Life's A Beach

Our goal is to always try to find a whole sand dollar, we never do, so here were the pieces we found today, neat leaf prints on some of them.

Fishing on the Pier - they charged $6.50 to fish and $1.25 just to walk on the Pier, I thought that was a rip off...

My bathing beauty
My little fish
Famous Pensacola Beach Ball

Our friend the jelly fishOn the pier before we got too hot



We hadn't been to the Pensacola Beach Pier yet, so we took off today and headed down to the beach. TJ fished off the pier for a little bit while we watched, but then it just got too hot standing there and the kids were dying to jump in the ocean. The water was great, but there were some jelly fish, Tyler was scared of them and I asked him if he knew what they do, he said "they sting you." I asked him how he knew that and he said "I heard it on SpongeBob." Yes, I am totally a bad mom and we watch way too much SpongeBob around here, but hey - they are learning from it!

Growing up too fast...

For some reason when I looked at Brena today, it struck me, she doesn't look like a baby anymore, she looks like a little girl. I don't know when it happened, but it did. I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. Tyler will start Kindergarten in just a few weeks and Brena is going to turn 3 in a few weeks. Where does the time go?

New quilt

I really need to be quilting Brena's quilt, but before I changed the foot on my machine, I decided to just whip up some blocks really fast. I still have some blocks to make, but I am half done. I found this adorable fabric at a great quilt shop in CO, I couldn't pass it up. I love the little chickens and eggs, and the chicken wire - too cute! Double click on the picture to see it better. This will be the next quilt after Brena's is done. Brena is none too happy her quilt isn't done yet, she keeps asking me about it, and she says "I want it!" She gets her patience from me :)

Maine

TJ finally got home from Maine, boy did we miss him! It might sound funny for an active duty NAVY wife of 11 years to say, but he hasn't been away from us for NAVY stuff since 2003! I know this is just the beginning of many, many days/nights - heck MONTHS away. He got to fly over Niagara Falls at 4,000 feet - I am still jealous, I have always wanted to go there. The kids and I were ecstatic to see him today. He brought some t-shirts home for the kids and I think they are planning on sleeping in them, they were so happy to get a gift from daddy.

TJ in the plane
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls - showing more falls on the left
Two very happy children :o)

Brenalee's quilt

Between looking for houses and reading "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" by Betty Smith - which I highly recommend - I finally got Brena's quilt top finished! She keeps saying "I love it, I love it!" and I love it too. The darker purple border in the middle looks a lot more purple in person. That part of the quilt, in the picture, looks too dark, but it does look good in person. I wanted the outside border to be the yellow butterfly/dragonfly material that I had, but TJ insisted the teal border looked better and Brena picked the teal over the yellow as well, so I was vetoed on that one. But, I'll put it on the back :) This quilt measures 73x84 - it is my biggest one to date! I am a little afraid to baste and quilt it, but I am going to dive in and hopefully finish it for her 3rd birthday on August 9. I think we finally found "the" house. I think I will let Brena have her own room and give her the extra queen bed so this quilt will fit perfectly on there. When we have company, I'll just kick her out to Tyler's bunk beds. But, maybe they will keep sharing, I don't know yet. They say they don't want their own rooms, they want to keep sharing, so we'll see what all happens.

Jacksonville & 4th of July

Eating popsicles at the pool - yummy!

Robert & Robyn's pool was very refreshing and a great way to get the kids tired for bed!!

Pancake breakfast at the Carr's ward - blueberry pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream!! Robert & Jack Daddy's girl
Brena didn't know any of the kids at church, nor did she have a bike for the parade, but that didn't stop her from strutting her stuff! Tyler was too busy taking a walk around the building to be in the parade. We went to a State Park over there to do a little bit of fishing and swim at the beach, the sand was all of these shells, millions of shells all over, at least there was sand closer to the water, it would have hurt to keep walking on these shells!

TJ caught 3 fish, he said he would have been prouder if they had been bigger :)

Brenalee liked to throw the fish back in the ocean.

The trip to Jacksonville was a success, I think. We were supposed to leave early Wednesday morning to get over there, but at the last minute TJ found out he couldn't leave Wednesday as planned, even though he had signed papers saying he could. There was a change of command that was mandatory for everyone to be at. So that was a little disappointing to have to leave Thursday morning instead, ah the life of the NAVY family! So then we got in Thursday late afternoon and of course got stuck in LOTS of traffic. So we didn't get anything accomplished Thursday. Friday was 4th of July of course and no one was answering any calls on properties we did manage to find. So Saturday we finally did get into see a couple of houses, not what we were looking for. So we left with nothing. But, on the upside, we did find the area we want to be in, and we definitely know our way around the area pretty well, we can look at house locations and see if they are where we are wanting to be. I have found more online now that we have been home and I feel much better, not like we will be homeless - like I was feeling for the first couple of days!! We had a great time catching up with old friends we lived near in San Diego and they were very kind and generous with the use of their home, pool, ward, and friends! Thanks Carrs!!