Fun In the Florida Sun 2

  If you are just tuning in, I am back from my mini blog break, and sharing our family vacation with you all! It was such a special time, more fun than ever, maybe because we were all being very …

Fun in the Florida Sun 1

  Summer is in full swing, have you all had a good one so far? Thanks for letting me catch my breath in June, it was so busy, I can’t fathom having done it any other way.   We had …

Florida Family 2013

  We love when our Florida family comes to visit!  My brother Chad, Sis in law, Lauren & my nephews, Brayden & Colby came to visit for almost a week.  They have changed SO much since last time, when they were itty bitty crawling babies!!!!!!!!!

  We had so much fun with them, it’s always that much harder to say good-bye though. Wish we could convince them to move to the Mid-west already!  🙂

  Anyhow, here are the photos from their visit.

Due to lack of space at my house, Chad & Lauren moved into mom’s side of the duplex.  She moved over to Grandma’s side.  God is so good to have worked out my mom and Grandmas “neighbor” status. He knew they needed each other close by!

We hung at Mom’s some nights, but were over here at our house most of the time. 

  Mom and Great Grandma were brave and kept all 6 kids between the duplex sides OVER NIGHT, so we could have a date night with Chad & Lauren!  HOW AWESOME!

  It’s State Fair time, so we went and walked around and ate yummy food.  I didn’t take my camera because I wanted to hold hands with my man, but we got this shot before we left.  My favorite part of the night was watching Lauren peel herself off the floor of our “boat” during the ride Ye Old Mill.  Lest you think I wasn’t fazed by this ride, I will tell you my throat was sore from all the screaming I did. 

Saturday morning I was privileged to be asked to do a food demonstration at an awesome kitchen store downtown, Apron Strings.  They asked for me to make a seasonal food, so right away I said BBQ Chicken Pie. It always reminds me of Back to School!

Mom and Lauren were GREAT helpers and I wouldn’t have gotten my prep done in time without them. Next time, I will go earlier until I know my way around that kitchen a little better.

  And yes, there will be a next time! They asked me to come back in January.  I am thinking Settlers Beans and Cornbread, what do you think?

The rest of the time we just hung out.  Honestly, with 6 kids in the house, and 4 extra adults with mom and Grandma coming over for supper, it was a loud, full house and there was always something going on.  I LOVE that part!  There is nothing better than being elbow to elbow with your loved ones talking loudly over each other. 

We also made sure we had the extended family over for Sunday Night Snack Supper.  Food, fellowship and some outside duck & chicken feeding fun. 

You break it, you buy it BUDDY!

The 2nd Cousins

Monday was no school, so we headed to the Fair with the whole crew!

With 3 strollers, 6 kids, 5 adults and an Electric Scooter, we soon had to divide up, but it was still a great day. 100* hot, but great!

  Because it was dollar day, we were able to do a lot of the rides.  Pax pretty much hated all of them!  Here he is on the Carousel, it was all fun and games until his hat flew off, then he sobbed and sobbed. I think he thought HE was flying off next.  It broke my heart, and I almost jumped the fence to rescue him, mid-ride, but he did fine inspite of the sobs.

  The big kids thought Chad & Lauren were the COOLEST Uncle & Aunt EVER after they did the White Water Ride with them.

  Destiny met up with one of her friends from school and got to go with her and her mom the rest of the afternoon.  I knew they would take good care of her, and she’d be able to do more big kid rides, but I missed her too!  Just another step in the process of her growing up and away from me.  Pax hated these rides too, every turn he would hollar, “I DON’T WIKE DIS WIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

  All except the truck.  That one was the most slow, boring one ever, but he loved it! Is my adventuresome one finally taming?!?!?!?!

  One day Aunt Gena brought over a 32 pound Watermelon she grew in her garden.  We had it for after school snack, and would you believe most of it was gone in 20 minutes?! It was goooood!

    I almost cried when I packed back up the baby toys and put away the cribs.  We miss the Bontrager Family already!  The good news is, we MIGHT get to see them again over Thanksgiving!!!!

  Tomorrow, I will share their family photo session that I took their last night here.  Busy, don’t hold me back, 1 year olds are always a challenge, but we did our best! 🙂

~T

Spring Break 2013: Florida Road Trip

  Dale and I are still on the mend from our year of tragedy turned triumph. I know it, because we still get weary of life and its demands more than we used to.  We had been hoping for some time away from life these past few months, and wouldn’t you know, the Lord provided!  🙂

  Dale’s grandparents, who he lived with on the farm all during high school, needed someone to drive their truck from Florida back home. {They are Florida Snow Birds.} So, they were gracious enough to fly both Dale AND I to Florida to help them load the truck and drive it back. 

