Rex restaurant for dinner and then wandered around during our 90 minute wait for a table.



I got some pictures with my boys and my girls



Maura built a dino....

which is the T-Rex restaurant's version of Build-a-Bear

And we window shopped.

Here is Maura watching candied apples being made.

 But these weren't your usual candied apples...

 They looked amazing...too cool to even eat!

This picture doesn't even do them justice.

Disney doesn't do anything boring!

And we did a little Disney souvenir shopping...

 Yes, I know this is an Un-Disney vacation,

but it's just impossible to resist!

Maura posing with the princesses,

just like she did a few years ago!

Audra wouldn't even pose with these princess statues.

She really doesn't like "characters" of any kind,

human,

animal,

or sculpture!

 

And then, just as we were walking back up to the restaurant we heard them call our name for a table.  Perfect timing!

Universal Studios Day 2

Tuesday:

We decided to wait until mid-afternoon to go to the park.

So we relaxed a bit in the air conditioning....

 

Except for these two who can't stay still ever,

so they went to play at the resort's mini-golf course:

 

3 of my 4 Superheroes:

 

Another attempt at a family photo...

 It's just too dang hot in Orlando to even think this might turn out half decent!

 

Sweet Super Girls:

 

 

 

Audra enjoyed the rides more than the pictures make it seem, promise!

 

 

The only way to survive at Universal during the summer heat is to constantly d.r.i.n.k !

Which we did plenty of:

slushies

smoothies,

Dipping Dots

anything really, really cold !

 

It was too hot to even eat real food.  We may have munched on a soft pretzel or churro here and there, but sipping is what we did non stop.

 

By the end of the day Audra wasn't acting quite like herself, and she felt very hot.

We all were warm, but she felt feverish.

 

Audra + Fever = bad news

 

Once we left the park and got into the car with the air conditioning on I was certain she had a fever and didn't feel well.

Back at the resort I checked her temp and it was 103.5 

We got Tylenol in her, cool rags on her and gave her cool Gatorade through her g-tube.

You could tell how awful she felt...

she was moaning and shivering, and curled up in a ball under the blankets.

It brought back memories of her first year home and all those high fevers.

It was a long night of checking her temp and repositioning the cool rag on her forehead.