Pee Chalky Jew & Bad Guys

"Life moves pretty fast....if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
-Ferris Bueller

I love vacations. It's the chance to stop our cooking/cleaning/scheduled life/fixing things around the house (Spencer) and just enjoy each other and perhaps some fun surroundings. We recently got to enjoy the Ron Jon Surf Resort at Cocoa Beach with Jay (Spencer's bro) Joanna and their ever-growing brood---Dakoda, Skyler, Thatcher and Riley. Here are some highlights:

• Floating on an innertube in the lazy river trying to avoid the random water features that dump/pour/spray water on me (and Spencer,using Clark like a shield, trying to push me into them)
• The beach at dusk as a storm was beginning to roll in.
• Ellie & Skyler---these two just LOVE each other....they have some mystical connection that the rest of the family is not in on.
• The pure joy of 4 cousins riotously laughing with each other covered in sticky watermelon juice

• Trying to suppress laughter at all the various "things" dropped over the balcony while the adults were distracted (watermelon rinds, Skyler's pee)
• Playing Dance Dance Revolution with Jo in the arcade after the kids went to bed (BTW, our mad skills were heightened by a few glasses of wine--and we dominated the 'tweens hanging out there)
• Trying to figure out what Thatcher (2) was saying. His most frequent utterance was "pee chalky jew". Before you berate Jay & Jo on their antisemitic teaching, this was Thatcherese for "Please may I have some chocolate juice (chocolate milk)" That kid is just plain funny. I tried to help him by breaking off pieces of his biscuit...he looked at me with a mad face and said "Ah Ca, ba ga" (translated by Jo: Aunt Carey, bad guy) We almost peed our pants from laughig so hard. Is that kid from Spencer's gene pool or what.
• Watching Riley (9mo) eat her breakfast, which consisted of crawling around on the floor under the table eating the feast of Cheerios that the other kids dropped.
• Comforting Ellie as she cried when she realized she was leaving her cousins. This is a highlight only because I realized what a blessing it is to have such a close family relationship. I pray these cousins will always be close to each other.