Fun With Grandma Day 2!

Today on Grandma's 2nd day here we went to Nina's house to play with Wiley and Braeden. The boys had a great time, as they always do. They spent a good part of the time outside running around having all sorts of fun.

Here are the boys having a Popsicle snack.
A friendly squirt gun fight.
The boys playing UNO in the driveway.
Cole was thrilled to join them outside for a bike ride.

Grandma's 1st Day!

Grandma is in town for the week and we had a great day! Our day consisted of Grandma, Jack and Luke walking to CVS and purchasing some sunglasses and candy. Then they were on to the playground where they played for quite a while. When the boys got home they were hot of course and were ready for the hose, this was when Grandma introduced them to the body paint that Great Granny had sent. It was roll on soap that went on in colors all over their bodies, they would roll it on and Grandma would spray it off with the hose.




Cole obviously didn't learn from his soap incident this past weekend and he tried to eat this as well!

Boating

On Sunday afternoon our friend Bob took us out on his motor boat. The boys thought it was pretty cool and they loved going fast. Here are some pictures from our day, I would have had more/better ones if my camera battery didn't keep dying on me (hopefully a new camera is in my future).

Here are Jack and Luke in the back of the boat with me, all ready to go in their life jackets. Poor Luke was wearing one for an infant since we don't have one his size, oh well it served its purpose for this ride anyways.
Cole got to sit up front on Bryan's lap, he loved that of course.
Here is Cole standing up looking over the front of the boat as we go through a tunnel.
We stopped and the boys took a swim in a shallow part of the lake.
Our swim ended quickly when the dark clouds rolled in and the thunder and lightening started, the temperature dropped and the sky looked a little scary. You can see Jack was getting chilly at this point, but they had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

Surprise Party

On Saturday we went to a surprise 50th for my Aunt Chris (my dad's sister). I think she was definitely surprised. The boys had a great time, Aunt Chris and Uncle Bill have the ideal back yard for kids. We had a lot of fun visiting with everyone and running around outside.


Aunt Chris arriving at the party.
Grammy and Papa held the little ones while we waited for her to arrive so Amy and I could take some pictures.
Jack and Cole taking a ride in the hammock swing.
Luke loved the bubbles. I won't go into any details about what happened to Cole when he drank at least half of that container of bubbles.
The boys had a great time playing with my cousin Billy and his friend, it was so kind of them to entertain them for the afternoon. Cole loved that ball as well even though it was as big as he was.

Forest Park

Today my friend Lynne and I took my 3 kids and her 4 to Forest Park to the zoo (we missed you Mandi and kids!). The kids were great and had a lot of fun, at the end of the day we took a ride on the train. Here are some photos from our day.

The train conductor took this picture of all of us on the train, I'm quite impressed he got us all in the shot.
The kids checking out the first exhibit.

Jack impersonating the monkeys and they were really doing this.
Luke, Jack and Peyton looking at the alligators.
Waiting for the train Luke says "the train is never coming"

More Florida!

I thought I would share some more of our pictures from Florida. Here is one of the sun coming up over the ocean, this was the view from our balcony.

The boys and their cousin McAllister.
Bryan with his Mom, Granny, Bethany and all 4 boys.
Grandma and Grandpa and all of their grandsons.
One morning we saw some commotion on the beach and come to find out some guy had caught a shark. We went down to get a closer look, we knew the sharks were out there but it's a little unnerving to see it up so close.

The shark being released back into the water.

Florida

As most of you know we just spent a week in New Smyrna Beach Florida with Bryan's family. We had so much fun. Here are a lot of pictures, and there are so many more I didn't include!

Jack and Wiley waiting at yet another restaurant.
Luke and Braeden, they really do love each other!
Luke and Grandpa.


Nina and I had matching shirts for the boys for quite a few of the nights we were there. The boys were surprised each night when we would see each other and they all matched again! We also went on an air boat ride to see if we could see some alligators and we did indeed see some, we all really enjoyed that we made up 3 boat loads!

Cole and McAllister. The boys loved getting to spend some time with McAllister, he's getting so big!
Cole jumping some waves. Cole had no fear of the ocean, unfortunately that means you have to watch him extra close since he will just run right in.
Luke on the air boat ride. He is wearing my sunglasses, it was raining a little and he wouldn't look up because the rain was in his eyes. We didn't pay $35 for him to look at the ground the whole time, so I gave up my glasses!

We had a great time and can't wait to do it again!

Brian Graduates Basic Training

My parents just came back from Texas where they saw my brother Brian graduate from basic training for the Air Force. As I mentioned before he has a lot of schooling left ahead of him as he trains in pararescue. We weren't able to go for the graduation but I took these pictures from my Mom to share with everyone. Brian did a great job he graduated with honors and he was 2nd in a class of 665 people, pretty impressive! He has been training himself for this for about a year.


Here is his ABU Uniform

Looking very handsome in his uniform. He earned the 3 ribbons over his left pocket they all stand for something different: Enlisting during war time; graduating with honors and completion of Basic Training.
Brian and his girlfriend Emily.

My parents and Brian.
Brian in front of an A-10.
Showing his locker.

This is where he slept, now he has moved on to a room that is more like a dorm room.
His drawer with his clothes folded just right.
Shoes nice and orderly, I wish I could train my boys to do this!
Brian is the 2nd from the left, you can see just the back of his head.

Lined up in formation. Brian is the 2nd back in the line all the way to the right.
2nd in front row.
We are now able to email and talk to Brian which is nice, he has already called a couple of times which the boys love. Yesterday he started the intense part of his training. He tells us all that he feels pretty well prepared for this but knows it will still be challenging. We are so proud of Bubba and wish him the best. Thanks Mom and Dad for sharing your pictures with us.