Well, we made it to Merritt Island. Actually, we're in Cocoa Beach, FL. Right now I'm looking out at the water crashing towards the shore. It's just beautiful. It was raining this morning, but it looks like it's clearing up. When the weather channel said "scattered thunderstorms all week" I was worried that it would rain the whole time, but apparently that means it rains for a few minutes each day and is nice the rest of the time.

The airplane ride was horrible, but at least we made it. Southwest now boards its Pre-boarders (unaccompanied minors and wheelchair people), then its A boarders, then families, then its B boarders. I thought the whole point of pre-boarding was to make sure the families can sit together. We had to go all the way to the back of the plane to find 3 seats together, now that Shay has his own seat. He did great on the first leg, but when we stopped in Chicago-Midway to pick up more passengers we found out that our pilots hadn't arrived yet. They deboarded the plane for 1.5 hours to wait for them. It was really crappy. The kids were tired from having no naps and we had to wander the airport, but stay right near the gate in case the pilots showed up.

The second leg was much harder as they were really sleepy (it being like 9:30 pm and way past bedtime) and cranky. I couldn't get Abby to nurse, so her ears didn't pop. She screamed and screamed until she fell into an exhausted sleep for like 10 minutes. Then she'd wake up and scream some more. Man, what a long flight. We finally landed in Orlando and our bags were the first off the plane! The first thing that had really gone right so far. We went down to find our rental car. It was 12:30 local time, but only 10:30 to us. I thought we could get the car quick and get the 1 hour drive over with and get the kids to bed.
Little did I know that rental cars take forever to rent. There were 4 people in line ahead of us, but two tellers working. That is, until one of them finished with his customer and announced that his shift was over and he was going home. I'm sure he had a long shift, it being 1 am at this point, but the 4 other people in line with us looked at each other incredulously. Then we looked at the remaining guy and he just shrugged his shoulders and told us he'd be with us shortly. It takes like 20 minutes each with this guy, but eventually we got our car. By this point Seamus and Abby were both tired so they both fell asleep on the drive. This is something Seamus hasn't done since he was 5 months old. Poor exhausted kid.

The point was that we got here, got the kids in bed, had a rough night, woke up for church 5 hours later, then came home and crashed. Last night, though the kids slept for 14 hours (in fact, they're still asleep) and I got to sleep for about 12. I feel much better and I'm hoping they are, too. Yesterday evening we went trick-or-treating in the local mall...just about Shay's speed. Walking from store to store tired out quickly, I can't imagine what walking from house to house would have done. We're going to the bishop's house (who used to be Dylan's Young Men's Pres.) for dinner on Halloween and may do one or two houses of trick-or-treating. Shay definitely has more than enough candy from the thirty to forty or so stores that were giving it out.

Hopefully we'll make it down to the water today. We haven't been yet and I'm dying to get my toes in the water.

"That way...to the lake!" 10 points for guessing which movie that's from.

Well, we leave tomorrow for Florida and I'm super pumped. This will be the first real family vacation we've taken...one that doesn't involve a holiday anyway. We did go to the beach in NC last year, but Dylan could only stay for a day or two, so he didn't really get a chance to unwind and relax. It always takes a day or three to unclench and start to enjoy yourself. He'd better unclench a bit because we're using all of his 40 vacation hours on this trip. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be spent here at home and we'll see little of Dylan.

In other news, we're about to become a two-car family! For the past 2.5 years I've stayed at home with Shay and with no car while Dylan takes the Forrester to work. We've been fortunate enough to live close to the Creamery and to the park and to the library, so I haven't really had to go further than I could walk. When we have doctor's appointments or when I need the car, I've packed up the kid(s) and driven Dylan to work in the morning and then picked him up at the end of the day. It's not fun, so I don't do it very often. Now, though, I'm going to have a set of wheels at my beck and call and I'm thrilled! Just in time for winter, too, since I can't really walk that far in the 30 degree weather and driving snow.

