Captiva Island Vacation 2014

You may have thought you might get away with no vacation blog posts ( I mean I did overgram instagram a lot of it....) but while I appreciate your optimism and rosey outlook...the answer

is a cackle and no. (totally won't blame you if you just skim the pictures though). 

 

I will admit, I was a tad bit nervous about taking our very active 15 month old on two more plane rides and then to the beach for a week (would he eat the sand?  would he throw the sand? would he sleep in a different crib? no. no. and yes to those questions).  However, turns out...as long as you have a super support system with you...all will go smoothly. Our support system this time around consisted of Auntie Stacy, Grandmim, Grandpa Tim, and Poppy...and I know they were just as excited to show Max the island of Sanibel/Captiva as we were.  This place is special to all of us.  We've been coming here for so long now...it's honestly a little surreal to bring my own baby here.  

 

We flew down on a Saturday and wasted no time turning into total beach bums.  Let me just say though that the beach in August on Sanibel Island is about 90 degrees.  So - we pretty much split our time between the beach (in the morning) and the pool (in the afternoon) - and two naps (still) for Max.   

 

 

At first Max was not to sure about the sand.  He would stick his feet into it and take maybe a step or two...and want to be picked up.  However, in the areas where the sand was more compacted and firm, he was totally running around.  He did seem to like sitting in the sand...digging in the sand...and letting the water lap around him. 

 

Of course - no vacation to the beach would be complete without a sandcastle.  This is our third year of sand castle making....but the sand was so wet down by the water (but you had to be in that sand because otherwise it would just be burning your feet!) that it impeded our building process a bit.  We didn't do as much architectural details as in the past... but I did enjoy using the animal trays to make octopus and lobster prints in the sand.  And, no castle would be complete without a monogram right? I was in charge of that little detail :) Papa Rob was in charge of the deeply trenched mote around the sandcastle so the waves would not wash away our master piece. 

 

 

Once Macho Max got the lay of the sand land...he was pretty into grabbing the shovels, dumping off the sand, kicking his feet around, and surveying his kingdom.

What fun! 

 

 

When the beach got too hot (which was about 3.2 seconds after you got down there) - it would be necessary to trek it back to the pool.  The pool water was pretty warm (great for this mama whose a total wuss when it comes to getting in)...and Max loved it.  He didn't want to sit in his floaty boat...but rather preferred to be carried all around in the water.  He also discovered water guns!  By about the third day he had figured out how the work the trigger on at least one of them.  (Getting the water stream to spray in the correct direction though....well that's another story).

 

Our house came equipped with so many pool toys...water guns, noodles, blow ups, rafts, boats etc. The best raft though turned out to be an alligator (or "allie" as Max called him) though! Grandmim and Grandpa Tim pumped him up a bit and we all had a blast trying to jump/float around on him.  In fact, we liked him so much, we bought him a friend...Tommy Turtle! 

(sidenote:  papa Rob and mama purchased him at a local store, and thought we were being so clever getting him blown up for free at the store!  Little did we know - it inflated so much that it would not fit in the car.  No amount of shoving into the back seat or trunk would work.  So, we put him half way into the trunk...with his face and front flippers out...and drove very, very slowly back to our house.  Thankfully, he stayed put).

 

 

 

Other adventures included our annual drive through Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge.  Auntie Stacy drove us around the loop and we spotted herons, egrets, and other water birds.  We even climbed all the way to the top of the look out tower (Max too!)  Afterward we made a short trip into the visitor center where Max enjoyed pushing all the buttons to make the screens light up and also being re-united with his pacifier (which he had dropped on the floor).  haha! 

 

 

Another new to us adventure was taking a ride on the Sanibel Thriller! It was a powerboat ride...and while I was a little iffy when it first started up (because it was just doing circles in the water while blasting Michael Jackson's thriller song) - things did begin to take a turn for the better when our captain spotted lots of dolphins!  The captain would slow the boat down and the dolphins would "play" in the wake of the boat.  They really, really seemed to love it. We stopped so many times for dolphins....if you whistle, cheer, and clap for them...they seem to respond by jumping even more out of the water.  We saw up to five dolphins at once.  Our tour guide also gave us a lot of history and background to the island.  I told Papa Rob I wouldn't hate it if he became a boat captain and I became the onboard naturalist (his reaction was less than promising to this idea). 

