The Diary of a Pitts Kid

Every summer my parents take the kids on a vacation. MawMaw and PawPaw have taken them to Fiesta Texas, the Alamo, Sea World, and Galveston. Last summer, Madison got to bring Mason along for the vacation; and this year Jackson got to bring Cole. This summer, their destination was South Padre Island. In the past, Corey and I have been on some kind of getaway while the kids were on their vacation, but this year we stayed home. The kids left on Wednesday, July 8 and came home on Saturday, July 11. Corey had to work, so during the day I was on my own. It was very strange! I haven’t had that much alone time in at least 9 years. I cleaned out the playroom, had lunch with Corey, lounged by the pool, solved crossword puzzles, shopped, & missed my kids like crazy! The absence of noise was almost eerie. Corey and I just sat on the couch in the evenings not really knowing what to do. The whole experience was rather bittersweet for all involved!

Madison kept a journal of their trip to South Padre Island. I typed her entries exactly as she wrote them in her journal. Here they are:

June 8, 2009
We woke up and ate breakfast. Now we are wating to go.

And lift off at 6:54 a.m. with 450 miles to go. It is 10:37 a.m. and we are between San Antonio & Kingsville. We are really past San Antonio. MawMaw & PawPaw just say that so Cason will quit asking. We are have a lot of fun in the car. If your wondering if I am being sarcastic I’m not. We are really having fun. We are doing lot’s of things. Jax is making paper crafts, Cole playing the DS, Cason is well frankliy I don’t know what Cason is doing. Being weird like always. And I am writing. MawMaw has bought snacks & rapped presents for if were good.

We are in Kingsville. We just ate lunch at Wendy’s. Now we are off to the beach again. We just saw a train and a dust storm in the middle of a field. We are now in South Padre and we crossed the bridge and we saw the Pirate ship.

So we got checked in and we went to the beach & swam. And then did a lot of things.

We had so much fun today. I hope the rest of the days are as much fun!

June 11, 2009
9:00 a.m. and lift off. We are on our way to Lorena. We had so much fun at South Padre. It was the best vacation ever. The sea turtle were cool & Schlitter Bound was so much fun. But the Pirate ship was the coolest. We had water gun fites, face painting & treasure hunt and a lot more. A guy hit his head and they called 911. It was the best vacation ever!

One of the things Maddie did not mention in her journal was their boogy boarding experience.

My parents said the kids were pretty good at it!

Here are pictures of the best part of the trip according to Maddie, the Pirate Ship.

There was sword fighting...

face painting...

swabbing the deck...

taking the "Pirates' Oath"...

and water gun fights.

The Sea Turtle farm was a great learning experience for everyone. Some of the sea turtles at this farm were handicapped - missing flippers, gashes in their shells, etc.

This Sea Turtle has only one flipper! She has to use a swim jacket so she doesn't swim in circles.

Another great learning experience was watching the baby sea turtles being released to the ocean early one morning. They learned that only a few of these sea turtles will actually survive their journey to the ocean. And that the sea turtles that do survive will return to the spot where they hatched to lay their own eggs.

and they're off...

Early morning beach pictures

Evidently, they were so busy while they were in Padre that Madison only wrote on the way to Padre and on the way home, but you can definitely tell they had a great time.

Let's See Some Fireworks

On the Wednesday before the 4th of July, Mari invited us over to pop some fireworks. Derrick, Mari’s boyfriend, is a pyro-technician, and runs the fireworks show in Galveston every 4th of July. When he bought the fireworks for the Galveston show, he got some to do at home as well.
I don’t ever remember getting to pop fireworks as a kid. We always went to the Freedom Frolic in downtown Waco to watch the fireworks show. In all honesty, firecrackers kinda scare me! The whole idea of holding something on fire that will explode at any second makes me nervous. So the idea of my kids holding something on fire that will explode at any second makes me very nervous! I think my nervousness rubbed off on my kids because they wouldn’t have anything to do with lighting the firecrackers, or even holding the punk for someone else. Eventually, Cason started lighting some of his own-surprise, surprise!

After the kids finished setting off all the little poppers, Derrick set up in the middle of the street for the big show. The fireworks Derrick shot off were awesome! I felt like I was in Indian Springs Park watching the show on the 4th. The kids and, lucky for Mari, the neighbors enjoyed the show!

The kids sat on their bikes and scooters in the middle of the street to watch the sky.

From left to right: Jackson, Brooke, Madison, Ashton, Cason, Adam, & Carter

At the baseball tournament on Saturday, July 4th, the Miller’s invited the team to their house to swim. The pool was very refreshing for the boys after playing ball all day! Once it was dark out, we headed to a local fireworks stand to shoot off our own fireworks. Again, Cason was the only one who would light any of the firecrackers. With much prodding Jackson eventually held a sparkler. He is such a cautious child, and I love it!