Getting Dirty!

On Saturday, Caroline and I went out and got a little dirty. Caroline was a total trooper and made it through the muddy mile kid run. She looked like she was having fun through most of it but at the end said she got way too muddy and didn't want to ever do it again... but you can see in the "after" picture that she's got a pretty big smile on her face. We'll see what she says next time I find one of these to do.

The big kids course was 4.5 miles long and had about 15-20 obstacles through dirt, sand, mud, streams, logs, and walls... it was one of the coolest things I have ever done and I was fortunate enough to have a great group of ladies to do it with. I am as sore as I probably have ever been after doing something, but if I could go do it again this next weekend, I would in a heartbeat!

A little behind.....

So, since coming back from spring break, I have been a little behind. Joe was home for a week after we came back from Florida and then he left for 5 weeks to Savannah. It has been an interesting adjusment not having him around. Even though with school he really isn't here much, we do get to see him. With him in Savannah, he's close enough that we get to see a little of him, but he's gone every night. The kids have definitely missed him at bedtime and on the weekends for sure! But, someday, he will be deployed for a few months+ and this will be what our life is like without him here... the Army life :)

So, the first thing we did after saying good-bye the first weekend was go to our local farm team baseball game. The Augusta Green Jackets. We had gone to opening night the Friday before, and a great friend and neighbor has season tickets so we got to go two days later. The kids had a wonderful time and even got free hotdogs, popcorn and pop. At the end of the game they got to run the bases :) At Friday's game the kids got baseball caps, and on Sunday the mascot, Auggie, signed their caps for them.



Joe spent the first weekend in Savannah without us and we managed to have a good time at home. Then Grandma came to visit and we all went down to Savannah last weekend. Saturday morning we took the kids out to Tybee Island with Grandma. It was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed playing in the sand and waves. Sadly, there were lots of jellyfish and we all got a few stings here and there.... We can't wait to go back to the beach again, soon!!!! It was wonderful spending time with Grandma and as always the kids were spoiled. She even watched the kids one night so Joe and I could enjoy a night out on the town.



After the beach we stopped at the Crab Shack for lunch. I could have sat on their deck for hours and enjoyed the beach and the breeze and some beers and shrimp. It was such a great setting. The Crab Shack also had an alligator tank and for a couple bucks you could feed the alligators. (with a fishing pole of course). The kids loved it!!!!!


Sunday, Grandma had to leave to head back to TX :( The kids and I hung out in Savannah for a few more hours with Joe. It was hard to say goodbye so we delayed it a little by going back to Forsyth Park. I'm so glad we got to take advantage of Joe being down there even if it means he's gone from us. Savannah is such a neat, old city. Hopefully we'll get a chance to go down again before we leave GA.

This weekend Caroline had an overnight at Camp Tanglewood with her girl scout troop and other troops from the area. We were not supposed to be able to spend the night, but since I am one of the leaders of our troop and we have a junior troop as well, we got to bring Caroline and our other leader's daughter Abby. Caroline and Abby live in the same neighborhood and go to the same school. They have become very cute friends and Abby is moving to Hawaii in August. We are hoping that if we end up in Hawaii too that they will get to be in Girl Scouts together again :) Back to Friday night... Camp..... Cabins with no A/C. 95 degrees and tons of humidity... I was a little nervous of how well the night would go. We started with a campfire and smores.. a little scary watching all the girls and marshmellows and fire....aaahhh!!! Then we watched Princess and the Frog out in the field by the pool. Caroline and Abby seemed to be done so we went back to the cabin... The rest of the troop came back and it had to be almost 1 by the time we got to sleep. After a few interruptions during the night, everyone was awake at 6! Oh to be 6 agian and have tons of energy!!!!! The morning consisted of breakfast, field games, troop time and lunch. Then there was a special "Bridging Ceremony" for the girls that are moving from Daisy Scouts to Brownie Scouts. Caroline and Abby got to do the ceremony together and then we ran out of camp before the crowd, came home, and took naps!!!!!! Joe suprised the kids and came home Saturday to hang with Molly and Nicholas. We all went to breakfast this morning for Mother's Day. It was a nice treat to have him home today and even harder to say goodbye. Thankfully he'll be home in 2 weeks for 10 days, and then he leaves again :(

SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Easter! Our Easter started off bright and early with our truck loaded and headed to Orlando, Fl. Joe was fortunate enought to get a week off of school and thanks to the Master's tournament, so did the kids. So, we decided to go to Orlando and hang out by the pool for the week and spend some time with Daddy.

