Beach Trip

So beach weather is finally here. This past Friday I packed up the kids and headed off with some friends of ours. Although there are nicer beaches a little farther away, we opted to just stay close by and drive the short 45-minutes to Alligator Point. It started off a little chilly in the morning, but by early afternoon, it was bathing suit weather. The kids had a BLAST and could have stayed all day. I managed to keep the kids from getting sunburnt (except for a few patches on Caitlyn's legs and Jeffrey's back), but burned my own face and legs to a crisp. After spending who knows how many hours on the beach and in the sun, you'd really think I'd have learned my lesson! But no, still burning my poor skin. Still, it was a fun trip and we're looking forward to the next one!

Jeffrey and Caitlyn with their friend, Kate. Still managing to have fun even when it was a little chilly in the morning.

Even a cold day at the beach is better than a nice day at home!

Happy Caitlyn at the beach.

Andrew was super calm the whole day. He took great naps and was just content to watch the action.

We broke out the hats a little late, perhaps, but still managed to protect their little heads for the most part.

And finally broke out the swimsuits.

The kids playing in the ocean.

All loaded up and ready to head home from the beach. Below are our friends Max and Kate sitting with Caitlyn. Above is my friend, Jennie, with Jeffrey and Andrew. A very fun trip!

Bowling

After taking the kids to SC for 2 weeks, then Dan and I being gone to Chicago, we thought it would be fun to do something a little different as a family. We took the kids bowling and they loved it. Well, Jeffrey loved it the whole time and Caitlyn loved it for about 5 or 6 frames. It was a fun morning.

We didn't think the kids would need shoes - guess we were wrong. Jeffrey wanted to keep his shoes after we were done. They were pretty nice shoes!

Jeffrey bowling.

Caitlyn was especially excited about the ball return.

After the inital excitement wore off, Caitlyn was content eating popcorn.

Andrew was extremely patient. He slept for awhile, then just stared - not too impressed I guess.

Easter Fun

Yesterday our ward had a little Easter Barbecue - a pot luck with an Easter egg hunt for the kids. We made a quick run to Walmart that morning to get the kids Easter baskets and they had a blast.

They did an 'easy' hunt for the little kids, and another for the older kids.

Caitlyn is so excited about her "Easter basket!"

The kids hunting for eggs.

Snotty nose and a mouth full of jelly beans...she's a mess.

Chicago

This past weekend, Dan and I had a great opportunity to make a trip to Chicago. Dan had a conference where he was presenting a paper, and Dan's mom was beyond kind, and came down from NC to keep Jeffrey and Caitlyn while I tagged along with Dan. We drove to Jacksonville Tuesday evening and got to visit very briefly with Dave and Sara before flying out of Jacksonville on Wednesday. We had pricelined a really nice hotel, which we decided was really too rich for us. The kind of place where the fridge comes stocked with tons of stuff, but if you touch any of it, it costs you an arm and a leg. Internet was pricy too, so we decided to just cut ourselves off from the online world for a few days. It was very conveniently located right off of the "Magnificent Mile" (well, convenient if you like to shop at Tiffany, Bloomingdale or Gucci), and just a few blocks from Lake Michigan and the John Hancock Observatory. We got to see a nice sunset, well, a small piece of it from our hotel room.

Even though we were afraid to touch anything or ask anyone for help, for fear we'd have to tip them, we really enjoyed the super comfy bed .... as did Andrew.

On Thursday, Dan spent most of the day at his conference while Andrew and I hung out at the hotel. Later that evening we got to go have dinner with his old roommate from BYU. He treated us to the local stuffed pizza at Giordanos which was fabulous! It was so nice for us to see an old friend and for Dan to catch up with his old roomie. After dinner we stopped by the John Hancock Observatory and went up the 90 something-th floor and saw a beautful view of Chicago at night. It was really cool, but impossible to take a good picture!

Friday we reserved primarily for sight-seeing and just relaxing. We got up late and just took our time getting out.

Dan and Andrew hanging out Friday morning.

Finally we situated Andrew in the Snugli had breakfast at Einstein Bagels, then took the bus out to the Shedd Aquarium.

Andrew was quite cozy in the Snugli.

Well, it was FREEZING cold and SUPER windy, so when we saw the insane line at the Aquarium, we just settled for a few pictures and took off for a walk up the the Chicago Art Institute.

A little too cold for Andrew to show his face. Here we are in front of Lake Michigan.

Standing in between the Aquarium and the Field Museum. A great view of the city!

Andrew wasn't terribly impressed by the antiques in the Museum, but at least he managed to let us enjoy ourselves!

Quick story about dinner Friday evening. So since we didn't get internet, and hadn't seen any obvious chinese places when we had been out wandering, we called Crystal and asked her to look online and see where a super close place was where we could go get chinese. She found several places, but we went with what looked to be the very closest. She read the menu and it sounded good, so I decided I would give them a call. I was surprised when they said that I couldn't place an order 'to go.' I asked to make sure that if I came by, I could get my order 'to go' and they assured me that would be fine. So we bundled up and headed off .2 miles to find the place. We looked where the address said it was, but couldn't find anything. Finally it occurs to us that it's probably inside the nearby mall. I call to ask them where they were, sure enough, in the mall. We walk in, and there it is - a regular fast food chinese restaurant. Not exactly what we had been expecting, but we ordered and headed back to the hotel. The food was pretty good, but I kept chuckling when I invisioned the employee answering the phone and some goof ball on the other end asking, "Yeah, I'd like to place an order to go." Well, duh, it's a fast food restaurant.

Saturday morning we returned to the John Hancock Observatory to see the city in the daylight. Although it was MUCH more crowded, it was really fun to get a little better view of the city.

Andrew and I standing in the Skywalk at the top of the Observatory.


Even though Andrew didn't do as well as we hoped he would being hauled all over the place in the Snugli, overall he did a pretty good job and was pretty happy.

It was a great trip, but we were happy to get home and see Jeffrey and Caitlyn again. We flew out of the Midway airport Saturday evening and arrived back in Jacksonville around 11:00 pm. Dave picked us up from the airport and after dropping him back off at his place, we headed back to Tallahassee. We got back around 3:00 in the morning. We had a really fun trip and were so grateful for Dan's mom and all she did to keep the kids happy at home!!

Violent Primary Songs

Fairly often Caitlyn and Jeffrey sit down at the piano together and 'play' and 'sing' songs. The other day I overheard their converstation as they were sitting together on the piano bench. Jeffrey was pointing out a song and explained to Caitlyn what was happening. "That bird is trying to eat that little boy." I never realized there was so much violence in the seemingly innocent primary songs!