  

 

One of my very favorite memories from this beach trip would be my morning walks with Max and Grandmim.  Growing up, my mom would always wake us girls up for beach walks on vacation.  It was just a special time to walk the beach, look for shells, and hang with mom.  I'm happy to say that Max seems to be willing to continue this tradition (or at least he humored me this time around).  He wakes almost every morning about 6:45 and it was no different at the beach, except for the fact that we could tip toe over to Grandmim's room and wake her up.  She would dress, cut up a banana for Max, strap him into the Ergo carrier on my back, and away we would go!  He seemed pretty content on my back (as long as he was getting some banana)...and we would walk for awhile on the beach.  One morning we saw manatees slowly swimming in the water.  Another we spotted a blue heron and other shorebirds.  But my favorite morning - we shadowed the turtle crew.  They drive up and down the beach each morning checking on all the turtle nests.  Once a nest hatches, they wait three days and dig out any remaining babies.  It was our good fortune that we got to see them dig a nest and rescue three Loggerhead turtle babies!  These babies are so small and up against a lot of negative factors when it comes to survival (1 in 1000 survives)...so we bid them goodbye and good luck!

 

 

 

When we weren't being beach bums and pool rats...we of course had to eat!  Thankfully, Sanibel/Captiva are full of good spots to dine.  Some of our favorites that we visited this time around were "the Mucky Duck", "Cantina Captiva", "George and Wendy's Grill", and " Doc Ford's". While it's difficult to keep a toddler entertained for the full course of a meal - thankfully everyone was more than patient with us....forgoing desserts and coffee (check please!), walking Max around when he had lots of energy, and generally just ignoring food fight that dinner can quickly become (please tell me our toddler isn't the only one who likes to throw his food?!).

 

This trip was truly awesome!  So fun to make even more travel memories as a family. 

Can't wait to come back again!

 

xoxo

 



Around Here: Late August

Before summer wraps up (and we go head first into my favorite season) - I wanted to document what we three Haucks are up to right now.

MAX

Learning:  how to share (lots of new changes at "school" as two new children are starting.  One is an adorable 18 month old little girl and the other is an 8 month old little boy).  I know he will struggle not getting all the attention anymore and having to share Miss Jessi's lap.  We are also working on not throwing (how do you really teach this?)

Wanting:  to be outside all the time.  We are basically outside from the moment I get home until dinner and have actually starting taking an evening stroll before bath time. 

Eating:  lots of carbs...seriously the little man will eat anything that is a bread product.  He is also super into strawberries, pears, apples, and bananas.  Other favorites include yogurt, cheese, and eggs.  Currently on a meat strike.

Creating:  a new masterpiece consisting of squares and circles!  I might be obsessed with all art that comes home.

Carrying:  his blankets everywhere.  When you pick him up from the crib in the morning - he has blanket in head and loves snuggling up right next to it.

PAPA ROB

Watching:  lots of Star Trek on Nextflix...slowly working his way through all of the seasons. And also Tree House Masters (which I secretly like also).

Wearing:  His fit bit all the time. 

Thinking:  about the next home improvement project.  (We are hosting a stella and dot party here for some of my friends and he asked me if I wanted anything done before that...well yeah I do :)  Not sure if it will come to fruition but no harm in dreaming right?

Attending:  a fantasy football draft very soon. 

Wishing:  for a new iPhone as his took an unexpected dip in the pool last week.  Sadly...it may be awhile before that happens as neither of us is eligible for an upgrade at this point and we can't stomach spending $600 on a new phone right now.

MAMA

Wearing:  Sandals as much as possible.  And lots of bracelets...love hearing that jangle.

Watching:  House of Cards season 2 on Netflix, Mindy Project re-runs, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and (no judgement!!) Bachelor in Paradise.

Creating:  a new CD of tunes!  Finally!  Lots of country, classic rock, and Taylor Swift's new song.  It's so catchy...it may be on repeat!

Drinking: Iced coffee (it's hot hot hot here!)

Wanting:  a set of vintage lockers, to get out the fall decorations, make a new wreath for the front door, and start Christmas shopping so I'm not stressed later!

Struggling with:  a recent and unexpected death of our neighbor...a fellow mom, wife, friend, and really just lovely woman...only 6 years older than me.  I don't want to go into too much detail as it's not my story to tell...but it's led to a lot of conversations between Papa Rob and myself about the future, our feelings, and how to reach each other/help if something like depression or anxiety were to creep into our lives. **I do try to keep the content of this blog relatively upbeat, but in the spirit of also being real and having this blog act as a time capsule to our lives - it feels worth mentioning as my heart has been heavy with grief this week.

Figuring out:  how to be a good pen pal to one of my best friends, Candice, who just moved to Oregon (slightly jealous).  We are so lucky to live at time when things like FaceTime, snapchat, Instagram, and blogging make it possible to stay close to those far away.

