Lately

Look who was playing so nicely together the other morning when they woke up!  This was much nicer to experience than a ransacked room or hearing screams and random thuds before I come get them.  

Our good friend, Bandit, who we've known since the early 2000s in Alaska, is in town for training in the F-22 and we've enjoyed spending some time with him while he's here.  Here we are at Shell Island one (cloudy) day...

It started raining right after that picture, so we booked it over to the AF base marina, and the rain HURT!!! The boys were loving it up front, though, but Bandit had to put on his mask to be able to look forward.  Lol.

One of Bandit's hobbies is spearfishing, so we went over to the rocks by the marina to see if he could spear a fish.  The boys were excited to watch.

Pretending to shoot with spears... Lol.

He got one!  A small snapper that was delicious!  He gave it to us and we ate it that night.

The boys also loved watching him fillet the fish...

Me and Bubba on the way home...

Bernie sulking because he can't go outside and chase the boys and I yelled at him for dripping his "the-boys-are-outside-and-I'm-so-excited-I-can't-stand-it" drool all over the house .  He laid his head down on this towel to try to dry off his mouth.  Lol.  Not really but it looked like it.

Here are my boys and LB's boys right before we entered the water park here in town.  We got season passes so we've gone pretty often this summer just for a few hours before it closes.  The sun isn't so intense then and the lines are a little shorter.  Oh, and LB is pregnant with her fourth baby and it's a.... yep, you guessed it... a girl.  It would have been cool to haul 8 boys around town with us, but 7 boys and 1 girl will still be good.  I'm sure she'll be a tough little thing with all these boys to keep up with!  :)

Nana and Papa Swoop came to visit!  We took them out on the boat and had a great time!

Daddy relaxing...

Reid has been such a good helper lately.  He always wants to help Phil wash the boat when we come back, and Phil says he actually does help and does a good job!  Here it was raining outside and he put his helmet on to keep the rain out of his eyes while he helped with the boat.

The day after that Phil went TDY to Savannah so I drove the kiddos down to my parents' for the weekend.  They had been asking to go there forever!  I didn't take any pictures the whole weekend (it mostly consisted of me reading a great book on the couch and the boys swimming every second, (while Bernie chased them around the pool), with a little bit of driving the tractor thrown in).  :)  I did capture this one of Emmett looking like a shepherd while he slept on the way home...

Nana and Papa Swoop came back to our house right after we got home, and they treated us to dinner at our favorite little beach dive restaurant, Patches.

Juuuust watching some TV on the couch in my undies... Such a big boy now.

I took the boys to a natural spring the other day with some friends and we had a great time.  The boys had never seen or felt a spring before so they were super impressed with how cold the water was!  This particular spring had access to the Econfina Creek (which is also freezing) and we were able to float down a little ways on tubes and then get out, walk up a little path, and do it all over again.  The boys didn't really play in the "pool" part of the spring that much, but they were obsessed with the tubing.  AND there was the coolest rope swing that you could only get to by floating over on your tube, and R, J, and E must have done that swing at least 50 times each.  Emmett said once as he was climbing up the hill to swing off again, "It's just so much fun that I can't stop!!"  :)  I do not like swimming in cold water, so I wasn't looking forward to getting into that creek, but I sucked it up and did it for my boys.  Although the SECOND my friend and I got on our tubes and started floating down the creek (I may have screamed a little when my buns and stomach touched that water) the skies opened up and it POURED on us the whole way down the creek!  We were laughing so hard!  As if it wasn't cold enough!  Lol! I texted this pic to Phil right after that... you can't really tell, but I am soaked here.  :)

Some pics of the pool area of the spring.... I didn't get any of the rope swing because I never had my phone with me while we were floating on the tubes.  I need to get a waterproof case or something.

The darker blue area on the left of this picture is where the spring water actually comes out of a hole in the ground.  Apparently it was much colder right there and you can dive down and see the water coming out of the hole.  I just took everyone's word for it.  :)

Davis missed his nap for this trip and he passed out as soon as we got into the car... He had so much fun!

Bernie is so weird about food... He doesn't eat really well so I've been bringing his food out near us and that seems to help.  A few nights ago he was eating half on the couch like this... Weirdo!

More spearfishing with Bandit!   This time near the big bridge...

I forgot to bring a cup so I made due... There was only about a glass left in the bottle anyway.  :)

Hoping for a fish!  Bandit actually speared three that night.

We went to Shell Island the next day.  It was a beautiful day, but so hot.  And the water is about 90 degrees so it's not very refreshing.  We swam out to the drop-off area to float at one point, hoping it would be a little cooler, but not so much.  But it felt good to get wet and then ride around in the boat for a bit.  We sure do love that boat!

Baptism

One of the most special things that has happened lately is that Jackson and I got baptized.  I have really been feeling God working in my life and drawing me closer these past few years and I just really felt led to be baptized (again).  I was baptized as a baby, but I wanted to make this public statement of my faith and since Jackson expressed an interest in it, too, I was excited for us to do it together.  Our church hosts "Surf N Grill" events one Sunday a month during the summer months and that's when they do baptisms, so we chose the one in June since my parents were going to be here and we wanted them to be able to be there with us.  It was a beautiful day, but the water was actually pretty COLD that day!  I was shocked because I expected it to be warm, but I just chalked it up to God really wanting to get my full attention during my baptism.  :)  Jackson and Emmett both asked Jesus into their hearts and accepted Him as their Lord and Savior back in 2014, but Emmett wanted to wait a little longer to be baptized so I didn't push it.

