Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Jared and Nora!  Sharing a birthday, is something special for these 2.  I look forward to lots and lots more birthday celebrations with them!

Birthday dinner at Ruby Tuesday.
(Phone picture=not the best quality. And, Nora learned to put her own bows in her hair...)

More on birthday fun coming soon :).

Boo at the Zoo 2013

Last night was the annual Tate & Lyle night at Boo at the Zoo.  It is a great event, and the people at the zoo as well as Tate & Lyle put in a lot of work to make it great!  Our tickets included dinner, trick or treating at 10 stations, a train ride, carousel ride and seeing all the animals at the zoo!  It's a good deal!  Also, our zoo's penguin exhibit is open!  All in all, it was a great night!  We started with trick or treating/looking at the animals.
This was new...a corn pit to play in.  They loved it!

He's intent on getting to the next station!

They figured it out...heading to the next station.

Nora did great, giving her tickets to the people at each station.

Checking out the pumpkin head.

Ethan and the penguins

They did a great job on the penguin exhibit!  I'm impressed :).

The camels were out!  So were the cheetah's, but my picture didn't turn out.  But they were actually up, walking around.  I've never seen them do anything but lay around!

Eww!  They always make me come in here.

Family train ride!  

Nora loved it

Ethan on a warthog

Nora on the manatee 

Dinner for the police man!

Happy Halloween from the Cardinal fan, owl, police man and me :)!

Pumpkin Patch 2013

We went to the pumpkin patch on Sunday.  It was a beautiful day for it and we had a nice time! We went to a different patch than in the past.  (I must admit, I was a little disappointed, especially since the other one had become a tradition.)  The kids and I will be going to The Great Pumpkin Patch (the one we usually go to) on Friday for a field trip for Ethan's school, so we picked a different one.  We went to Black Barts Pumpkin Patch, which is very nice.  It's smaller, with less to see and do, than the one in Arthur, but they have great pumpkins!!

Silly, excited boy!

She kept gravitating to the warty ones, so that's what she got :).

How tall this fall collage!

We went on a hay ride through the pumpkin patch.  It was a big hit!

A couple of good looking, matching guys!

She loved it!

Ethan and Daddy with his pumpkin!

Riding in the wagon

Nora enjoyed the ride too.

Nora with her little pumpkin.

2 cute kids!

There were a couple hay bale slides that the kids had fun on.

Mama and her sweet girl in the covered wagon

Our family at the pumpkin patch.  (It was bright)

Previous pumpkin patch trips...2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Basketball Joy

Ethan had another basketball game this morning.  I'll let the pictures do the talking...he smiled the whole time he was on the floor!  He enjoys it so much and I enjoy watching him :)!

This girl enjoys watching him too!  Or maybe she just enjoys the snacks and concession stand :).

Florida 2013

We just got back from a wonderful week long trip to Panama City Beach.  We stayed at Splash Resorts, right on the beach!  It was awesome and we would recommend this place to anyone, especially if you have kids! We went with my parents, my Uncle Wayne and Aunt Linda, cousins Josh & Libby (and girls) and Micah & Kacey (and kids). All the kids have a playmate, which is really nice! Haley and Finley are both 5, Ethan and Scout are 4 and Nora and Katie are 2.
Just a warning...I have a ton of pictures!  I tried to make more collages, so you aren't scrolling for days and days :).

Here's the view of our condo, from the water.

  We spent a lot of time on the beach.  Basically, the most difficult decision we had to make was what time to head down to the beach :).

This girl LOVED the water!

He spent most of his time digging and building in the sand, but wasn't a stranger to the water.

Our Beach Babies! 

I think this was in the midst of making an igloo out of sand.

Soccer with Scout.  I don't think you can see it, but Ethan's tongue is sticking out :).

Moving sand from the water to the beach.

Loving the waves, the water and her daddy!

Isn't she the prettiest?!? (I may be biased)

In the mornings, there were a lot of hermit crabs out.  Ethan (and Jared) loved "hunting" for them.  Just about every day, we had a couple buckets full of crabs, and once a live sand dollar!

One for each hand

She is not afraid of much! (One of my favorite pictures of her, from this trip)

Me and my main squeeze!

My parents left on Friday, so before they went to the car, we got a family picture on the beach!

The 4 of us out in the water.  Great memories.

Ethan and Jared

Nora, enjoying a popsicle on the beach

We also loved the pools.  Ethan is getting more and more proficient with his swimming and Nora doesn't care to be touched when she has her floaties on.

Swimming with my favorite kids!

Enjoying the pool with a view

Pop and Nora on the lazy river.  She looks comfortable :).

There was a splash park with a bucket dump and slides too!  Ethan said the water was too cold, so he didn't stay long.

We went down to the beach a couple nights after dark.  We took flashlights, and could see all kinds of sand crabs (they look like spiders running in the sand).  The crab hunters in our family loved this.  Another great time of making memories!

On Wednesday morning, we went to Gulf World.  It's an aquarium with lots of shows to keep you entertained.  It was really fun and the shows were great!

Dolphin shows and sea lion shows!

And, some sting ray petting :)

Cute kids eating snack before another show.  Scout, Ethan, Haley, Finley

Vacations are also about the eating!  We went to some fun and good restaurants!

Outside Sharkey's, before some great seafood!

All the kids before one of our nights out.  Nora, Ethan, Haley, Finley, Scout, Katie

 I was working on a sunset picture, and this cute kid came to check it out.  It's one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip!

Love this reminder of God's beauty in His creation!

We had such a great trip and can't wait to go again.  We were all sad to leave the beach, but our own beds are nice!  Until next time Panama City!