Spring Break in Daytona Beach

The kids were on Spring Break from school a couple of weeks ago, so on March 21 -22, we decided to invade my mom's house in Daytona Beach. More specifically, Nana lives in Ormond Beach. Mom had been feeling blue since her doctor's appointment back on the 5th (also of March). That was the day we saw the oncologist, and he was very honest with us about her cancer progression and updated us on what kind of grim prognosis we were up against. He was so compassionate, and we could tell that he just hated that we were running out of options. Keith was working on some stuff for school and had a late evening class planned, so it would have just been me and the kiddos anyway.

Pam and Bruce and their kids (Aidan and Austin) and Candy's kids (Mary and Amber - we weren't brave enough to bring the baby) and my herd all went to the beach. It was not as warm as I was hoping, and it was quite windy. That certainly did not stop the kids from jumping in the water.

Megan digging in the sand. I see my foot...there's proof that I was there!

Down in the water...from left to right...Joshua, Austin, Amber, Mary and Aidan.

A little later, Megan and Daniel attempted to get wet.

Daniel was more into digging than anything. Thank goodness for these buckets from the dollar store that I had picked up for games for Megan's birthday party just a few days before this trip.

Bruce and Mary spotted a crab, so we called all the kids over to check him (her?) out.

Daniel is so funny! He makes me smile every time I see him laugh.

Overall, it was a great day at the beach. We went back to Nana's house to clean up and have lunch. Then we left so Nana could nap.

Pam took us just a few blocks over to Rainbow Park, where the kids ran themselves silly.

Some more silly than others!

The park had dozens of caterpillars crawling everywhere. It seems like every time I'd put my hand somewhere, a caterpillar would crawl across me.

The kids all had fun and were soon hungry again, so it was back to Nana's house to check on her and make plans for dinner. While at Nana's house, Candy came to pick up her kids and we grouped everyone together for a picture.

Mary had some sort of silly slipper day coming up at school, and when we opened a closet in Nana's house, we found bunches of silly slippers...so we tried them on and picked our favorites to wear through the house...I have the pigs.

After all the kids went to bed, Mom and I stayed up and chatted and listed to the music of American Idol. The next morning was the visit from the Hospice Admission Nurse - mom was officially entered into the Hospice care system to receive comfort care at home.