The new car, you ask? Oh, yes. It's an '82 Austin Mini Cooper. Dylan has been looking for one for awhile now and finally bought one in Georgia. We're having it shipped to us in a week. It's yellow with racing stripes on the hood and a checkerboard roof. It's a manual drive, but on the right side since it's imported from Britain. How will I manage to drive a right-side stick? I don't plan on driving it much/at all if I can help it. The Forrester is my car now and I couldn't be happier. It will be paid off in two months and will be all ours. Driving a stick is too difficult when you have kids in the car, in my opinion. I'm constantly reaching down to pick up dropped cups, binkies, and toys.

Anyway, I'll post a picture when it gets here. Dylan is really excited about this one.

By the request of the Gran, these pictures are a preview of Halloween, which we'll be spending in Dylan's hometown in Florida. Seamus is going to be a cowboy for Halloween, and is already practicing his "trick or treating". He keeps asking if we can go trick-or-treating right now. I think he doesn't believe me when I tell him that people will just give him candy if he says "trick or treat" to them.

Front and back of Shay the Cowboy. That gun is a water pistol that completes the ensemble.

We made Halloween sugar cookies a little early this year, and they didn't last the weekend. Oh well, we'll just have to make some more. There were cats and moons, too, but they got eaten before I thought to take a picture.



For those of you starving for Abby picts, I haven't had a lot of time to take any recently. This is the best you're going to get for now. She's awake more now and is smiling a lot, so I'll try to get a picture of that. Most of the day she's still sleeping, though. Yay!

Posting blogs with a newborn is tough. I'm usually either holding her while she sleeps, feeding her, trying to make her stop crying, or playing with her. Any time I'm not doing that I'm playing with Shay or trying to catch up on thank you notes. That doesn't leave my arms available for much else, including eating, sleeping, showering, or blogging.

We're doing just fine, though. My brother is a godsend! I love having him here for adult conversation and for the way he takes care of Seamus. It's so nice to have someone else to get the kid juice, reach his legos and play outside with him. It just makes this so much easier. It's all about to change, though. He leaves this week for a trip to the east, then we leave the following week for a trip to Florida. Then he's probably going to have a full time job after that. I'm going to have to learn how to cope by myself. I'm planning to fill my time with mother's groups, visiting teaching, and walks in the crisp fall weather.

With Halloween coming up we've done some crafts to decorate our house. One in particular I'm quite proud of. We made this in our Mother's Group. Feel free to steal the design for any Mother's Groups or ward activities or just for your own kids. Those are q-tips, by the way, with the ends of the q-tips cut off for the fingers and toes. And just construction paper with hole-punch eyes for the skull. It was so much fun to make! Especially for the kids. We just put lines of glue down and they put the q-tips on the glue. Easy as pie. In fact, pie is a lot harder to make than this, what with all of the ingredients and crust and innards and the baking...

I'm still alive! Every time I think I can sit down and finally write a blog, the baby cries. Or there's dishes to be done. Or Shay wants me to come play with him. Blogging has become a lower priority than ever before. But stay tuned, I may pick it up again some day soon.

We're all doing great. We're gearing up for the trip we're taking to Florida at the end of the month. I can't wait for the sun and surf. I wonder how Abby is going to do.



Also, we're blessing the baby at home this weekend after the last session of conference. We've got a bunch of family coming in on both sides so we're going to do it when the maximum amount of people can attend. I'm so excited to see everyone and hang out with family again. My sister is coming in with her husband and two kids, and my other sister is coming in from LA. We're only missing the oldest in NC, but she can't make it this time. Sad. Also, Dylan's parents are coming in.

It will be all of their first times meeting Abby and I know it's going to be interesting. Abby has started having fussy times in the evenings and, though I'll be grateful for the extra arms to pass her around to, I'm hoping people don't get too tired of her crying. I've been watching what I eat pretty carefully but nothing seems to help. I just have to remember that this, too, shall pass. Shay was super colic-y and he survived. And so did I. Soon she'll be older and be cooing and laughing up a storm.

Anyway, the baby needs to eat so I have to go. Seems like all she does is eat and sleep and poop and cry. Can't wait to find out what kind of personality she has!