McBride Life: Beach Bowling

Crissy reading to Tyler and Keeley one night before bed.

So behind on posts that I almost feel like giving up on the blog, but my intention is to have the kids' childhood documented and I can't give that goal up -- I think maybe it's just harder to keep up during the summer. This past winter I was posting every day!

But we were out of town the week before last having a very fun and packed visit with Crissy and family and lots of memories were made that I do want to record. This first post really just covers the first 24 hours and we were there for 5 days.

The boys and I drove down to visit Crissy, Gene and kids on Tuesday -- they've lived in Jacksonville for years and we'd yet to visit. The drive was daunting because I've never done that long of a drive with just me and the kids or in that area of Florida, but it turned out to be much easier than I expected. We only had one bad moment when Tyler got stage fright in the bathroom at McDonald's and we sat there for 20 minutes only to have him use the truck "portable" potty -- in front of the whole drive-thru line of cars no less! Ah, memories.

He only needed to go once the whole trip though -- he amazes me. We got there around 3PM and he and Keeley (almost 5) were thrilled to reunite and I had to laugh that they were on the couch chilling with Tyler's giraffe within half an hour. We then made pizzas, put all FOUR kids (Crissy also had Jake who is about Austin's age) in one bath and put them down for the night. Crissy and I got to then leave Gene with the sleeping kids and sneak off for a peek at the beach which is only minutes away from where they live. AWESOME.

Rolling out the pizza doe

What was not so awesome is the fact that Florida is aflame with wild fires and the entire area of Jacksonville and more was (and sometimes still is) plagued by overbearing smoke and even ashes. When we awoke the next morning, the smoke was so bad that we couldn't even go outside, so we hopped in the minivan (with all 4 kids) not knowing really where we'd end up. At one point, we were thinking about just relocating to Hilton Head or something because we were 2 families (minus Scott) in one place and we needed to be able to get out! (Fortunately, that was the worst day of the smoke.)

So somehow, we landed at a bowling alley and unexpectedly discovered a child's paradise. As soon as we walked in to the place, which was the nicest alley I've ever seen, Keeley and Tyler ran into the arcade area and gleefully played all of the games. What's so funny is that they never really noticed or cared that they weren't actually playing -- just doing the game previews -- much less hassle and cheaper for us!

Then we dined at the attached restaurant which was yummy, had great service and mimosas :)! Finally, we decided what the heck, let's bowl! I was a bit worried about Tyler with a bowling ball, but he did great. The bumpers would pop up when it was the kids turn, and they loved every minute. Never thought I'd go bowling at the beach, but I can't wait to take the kids again soon if I can find such a cool alley in our area.