Reading:  Lean in authored by Sheryl Sandberg (which I cannot recommend enough to working mothers and really any mother who is trying to balance things.  I found myself thinking "yes!" so many times)  and What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

BONUS
Thanks for reading this far! You're the best and I thought you might enjoy another picture of Macho Max living it up at the beach :)

XoXo

Week-ending Adventures

Hello, hello.  Because I like to give you all minute by minute updates about our life, our garden, our vacation, what we eat, and our general whereabouts etc... it feels fitting to continue blogging about our weekend even though it's almost the middle of the week. Yolo, right? (can that term be applied to blogging?  I don't know but Khloe Kardishian says it a lot so... I believe it).  Where were we?  Ah yes, back to week-ending adventures.  

 

The summer is quickly coming to a close, which means the Haucks are furiously pounding out the last of our summer fun list.  We did a two for one activity this weekend (is that cheating?) by combining our "picnic" and "Audubon Center visit" into one afternoon. I don't know why we waited so long to check out the Grange Audubon Center in downtown Columbus...because it was awesome! We picked up lunch at Wendy's (don't judge...we packed a nutritious lunch for Max) and set up camp under some shade.  It turned out to be the perfect spot because fire trucks kept whizzing by and Max was in heaven! Then, we hit the trail.  It goes by a pretty cool swingset (though it was smoking hot because as Papa Rob said...it was on top of a concrete jungle). We let Max wander for a bit before hopping back in the stroller and going up the hill toward the refurbished wetland. 

 

(yay for family outings!)

(wetlands boardwalk)

 

We saw tons of frogs in the water and then finally made it into the actual Audubon Center.

We must have looked a wee bit lost because a very kind dad directed us back to the classroom play space.  I have no idea if this is actually open to the public regularly or what...but we took full advantage of the space (and the air conditioning!)  Also the teacher in me was furiously taking mental notes about how neat and child friendly their classroom was.  They had a built in tree structure that also doubled as a puppet theater.  Max loved walking/practically running through it.

 

 

Little known fact about Papa Rob - he loves puppets! haha! Every time he visits my office and it's just us...he manages to pull out a puppet or two.  Now - he has a captive (sort of) audience!

Max was pretty enamored with this Eagle puppet show being put on by Daddy :)

 

 

They also had a dress up corner -- complete with bird wings, butterfly wings, and hats that had bird beaks on them.  I'm a sucker for costumes so I clearly made sure we donned some bird beaks :)  Max is a crow and Papa Rob is some kind of unidentified bird.  Maybe a hawk?  Osprey?

 

 

Once we played around a bit...we were ready to head back to the car.  I'm smart enough to know that we have to be back home by afternoon naptime. If he falls asleep in the car - forget about it. So...we hit the trail once more.  All smiles from our fun! 

 

 

  This is honestly such a cool spot right in the heart of downtown Columbus.  And, when I was in college it was actually the impound lot for cars and towing.  It's a true testament to the commitment of the City of Columbus working hard to "green up" downtown.  They have summer camps, school group programming, special speakers, guided hikes, and even campfires. 

We will be back for sure!

 

xoxo

15 month update

Age: 15 months

Stats: 25 pounds 12 ounces and 33 inches long
 

Clothes: Wearing size 12-18 month mostly. I think he will be comfortable in 18 months clothing through the fall.  Size four diapers.

 

(hanging out before school)

 

Favorite Foods: Bananas (still), Cheese, Yogurt, Pears, Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, and applesauce. He was definitely a more picky eater this month.  It started out when he got the hand, foot, and mouth (because of the sores) and has continued on.

 

Favorite Words: Uh-oh, bye-bye, No, mama, dada, yeah, outside, and something that sounds like "junk mail"

 

(loves, loves loves being outside)

 

Favorite Activities: This month we got out the "Mega Blocks" that he got for his birthday (but I had been stashing for just the right time) - and he LOVES them.  He is definitely into stacking them high and then knocking them down.  I also found the MegaBlock table at a garage sale and it has been an awesome addition to his play.  As for books - he loves the "Find the Kitty" book and "Ten Little Ladybugs". He can point to the kitty on every page. It's kind of crazy because the kitty is pretty small on some of the pages.  He got to go swimming a couple times this month and really likes the water (as long as you're holding him).  He is also super into the hose --even attempting to drink out of it. Really, he just loves to be outside.  He flits from the water table, to the slide, to the front yard, to the cozy coupe.  The puzzles are getting a lot of attention and so are the farm animals still.  In addition, he likes all the cars that he can push along on the floor too.  

 

(playing on the porch at his great grandparents house)

 

(getting better and more into coloring)

 

  Least Favorite Activities: Still not a fan of diaper changes, coming inside, and getting into the car seat (he usually settles down pretty quickly).  This month definitely brought on the first of some temper tantrums.  Right now, they are easy to redirect to an appropriate activity, but I fear this may not be the case when he gets older. 