This is the most unique church we have ever attended.  It's super laid-back and casual and is known as the "surfer church" in town (its real name is Eastgate Christian Fellowship).  There are surfboards and palm trees on the walls and everyone is usually dressed very casually... some people actually walk around barefoot.  Lol.  But I have never been to a church where I have truly felt the Holy Spirit like I do here.  I am really moved every single Sunday and our pastor is the best speaker Phil and I have ever heard.  So I was very glad to be baptized by him at this church.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the day... My mom tried to take a few while we were out in the water, but the waves were roughing her up a bit so she didn't get too many.  So I was super excited when they played the video at the end of this post at church on the day of the July Surf N Grill... What a wonderful keepsake to remember this special day! (Even though we don't really need a video to remember it, but you know what I mean... it's nice to have it and be able to watch it again!)  :)
P.S.  I didn't even realize anyone was filming this!  At one point he/she was right in front of me in the video, but I just didn't even notice.  Too caught up in the moment, I guess (or thinking of how cold the water was at first... Lol).

We all meet up at St. Andrews State Park for the Surf N Grills and the water is always so beautiful.  After each person came up out of the water a woman blew a conch shell really loudly and everyone cheered... It was so neat!

Our family walked out onto the nearby pier afterwards to see if we could see any wildlife from up above.  Nothing much, but we enjoyed the water views and sunshine.  Such a special day!  I loved sharing it with my biggest boy!  :)

Surf N Grill June 2016 from Gilmore Pictures on Vimeo.

Life Lately

Our neighbor, Patrick, texted both me and Phil the other night around 6:30 and asked if Phil was home with his truck because he was out fishing and they needed to "weigh in before 7:00."  Well, dummy me thought they meant weigh the trailer at first so I said that no, he wasn't home.  So then Patrick texted back and asked if I could meet him and his son across the street at the fuel dock and pick them up and drive them to the tackle shop down the street to weigh in and it was then I realized they meant weigh a fish.  Duh!  So I loaded up the boys and we drove over to get them.  Whew!  They were super stinky from fishing all day, but they had caught a big grouper and some beautiful snapper!

This is Patrick's son who actually caught the fish and the grouper ended up weighing 18.5 pounds and won the contest!  Patrick brought us some of that delicious snapper and grouper the next day for helping them out.  :)

The boys loved seeing those "big" fish.

I tell you what, this is just about the best dog ever.  I don't know that I will ever own another dog other than a doodle.  The non-shedding and the sweetness is just too wonderful.  He absolutely loves his boys.  Especially J.

Driving home from Target one day...

And then trying out the new slip-n-slide we bought.  It actually worked so great for just $9!  They literally played for hours!

I discovered that Reid had written this all by himself when I got him up the other morning...

My good friend, Kristen, and her family came to visit us from Tallahassee last weekend for the day.  We took everyone out on the boat and had such a fun day of playing in and on the water!  It was great to see Kristen and have our kiddos hang out together.  We ended the day relaxing in the pool (mainly to rinse everyone off without us having to bathe everyone.. Lol) and eating dinner together.  I didn't get hardly any pictures because we were pretty much in the water the whole time, but on the way home we saw some dolphins and this one was hanging out by this boat just begging for some fish!  I had never seen one out of the water and so close to a boat like that!  It was so cool!

8 kiddos (!!! That sounds like so many!) and 4 adults on the boat was a little of a tight squeeze, but we were pretty comfortable.  The boat has a lot of storage which makes for more room for everyone.

Then the next night the lagoon across the street had a fireworks show the day before the 4th, so we went over to our friends' dock to watch the show.  It was AMAZING!!  The fireworks were pretty much right overhead... I had never been so close before and I seriously got a little adrenaline rush a few times because they were SO huge and SO close!  It was awesome.  I couldn't even crane my head back far enough to get a good pic of this one...

The next day on the actual 4th of July we went out with LB and her family on their boat to watch the town's fireworks.  LB and I were twins without even planning it!

We used the timer on the camera to take a family pic before we left... I love it! :)

My parents were here this weekend (didn't get many pics of them.... sorry, Mom and Dad!), and the last evening they were here we took the boat out after dinner for a little sunset cruise.  The water was very calm (God set that up just for my mom, I'm sure) and we went out to the jetties to let the boys play on the sand dunes while we floated in the warm water and watched the boats go back and forth to and from the Gulf.  It was so pleasant and relaxing!

We ventured out into the gulf for a little bit right before sunset to see if we could see any dolphins, but none were around that we saw.

Last Friday Phil had to do water survival training and the squadron made it a family day on the bay.  We took the boat out and were able to see Phil get pulled out of the water by a helicopter.   Although the boys' favorite part of the whole day was probably the soda.  Lol.

Playing in "the drop-off" area... At one point a barracuda swam right by us.  At least that's what we thought it was.... It was a big, skinny fish with a long, pointy snout.  Luckily it just ignored us.

Around 1:00 Davis said, "I want to sleep like dis" and laid his head down on the seat.  So I got him all comfy and he slept for about 30 minutes.

A few weeks ago Emmett showed me that his front two teeth were loose.  Then I kind of forgot.  Last Saturday he and Jackson were up in their room messing around and at one point E came down the stairs and said, "Mom! Look!  Two little teeth!"  And there they were sitting right in his hand.  I kind of freaked out (on the inside) a little until I remembered they had been loose baby teeth.  I think he was a little shocked, too.  Apparently while they were goofing off E had had a blanket in his mouth and J ripped the blanket out and also ripped out E's two front teeth.   That's one way to do it!  He looks adorable with those missing front teeth.  :)

Davis and LB's son are in deep conversation here.  It was so cute.  They are just about the same age.

Daddy took everyone to DQ one night while I was at a baby shower.

Reid and Davis are starting to play together nicely for longer amounts of time.  It's really great.  Here Reid was giving D rides up and down the street in the wagon.