Cousins and beach day

I really don't care for the beach. The water is so salty, it makes your skin itch. The sand gets EVERYWHERE. If you eat or drink something you are eating sand. I usually get bit by some unknown thing in the water. But, when you have people from Wyoming visit, the beach is a must! And, actually it wasn't too bad. Samuel had never been to the beach in his life - he LOVED it! They all had a great time. And the water was actually nice and cool - so it felt really good on a hot Florida day.

Derek and Tyler thought they were big kids and kept trying to go out way too far.

TJ getting Brena started on the boogie board.

Then she was off and didn't need any help. That child is a rockstar!

Tyler swimming in the ocean.

I know my mom's gonna love this picture! Sorry mom - you're too cute not to put in!

Stud man Tyler.

Oh, there's the rockstar just finishing riding in a wave. She says she wants to be a surfer.

Kayleigh liked the beach - as long as an adult had a hold of her.

All 5 little monsters :)

Cousins come to Jacksonville! MOSH day

After our Pensacola friends left, we had family come visit! My mom, sister and her kids all came for 8 days! We had so much fun. We went downtown to visit the MOSH - the Museum of Science and History. That was super fun with lots of hands on activities for the kids.

Derek, Kayleigh, Brenalee, Tyler and Samuel.

Brenalee and Samuel in the play area getting really wet.

We couldn't help but pick this guys nose!

What a fun day we had!

Friends

In July, we got lucky and had a visit from our good friends from Pensacola. Thanks Kim, Samuel, Nicholas and Julia for coming to visit us! We went to this indoor bouncy place. The kids had a great time. My kids loved it so much we went back the next week when my niece and nephews were in town. So much fun!

July 4th

To celebrate the 4th of July, we had our annual pancake breakfast and bike parade at the church.

TJ kidnapped someones baby :)

Brenalee getting her after parade sucker.

Tyler riding in the parade - I'm such a lame-o mom - I totally forgot to decorate their bikes.

My adorable boy who wanted a mohawk!

My baby girl and me.

I love this Country! Thanks to all who serve and their strong families who support them! :P

Disney Cruise!!!! Day 6

Ok, so these are pictures from the first day of our cruise - right before we boarded. But, I didn't put them on the first day, so I'll just put them on the last day. I don't have any pictures of the last day anyway. We had to be off the boat by 9am to go through Customs. So day 6, nothing really happened. Except Tyler was really mad at us that we made him get off the boat.









This was one of the best vacations ever. We got to see the most amazing Broadway like shows every night. The shows were just unbelievable! I could go on and on about this vacation! Take my word for it - you need to go on one of these. :)

Disney Cruise!!!! Day 5

Day 5 of our cruise we got to go back to Castaway Cay. We rented bikes and rode around the island. That was so much fun! I wish I'd taken my camera! I either forgot it on the ship, or I thought we were just going to be at the beach again and didn't need to take it...

It was another fun day at Castaway Cay!

Disney Cruise!!!! Day 4

Day 4 of our cruise was a day at sea. The kids spent a lot of time in the kids zone while TJ and I relaxed. The kid zone put on a little show in the theatre that we attended. Brena rocked the show :) Tyler wouldn't even be in the show. Here's Brena walking up to the stage:

Doing their performance.

Can you see Brena in the front row - tallest little girl there?

That night we ate at the Animators Palate for dinner. We rotated to a different restaurant every night. Our servers stayed the same - so we had the same servers every night wherever we went. We didn't pick the restaurant, it was already set up for us. There was of course a different dinner menu every night. TJ enjoyed eating lots of seafood (most of you know I despise seafood). This night was a dress up night, we didn't really dress up. Mostly because I just didn't think about packing a fancy dress.

The kids loved getting their desserts at the end of the meal - Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream with sprinkles...mmmmm

This restaurant was fun because it started out in black and white - even our servers wore black and white. Then there was a big show in the middle of dinner and color came all over the walls and our servers all came out together in colored vests. It was fun.

That night there was a pirate party! Again, we were supposed to dress as pirates, but I didn't think to pack anything like that. I'm such a party pooper! Not really, I'm just don't plan very well.

There was a big show, lots of pirates and dancing and Disney characters all over.

Mickey Mouse was gliding over our heads to get to the pirates!

We also had fireworks that night! Disney said they are the only cruise line allowed to do fireworks at sea? It was fun!

Of course the kids loved seeing the fireworks.

What a fun day at sea we had! If you've been on a cruise you know that every night you get a towel shape in your room. This was my favorite, the monkey. We also got Disney wrapped chocolates every night with our towel friend.

Disney Cruise!!!! Day 3

Day 3 of our cruise we pulled into Nassau. TJ and I left the kids on the boat and we went exploring. We looked in lots of little shops. Then we took a taxi over to the Atlantis to check it out. It is huge! We looked over there for a little bit, then decided to head back to the boat and spend some quality time at the adult only pool! There are 3 pools on top the ship. The two kids pools, then the adult only pool with 2 hot tubs. They had the best lounge chairs with awesome full length pillow tops - ahhhhh - I could have spent every day up there!

Inside the Atlantis. I realize looking at these pictures of myself that I look like an old Floridian lady that is too tan and has too blond of hair!

That night the princesses were out! Brena loved every minute of having her pictures taken with them.

Cinderella was fun, she wanted to twirl with Brena.

While we were waiting in line, Brena heard Snow White talking to another little girl and Brena said "mom, it sounds like Snow White!" I said yes, she talks like Snow White. Well, the line attendant corrected me immediately and said "what do you mean she talks like Snow White - she is Snow White." So sorry!

Brena's very favorite princesses right now are Tiana and Jasmine. I couldn't help but think that those are two very independent princesses - no waiting for a prince to rescue them...just like Brena - very independent!