  We were so excited! Everything was going well until the night before our flight, I realize I can’t find my wallet.

Which means I can’t find my ID. 

Which means I can’t fly, right!?

   I tore our luggage, my car and our home apart.  OH MY WORD.  No wallet.

What was I going to do? 

  After many, many tears, and much research on Google, I packed an old Drivers licence in my maiden name, my birth certificate, and my SS card, all with my maiden name on them. THEN, I threw in our Marriage license because it showed I was indeed the Tonya Ferguson on the ticket after all. 

  You better believe I barely slept a wink from 12-2 worrying about it, and we got up at 3 am to get ready to go. {YAWN!}  Praise God, they were satisfied with all my ID’s and let me on the plane with no trouble at all, just a joking hint that it’d cost me my cute earrings to get on the plane.

PHEW.  

Know where my wallet was?

At Target.  

Where I had run errands the day before with all 4 kids and somewhere in the commotion of coats and bags, left it in the cart.  

Target, where I had JUST been that night, only hours before our trip, making a return with Dale.  Never even guessing my missing wallet was behind the service desk counter, turned in by some nice lady the day before, trip cash and all!  

Seriously, what are the odds?!    But at least it was safe and sound!

5 hours later, we were in Sunny FLORIDA!  {not so sunny, more like COLD, but oh well!} That didn’t stop us from being lazy in the sun!

 

  While we were there, we stayed at my Dad and Drea’s home.  They live close by to Dale’s Grandparents, small world, right!? 

  It was QUIET there with no kids, and we were able to go out to dinner late at night and everything! Just like real grown ups. 

Haha! It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do that. 

We had a great time and got some much needed shopping done for all of us.  They have the BEST bargain stores there! 

Great food, great company, just an all around amazing time!

  Before we knew it, Grandpa’s were packed up and ready to fly home, and our short little trip was up.

  On the way out-of-state, we stopped in at my brother, Chad and sis in law, Lauren’s home to kiss on my sweet baby nephews, Colby & Brayden.   They are getting SO big!

Then it was back on the road again, this time 5 more hours upstate {Florida is SOOO long!} to surprise a life long friend at her Beach Wedding! You may remember Kris & Melissa from their engagement session I shared recently.

  We caught sweet Melissa off guard.  She came over the wooden bridge towards her groom and the beach wedding location and her jaw hit the floor.  She told us later, she almost cried. That made our long drive totally worth it!
It was such an honor to be able to be there to witness their I Do’s.  Only the Lord could work out the details to such perfection, that we’d be there not only the day of her wedding, but able to make the time of her ceremony as well. 

The wedding photographers contract said no cameras at the wedding, so I only have a few of the before shots.  It was such a beautiful wedding!!!!! I snagged what I could before packing the camera away.  I didn’t want any trouble!  

		Wedding VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

  Long before we wanted to leave, it was time to hit the road again, this time for 16 more hours of driving.  All went smoothly, until we got into some bad weather in Texas.  We just rode it out a bit at a gas station, and praise God it passed quickly without the hail they predicted!

  We spent a grand total of 22 hours of travel and poor, poor Dale drove straight through so we could see the kids before school started up the next day.  He took 2, 45 minute naps. I was blessed to sleep in 3 hour increments in the back seat of the truck.  Poor guy, after we got home and played with the kids a bit, he crawled to bed at 5 for a nap, and slept until 7 the next morning!

  Oh, I almost forgot to tell you.  This is so exciting!  A friend of ours from here, has some BFF’s down in Florida that do photography. 

  So, knowing all we had been through these past few years, she made a couple calls, and got us hooked us up with a Couples Session on the beach!  {squeeeee!} 

  The following photos are taken by Drea, she and Dad hung out and watched our shoot.  Before you go, I want to share some of my favorites with you…..she did a great job capturing moments even though we totally were looking at another photographer the whole time!

We had so much fun, with some serious, intimate shots…..

 

And NOT so serious moments in the mix! 

We call this next photo, “Parents of 4”…..

And let’s not forget some Beach side planking with a little Ta Da thrown in…..

  In all seriousness, this opportunity was a big deal to us.  You have to remember, the last time we were there, Dale re-proposed to me on the beach, as we were fighting for our marriage after “the truth”. 

2 years and a whole lot of healing later, it was so amazing to have a photo session on the beach in honor of all that had taken place.

