The birds were definitely something of wonder. They fished off the dock behind the beach house, in the creeks along the paths, and pretty much everywhere you turned. Herons and cranes alike fished together. It was beautiful.
One of many alligators we saw last week. Throughout the DeBordieu Beach Colony there are signs instructing us not to feed or taunt the alligators. Aside from swimming, one of the favorite activities was “alligator hunting”. We were always on the lookout while driving around in the golf cart. Thankfully, this gator was on the other side of the creek…in someone’s back yard!
This afternoon, I will be leaving with my family for a much-needed vacation to Pawley’s Island, S.C. We’ll be joining my sister and her family, my mom and stepdad, my uncles and aunt, and my grandmother. I’ve never been to this beach, so I’m really excited.
Also exciting is that as of this afternoon, Jamie will not have to go to work until school starts in the fall! He has a contract with Augusta Christian this coming school year, and I don’t think I could ask for a better summer. It’ll be about ten thousand times easier to handle four rambunctious boys with another person to do some wrangling.
I’ve scheduled a couple of posts to keep you all entertained while I’m gone, and I may try to do some Droid blogging with my wordpress app if I get the notion. What’s a blogger without a laptop on vacation? Oh yeah. I’ll be taking that too. I have to have some way to dump all the pictures I’m going to take, right? 
In all honesty, I was a nervous wreck about this trip to Louisville. Who wouldn’t be afraid to take a four-month-old on a nine-hour bus trip? I was concerned about how we would handle crying, diaper changes, and sleeping. The feeding I wasn’t concerned about because I didn’t have to pack anything special for nursing.
Here’s what I packed for Timothy:
The best part about being on a bus was being able to hold Timothy when he needed to be held. He wasn’t confined to the car seat for hours on end, so I didn’t have to do any fancy car seat nursing or ask to stop when diapers needed to be changed. The motion of the bus also helped soothe him to sleep whenever nap time was in order. Timothy rarely fussed and never cried while we were on the road. It was GLORIOUS.
While we toured Louisville, I kept the didymos tied on so that I could easily slip Timothy in when we were walking around and then take him out when we were on the bus again. How about some action shots!
Obviously, I didn’t take these pictures. My friend Mary Ann did! In the picture right above, I was actually putting Timothy in the wrap while we were walking to the Ohio River. I became very adept at adjusting while walking, a skill much needed in a group of people with a touring goal. There was no time for strollers or buckles!
I was asked constantly while we were on this trip how Timothy slept at night. The truth was that he slept just as well as any other night. Since we co-sleep, there really was no change in his sleeping routine. All I had to do was lie down with him in our bed, nurse him, and voila! If he woke during the night, it was only to nurse some more and then go back to sleep. This is exactly how it goes at home and what I expected to happen while we were in Louisville. I made sure to get a single room with a queen-sized bed so we wouldn’t be bothered by (or be bothering) other people. Not that Timothy was fussy or cried at night, but still.
In the mornings, I had to make sure to wake earlier than I expected Timothy to in order to squeeze in a shower and get dressed. I was quite proud of myself for being able to do this. I thought for sure I’d have to pawn him off on someone so I could put my pants on! Cause you know, on any normal day, Timothy and I usually wake about the same time and I can’t get a shower until at least after lunch.
Our only trouble with Timothy was when I had to be away during rehearsals and performances. He screamed and screamed. It was heartbreaking and I hated that we had to be separated for those short amounts of time. I’m grateful for a good friend who was there to hold him while he cried. I need to think of a way to thank her. Is there a Hallmark card that says, “Thanks for holding my screaming infant?”
You thought I’d given up! You are wrong!
Tuesday was the Animal Kingdom in our Disney adventure. Only this day, we decided just to sleep until we woke up instead of trying to be anywhere “on time.” We ended up getting to the Animal Kingdom park around 10:30-ish, which was about the same time as Tamara’s crew.
The sky looked pretty ominous, but we weren’t going to let it drive us away! When we entered the park, the boys got to meet Flick from “A Bugs Life” and the bears from “Brother Bear.” Chip & Dale were out front too but they had already gone to their next gig by the time we were done waiting in line for the bears.
First on the agenda for Animal Kingdom was to go on the safari ride before it started raining. The wait wasn’t too terribly long, and the ride was pretty cool. At one point, a white rhino came out of the bushes and walked in front of our car. Corey thought it was hilarioius.
Here are pictures from the safari:
After the safari, our groups separated so we could eat lunch. We went to DinoLand where we had the biggest cheeseburgers in the world and then we went to ride some rides. Simon was happy to finally get on a ride instead of being trapped in the stroller.
These are from the TriceratopSpin:
The ride was really loud, so Aiden kept his hands over his ears almost the whole time.
It started raining while we were in DinoLand and after we were done there, we met up with Tamara’s crew to go ride the Everest roller coaster, which Corey liked so much we went on it twice!
The highlight of the day was getting caught in a torrent of rain. We went inside the nature thing where we could look at snakes and the on-site vet clinic. There were a couple characters there, too.
Since it was pouring down rain, we decided to call it a day and go back to our rooms to get some dry clothes. Dinner plans were for Planet Hollywood. The thing was, it was sooo late by the time we got there that all our kids fell asleep at the dinner table. All SEVEN BOYS were passed out. Jamie and I were going to let Tamara take them all back to her room and go out by ourselves, but since there were only four adults to seven sleeping children, we decided to go out the next night instead.
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