Still committed to making lemonade out of COVID by deciding to uproot and move to Florida, we continued from June into July at the Betancourt Resort. Among all of the adults, we planned out for the month who did Kiddie Dinner Prep, Adult Dinner Prep, Kiddie Bedtime Detail, Dish Duty (always Pa) and Happy Hour/Bar Service, hoping to spread out the responsibilities so everyone got a turn doing something delightful and dreadful. Matt was almost always on Drink Duty but made surprisingly creative kid dinners. Kay Kay and Pa, god love em, stayed each and every night until Pa finished every single dish. Kay Kay and I were usually “floaters” which was a nice way of saying I didn’t get a specific job because when Harrison cried, I had to go help him. Anyway, it hummed along relatively smoothly and we had a great time taking advantage of our Quarantine Bubble.

In July…

We celebrated the 4th of July (Harrison’s first BIG holiday, notwithstanding Memorial Day, which he celebrated at his pediatrician’s office for his 3 day checkup), with star-spangled popsicles, Pool Olympics, a typical FL late afternoon summer storm, gorgeous firework shows from Matt & Tommie’s balcony, tooo delicious pineapple upside-down cake martinis, and then setting off our own fireworks by the pool–even Caroline lit some!

We love ‘Merica!

Note how Vivi does not know how to hold a popsicle by the stick…she always tries to hold the actual popsicle then cries when it becomes a sticky puddle. Kay Kay is nicer than me and wraps hers in a paper towel…

Not long after our nation’s birthday, it was time to celebrate Preston turning SEVEN!! Off to the park for a very specific (albeit short-lived) project involving the banyan trees and a donut breakfast picnic. It was HOT but this big kid was too busy climbing like a spider monkey to care!

Meanwhile, these two were more focused on the special birthday treats:

Although Pressy’s new bike got them somewhat interested…

Matt and Tommie executed an amazing birthday gift scavenger hunt and then a “Treat House” event where he and Caroline got to select which movie snacks they wanted from a menu and we served them during a feature presentation (Preston’s choice). He chose SANTA PAWS (Pa could NOT have been more dismayed but hey, the heart wants what it wants) and in its honor, Matt made winter white cosmos for the adults and I am pretty sure everyone agreed it was high time for a little bit of Christmas in July and also that it was the best birthday ever.

Preston got some very nice threads which Vivi took the liberty of modeling for us all…looking like a tiny softball coach…

And seeing how P’s love language is LEGOs, got right to work on a new set (with a little help from Caroline and Louis):

The rest of the month consisted of exactly what one would expect from the Betancourt Resort Daycare and Academy of Excellence. One day, Preston took it upon himself to both plan and pack a picnic for himself, Caroline, and Vivi. I said YES to everything he asked as he prepared, curious about his vision and not wanted to screw it up with unnecessary adult concerns. And I am so glad I stayed out of the way because it turned out fabulously and was one of my favorite memories from the summer.

He packed the lunches, assigned everyone a transport means, biked to his ‘Special Spot’, spread out the blanket, and served lunch. Afterwards he even led the girls in Tree Climbing 101:

There were Friday Night Jammie Parties:

Arts and crafts projects:

New toy loves, like these cars and ‘Pengy’ the Penguin who Vivi dragged all over the place:

Harrison slept through most of the daily excitement…

But would pop up every now and again to remind us what newborn baby wonder looks like.

Mike and I snuck out once or twice for some fun beach date nights where we got to frolic in the water like dolphins then pedal on the hard sand watching the sun sink down and thinking, “are we really gonna LIVE here?!?”

A few times we tried to give Matt and Tommie their house back for a few hours and shifted our crazy over to Kay Kay and Pa’s…as you can see, naptime went well over there…

Well at least for some people…

Toys from my own childhood emerged:

And special Kay Kay treats came out!

And Caroline learned from Tommie to appreciate a good mani-pedi. Treat yo’self!

We loaded up alll the children and allll the things and went to the beach. And as Matt will tell you…DADS HATE THE BEACH 😉

Kay Kay took willing (i.e., the non-crying) kiddos out in the boat:

And they all took a turn on Pressy’s new water-skis!

Kay Kay played hard with these little people each and every day…even tolerating the super fun game of them all sitting on “the Kay Kay Bench”:

We went on countless bike ride adventures:

And loved watching the littles interact.

We found a house we LOVE, and even got the inspection done…

And went for one final boat ride and lagoon float before we said our goodbyes.

At the end of the month, we packed up and headed back to VA with starry-eyed plans and quite the to-do list for my rapidly vanishing maternity leave…Harrison turned 2 months old and was pretty much a gem on the long car ride home. Caroline learned all the words to “Fifty Nifty” and asked 10000 questions on the 15 hour car ride home. Vivienne loved “doing her work” (aka playing with a talking toy) on the car ride home but always managed to drop it. We were all relieved to pull into our driveway in Arlington at the end of that VERY long day!

Farewell, July, and farewell (for now!) Florida!