Mel and Jen were so fun to work with, I wish I had thought to get a photo of THEM! They were such sweet girls, and we all had a blast! Even though it was WINDY and super cool out.

  Check out this next shot, we were trying to get our feet tangled for a shoe shot, it was so not easy!  

  Drea did such a good job capturing all the little moments during our photo shoot! 

I will have to wait to share the pictures from the actual shoot until I get the disk and release from the photographers, but I just HAD to share some of these today too. 

  I am proud of how far we have come.  It’s been a long, long weary road……..

  But God is so, so faithful to walk with us every step of the way! ~T

 

 

Back to Oz

  Our Florida trip is done, suitcases unpacked, laundry caught up (for but a moment).  Here are all the rest of the photos from an amazing 2 week-long dream of a family vacation!  (Thanks Drea for sending me home with all the photos you took, too! Very helpful as I filled in the blanks on all these Florida posts!)

Paxton found the glass dining room table quite perplexing!

Hello homemade Long John Donut.  I love you.

One of those embarrassing Bring A Trail of Toilet Out of the Bathroom with you moments.  Paxton seems unfazed.

What is it with Paxton and toilet paper this week????????????

Now this is a drool-worthy Birthday dinner if I ever saw one!

This is my plate, wonder where everyone else’s is?

Avery’s 3rd birthday:

Heading home again:

  It was a pretty uneventful trip home, other than the second plane having a broken Air Conditioner.  Oh the misery of hot little people wanting to be held in a stuffy plane with only 2 seats on each side of it and barely any cool air blowing!  Ugh.

Oh, and that 1 extra suitcase I had to bring home?  Yeah, it about put us in a major bind as we had trouble finding room for everything in the Tahoe!

THE END.

Thanks for sticking with me through my “Family Vacation Slide Show”.   🙂 Tomorrow, its back to the Land of Oz.

~T

A Day at Disney

  Part of this Florida trip was a surprise stop at Disney for a day of fun.  My kids had no idea what was in store for them, since we had been referring to it as “Going to Dairy Queen” the entire time.  (if we didn’t call it SOMETHING, one of us would’ve slipped up!) Destiny wondered why we’d be going to Dairy Queen in Florida since we have one in Kansas? 

  So first, we went to Ocala to see Uncle Chad and Aunt Lauren, visit the Furniture Store called “The Carriage Trade” that Chad manages for Dad, and visit a couple of their favorite restaurants they wanted to take us to.  We made a day trip of it, knowing all along, we’d drive to Orlando that night and stay in a condo there until the next mornings big “Dairy Queen” announcement.

 

Let me be a commercial for one minute:

Carriage Trade has over of 4,000 pieces of new & consigned name brand, quality furniture and décor, all in one big 30,000 sq. ft. show room. It is SO fun to walk around and see all the cool stuff.  If you live close by, you should go, you seriously can’t beat these prices!!!!!! 

Watching Uncle Chad hard at work

We ate lunch at Lorito’s , this authentic Italian hole in the wall restaurant.

Oh. My. Goodness.  In-stinkin-credible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We put away 2 larges in about 10 minutes flat.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at Chad and Lauren’s so the kids could nap.  Papa gave Tylan a wooden replica of the Sprint Car he used to drive when I was a kid, so you can imagine that kept him entertained the rest of the afternoon!  Look how proud he is!  He gasped when Papa handed it to him and couldn’t believe it was his to keep. “Do I get to take back to Kansas?” Sure buddy.  “WOOOOAH!”

 

  Sweet Lauren made the girls’ day by French braiding their hair. (I have GOT to learn how to do this, with 2 girls I have NO excuse not to know how!)

They treated us all to Brewster’s Ice Cream for snack time.  What a darling Ice Cream place! We don’t have a Brewster’s which is too bad, it was great!!!! Oldies music, bubbles blowing from the roof top, hula hoops and free ice cream for little ones.

We left after supper and arrived late in Orlando with the kids sleeping in the back of the coach.  We carried them in and put them 3 wide in the bed, away they slumbered, having no idea what the next morning held!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 Sweet dreams little ones! Tomorrow will be such an amaaaaaaazing day!

  They woke up bright and early, ready to eat the cupcakes Drea had promised them the night before if they’d lay down and go right to sleep.  (Apparently, Grandma’s have all sorts of privileges we momma’s do not! Like bribing with sweets for breakfast!)   🙂

 

As they ate, we talked about what kind of fun adventures we could go on while we were in this fun condo for the day.  Papa says he already has some fun plans for us.  Then, real casual-like, “We are going to Disney World today….”

