A Day in the Life...

A typical summer day for us....pool, popsicles, and play time.

Do you see the shadow of his eyelashes?

Goofball.

Upgraded Birthday....

The 26th was my birthday, 41. My brother and sister-in-law, Tim and Jen, offered to take the kids for a weekend so off they went to Jax and Matt and I had the weekend to ourselves. Sooo nice. We spent the night at the beach, lots of quiet reading time, meals uninterrupted, and an adult dinner with friends to celebrate. Then on Sunday, we went appliance shopping "just to see what's out there". We've been talking about getting new appliances since we moved into this house. I wanted stainless and Matt really wanted a fridge with the the freezer at the bottom. So we found a great deal and the next day I had new stuff in the kitchen!! I have to say I LOVE them. I feel like quite the big girl in the kitchen now with my new oven with a convection option. Baked a cake for the 4th. The fridge has an alarm on it so if the kids leave it open, it starts to beep. The shelves slide out and we now have this cool LED lighting in the fridge. Our last one didn't have light at all so we were constantly struggling to see things. Anyway, happy happy birthday to me!!

Love my Paula Deen apron!

My Big Girl...

Madalyn's front teeth have been wiggly for months. A week ago we were at the dentist and he said they would be coming out very soon. Two days last Friday, she lost the first one. She worked on it and worked on it till, quite frankly, I was grossed out. Out it came and the tooth fairy showed up as expected.

Then just yesterday, five days later, the second one came out. It was hanging from a thread for two days. We all tried pulling on it. My friend Tara popped over and pulled it with one little yank...whatever. Anyway, my toothless girl is adorable. The dentist warned me she would look so much older.

Well, adorable most days....goofy here.

Flying High....

We were looking for something to do on Saturday. We had wanted to go to the beach but the day got away from us and it felt like too much to pack us all up with food and gear. Matt and I remembered how before we had kids, he and I went to the beach to fly kites and had a great time. So we loaded up the kids, stopped at Walmart for the $1 kites and off we went. We ended up with a "Piderman", Ariel, and Barbie. It was a great late afternoon activity. But man, still scorching at the beach at 5pm. So here's us having fun.....


There was no way you were going to fly his kite for him.

I just love love this face...

Getting a little help from Daddy...

Kenzie showing Matt the dead crabs she found...

We said "don't get wet"......yeah, right.

Blueberry Pickin'

We always miss the fall season of picking your own apples and pumpkins but here in Florida you can pick your own strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. We found a "pick your own" blueberry farm about an hour away called Blue Bayou Farm. So we packed up for a mini road trip and off we went. Madalyn will eat an entire pint of blueberries in one sitting so she LOVES them.


Off with buckets in hand.....


Guilty as sin I think. He didn't get the concept of not eating them before you pay for them. We should have done a weigh in on him before we started and then after to get an accurate account of what he ate!


There he is again.....

We ended the afternoon with a picnic in some park we found along the way. Oh, by the way, we picked almost 6 lbs of blueberries. I'll be freezing some for pancakes, blueberry crisp, and muffins....YUMMY.

Mother's Day

Matt surprised me with a weekend at the Dolphin Hotel and this was my view from the comfy hammock I settled into. It was the most relaxing weekend I've had in a long time. We played for hours in the pool, enjoyed the sun, but mostly I just enjoyed being with my hubby and my bugs.

This is a huge checkers board. Madalyn is beginning to learn strategy...

My Joy Girl.

My Handsome boy couldn't get enough of the pool.

Sweetness.

And for whatever reason, they're aren't any pics of just Matt but if there were, the caption would be "The Love of my Life". Thanks Honey. I really had a great time.......

Georgia Part 3.....

Mason is at that age where he is obsessed with trains. The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway would open its season right after we were leaving so we were bummed to have missed it. But we took the kids down by the train to take some pics. Mason was so excited.


Like the rain boots, by the way?

Bigger than life for this little guy.

Loves choo choo tracks.

He got a new train that makes noise in lieu of riding it and was happy with that.

After visiting the train, we headed out to find a suspension bridge we had read about. It was off some little country access road that was described as "a 3 mile bumpy trip". Now remember we are in a rental minivan. We found it and headed on up. It remains the talk between Matt and I. It was a one lane, curvy, muddy, hold your breath kind of trip. But once we began we were sort of commited...lol. We made it to the top and it was worth it.

A long view. It was pretty solid but did move as you walked across it. The views were pretty in either direction.

A sepia shot.....

So, remember I said it was muddy? We were nervous about the trip down and making jokes the whole way. Seriously, if we had ran into someone coming the other way, not sure what we would have done. The snow was melting so some places were muddy, particularly the turns. We were sure we were going to get stuck but in the end, all was well. However, you can see the mud up on the sideview mirror that had been kicked up onto the van. Later when we got out, red streaks of mud were splattered all over the white minivan. We were glad to be in a rental at that point!

We then headed up to Amicalola State Park to see the waterfall. It is also the beginning of the Appalachian Trail. A beautiful state park.

My handsome dude.

A cabin in the mountains is proving to be my favorite kind of vacation......