Welcome to Miami!

Actually we were mostly in Hollywood and Key Biscayne but its all Miami area. We went to visit Jim's sister Keri and her husband Berk and to see their new house. It was a fast trip (I think we were there less than 24 hrs) but we had a great time! We went to the beach on Key Biscayne for several hours on Saturday and then hung out and watched a movie Sat night before heading to Fort Myers Sunday morning.

We headed to the island of Key Biscayne right after we got there on Saturday. It was a nice drive going through Miami. The only thing that stunk was we got stuck in traffic on the way home because there was a Sony Open Tennis tournament going on. It was worth it though to hang at the beach for the day.

As soon as we got out of the car the kids found some fun trees to climb.

and who needs the beach when there are sticks to be found? :)

 Once we got the kids away from the trees and sticks we walked over to the beach area.

There was a lighthouse right at the end of the island, we didn't end up walking down to it but it was pretty to see from where we were.

And this is the super exciting centipede (millepede?) that Aidan would not leave alone. Poor thing. I'm pretty sure he messed with it for over an hour.

Playing in the water

Berk and Keri

Zoie was the first one to go all the way in the water.

Logan passed out after playing in the sand for awhile.

What would a trip to the beach be without burying someone in the sand?

 More worm fun

Happy Easter!

This past week our kids had spring break so we headed down to Miami and to Fort Myers to spend time with Jim's family. We played and hit the beach and generally just had a good time (more on that later).

While we were in Fort Myers we had the annual Easter egg hunt at Nana's house. It's always fun for the kids and funny for the adults to watch them running around and fighting over eggs. At first Logan didn't quite get the point of picking up eggs and putting them in a basket, but once Jim showed him that there was candy inside he was all about it.

Here are the hunters before they started.

 Daddy showing Logan the awesomeness that is a candy filled egg.

And here they are with all their loot.

Happy Easter!!

Don't you just love nap time?

I did. But now, unfortunately, Logan is struggling with taking naps. It's getting harder and harder to get him to lay down, especially now that he can get out of his crib. He's been able to get out of it for awhile, but he hurt himself once and so he stopped doing for a few months.
 So now we do the routine of putting him in bed and him coming out after 10 min or so wanting a drink or to play etc... anything to avoid the actual nap. There are some days where I resort to just letting him skip it, but every now and then he'll fall asleep where ever he's at. Like this:

It was so cute. We had just gotten home from church and I hadn't even tried to lay him down yet, when I noticed he had already conked out on the floor. I really hope I can convince him to continue with the naps. I know he still needs them, and it's amazing what an hour of peace and quiet can do for a mom's sanity, so I need them too! :)

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

That's right, it's baseball season! (sometimes I wonder if it's ever not baseball season) Ha! Nolan made the majors this year, which he was thrilled about. So we are finding ourselves crazy busy once again with up to 4 days a week consisting of something for baseball. It's fun though. We love watching Nolan as he progresses and gets better each year.

I don't have any pics from games yet (I keep forgetting the camera), but here are some from opening day at the field. We missed getting any pics of Zoie because she was off on the bounce houses with her friends almost the entire time we were there.

Pinewood Derby (and getting back in the game)

Soooo..... trying this again. Been awhile, so I don't know if anyone out there is still checking on us (hi Will!), but here we go. I'm starting with current stuff and if I get to it, maybe eventually I'll go back and include some highlights from the last year while I've been absent. (Yeesh, its been almost a year, that's sad). :(

Aidan had his first Pinewood Derby a few weeks ago. He was SO excited to finally be able to make a car of his own after watching Nolan do it for the last 3 years. He and Jim worked on his car, Jim did most of the cutting and painting but Aidan helped with the sanding and color choice.

Nolan had a ball game the day of, so we had to split up and Jim took Aidan while I did the baseball thing. I wish we could have all been there because Aidan won for the wolves. Needless to say he was very happy. He also won a certificate for most spirited car because he went with Gator colors (of course). Here are some pics from the day of.

Before the race

Aidan's car getting ready to race (in the middle)

 Getting his medal

After the race

Hopefully I'll be back soon with more!

It doesn't happen often but every now and then it gets cold cooler than normal here. So what do we do when that happens? Go get ice cream, duh! Who wouldn't?

We borrowed our neighbor's golf cart (almost everyone has one in our neighborhood) and rode down the street to the local ice cream shop.

Here we are almost maxed out in the golf cart. If we ever decide to take the plunge and get one it would have to have three rows. 

 Checking out the ducks

 Yummy!

 I have posted pics of this place before, but never of the inside. It's cute but tiny.

Best Anniversary EVER!

I know I said I wasn't going to post things that were too far past, but I seriously can't believe I never posted these pics so I have to now if for nothing else than to rub them in my family's faces (ha ha, jk).
I really wanted to go to the Nebraska bowl game since they were playing in the Outback bowl, which is in Orlando, but we checked into tickets, decided they were too pricey and we couldn't do it. However, my awesome hubby kept checking the ticket prices regularly and they dropped about a week before the game. This year Jim and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary so it also nicely worked as an anniversary present for us since the game was only about a week before our anniversary.
Wes and Jenny also happened to be in town at the same time so we talked them into getting tickets with us and we all went together.  I think the last time I went to a Nebraska game was when I was a senior in high school which was... uh... a while ago. It was SOOO fun! There is nothing like the feeling of being at a football game of your favorite team.

The golden tickets

 Pre-game show

 Kick off

 I wish we could go to a Nebraska game every year but sadly living in Florida means 

game ticket + plane ticket + rental car = not happening

So it was especially great to be able to go while they were close, and even though my huskers didn't win I still loved being there!