Catch-up

Okay, so I know its a little warm outside to be posting about snowy stuff, but I feel like I haven't had a chance to post about much of anything since Tucker was born. Thankfully Darren has posted some pics and videos in the meantime. Anyway, I'm going to do a quick catchup of all the stuff I missed.

As I was looking at these pics with the boys, they said, "I want it to snow again!!" It's weird how in the middle of the winter all we want is to be able to go outside in shorts and t-shirts and in the summer when we're dying of heat, all we want to do is roll around in the snow. All I can say is that I really do love living in a place where we have 4 seasons. I actually am looking forward to some crisp cool fall weather soon.

This Christmas for the first time, we had the boys pick out gifts at the dollar store for each other. They had so much fun picking them out and wrapping them. This is Quincy giving Stratt the biggest hug ever after he opened the package of erasers that Stratt picked out for him. It was so cute! Fun that they still get so much joy out of the littlest things.

While we were opening presents, the snow started to fall down outside. It was a beautiful white Christmas morning.

This winter we had Quincy's first "friend" party for his 7th birthday. We made good use of all our snow and had a sledding party. :)

I made my first pinata. Thankfully it was snow themed, so that made it easy!

Then the kids all made a mini snow globe out of baby food jars.

The night before we went on vacation, we had a Scout Klondike Campout in our basement (Darren is the Scoutmaster at church). The weather was below zero, so they built the sled and camped in our basement and went sledding at our house instead. Of course my boys loved having the scouts around!

Florida

This winter we took a family vacation to Florida. Of course we went there at the coldest it had been there in like 40 years! But it was still super fun. In the 70's my grandparents bought a condo on Fort Myers Beach on the Gulf of Mexico and went there to escape the winter months of Canada. I was able to visit there with my family a couple times growing up, but since they have passed away, they have gifted each of their children a couple of weeks of time there. So my mom and dad were nice enough to share their time with us and let the grandkids have their first Florida experience. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Because the first few days were the coldest, we knew we wouldn't be spending much time on the beach in our swimsuits. So after church we decided to head over to the Atlantic Ocean. That was fun until Stratt fell into the water fully clothed and almost froze to death!

Then we drove up the coast to Orlando that night for Disneyland Monday morning. Here we are in our cheap little hotel, but the boys all were so exhausted and slept great. :)

The boys had never been to Disneyland before, so they had no idea what to expect. Of course they loved it!

All Stratt wanted to do was see Mickey Mouse. I didn't even know he knew who Mickey Mouse was. We were eating lunch and I saw the parade passing by and raced Stratty out to see Mickey Mouse so we wouldn't have to go over to his house. Stratt waved and waved, so excited. I said, "Yay Stratt, you got to see Mickey Mouse." He looked at me with a sad face and said, "I didn't get to give him a hug." Long story short, we still had to wait in line forever at Mickey's house to meet him and give him a hug, but it was priceless. I still don't know how he knows who Mickey Mouse is! :)

I have to agree that Disneyland is definitely one of the happiest places on earth . . . even when it's cold outside. :)

Ft. Myers Beach, FL

One of our favorite things was watching the Florida sunsets every night . . . breathtaking.

Playing shuffleboard at the condo with Grandpa.

Getting up early in the morning to go shelling on the sandbar.

Stratt wasn't nearly as impressed with shelling. In fact, he was freezing, so Grandpa rescued him and carried him across the water back to the hot tub.

Stratt happy in the hot tub with Grandpa Roger.

Waking up in the condo for breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa.

One of the days Darren just decided that he wanted to rent a Pontoon for a few hours. I wasn't crazy about the idea, but Darren being the stubborn man that he is, insisted. I am SO glad he did!!! It ended up being one of the coolest things we did. We saw so many dolphins and we just followed them around and watched them swim, it was amazing. I have never seen so many dolphins!

Captain of the pontoon :)

Stratty watching the dolphins.

This mama and baby dolphin came right up to the boat.

Darren doing some kayaking with the boys.

My mom and dad decided to join in the kayaking fun!

Quincy enjoying the sunset from above.

My cute parents.

On the beach watching the sunset.

Every night when it got dark, Darren and I would jump in the ocean, and then jump in this pool right on the beach, and then jump in the pool by the room, and then jump in the hot tub. It was so fun. We would start out freezing to death in the ocean and then finally get warm. It was so fun to have Grandparents around to help out with kids! Thanks Mom and Dad!

We woke up early to get to the airport and to enjoy one final sunrise . . . we were so sad to leave. Thanks mom and dad for such a fun and memorable trip!