Days with the Dorans

 One of the best things about taking our vacations around the first week of April is that we are often out of town and get to do something 'different' for our anniversary!  This year was no different.  My folks took the kids and Jeff and I went out for a night on the town. We went to this really yummy restaurant called  Rioz Brazilian Steakhouse . It was a really cool place.  The way it worked was we were each given a card at our table.  On one side was the color green and the other, red.  There were waiters walking around with all sorts of cuts of meat and when you turned your card to green, they brought you different meats to try.  When you were done, you just turned your card to red.  The food was fabulous, the wine was divine and the staff was superb!  when they found out it was our anniversary they brought us out a little something to split (even though we told them we were stuffed!)!  On top of that, another couple saw...

 As I write this, I am still about 4 pounds up from where I was before we left for vacation.  I thought that was crazy because of my runs and all the walking I did.  On one day I had over 18,000 steps according to my fit bit!  The reason though was because we ate out (albeit one meal a day) and drank out! I am not a big drinker but when you're on vacation, it's nice to have a little (or big- as pictured above) something with dinner.  Jeff always gets a tall beer when we're out and it seemed that everywhere we went his beer came with a souvenir glass!  I think the kids' favorite place to eat was Planet Hollywood.  They loved looking at all the things from the movies (I didn't like my burger there but everyone else was fine with the food).  Our favorite place to eat was where we spent our anniversary (but more on that in the next post). When we arrived, Joe said to us, "You know, I think I want to try crab legs!"  I was so excited...

This may be my favorite picture EVER! I have to say that we were a bit disappointed in the weather for our trip.  The temps were below average- in the high 60s low 70s but after spending a summer in the Polar Vortex, we were excited to get our toes in the sand again and it was a heck of a lot warmer than home! It was cloudy the first day we were there, but the indoor pool was open so we spent time there.  Sadly, it was being serviced the rest of the week... but we're so tough that that didn't stop our love for the water.  The kids spent a lot of time in the pool, 'hot water' and lazy river.  The lazy river was Sean's favorite and he went around so many times, we finally let him just go it alone (we are so lax with that fourth kid!). The sun did come out though and we were able to shed the sweatshirts and go down to the ocean.  Even with others walking around in bathing suits and swimming in the ocean, I was so cold!  I kept on my long dress mos...

 I don't think I mentioned this, but for Christmas, my mom got me a Fitbit and I LOVE it!!!  You wear it and it monitors all sorts of things; how many steps you take, active minutes you have, how many flights of stairs you take, calories burned... even how well you sleep (among other things).  Since I got it, I have literally walked or run every day (except for the day we said Goodbye to Cobi and our two travel days on vacation).  I've tried to do "A 5K a day" which is only 3.1 miles.  I am a walker but there have been mornings where sleep got the best of me and I've had to do some jogging to get to my goal.  With our schedules, if I don't exercise in the morning (and I'm NOT a morning person), I don't exercise. The first morning of our vacation, I went out for my walk.  I was so eager to start our day that I decided to run it.  It went well and I loved watching the ocean.  My time wasn't bad so my dad (a real runner) suggested we ...

With Pele' at my friend's and Morty at my brother's, it was easy for us to get on the road at a decent time.  I have to admit there is less stress leaving when you don't have someone staying in your house.  My house was clean but I wasn't wiping baseboards before we left (yes... I admit it, I've done that in the past).  We left before six and all kids slept in comfy clothes.  It was our hope that they would sleep some of the time but when Jeff stopped for coffee at McDonald's we heard, "I need some chicken!" from the backseat (Sean).  Needless to say they were excited to be getting out of town and there was no sleeping.  Actually, up until the last few hours of our 13 hour trip, there was no sleeping at all (and only one movie). Jeff drove most of the way (all but about 5 hours) and I read!  My friend loaned me this WONDERFUL book called, Wonder.  It was such a fast read and a book that I recommend to everyone!  Jeff and I agreed that...

We were so blessed to be able to go on a vacation earlier this month, but we weren't the only ones in the Doran household to travel.  Morty went to my brother's (let's face it, Morty is the EASIEST pet EVER... If anyone out there wants an easy pet, get yourself a Russian Tortoise). Dogs aren't quite as easy though and with Cobi recently dying we worried about Pele' (by the way, for those of you who just read, Pele' is named after t he famous soccer player and pronounced Pay-Lay). I was worried about Pele'.  He and Cobi had never been boarded.  We'd always had people come and live in our house whenever we've left town.  When Cobi was sick, we made arrangements with the hospital for them to stay there.  After Cobi died, I really didn't think much about our leaving until the week before we left and it was too late to ask someone to come and watch our house.  Plus our old dog-sitter went and had triplets so needless to say she had her ha...

(I tucked Sean's medal under his sweater for picture day).  I think I mentioned that back in December that we decided to leave the preschool where all our kids had gone (and Sean was going).  He had been scratched twice by the same boy (drawing blood) and both scratches were frighteningly close to his eye.  Both scars you can still see (one is pretty dark and  still really bothers me).  That being said, we found that the whole experience has been a blessing for us.  We're really happy and Sean loves "Miss Kim's School" and often talks about his friends and how he fills his days (though I also get a little note telling me what he did, too).  He also has music class on Mondays (which he loves) and special random classes like Karate (I believe I mentioned the beloved medal that he hasn't taken off since he got it. He literally sleeps in it!).  They have fun days throughout the month where they get to dress up or bring something spec...