Beach Trip 2013

At the beginning of June we got to go to Santa Rosa Beach, FL with my family! 

What a blessing!

We stayed in a house with it's own small pool and were only a short walk from the beach. 

The weather was perfect and we had a blast!!!  

Only hiccup was that Jeff had to drive to his hometown for a funeral in the middle of the week:(.  That was unexpected but part of life.  

 Of course, I took a bazillion pictures...

 

My mom rented some bikes for us to use throughout the week! 

As you can see, Anna Mitchell was not too happy about the helmet the first time we put it on her.  After the first time, she did much better and enjoyed her bike rides! 

It was super fun to ride down 30-A and get some good exercise in during vacation.  I'm so glad we had the bikes! 

We went down to the beach some at night which was nice...

Our last night after eating dinner out, we stopped to get ice cream at one of the local spots.  

I got a latte instead:).   

This was probably my first vacation ever where I did not indulge and gain weight! I stuck to my clean eating almost the entire time although I did have a few splurges:).

below is the sweetest.picture.ever.

 she is such a stinker and was so animated when we got ice cream. 

she was also all over the place!

 another pretty sweet picture.  my dad is the best! 

 the whole fam...

We got boiled shrimp one day which is Samuel's favorite!

Erin and Ryan made homemade ice cream which was a huge hit and i definitely had to try a few bites:).

And we truly enjoyed having our own pool!  We got so spoiled!

I loved taking pics of some of the pretty plants and trees.  

This one was fun to play around with and edit. 

 

Love that Erin got this shot of me on her camera...

pretty much sums it up:)

Thanks Mom and Dad for a wonderful vacation!

New Look

So I decided to give the ole blog a little facelift.

I'm hoping that maybe by doing this, it will actually make me blog more.

Like the old days...when I did more than post about our various trips/vacations.

I love my little space here on the web and I truly do appreciate all of you who keep up (maybe not so many of you anymore - ha)!

My goal is to post here more because this has long been a special spot for me to record memories of our family, but also to share how God is at work in our lives.

So, don't give up on me quite yet...although I do have one more vacation to post about. 

Maybe if you left a comment to cheer me on...I would be motivated to keep posting:).  

Summertime

Hello blog readers.  I see a trend forming that I didn't ever think would happen...my blog has definitely taken a back burner to everything else in my life.  I'm not necessarily happy about that, but I just have no motivation to blog lately.  I have lots of updates and thoughts, but just can't seem to form a coherent thought these days!

Anyway, our summer so far has been FABULOUS!  Usually every summer, we pack up the fam and head on a summer missions project with college students or we pack up and go to Colorado for seminary/leadership classes.  However, after 11 years on staff with Cru, we decided it was time for a sabbatical!  And it has been just what we needed.  We have been able to go to the beach, up to Jeff's parents for several days, lots of time with friends, and have just enjoyed being home during the summer for a chance.  Jeff has enjoyed extended time of reading and studying and refreshment which was much needed after a busy year of ministry! My  kids are even sleeping late! Score!!!! I have continued to wake up early before them to workout and spend time reading and praying.  It has just been so wonderful to have a more laid back schedule.  I think having older kids in school really makes me relish breaks from school.  Making lunches, homework, and just the busyness of the school year can really wear you out!

We are also enjoying all the fresh veggies and fruits from the farmers market!  Our two tomato plants have done really well too, and we have eaten our share of tomatoes for sure.  All three big kids can swim so well and are little fish.  If only my busy little munchkin weren't so wild and crazy, we could really enjoy the pool.  One day.

Before the summer, a new addition arrived in the family!  Jeff's sister, Jennifer and her husband Buddy, welcomed little William.  We of course had to go see him and I can't believe he hasn't made his debut on the blog.  He's precious!!!

 

That's all for now! 

 

Goodbye Google Reader!

So clearly I've become a horrible blogger, but if anyone is using Google Reader to keep up with my blog or any other blog for that matter, you need to figure out a new way to keep up!  I'm going to use Bloglovin because it was super easy to import all my blogs from Google Reader and now I'm trying to figure out how to claim my blog on there.  So this is just a reminder for all of you to switch over and it's also a test for me:).  I'll try to get back to my regular blogging soon! 


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Disney World 2013

Yep, that's right...we took the inevitable trip to Disney World this year!  It was actually way back in April, but I am just getting around to blogging about it.  We had a great trip and are so thankful that my parents got to go with us.  We are also very thankful for being able to use a family member's time share so our lodging was free.  What a huge blessing that was!!!! Also, we only took our three big kids and left Anna Mitchell with our sweet friend Melinda who gave up her spring break to take care of Anna Mitchell.  Now, that was a huge blessing!!!!

I have to be honest that I did not do a ton of planning.  It way too overwhelming to me.  My mom did some research and we looked at a library book together and sort of decided which attractions we really wanted to do and try to see.  We also downloaded an app that let us look at wait times for the rides and attractions.  That was a big help! 

Our itinerary was as follows:

Day 1 - drive from Tuscaloosa to Orlando with two middle girls.

Day 2 - do the time share presentation so we could get the free lodging and two tickets to one of the parks.  That afternoon we did Hollywood Studios from about 1pm - 9 pm. That was plenty of time for that park! We did the Fantasmic show that night and I would say that we wish we hadn't of.  There were just so many dark parts to it (the bad guys and witches from all the movies) and our girls were way scared:(

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom!!!! My parents flew down with Samuel this day and met us in park after lunch.  We used that morning to do most of the babyish princess stuff that Samuel wouldn't want to do.

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom (loved this park!!!!)

Day 5 - Magic Kingdom again (so so so glad we did two days in Magic Kingdom).  We took a midday break for this day and I really liked that.  So we did from like 10-1 and 5-10 at the park that day and it was plenty!

These are just a sampling of pics from my big camera which I only took with me to the Magic Kingdom.  I'll do another post with pics from my iphone:). 

One of the most fun things was Enchanted Tales with Belle where you get to act out a little part of her story.  Samuel was the Beast!!! He got to dance with Belle and was highly embarrassed, but I think he was impressed too:). 

Could not contain her excitement to meet Cinderella and the other storybook princesses!

waiting for Dumbo

Merida was so friendly and fun!!!

Samuel thought he was too cool to meet Mickey Mouse, but I think he secretly though it was cool:)

Riding the boat from the parking lot to the park entrance...

rent a stroller...even Samuel rode in it for a bit:)

merry go round

jungle cruise

Electrical parade was fun the last night!

I think most of the ride pics are on my phone camera.  The kids had fun, but honestly I think they would have been just as content to play at the really cool pool where we were staying:).  The girls did love meeting all the princesses and different characters.  I think Samuel enjoyed Animal Kingdom the most and a few of the rides in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom.  They all three really loved the Enchanted Tales With Belle!  

We are glad we got to experience Disney with our big kids before they got too old and cool to appreciate the magic.  I don't know when we go back though...I think we got our fill!  Poor Anna Mitchell may never get to go:).  Ha ha!!! Disney can be a little overwhelming although I feel like we did a pretty good job of keeping it low key and having low expectations.  There were lots of meltdowns but lots of fun and laughter as well!!! 

A Few Family Pics

Just a few family pics we snapped at the beach.  

 Love my sweet husband and my crazy wonderful kiddos!

Thanks to my sister in law, Erin, for taking the family pics and the ones of me and Jeff:)! 

Samuel - 10 years old

Anna Mitchell - 16 months old

Abigail - 4 1/2 years old

Ellie Kate - 6 years old

We will celebrate 12 years of marriage this August! That's craziness!

 

 

 

Still can't believe this is the family God has provided for me!