Anna Maria Island

As I said in the previous post, we spent a week with my family at Anna Maria Island. We've done it for a couple of years now, and I truly enjoy it and look forward to it all year long. Even though all our family lives close by, there's nothing that can bond you like living together for 7 WHOLE days!! Ha! Anyway, we had such a great time and made lots of amazing memories. I'm SO glad that my kids get to make memories with their grandparents and ALL their cousins - I think it is so special and I hope they remember it all their life and stay close to each other.
Here are some more beach pics:

J.D. shooting "Nina" with the water guns that SHE bought them:

















The guys playing their new favorite game:

















All the kiddos trying to catch a fish:
















And J.D. finally caught one - with a little help from Daddy:

















Attempting to cover Kassidy with sand - that didn't last too long:

















What do you do when it's raining outside?? Why, fill the bath tub up with water and play with your motorized speed boats, of course! (I didn't get a picture of it, but the highlight was when Colton reached to get his boat just a little too far and went head first into the tub - we all about died laughing - and THEN we helped him out! )


















On a completely different side note, Debbie and I are in full throttle planning Ashley's bridal shower, which is a red, white and black polka dot theme. When I lay down to sleep I see polka dots. So I just had to make my blog background coordinate with my life. Ha!

BEACH TRIPS

Over the last few years our family has turned into "nomads" during the summer. I think because we rarely take trips or go anywhere during the year due to school, once the summer hits, we just pack up and GO!! This year we spent one week in Marco Island with the Ammirati family, one week in Anna Maria island with the Gordon family, a few days in Orlando with friends, went back to Orlando for a few more days just us, then lastly to Miami to visit family. Whew!! I'm exhausted just writing that all down. I think I spent a solid week catching up on laundry when we got back. We had a blast on ALL the trips and now I'm glad to be getting back into some sort of routine.

Here are some beach pics:

JUST A FEW FUN SUMMER PICS

CATCHING UP

Well as I said in the previous post, I've been having trouble getting on here to journal. So now it'll probably take me months to get all caught up, but I'm determined not to miss a thing, so here we go!!

I last posted on J.D.'s birthday and wanted to jot down about his party. He has had pretty big parties for the last couple of years, so we decided that this year would be low key.

*On a side note - I'm kind of torn with the whole "birthday party thing". My logic brain tells me that they don't need a big over-the-top party every year (since they probably won't remember it anyway). But then there's the side of me that says its only once a year and I want EVERY birthday to be special. I think that was something that my mom was really great at growing up - she didn't just pay attention to the "special ones" (1,5,10, etc) - she made every year feel like it was the most important and went "ALL OUT"!! She was great at making wonderful memories for us and I hope I can do that with my kids as well.

I'll let you know if I can find a happy balance! Ha!

Anyhoo...so since it was "low key", I decided to take his "best buds" up to the playground at church and then go get pizza. He insisted on having a "Gordon the Express Engine Birthday Party", which of course doesn't exist, so we found some Thomas paraphernalia and pretended it was Gordon (for those of you without boys, they look almost the exact same). So, it was a great, but HOT day and I think he really enjoyed himself. He's already asking about when's his next party???





















































We also did a family party at Debbie's to celebrate J.D. & Joscelyn's birthdays together.
Lots of good memories, prayerfully there will be many more.

I'M BAAAACK!!

So, I have not blogged in FOREVER because something has been wrong with my computer and hasn't allowed me to sign in. Then today, miraculously, I'm signed in - YAY!!! Don't know what changed and don't care.
I would love to sit and blog about the summer and catch up, but J.D. is calling me to come play "trains" with him - how can I resist.
So, I'm alive and I will try to catch up really soon :)