The photos, although not the best, tell the rest of the story:

The little kids got it right away, squealing and saying Yay!

 Sweet, responsible Destiny had to think about it a bit longer, saying “I thought we didn’t have any money for extra things right now.”

(Can you tell she has been paying attention during our year of financial discipline?! That, and when she had asked about Disney in the past I told her we’d have to save up all our dollars for a long time before going.)

We assured her that Papa and Drea had it covered and were treating us to a day at Disney.  THEN the smiles came! 

“Wait, we really ARE going?  TODAY?” (Giggles)

“We are going to Disney! We are going to Disney! We are going to Disney!”

Getting 4 adults, 4 kids, a cooler, a diaper bag and 2 strollers into the tram was interesting!

  It took us an HOUR to get into the actual park.  Wow! Guess we won’t be popping out to the coach for lunch and naps after all!

First stop, Mickey Ears and meeting the Princesses:

Look at Avery staring adoringly up at Belle….Pax thinks she’s pretty great too!

Later, we saw Rapunzel, but her line went CLEEEEEAR around the building. The kids were bummed!

All that was forgotten though, when they got to meet Buzz Lightyear!

We stayed from 9 am – 7 pm with happy kids, I couldn’t believe it!  Pax napped on and off in the stroller, and Avery even took a nap!  She must have been exhausted, because she stayed asleep when transferred to Daddy’s arms for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. 

  By 7 it was stormy, they were unsure of whether or not they were going to have the evening parade or not, so we called it a day.  I wish now that we had pushed through for the 9 parade, but man, at the time…we were DONE!  Our rule of thumb is to leave while everyone is still happy.   🙂

  We got back to the condo just in time to take a swim in the big tub and off to beddy-by. 

It was an incredible day!  Thanks Papa & Drea for blessing us with this AMAAAAZING trip!

~T

Sunset Cruise, Sea Sick & Sweethearts

My dad planned a special surprise birthday outing for us birthday ladies: Drea, Lauren and I all had birthday’s in July and August.  I think if you average us out, we all turned 30 this year.  tee-hee 🙂

  So Dad announces he is taking us out for Drea’s birthday and Aunt Ashley sweetly offered to babysit the kiddies.

(They had a blast by the way, and asked when I could leave again so she could babysit some more….)

  The surprise was a Sunset Dinner Cruise!!!!!!

  No joke! I was so excited!!!! I mean, you just don’t get date nights like this in Kansas.

We head upstairs on this lovely boat, to the top level, where he has reserved a table for us.  We found this:

  Woah! What a thoughtful Daddy I have. I was so blessed and blown away at this amazing evening he had planned for us, as well as the fact that he bought flowers for all of us and dropped them off at the boat earlier that day.

“Grrrr, Clay! Way to make us look bad!”

My new “I’m Not Mommy Tonight” shoes: My first pair of BCBG’s!!!! (they are TALL)

Man, I love the discount stores here!

The food was amaaaaaazing!   Thick slabs of Prime Rib with both Creamy Horseradish & Dill sauces, Lemon Salmon with some sort of white cheese butter sauce, rice, steamed veggies, salad and rolls.

For dessert we got Key Lime Cheesecake, Red Velvet Cake and Death By Chocolate cake….then the server surprised us with this darling birthday cake!

More dessert? SURE, why not?!

At this point, we were stuffed and waddled out to the back deck to enjoy the view:  First these dream homes, then later, a gorgeous sunset painted by the Creator Himself.

Thanks, Daddy for a great birthday celebration!!!!!!  Between my surprise party in Kansas and this birthday cruise, I can’t imagine a better way to turn 30! 🙂

 

   One of my goals while in Florida, is to eat as much seafood as possible.  We were supposed to get to take Papa’s boat the 45 minutes it takes by sea to get to dinner, but it was POURING down rain! So we drove there instead, hoping to take the boat out afterwards.  We ate at this great little sea food place.  Oh man, was it ever delicious!!!! 

  Kansas seafood doesn’t taste quite the same now.  🙂

  The rain stopped just as we finished eating, so we headed to the dock to get the boat. 

Check out this “Boat Garage”, they store the boats 4 high. You just call ahead they have your boat down and ready for you to take out for the day.

  Ty was in HEAVEN!  He sat at the front of the boat grinning the ENTIRE TIME.  Every time Papa revved the engine, he’d turn around and just grin from ear to ear.  Little motor head!

