Boat Day with Friends

Nothing better than a boat day!!  Phil is still searching for the perfect boat at the perfect price, so until then we have to wait until someone invites us, or rent a boat ourselves.  So we were so thankful when our friends invited us out last Sunday!  Look at all these boys... our boys are almost the same exact ages and they all get along great.  It was such a fun day.

This is LB (Laura Beth) and Caleb... They own the pontoon rental place across the street from us.  I met LB last year through our homeschool group and discovered that we rent pontoons from them, AND they live really close to us AND our boys are close in age, so we have become really good friends.  I am so thankful for her friendship.  And we've started to hang out as couples lately, too, and Phil and Caleb get along well, so that's extra great!  

Our babies...

 We have a lot of fun together... Lots of laughing.  :)

It was like we special-ordered up some nature that day.  We saw so many neat things! First up was a bunch of dolphins everywhere!

That was in the bay... Then we ventured out into the gulf for a little bit.  We could not get over how beautiful the water was.

Boys heading up to the upper deck to check out the wildlife...

The dolphins were so close!

Lots of them!!

Then some people in a boat near us started yelling at us and pointing to the water and we finally figured out that they were yelling, "Manatee!!"  We couldn't believe it! How cool is that?!?

She/He went right under our boat!!  We were SO excited!  I took like 8,000 pictures.  Lol.

Then it was time for sliding... We took out the double-decker boat with two slides off of the upper deck and you can imagine how amazing that was for the boys.  The gulf was pretty cold, but that didn't stop them.

Even D didn't waste any time sliding down.  I mean, can you even believe that water???

Someone took a nice little snooze while we were riding along...

The boys were finding tons of live sand dollars on the bottom of the bay, and they found a few of these sea urchins, too.  J brought one up from the bottom and LB was showing them the little mouth in the middle of the urchin.  It was kinda creepy looking!

Phil really hates selfies.  Lol.

On our way home Caleb drove slowly in the shallows looking for stone crab holes.  When he spotted one he stopped the boat, jumped in, and dove under the water and stuck his hand in the hole to get the crab out so the boys could see.  He did it three times and everyone loved it, until he dropped the crab onto the floor of the boat once and the crab scuttled around and everyone screamed (including me!).  Lol.  It was funny.  

Emmett's hair was so crazy after all of that salt water and wind!  We had such an awesome day!  So thankful for our friends!  :)

Mother's Day and Beyond

I had a wonderful Mother's Day thanks to my sweet hubs and big boys.  That morning they let me sleep in, brought me a Starbucks and muffins from the bakery up the street, and wrote me some sweet letters.  Phil said he just told the boys to get some paper and write a note to Mom.   I thought they did pretty good for having no help.  Writing is definitely not their favorite thing.  :)  

Then we went to church and got a nice picture afterwards.  I love these boys so very much.  

And I love being a mommy to this furry baby, too, even though he drives me crazy sometimes!  He doesn't shed, but boy does he ever drip water from his mouth all. over. the. place! Ugh!  But he's so sweet to the boys and loving in general that it's hard to stay mad at him.  Kinda.  Lol.

Then after dinner we rode bikes down to the beach.  This has become one of our favorite things to do lately.  Davis was so cute sitting there with his hands crossed and his sunnies and helmet on. He rides on the back of my bike and everyone else rides their own bike. 

I also love Phil so very much.  I am so, so thankful to him for allowing me the opportunity to stay at home with my boys and teach them.  It is such a blessing and I try not to ever take it for granted.  Not to say that I don't ever get frustrated and have times when I wish I had some time to myself, or wish I could have a break, but I am truly so thankful to Phil.  Because of his continual hard work for our family I am able to fulfill my "dream" of staying home and being a mom and teacher to my children every day.  That's it... that's my lifelong dream.  I'm living it!  :)  And Phil makes me a better mom with his constant help, support, and love for me and the boys.  He is the BEST! 

  

Lol... Reid was being super goofy during these pictures and apparently making an inadvertent gesture to the camera. :)

I am also so thankful for my own Mom... She has always been the most loving, supportive mother and we have such a wonderful relationship.  She is always there with the best advice or just a listening ear and a prayer whenever I need her.  And she is an awesome grandma to my boys, which is such a blessing!  I love you, Mom!!  :)

A few days after Mother's Day I decided to FINALLY potty train Davis.  He was a quick learner   (probably because he's so old!  Lol!) and I think I can safely say now that he is fully potty trained after just a few days and I cannot BELIEVE I waited this long to not have to change poopy diapers anymore (or EVER AGAIN for that matter!  AAGGHH!).  It is really awesome.  Lol.  He looked so grown up in his little Minion undies.  :)

Bernie loves to snuggle with the boys whenever they're in their room...

This past weekend we hosted breakfast club at our house instead of going to a restaurant and it was so much fun!  Phil made breakfast burritos and bacon and I made a french toast casserole (and the mimosas and coffee were flowing).  It was a great time.

Right after breakfast club the big boys and I left for a swim meet.  I was so proud of them because they both improved their times in each event by several seconds!  And this was the first meet where they competed with all four strokes... It took until now to get their butterfly good enough to compete, but they did so great!  J even won his butterfly heat!  And Emmett won his breaststroke heat.  They really did a great job.

The littles stayed at home with Daddy.  Swim meets are kind of boring in between events, especially for little boys who are very active but not competing.  :)

That night Phi and I went out on a date to meet up with a friend and a few other couples for her birthday.   We went to Pineapple Willy's, which we had never been to before, and it was an experience... I can tell you that!  It was super crowded because it was a Saturday and there was a Prince tribute band concert, so there was LOTS of good people watching.  Phil and I were just having the best time making little jokes and laughing together (while we were waiting for my friend to get there) so I had to take a selfie to document it.  :)

Then the next day our good friends invited us out on their double-decker pontoon!  I can't even remember the last time we've had such a fun weekend!!  I have to save the boat day for another post because it was amazing and I took a ton of pictures.  But anyway, Mother's Day and the weekend after were wonderful! I hope all of you mothers who may be reading this had a wonderful day and weekend, too!