Spring Break

Spring break is winding down for us, while some of you are starting break on Monday. Ours had its ups and downs. Several of the activities I planned were from one child's wish list, and she managed to sabotage them for herself, but I refused to let her ruined it for everyone. We pressed onward with whoever was cooperating at the moment.

Before spring break even started, two group went scuba diving. Group one consisted of Kaleb doing a non-certified dive, while Rick and Jasmine did a regular dive. Jasmine has a lot of ear trouble and was not able to go below 10 feet. So she completed a shallow dive, and then Rick did a 30 foot dive. Unfortunately he ruptured his ear drum!

Then Tyler and I did a dive. There was a strong current making it challenging. We only dove to 37 feet. It was good visibility, though.

On Monday we were going to have a fairly quiet day simply walking/running and cooking out at a local park. But the weather looked like it was going to be stormy, so we grabbed frozen baked spaghetti from Walmart and went to Jessica's.

Afterwards we walked/ran at a park we hadn't been to before.

On Tuesday we were supposed to whitewater raft, but in addition to rupturing his ear, Rick blew his knee out, so we had to cancel that. Ty had already taken the day off, so we drove to St George Island and climbed the lighthouse.

Then we played at the beach behind the lighthouse.

To be continued ...

Spring Break Highlights

For some reason, it is always sunny the week before and the week after spring break, but it rains most of spring break! We had two days that weren't rainy, so we made the best of them.

I also wish I could say that the week was free of behavioral issues, but that wasn't true. We are still dealing with defiance issues. So we did what we could. And when needed, we arranged an older child to "baby sit" in order to make life safe and pleasant for others. We have some fun plans for summer, so I'm hoping that will be motivation for change.

We started out the week with Jasmine taking her 4 hour mandatory drug and alcohol awareness class required for a driver's permit. Then later she took the prep class for her permit. We haven't gotten her to the DMV office to test yet, though.

We had some outside play.

Then we decided to go walk/run in the park and grill hot dogs there. That's when the day ended for one. She had to sit some time out. She and Rick were near the walking path, and when anyone would come by, she would dramatically throw herself down making comments about how horrible life was and such. White dad. Black daughter throwing herself down in distress. Too much attention. He took her home. The older kids were all at work, so Kaleb, Jasmine and I roasted marshmallows and sang.

We wanted to go to the beach on Monday, but it was cold and windy, so some of us went to a park instead. This park is on the other side of town, but it's near where Jasmine had her driver's permit prep class, which was only an hour long. And it's near the library, so we actually did several things this morning.

 We had subs and Sprite

On Tuesday, Tyler, Jasmine and I were supposed to do our first dive since October, but both the air and water were cold. So we chickened out. We went to St. George Island to climb the lighthouse instead. 

We climbed 93 stairs, followed by a ten foot ladder and then went through a scuttle hold.

It was an easy climb. Disappointingly easy. Jasmine and I climbed stairs to the base of the Statue of Liberty last year, and I was expecting something more like that. (It was a lot higher I guess since it was over 200 stairs.)

At the top

 Going back down through the scuttle hold

 There was a beautiful beach behind the light house.

Kaleb was the only one brave enough to go into the cold water.

We stopped at a small lighthouse on the way home, but it's being renovated.

So we got pizza and ate in a park instead. Ty had walked down the street to a thrift shop he'd noticed.

 We made graham cracker peep houses.

 It was a fun project even if they didn't all survive.

More spring break photos next time.

When does/did everyone else have spring break?