Batter Up!

Aedan is starting t-ball/baseball soon!  I finally pulled out the cleats that I bought for him at a consignment sale, and he wore them like 3 days in a row!  He wore them everywhere: to Walmart, to church, and playing in the yard.  Ryan bought Aedan a glove so that he could start practicing.  He LOVES it!  (Although, the second day he had it, he lost it.  We eventually found it on our neighbor's back porch!)  So, we are taking the season off from soccer, which is music to Ryan's ears:) haha!  Coaching while working, and taking seminary classes was a little much.  Ryan has been practicing with Aedan.  His first official practice is soon, and the season is over before fall break (I think).  We'll see how it goes:)  Here are some pictures and a video!  Oh, and there's also a picture of Josiah climbing a tree!  That's what he was doing during the practice:)  He loves some tree climbing!

little swimmer girl

While in Florida, Mercy became quite the brave little swimmer.    She was so funny going underwater!  She wants to do everything her big brothers do.  Since going under, I bought her some Hello Kitty goggles.  She loves them:)  Go Girl!

Gatorland

So we picked a day to go to Gatorland, hoping for no storms.  We picked the right day!  It was super hot.  So hot that it felt like the life was being sucked out of you!  We arrived right before 3:00, so we had 2 hours of Gatorland time.  It was plenty of time for us and the kids, although, there are ways to take up more time if needed.  The kids enjoyed seeing all of the alligators and crocodiles.  I am so thankful that we were able to go!  We were able to see 2 shows while we were there, which the kids loved!  Josiah was excited to see the Burmese python, which he had recently seen on a tv show.  I had read mixed reviews about Gatorland.  Some people loved it, and some not so much.  For our family, it was great.  The boys, especially Josiah, love alligators and crocodiles.  I would recommend Gatorland for people who REALLY like alligators.  And, I definitely recommend going at the end of the day to go for 1/2 price!

The kids and I

Ryan with the kids

Those are some big gator teeth!

just chillin'

swimming

another gator

yes, another gator:)

sunbathing

Mercy with the gators

These gators are posing for me!  They look like they are ready for a photo shoot!

Gatorland has other animals, too.

and ugly birds:)

checking out the snakes

an albino gator

another albino

a HUGE alligator

our family

a swamp full of gators

SO, SO HOT!!!!!  Thank you Miss Danielle for the camelbacks!!  We had a thirsty crew!

Gatorland had a small petting zoo.

Yes, there was a place to wash hands.

Mercy saying "good bye" to the animals.

A Burmese Python!

A Croc

Another Croc

And another croc

Oh, No!  Mercy for dinner!

Oh, no!  Aedan for dinner!

a Croc

And, yes.  One more croc!

This is the last show we went to!

Get those chicken legs!

the kids

Me with the kids

Gatorland opened during a special year! :)

the trip of the rainbows

Our trip to Florida this year was "the trip of the rainbows".  We saw soooooo many rainbows during the trip.  The weather was pretty stormy and rainy at times so there were many opportunities for rainbow watching.  We drove all day on Saturday, and saw several rainbows while we were driving through South Carolina.  We think that these were the first real rainbows that our kids had ever seen.  We got to the condo late, around 3:00 am, but only 2:00 am to us:)  The kids went easily to bed after sleeping in the car.  It helped that we already had their pajamas on and stuff.

The next day we went to the beach, of course!  Even though it stormed just about every day, we still had beach time.  There were just a couple times that we had to leave the beach a little early.  Sometimes, there were storms in the distance and it was hard to tell which way they were moving.  The kids loved being at the beach.  The boys, especially Josiah, loved to boogie board.  I boogie boarded with him, and he loved that!  We went to the pool several times on this trip.  Usually, we don't go to the pool, but the kids wanted to practice swimming.  They have done soooooooo well in the pool!  I am so proud of them!  Summer of 2012 is the summer of swim! 

We were on a super tight budget for this trip.  I kept track of all of our money spending.  So we skipped the dinosaur store this time, which the boys were surprising okay with!  We also skipped Grills this time:(  Next time we go to Charleston I will have to go to the Crab Shack for some seafood!:)  We ate most of our meals at the condo.  I even brought our Crock-Pot with us to cook low maintance meals.  We were able to see Bim and Donna while we were there.  We went over there one evening, and Chris and Bim came out to the beach with us one evening.  While we were on the beach with Chris and Bim, we saw a dolphin come completely out of the water several times.  And by out of the water, I mean we saw its whole body except for the tail.  The dolphin was really close to some teenage girls that were out in the water.  It was kind of crazy.  Not sure what the dolphin was doing.  I like to think it was warning the girls of a shark or something (like Flipper would do).  It was close to 8:00 at night, so maybe:)  We went to Gatorland one afternoon.  We went right at 3:00 so we only had to pay half price, another predetermined move to save money.  My Gatorland post is coming up next:)

Not sure when we'll get down to Florida again.  We have an O'Brien reunion next summer, so that will be our beach week.  We are very thankful for our vacation and the time to get away.  Here are the long-awaited pictures that I'm sure everyone is ready to see.  There are lots of them:   

Here's one of the rainbows we saw on the drive down to Florida.

Ryan with the kids!

boogie boarding time

Josiah is the boogie boarding king!

surfs up!

my beach princess

go girl!

Josiah is filling the hole with water.

the kids

Ryan with Mercy Cate

the boys
you can see some of the stormy clouds behind them

Aedan and I

our yearly shot by this little shuttle

one more:)

We went to 7-eleven, and the kids got their first slurpees!  I LOVE slurpees.  I used to get one everyday when I was a senior in high school.  I would eat a slurpee, an apple, and a bagel just about everyday.  I wish Tennessee had slurpees!

at the pool

Ryan throwing Aedan!

more beach!

my girlie!

go Aedan!

Ryan and Mercy

Mercy and I

Mercy

Aedan and Josiah

Josiah

Mercy

Ryan and Mercy

Here's the shot we do with the kids.

And another:)

This picture was inspired by my friend, Jo Ellen.  She has 4 girls and always takes a picture of them similar to this.

My usual spot:)

All 3 kids digging

Sand castle fun

This is at Bim and Donna's house.  The kids had a blast and they LOVE Chris.  He is their cool big cousin!

Aedan doing the pencil.

The boys with Chris.

Chris with Mercy

Aedan got the hang of a snorkel:)

Mercy is asking one of us to go get water in this bucket with her.

Sweet Aedan

begging for company to get water

Sweet kids:)

Mercy and I

Josiah with a shovel.

Building the walls of Jerusalem.

The finished product!

An upclose shot of the walls of Jerusalem, in case you want to see the structure more closely.

With all the storms, the clouds were really pretty.

bird chasing

more bird chasing

and more bird chasing

some crazy clouds!

There is a rainbow behind the kids in this picture.  You can see it better in the next picture.

Love this picture!

Love this one, too!

I think we saw over 10 rainbows the whole time we were there!

so pretty!

Family picture time!  I actually forgot our tripod, so we had to be a little creative:)

Another family shot

The kids:)

the boys

Ryan with the boys

Me with the kids.

Ryan and I

Ryan with the kids

Josiah

Ryan

Last summer Mercy wore her pink hat ALL the time.  Not anymore, no hat for her!

my boogie boarders

Josiah, Mercy, and I

Ryan and I

Josiah, Aedan, and Mercy

go girl!

Mercy wanted to take off the tube part of her floatie.

go girl!

Josiah, the fish!