First Family Vacation

We did it.

Our first family vacation.  Overall it was a success with a few bumps in the road. We went to OC, Maryland for 2 days.

Day 1:

We woke up bright and early, loaded the car and drove. All in rain I might add, it's about a 3.5-4 hour drive that took us 5 hours. Which I think is pretty good with a baby. Kelli slept the first 3 hours the rest she was in the back talking. She was a great!

As I mentioned, it was raining, it rained the entire drive (made the Bay Bridge interesting). We checked in the hotel that was about 45 minutes away, and we decided to stay there till it stopped raining. When we checked in there was a problem with the reservation that resulted in the booking.com lady and the manager shouting at each other. Lovely, right? The manager refused to talk to the lady when she called back (because he hung up on her), I told the lady I would deal with. The manager was a pill, but I got the room.

Eventually it stopped raining, so we decided to go to Assatague Island. Here there are a wild Ponies. Troy was so excited to see them. To his dismay we only saw one.

The One Pony

This was Kelli's first time at the ocean. And she didn't like it.

In her defense the water and sand were cold.

No Thank you!

Next we went to Ocean City. Since the water was too cold we decided to just do the board walk.

Kelli has been sitting up well, so we decided to try the stroller. She sat up just fine, and I wished I hadn't done that because I was ready to cry in the parking lot. Time goes by so fast! 

We saw some really cool little stands set up. This one man was painting what ever was requested to music. Another man was painted gold, on a gold bike and would stand like a statue, but once he got a tip he would dance and pretend to ride his bike, and squeaked.  He didn't talk, he squeaked. Across from him was a man weaving Hawaiian palm leaves into hats or roses. I got a rose. :)

Then we were done. So we went to Olive Garden for dinner, back to the hotel room, and crashed. We all slept for 12 hours. It was heaven.

Instead of dragging a pack n play a friend let me borrow this tent!

Day 2:

We got an early start with the sun shinning. We packed up and went straight to Ocean City. We didn't do the beach long for a few reasons:

1. I hate sand.
2. We didn't want Kelli to get burnt.

Troy trying to convince Kelli the ocean is fun

So we were at the beach for 2 hours.Then we headed to Assateague Island again, this time we saw three ponies! You can't stop on the side of the road, so we just saw them as we drove by.

Troy really wanted to get Kelli in the water. So we found a water park that we went to.
Kelli was still not crazy about water. She cried in less she was held. We put her in her float, and that worked for about two minutes.

To wrap it up we did the lazy river; Kelli slept on Troy's chest. Poor thing had just been traumatized.  Then we changed in those disgusting bathrooms and started heading home.

At the pool Kelli snatched the money right out of Troy's hands. Uh oh!

We stopped at TJ's family restaurant about 45minutes from home. Here Kelli sat in a high chair for the first time, again I almost cried.

Once we got home I realized I was a lobster and Troy was not far behind me. Kelli got a little pink, despite our best efforts. 

The color of my skin

                                                        

'It's Not Like He'll Remember."

A Woman With Opinions is undergoing some remodeling, but I had to do this post.

                                                           
I haven't blogged about how my dad is doing for quite some time. And frankly that's because I don't like talking about it.

The family was cleaning today and we came across dad's nails spilled across the floor. Someone wanted to keep them and then another person wanted to get rid of them and made the comment "It's not like he'll remember." (Dad was not in the room.) Once the words left their mouth they knew  they made a bad word choice. People got hot. But we love the individual and they were forgiven.

Nails on the floor

                                                       

It's heart breaking.

But it's also reality. And something we are reminded of every day.

My dad suffers from Alzheimer's disease and it's hard to watch.

Let me clarify that he's no where near as bad as you might think when you hear the word "Alzheimer", he knows who his family is and regular friends, and can navigate his regular walking paths, make his lunch,and can still read and understand all his engineering and astronomy journals.

But the man who raised me, who taught me to ride a bike, slept on the couch so his daughter terrified the monster would come get her could sleep with her mom, a published electrical engineer, helped build XM radio, lectured at George Mason University, and who has done countless projects. Is not here.


The man who has his daily routine, (and is not too happy if it gets messed up), someone who repeats the same stories, asks the same questions, and can't remember what happened last week is here now. And it's hard, and heart breaking. He can't remember when he taught me to ride a bike, and I remember like it was yesterday telling him "I want to ride a two wheeler."

Awesome Rock Chair

And I want to cry when he says "I don't remember."

But Heavenly Father gives us these small moments, when he's totally there. When he remembers I'm the daughter who loved the bike rides, and taking TVs apart. He'll make these witty comments and jokes. And can clearly explain why the moon is so bright, and can follow the conversation jumps at the dinner table.

Conversations with Abraham Lincoln

And it's like nothings wrong for that brief moment.

So he went to the neurologist this week. And there is a Alzheimer genetic marker. And he has it, this does not set ones fate, but it does have a heavy influence. (I find it interesting that the Alzheimer marker is on Chromosome 21, same as Downs Syndrome.)




So my mom made the comment that my siblings and I should make the decision if we want to get tested. One decided then and there they're going to do it, the other and I sat there unsure. Which is unusual for me, I've always been protesting "Knowledge is power."

Yet to know what state my life could end is terrifying, to find out I could not remember who my husband and kids are, do I want to have that on the back of my mind the rest of my life?


But I could also be proactive.



So I really don't know what I'm going to do. Either way, I hope that I won't let it run my life and will be able to face it with my head held high.