 

(working on a little alligator art at school)

 

Favorite Things:

 

Trying to get Aunt Stacy to play peek-a-boo or anything with the blanket

Books:  "Find the Kitty", "Ten Little Ladybugs", and "Too Pickley"
 

Water Table  and the pirates (Captain Jack, and his sidekick Jill)

 

Megablocks

 

Cars, Trucks, School Bus (anything you can "drive" on the floor)

 

Cellphones and Keys

 

(driving in the crazy coupe!)

 

Signature Moves: drinking all the milk in his sippy cup pretty quickly, throwing food that he finds displeasing onto the floor, "dancing" by swinging his arms side to side, trying to grab keys, spotting a pacifier from across the room, pulling the blankets off the couch to roll around on, filling up the dump truck and then immediately dumping it all out, bringing you his (or your) shoes when he wants to go outside, reaching for grandpa Tim immediately upon arrival, trying to "walk" up and down the stairs while you hold his hand, and putting his hands over his ears when he starts crying really loud.

(attempting to help water grandma's flowers)

  

Mom's Proudest Moment: Probably not when he poked himself on our cactus in the backyard when I was supposed to be watching him, and definitely not when I basically let him eat ice cream for dinner...probably seeing him understand more and more language every day.  And hearing him deliberately say "mama" doesn't hurt either.

Dad's Proudest Moment: Daddy was very proud of Max for being pretty cool while dealing with all his hand, foot, and mouth sores.  He was never really that cranky and continued to make us laugh
(Mommy thinks Daddy's memory isn't great :)

(excited for lunch at DiBella's!) 

 

Other Milestones:

 

Walking everywhere

 

Answering questions with "yeah" or "no"

Can point to his nose, head, toes, hands, and ears.

Overcoming a terrible case of hand, foot, and mouth

 

Dunking on the new basketball hoop

 

Getting his first haircut - no tears, screams, or fits!

 

Lots of fun outings - the fair, the farm, Zoombeezi Bay, and Splash Pad

(tank top weather!)

(at the doctor for his 15 month well check)

 

This month has just been all kinds of crazy fun!  We are so happy our little man seems to be fully recovered from hand, foot, and mouth (though his skin is still clearing up).  He keeps us laughing daily and we are in constant amazement at things he is capable of (even at 15 months).  Here's to more adventures...long live summer fun!  We love you Macho Max!

xoxo

 

Learning Tree Farm - our second visit

 

Max and I were at my parents house this past weekend (again - we were missing Papa Rob, but knew the best decision was for us to go while he stained the deck.  Decking staining and toddlers just don't mix).  We had some time on Sunday (and the weather was so beautiful) - so we decided to check on our beloved Learning Tree Farm again.

 

During our last visit Max was just on the brink of walking but this time around he was walking all on his own!  He seemed to especially like their big garden.  They had several rows of raised beds, arbors for the peas and climbing plants, and even grapes!  I was secretly pleased to see that their squash and zucchini plants were also not doing that great (darn squash blight or mold or whatever!).  But everything else was thriving!  Lots of cherry tomatoes, peppers, and even pumpkins.  They even had zinnias (my favorite flower) that were about as big as Max's head! 

Max just sort of roamed about in the garden...until he found every boy's favorite thing --

a giant pile of dirt!  Jackpot.  And, they even had shovels for the kids to dig in the dirt box.  Max wasn't quite tall enough to "dig" yet -- but he did enjoy wielding the shovel all around (and practically taking my eye out). The most hysterical part was when he actually got some dirt on his shovel and dumped it all over his face. Some even got in his mouth and he kept smacking his lips trying to get it out.  Oh well.

A little dirt never hurt!

 (Grandpa Tim maintains he ate dirt growing up....and he turned out fine)

 

 

We also checked on all of our favorite animals. A few of the goats had given birth

to some babies since our June visit.  The donkeys were all still there (and quite friendly).

The cows tolerated Max's curious touch and then meandered off.  The pigs (Snoop Hog and Hameniem) were snoozing next to each other.  And - there were actually two goats out and about when we pulled up.  I can only assume they were "mowing" the grass.

 

 

 

This visit we also had some time to play on the farm equipment. 

Max was loving sitting up high and "driving" using the steering wheel of the tractors.

He had such a determined look on his face! 

And of course, the dirt on his face makes him look the part even more.

 

 

 

(He's all "hey grandpa, I got this.  You're cramping my style here")

 

 While we certainly aren't ready to move to the country any time soon,

(Mama needs her Starbucks and Target...though I think I would consider getting

chickens because of the fresh eggs)....I do think the wide open spaces, freedom to roam,

explore, and play are just what this little buckaroo needed.

 

Until next time! Giddy up cowboys!

xoxo