South Florida Trip

We were invited to visit our good friends and their 3 children down in South Florida for the 4th.
The trip down went pretty quickly. When we got there Avery was shy for about 30 seconds and then I heard her best "ice breaker" comment to date; "Hey, look at my boo-boo". From that moment on, they were inseparable.

There was a festival going on downtown, so we packed up and headed down to check it out.
About 5 minutes after getting there it started storming. So what would any normal parents do to get out of the rain? Head to the awning in front of the pub, of course! So there we are enjoying our brews while our childern run around in circles chasing each other and spashing in the rain puddles. Needless to say, we ALL had a great time.



We later headed to the beach - IN THE RAIN. It wasn't storming and we figured we would be wet in the ocean anyway. It was raining too hard to take pictures with my camera, but the beach was beautiful.

The next day we went to the beach again and since it wasn't raining that hard, I took my camera down and snapped a few. For some reason my pictures on this trip just didn't turn out that well.
This is Avery and Alexis running back from the waves to cover themselves in sand. Yes, I feel like I am still finding sand. :-)


It's interesting hearing the response of people that think Avery looks like either myself or Scott. It seems to be 50/50. I never really see the strong Scott resemblance, but looking at this picture below, I can now see what all the "SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE SCOTT" people are seeing. It's like a little blonde mini-me.


We went to a more crowded beach on the 4th.
Avery and Alexis playing in the waves.


Scott tends to push Avery into being more adventurous that she would be on her own. This time he is taking her out in the ocean. By the end of the day she was asking him to go out.


Ocean view - all weekend those dark clouds were over us, this time they were in the distance.


Before coming back home on the 5th, we stopped to have lunch at a great Italian restaurant - that also had an amazing Italian Market. You could tell it wasn't a very kid friendly place by the "kid cups" they offered us. No one seemed to mind and we managed not to get kicked out with 4 VERY ACTIVE children running around. Alexis & Nate enjoying the waters.


I just realized I didn't have that many good pictures to share and I didn't have any of Kira (their youngest). I'll do another scan of my photos and see if I can find a few more to put up.

June - SC Beach Trip

We went up to SC for a beach trip last weekend with the cousins. The drive with all the stops was about 8 hours - which was why I was able to finally spend some time on the blog. We had a wonderful time with the cousins - just wish it had been longer. Avery had the best time playing with the girls. So much so that she silently cried for about 30 minutes into our return trip home.

Bobby & Scott on the water.


The girlies - Avery, Reid & Davis.


Sunset Cruise


Any guesses who this might be? :)


I got up early one morning all excited about fishing with Bobby and Scott. The pic below was my only photo of the morning because about 15 minutes later all I could do was lay down and stare at the sky or barf over the side of the boat. We were about 2-3 miles out in the ocean, but those consistant swells gave me some serious motion sickness. I hadn't had motion sickness in 17 years, but then again I have been only in mild waters since the sailing trip to the islands. I will not forget to take something before I go out in the seas again. I was so bummed that I felt so bad - I had really been looking forward to fishing with the guys. Oh well, next time.

Here's a shot of the sun rising.


The girls had a blast on the beach.


Davis


Avery kept running in and out of the water with the tube.


The girls really wanted to go to to the Pavillion down the street, so one afternoon we took them down to do one "ride".


Reid


Davis did lots of flips.


Avery got to experience her first ice cream truck and boy did she think that was cool. I think they got ice cream twice while we were there.


Walking back to the house from the truck with their treats.


Enjoying the ice cream on the porch.

Our last evening there we took a boat ride down to a few restaurants in town and walked along the boardwalk scoping all the restaurants for the one that looked the best. One of the restaurants had a few sculptures and the girls fell in love with "Bubba Love". Too funny!



Avery Raine down by the boardwalk.


The balloon guy came over to make balloons for the girls. Avery opted for the palm tree hat. Reid got a purple poodle and I really can't remember what Davis had, but it kept popping.


Heading back to the house from our last night cruise.


Full moon rising. We headed home the next morning. Despite getting some negative news during the trip, I think we all managed to have a nice time. Looking forward to getting the girls together (and us too!) sometime in the near future.


We have another trip coming up soon to visit some friends in south Florida and then we will be hanging around town for the next few weeks. Hopefully more pics to come soon. It seems I am finally getting out of my blogging drought.

June - Squash & Tomatoes

Aparently last winter we consumed a lot of spaghetti & butternut squash because we had volunteer plants come up. We are assuming they came from the compost bin.

These are the butternut squash. We probably have had a dozen or so. We haven't eaten any yet, but they sure look pretty.


The is our one lone spaghetti squash. It had a worm in it when Scott picked it. He thought he got it out, but aparently not because it rotted ALL OVER OUR COUNTERTOP when we got back from a trip - GGGGGRRRRRRRR.


Avery with the squash plants - you can see the compost bins to the right.


Scott built new raised beds in March/April.


Baby tomato plants.


Getting bigger.


Look at these monster tomato plants.

June - Swim Lessons and Gymnastics

We started doing lessons in early June. Around the 3rd swim lesson something in Avery just clicked and she lost some of her fears and started going under and swimming to the side of the pool all on her own. We have had 2 different instructors and both are excellent in different ways. Our latest instructor pushes her pretty hard, which I think is really working for her. We've also decided to join a pool this summer to get as much exposure as we can in the water. I am trying to get her to the pool 2-3 times a week. It seems like we are out until 9 every night, but I guess that's summer...


With her first instructor, Coach Sy. We really liked him, but he was enlisting and moving out of state.


Here she is with Ms. Jen - Jen is making her work hard. She tries to distract her, but Jen is on to that game.




This one cracks me up. How hard is she trying not to put her face in the water?


Avery trying to distract Jen with looking for bugs in the pool.


The end to a great lesson.



Gymnastics twice a week with Ms. Tammy. Avery surprised me and LOVES gymnastics. She asks me almost every day if it's gymnastics day.


At her first lesson doing a rollover.

May - First Road Trip

Avery and I took our first trip in the new car on my birthday weekend to see Grandad and DD in SC. My cousin Bobby came over for the weekend and we all celebrated my birthday in true farm style.

Avery got her hands on a roll of pink tape and tied it on anything she could.




She even tied it on cousin Bobby's legs. She is sticking her hands in the iced cooler and putting them on his legs. She thought it was hilarious.


Avery and DD in the sunset.


We had a great photo shoot together.