Since we left on Easter morn, the big bunny knew we wouldn't be here, so he left some baskets for the kids at the hotel (wink, wink)...

The first thing we did after the kids opened their baskets was head to the pool....

Later the kids wanted to fly their kites that came out of their baskets... we went down to the grass by our hotel and they ran around for a while before we went for a walk and got some ice cream :)

Both Nicholas and Caroline got scooters. They were the perfect thing for the kids to ride around on the hotel property. I'm not sure the other guests appreciated it as much as we did, but we did our best to make them walk whenever they needed to be really careful.

Another morning at the pool. Took Molly a couple days to be comfortable in the big pools away from the stairs, but thankfully there was a kiddy pool that was perfect for her!

There was an awesome kids club at our hotel. One morning they had a pirate ship building time and each of the kids got to paint and build a ship. I think each one of them had fun being creative and making their own pirate ship...

Later that day we went to Downtown Disney. One of the places that we knew the kids would have fun was the Lego Store! We had dinner reservations at the T-Rex cafe (a lot like the rainforest cafe) with big dinosaurs that moved and roared. While we waited the kids went to the lego store... oh to be a kid again and have LOTS of money....

And of course, being at downtown disney, there was a disney store. Caroline's favorite place!

Capt'n Nicholas

At the T-Rex cafe the kids got to dig for dinosaur bones....

back at the Lego store. Outside of the store there were quite a few play table where the kids could build and play. One of the tables was a derby car area that the kids could build cars and then race against other kids... Nicholas and daddy had fun building and watching their come in 2nd everytime!

Large dinosaur built out of legos...

SEAWORLD!!!!!!!!!!! Wednesday morning we headed out first thing and went to SeaWorld for the day... I think the kids had fun. It made me miss the SeaWorld in San Antonio. It was super crowded!!!!

Lunch.... at this SeaWorld there is Shark's Underwater Grill... not quite under water, but there is a large tank filled with sharks that swim by while you eat.... we made lunch reservations here and thanks to visiting a timeshare presentation, our meal was paid for...

A really bad picture of the tank... but it kind of gives you an idea of the restaraunt..

Shamu!!!!

After a day at SeaWorld the kids got to go to the kids club the next morning and make pancakes...

Caroline's creation... sprinkles and whip cream!

MMMMmmmmmm.........

We also spent one evening at Universal City. I didn't think it was as much fun as downtown disney but Nicholas at least got to see Spiderman!

Another night at Downtown Disney... Caroline had to get sprinkled with pixie dust. Even Molly got some...

But little miss Molly was not in a good mood. Caroline tried to cheer her up as best she could!

We also went back to the T-Rex cafe. We had Ghiradelli hot chocolate and ice cream as dinner, but by 9 we were hungry for some real food so we scored at spot at the bar at the T-rex cafe... the kids enjoyed getting to see the dinosaurs again...

Caroline showing off her Disney loot...

One last day at the pool :)

Swimming with Daddy....

Molly showing off her Disney loot... or at least trying to before her big sister jumped in!

After a few hours at the pool, the kids went to the climbing wall with Daddy for one last fun event!

Daddy trying to help Nicholas..

Daddy on his way to the top!

We had a wonderful week in Florida spending time with Daddy. It was hard to come back home and back to reality. The kids enjoyed a week of fun playing in the sun and they even had some difficulty adjusting back to school. I can't wait to be able to take the kids to Disney and go have fun as a family again! Very glad that we didn't do it this last week over spring break while it was super crowded! Joe is off to Savannah this weekend for 5 weeks. We will definitely miss him!

Nicholas

Nicholas had fun filled day of Easter eggs and junk food at his school easter party. I had to make a treat for the kids in his class to decorate and I waited till 10pm the night before to try to make sugar cookie in cute shapes... sadly they did not work out very well and I thnen had to make cupcakes at 6 am so the kids would have something fun to decorate and eat. It was a beautiful sunny day and the kdis had lots of fun :)

Caroline

Caroline had field day the week before spring break. It was a crazy, busy week and she had so much fun playing and goofing off with her friends. They had the perfect sunny day for playing outside. Later in the day they had a scavenger hunt for easter eggs... nothing like getting tons of sugar before spring break!