Pax had that finger going left and right as fast as he could to show us “Dis” and “Dat!” Sweet big boy!!!!

   It was so peaceful and the view was just stunning!  I would never get tired of watching the sun melt into the ocean each evening.

  Unfortunately, this was the part that Avery and I got very sea sick, it sure can sneak up on you quickly!  We headed back before anyone had to sea food again. Oh, I mean see their food again.  (I am cracking myself up here…..)

  Once on shore, she was fine.  This Momma took a bit longer to stop swaying inside, but it was all good!

 

   What a fun way to end the day!

  The last weekend we were in Florida, Papa and Drea offered to put the kids to bed for us, so Dale and I could go walk on the beach and watch the sunset.   Oh my goodness, do you know how long its been since Dale and I could just walk together….no car seats, no diapers bags, no sweet sticky little hands grasping ours or sweet ones walking between us. It was wonderful!

  We kicked our shoes off and strolled along the waters edge, just talking and walking until we could no longer see our blanket in the sand. 

We doubled back just in time to plop down on our blanket and enjoy the sunset.

  Told you I’ll never get tired of seeing the sunset down into the ocean!!!!!! 

Especially in the arms of the one who still makes my heart go pitter patter. 

{SIGH} It was simply wonderful!

  So, are you tired of hearing about our vacation yet? Sorry, there is just so much to document! Remember, I plan to make this into a book each year for my kiddos, so bear with me. Only 1 to more post to go, maybe 2: Disney, Avery’s birthday, plus all the leftover pics that I can’t catagorize! See, that’s not so bad, right?!?!?!

~T

Wedding Bells

  My baby brother, Chad (FINALLY) proposed to his girlfriend, Lauren, a few weeks before our Florida trip.  She said “Yes! It’s about dang time!”  (Ok I am not for sure that’s what she said, but I bet I am close…)

YAY!!!!

  After much debate, they decided to get married while we were in Florida.  Meaning they planned the entire thing in…….

20 days. 

Can you IMAGINE?!?!??!

  They did this so we could be a part of it, bless their hearts!!!!!  They knew there was no way we could save up to fly back again this year.  Lauren pulled it off, and it was AMAZING! 🙂

  They asked our children to be part of their big day. They, of course, were thrilled.  Lauren’s wedding colors, Fushia & Tangerine Orange, were the ones I had picked out for my wedding 10 years ago, but I guess I was ahead of the trends, because back then we couldn’t find anything in those 2 colors, and people looked at me like I was NUTS! lol 🙂  To say I lived vicariously through Lauren would be a small understatement, I had so much fun sending her cake and flower pictures using those colors. And, she let me pick the little girls flower girl dresses! {squeeeeeeeal}

I immediately began scouring bridal sites….too expensive and too fancy for an outdoor Florida wedding.  Then, I remembered Etsy, my favorite new addiction.  I hit the JACKPOT, praise the Lord, finding a gal on there who would sell me a 3T fushia and tangerine tutu with matching headband for $20 AND custom make me a matching size 7-8 with flower clip for $25 by Monday (it was Thursday I do believe). 

  And boy, did she deliver!  These tutu’s are made from an excellent quality tulle and the hair accessories are well made.  I HIGHLY recommend her!   Check out her shop here at Caroline’s Boutique, and please tell her Tonya from Kansas sent you.

 

We love you Uncle Chad & Aunt Lauren, thanks for making us a part of your special day!  xoxo

Here are the photos from their amazing day!

Proof that I should’ve taken my children’s photos BEFORE the wedding rather than after: 

(But who has time for that when trying to do hair and get little people dressed between afternoon naps and a 3:00 ceremony!?!??!)  🙂 

Considering that we were drenched in sweat by this point and ready to go inside, they did very well.

I had Chad and Lauren’s photographer snap a family photo for me….easier said than done.

SO close, thanks Ty!

I tell ya, the more kids you have, the harder it is to take a good family photo!

Oh well.

Congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Bontrager! We are SO happy for you two!

~T

Headin’ to the Beach

  Out of the 2 weeks spent in Florida, we only managed to make it to the beach 3 times, even though its only 10 minutes away.  Gotta love life with young kiddos! 🙂

   This was Avery’s first time to be old enough to remember the beach.  Last time we went to Florida, she was this age…..Where has the time gone?!

  Papa and Drea loaded us all up one evening to go to the Jetty to see if we could spot some dolphins.

  We did eventually spot some, but not as close as they sometimes come, Papa said.

