Traveling with Larry

Mandy’s teacher is doing a little activity with her class where they talk about different countries, states, and interesting places in the world.  She heard through the grapevine that I like to play around with pictures, so she asked me to come up with some pictures of her little friend Larry visiting some fun places.  So this what I have come up with so far:

St. Petersburg Cathedral, Russia

Riding an elephant on the plains of East Africa
 
Enjoying the view in Anchorage, Alaska
 
Rowing down the Amazon in Brazil
 
Exploring the Australian Outback
 
Surfing in California
 
Walking along the great wall of China
 
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France (don’t you love his little beret, I think it brings out the black in his eyes:)
Sailing in Hawaii
 
Carrying water in India
 
Talking with his Geisha friends in Japan
 
Leaning with the Leaning Tower of Pisa
 
Playing soccer with friends in South Africa
 
Ok, so maybe I enjoyed this assignment just a little too much.  But really aren’t they fun!  My friend Mandi is going to take the pictures and create cute fun scrapbook pages for each of them.  They are going to be adorable!
They are doing a new location each week during the school year, so I’ve got to come up with quite a few more.  Stay tuned in a few weeks for more traveling with Larry.  And feel free to offer suggestions of where he should go to next!!!!

A Daddy-Daughter Moment

Our home teacher came over to visit a couple of Sundays ago.  While we were talking with him, Mandy climbed onto the couch with Nathan and curled up into a little ball and fell fast asleep.

I thought it was so sweet.  Doesn’t she look so safe and secure wrapped up in Daddy’s arms.  That’s what Daddy’s arms are for!

 

School Days

School has now been going strong for two weeks and my two are still loving it just as much as the first day.

Mandy actually cried on Sunday because she thought it was a school day and she wanted to go to school!!!!

Dallin is loving his teacher.  I think she forever won his heart because she doesn’t mind being a little silly – like telling them they had ants in their pants because they weren’t sitting still :)

Based on what these last two weeks have been like, I think we are going to have a great school year!

Happy Birthday!

To the bestest Mama Doris is the whole world!

Can you believe she is 91?

She looks wonderful doesn’t she?   She still reads story books like a pro!

We love you Mama Doris!  We hope you have the best 91st birthday ever!

 

P.S.  To see a few photos I took of a family vacationing at the beach go here or here.

Life after vacation

Now that I just relived all of our vacation and have been back in the “real world” for almost two weeks now, I wish I could take a few minutes and do just what I did that week:

Put my feet up,

Grab a good book,

Feel a little chill in the wind,

As I watch a storm blow in from the gulf.

But life rolls on.  Now I have to get out of bed early to get kids fed and ready for school.  Take one to school, wait 30 minutes and take another to school.  Keep the one that is left at home alone entertained for a couple of hours, while simultaneously trying to complete work.  Then jump back in the car and pick up my little pre-k queen.  Convince my baby that he needs to take a nap.  Do more work while he sleeps.  Then head out the door again to meet my favorite 2nd grader.  Come home, help with homework, do laundry, clean-up messes, cook dinner, tuck children into bed – and then start all over again the next day.  Honestly though, I wouldn’t have it any other way – I love these little ones and the exhaustion by the end of the day is absolutely worth it.

Day 8 – Last Day of Vacation

On our last full day of vacation, we spent the day just bumming around Cedar Key.  We had lunch at the Picked Pelican (and no they don’t serve Pelican, I checked the menu!).  Our appetizer of fried green tomatoes and fried pickles was extra yummy!  Then we walked around the shops a little bit.  Mandy picked out this shirt for Nathan.  I can’t imagine why he didn’t want to buy it!

Then we enjoyed a little ice cream at Kona Joe’s water front shack.

While Layton was napping, Nathan took Dallin and Mandy to the Cedar Key “Museum”.  Which was very tiny,  but fun.  They each got a little chip of cedar as a souvenir.

And of course, we did what we did EVERYDAY during our whole vacation.  We swam in the pool!

One very important milestone was reached during this week of vacation.  Dallin learned to swim without a life vest!  He is now a little fish!  He can swim anywhere, anytime!

We sure loved our vacation!   We were sad to leave.  But even good things have to come to an end sometime.

Day 7 – Homosassa Springs

Day 7 of our vacation found us traveling to Homosassa Springs.  Home of the Manatees!

This is a favorite park of my childhood.  I had a Great-Aunt and Uncle that lived down in Sarasota.  We went to visit them almost every summer.  On the drive down there, we would often stop off at this park to see the Manatees and other natural Florida wildlife.

 

On our way there, we were a little afraid that we were going to be rained out.  But surprisingly just before we arrived the rain stopped and the sun came out.  What is crazy is that just minutes after we left that day, it started pouring.  It was like the sun shone only for us :)

We had a great time seeing all the animals, including these jumping mullet everywhere.

Layton even had a close encounter of the squirrel kind.

Our little family of manatees:

It was a great day!