Mini Vacation

THREE weekends ago...

...we took a trip to the west coast of Florida because Jared had a racquetball tournament. This was his second tournament since he was a star in college. I would say this is definitely his current obsession--we've seen quite a series of hobbies over the years ranging from roller hockey, flag football, volleyball, and paintball, to name a few (Why isn't it ever mopping I wonder?). He's planning on doing another tournament this month, although it's outdoors and the rules say "shirts are optional" so I'm not sure if I'll be attending.

I was going back and forth about wanting to go to this one because it was a rough week already, I wasn't feeling great, and 5 hours sitting in the car with whiny kids who would inevitably throw up didn't sound fun, but I decided at the last minute to go. FYI: Yes, Erin did throw up and yes, they did whine--but it wasn't the whole time. We drove an hour out of our way so that I could hit the temple on the way there and after I went I felt amazingly better. Because of this stop, however, Jared missed his first match and had to forfeit. It was the price he was willing to pay for his wife's company, and might I add sanity.

He had two other matches that night, three the next day and one the day after. He won four of those matches so he did a great job. Not only that, but the guy he forfeited to lost to two people that Jared ended up beating and then lost in the finals. In other words, Jared would have probably won that one too. He had a lot of fun.

Here he is in action. Doesn't he look great? He won this one by the way. It was the only one the kids would let me watch, and I'm using "watch" loosely because I was trying to reign them in the whole time.

The kids were being silly, especially Alex. Another note, I did pack enough outfits for Alex for the weekend but he insisted on wearing this one the whole time. Go figure.

This picture might explain why I couldn't pay full attention to Jared's game.

The racquetball facility was something else. The courts were old and made of concrete, there was a naked lady wandering around the bathroom two days in a row making conversation with me no less--not to mention it smelled like smoke in there--and I'm pretty sure there was no handicap accessibility, coming from someone who studied the importance ADA as well as feeling personally handicapped myself. Pretty much a dive, but some good R-ball was had there anyway.

In between games we went swimming, visited an aquarium, went out to eat, bought new sandals for Alex (who only had tennis shoes because of losing one of his only remaining flip flops before the trip), went to a children's museum and watched movies at the hotel. It was just down the street so it worked out pretty well for the kids and me to hang out there during Jared's games. To sum it up, we all had a lot of fun and it was definitely more relaxing and enjoyable than I had envisioned. The ride home was even good because we bought those sea-bands (anti-nausea bracelets) for Erin and voila, no carsickness. They work. Yes, I'm glad I went! Thanks for making me, Jared.

Here are some pictures of the aquarium...

We watched a 3-D movie at the children's museum and the glasses would not stay on any child's head. You'd think they would have had at least two sizes being a children's museum and all. Recognize Alex's outfit?

Marissa and the belly.