Florida Trip (Part One)

Oh, man... we had such a nice time in Florida!  It gets more expensive every year for us to go there (plane tickets), but it is always totally worth the money.  The boys always have such a great time and Phil and I love being around family and civilization!  We've had a pretty awful spring here at home and it was great to get a break from the weather and let the boys play outside and enjoy some warmth for a change!  And I love giving them as many opportunities as we can to interact with and get to know their cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents and great-grandparents.  I really want them to have close relationships and really love each other even though we live so far away.   That's so important to me.

Our flights there and back were pretty uneventful... we've had great luck (knock on wood) these last three trips with driving to another larger town near us and flying on Delta from there to Salt Lake and then Salt Lake to Orlando.  The boys sure kept us on our toes, though... on the way down Jackson and Emmett didn't sleep a wink the whole way there, but Reid slept a lot.  Then on the trip home Reid hardly slept at all and J and E both slept some.  Go figure!  Here are some pictures from our trip:

Here's my niece, Olivia, who is absolutely adorable and 6 months old and Reid (who is also adorable, of course!)...

 

One of my best friends from high school (Kristen) lives in Tallahassee, which is about three hours from where my parents live.  She drove down with her three boys (who are each just a little bit older than my three) just to spend some time with us!  Her parents live in the same town as mine, so she was able to see them, too.  It was wonderful to get to spend time with her (and her boys)!  We are very similar and have so much in common and wish so much that we lived closer to each other.  At least we can see each other every so often when we come to visit.  When the boys get a little older we hope to be able to drive up to Tallahassee and stay with Kristen and her family for a little bit and maybe take the boys to an FSU football game.   Here we are at a park with our babies (Kristen's son is almost 6 months old)...

Here's Phil pushing Jackson and Kristen's oldest son on the swings...

And here's Emmett swinging with Kristen's middle son...

I think it is so neat that we each have three boys!!  I hope that maybe we can get together every year as they grow up and that they will come to be good buddies.  K and I also got to go out for dinner and drinks together one evening.  We had such a good time chatting that it was almost midnight before we knew it!  We probably could have stayed another three hours!  Thanks so much for coming to visit us, Kristen, and for being such a wonderful friend!

We did lots of hanging out by the pool and swimming at my parents' house.  Reid and I did the hanging out... Phil, J, and E did the swimming.  :)
 

"Please don't take my picture, Mom!"

The boys did really great swimming by themselves with those floaties on....

We also got to meet my sister's baby horse, Maggie.  She's very cute and super friendly!  The boys were able to pet her lots.

Momma Charlotte and her baby...

Emmett and Jackson slept in the room with Phil and I at my sister's house and E woke up every morning at 6:00 A.M.  Because of this, he took a little nap in the car several mornings when we ventured out.  If his hands went up behind his head like this, we knew he would soon be asleep!

No pacifier judgement, please!!  I know it's getting to be time to be rid of it... I'll do it soon enough!  We were pretty lenient with it on this trip.  The mom who sat next to me on the flight from Salt Lake to Orlando equated taking the pacifier away from a toddler to taking an evening glass of wine away from a mommy.  That made me think a little differently about it!  HA!

We took the boys to Sea World one Sunday.  My sister and her family and my mom also came along.  My brother-in-law has a 15 passenger van that he rents out and we piled 5 babies/toddlers in car seats and 5 adults in there and all drove down together.  It was fun!  The boys really liked seeing all of the animals, but it was a pretty hot day for Phil and I and we realized what a completely crazy time we would have had if my mom hadn't been there to help us!  We almost went to Disney instead of Sea World, but after this day we were so glad that we decided to wait another year.  Here we are at the Shamu show (Jackson was actually much happier than he looks!)...

And here's E having a ball at the water play area inside Sea World.  He and my nephew Cameron absolutely loved it, but Jackson didn't get near the water.  He didn't even want to get his swimsuit on!  And it was really hot!  He's still our timid little guy.

We went to Barnes and Noble a few times and played with the trains there.  Phil is considering building a permanent train track setup on our train table at home because the boys enjoyed this one so much.  It seems like whenever we build an elaborate track at home Emmett knocks it down within 5 minutes!

I just have to pause here and say how nice it was to throw shorts, t-shirts, and sandals on the boys every day instead of bundling up in shirts, jeans, socks, sweatshirts/coats, and sneakers/boots anytime we want to go somewhere.  Can't wait for summer here!

Here are the sweet cousins snuggling and watching "Max and Ruby" on the portable DVD player.  They all got along so well!

And the boys sporting their new sunglasses that I got in the dollar bin at Target.  My sis lives less than 5 minutes from Target and I loved it!!

We were comparing Olivia's and Reid's feet and found that they are almost exactly the same size, even though Reid is 3 months younger.  Olivia has these huge chubby calves and tiny little feet.  It's so cute!

Phil and I got to go on our first date since Reid was born.  We went to Bonefish Grill, which is one of our favorite chain restaurants.  And can I just say... doesn't my hubs look great???  He has been watching what he eats and working out more and has lost almost 20 pounds!  Hottie!  Too bad his wife is still a chunker.  HA!  But I'm working on it!

The very best part of the evening was that we got to double-date with my sister Becky and her boyfriend Ryan!!  I had been looking so forward to meeting him and we had a wonderful time.  He is such a cute, friendly, fun guy!  Just perfect for Beck.

And here are some pictures from Mother's Day... I actually was able to get a few nice pictures of me with my boys!  Such a nice M's Day treat!!  I couldn't decide which one of these I liked best, so I posted both.  These precious babies are such wonderful blessings to me!  I am so proud and so thankful to be their Mommy!

We spent Mother's Day at my parents' house swimming and playing and eating yummy fried fish.  The boys were totally zonked on the way home to my sister's house, but then perked up again when they all got in the bathtub together.  What cuties!!

I have a whole other post in the works for the day that we went to the beach.  The boys absolutely loved it and I took a ton of pictures.  Before I close I just want to share the extra-special gift my sisters got me for Mother's Day and Reid's birthday.  They had our blog made into a book!!!!!  I didn't even know you could do that and it was such a wonderful surprise!  Phil and I had been thinking for a while about the best way to back up the blog in case something happened and it all went away, but we had never gotten around to doing anything about it.  I am so happy to now have a hard copy of it and to know that I can keep having that done every year.  It actually took two books to hold all of our blog!  Thank you SOOO much, Beck and Les!  What an amazing, wonderful gift!!

 

The boys love looking at it, too.  I hope they always do!