Grab a bucket! Kate Plus 8‘s Kate Gosselin and her kids were looking for fun in the sun in Florida during the TLC series’ Tuesday, December 15, episode. But the trip involved two things the 40-year-old mom was hoping to avoid: nausea and waterslides.
“So far, so good,” Kate said at the start of the episode about the vacation activities that began in last week’s season 4 premiere. “There’s so much more to do, though!”
The first of those things was a sand castle construction class on the beach. Always her eight kids’ biggest supporter, she spent the class yelling things like, “Come on, Miss Muscles — you can do this!” while her daughters hauled buckets of water from the ocean to their castle.
Amid cheers of “Yay!” and “High-fives!” the unlikely team of Collin and Hannah was making fast progress, while Leah and Joel bickered over their section. “That’s a little nugget of a good memory in my mind, that they chose to be partners,” Kate told the camera about Collin and Hannah.
The next activity was the family’s messy project: tie-dyeing. The tradition follows the infamous pudding body art and canvas painting of previous vacations.
At first, the twins, Mady and Cara, laughed at Hannah for asking questions about the instructions, but in the end, her shirt was the best. “Oh, my gosh, that looks amazing. Good job, Han!” said Kate, whose own shirt looked “like it had the flu.”
During the next activity, two of the kids’ shirts looked like the flu too, but not because of tie-dyeing …
Moby-Sick
While Mady, Cara, Hannah and the twins’ friend Marley stayed back at the house to cook dinner for the family, the rest of the crew went deep-sea fishing with Kate, which she loves “more than life itself.” Alexis caught the first fish, and Kate told the camera she was hoping to rewrite history and have a more fun boating trip than the family’s last attempt, which resulted in all the kids throwing up in North Carolina.
Unfortunately, Aaden and Leah then threw up, and the rest of the kids begged to go home.
“I feel the most peaceful and calm in the middle of the ocean,” said a bewildered Kate before ultimately giving up and going home.
Meatless Masterpiece
“Since Cara and I are pretty much culinary stars, we decided we would make dinner for all the fishers,” giggled Mady. The girls made lasagna roll-ups, substituting vegetables for meat to prove to the rest of the family that meatless dishes could still taste good.
In spite of some annoyance over the presence of the veggies, the kids devoured the meal, and the disappointment on the boat was soon forgotten.
Wet and Wild
The next day, Kate decided that, since the kids had humored her and gone fishing, she would humor them and take them to their first-ever water park.
“I don’t do water parks,” she signed, citing the germs and stress. The twins shared her lack of enthusiasm, but the sextuplets had a blast riding down the slides all day.
“Yeah, I was the boring mom sanding at the bottom, but there were a lot of boring moms standing at the bottom!” Kate told the camera. She said she enjoyed being able to see the looks on the kids’ faces when they emerged from the slides, so ultimately, even she had fun!
The next activity kept with the wet theme but was even wilder than the slides! Because Alexis has always loved alligators and crocodiles, the family went to an alligator park where Alexis was chosen to assist during an exhibition show.
“The guy was really nice,” Alexis gushed about the host. “He was like, ‘You’re a pro,’ and I was like, ‘I know I am!’”
All in all, the kids and Kate had a great time and were sad to leave their house in Florida.
“In beach air, the stresses of life are gone,” said Kate as they packed to go home.
Tell Us: Is more stress and drama waiting in Pennsylvania for the family this season?
Kate Plus 8 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.