Paxton sure seemed intent on staring at the water, I was amazed at his interest. 

Oh wait, he’s dozed off again. Poor tired kiddo!

Once he woke up, he loved to look at the water, even copying the big kids by pointing at the dolphins….

We decided to go wade a bit before heading home for bed.  The beaches here are just littered with shells, I couldn’t get over it!

Paxton’s first time at the beach….

Yup, not feelin’ it!

Beach Attempt 2 took 1 1/2 hours to get out the door, 6 adults with very full arms, trudging through the sand….only to stay 30 minutes before the rain clouds rolled in.  Nice.

Rainy Day VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Beach attempt 3 was a roaring success, with us making it there mid-morning and staying late into the afternoon! Woo hoo!

Our “Camp” for the day

It was a PERFECT day! (Despite the fact that all the Kansans got burnt, even with sunscreen!)

{SIGH}

Can we go back now? Pul-eeeeeeease!?!?!?!

More to come Monday….

~T

Florida Fun

  We just got home last night at midnight from an AMAZING trip to Florida thanks to my Dad and Drea.  Nearly 2 weeks of non-stop fun in the sun!  Trip highlights included Uncle Chad’s wedding, a surprise stop at Disney World, swimming at the beach, boat rides and so much more. 

  I will take the next few days to share photos of our grand adventure.  Bear with me though, I took 1200-some photos over the 2 weeks and am still trying to get caught up on bills, mail, phone messages, laundry and unpacking in addition to weeding through said photos.  Not to mention our cupboards are BARE and I need to make and menu and go grocery shopping.

  Check out this table I had Dale set up in our room the week before our trip:

  This is where I packed us. You are going to be so proud of me, out of all these choices, in the end, I only took 2 suitcases and 2 carry on bags for the 6 of us for 2 weeks, thankyouverymuch!  (However, I did have to bring an entire extra suitcase home thanks to some new birthday gifts and clothing bargains.  Too bad the airlines charge $25 a bag, that ticks me off!)

  We got up at 3 am the morning we left.  I was not sure what I was thinking, booking that early of a flight, but there are limited choices out of our small town.  The other flight option put us arriving at 10 pm and blowing the whole first day, so I took a chance that our kids could handle it, and you know what?

 

They did AWESOME!

Avery says “Thumbs up!”

Pax napped on a bed pillow across my knees both flights like a little champ. (*Note to you traveling Momma’s, this is my FAVORITE airplane travel tip: Take a bed pillow along! It frees your hands up to help the other kids or read a book. Baby sleeps much more peacefully because they are not hot and sweaty in your arms.)

 

  The other kids played and colored flight #1, did great during our 1 1/2 hour layover in Atlanta and watched a movie flight #2.  (reason number 1001 to limit daily TV, it’s a special treat and they didn’t MOVE a MUSCLE during this 2 hour flight!)

Apparently tray tables are super fascinating as well.

  We arrived right on time to sunny Florida.  Papa and Drea aren’t equipped for 6 extras in their sporty vehicles, so Papa picked us up in their coach. The kids thought that was super awesome!

  Thoughtful Drea loaded the fridge with lunch fixin’s so we were able to eat sandwiches while we drove the hour to their home.  Check out the view!

  Our fearless driver, Papa:

We traveled nice and comfy on the recliner front seat! 🙂

  First thing on the agenda when we got to the house? Unpack, then a dip in the pool.

Traveling is such hard work, everyone was wiped! Pax got sleepy early, so it was off to bed for him well before the sun went down!

  The other kids needed  to get to bed too, but first? A game with Papa.

Then, hanging around the pool with Drea and a lizard visit.

Avery says “Bleh.”

  Destiny caught the teeniest little lizard! Somehow during his release back into the wild, the kids accidentally made his tail fall off. Oops! Poor lizard, good thing it grows back. It totally thrashed around and made everyone grossed out, long after the baby lizard ran away to nurse its wounds!

NOW is it bedtime?  3 am was a LONG time ago!!!!

  Nope, the kids are still going strong.  So, how about a quick round of “Golf” out back. 

Oh well, we are on vacation, what can it hurt? But only for a little bit then it’s off to bed, Mr. Sunshine is on his way to bed too!

 

There is so much more to share, and  I am sorry to leave you before I even get started with this trip, but this is as far as I got on the editing for today. 

  Come see me tomorrow!  🙂  I promise this won’t be like those boring hour-long click and whir slide shows of yester-year. 

There are lots of fun photos to come!!!

~T