Saturday, July 19, 2008

I've lost that loving feeling...

Yep, I have no motivation to blog. I think I'm feeling the pressure of being 3 weeks behind and the thought of all the work it is going to take to catch up is just a little overwhelming!

Here's a brief recap of what else happened on our vacation.

Tons of pictures... little verbal description. :)

While we were at my parent's house I found a box of toys that my sister and I used to play with. I pulled out all of the Precious Places and set them up for Chandler to play with.


I believe I mentioned how incredibly hot it was at the park...
Only a Grammy would give a 16 month old baby her very own ice cream cone! :)

"Really Squire? Are you really going to let me have my own ice cream cone on your new sofa??"


On Sunday we attended church with my parents.


After church we headed off to Silver Springs.

Can't you just hear Chandler saying, "Wait Mom! I'm not ready!!"
Actually she was saying, "MOM! Quit using the video camera! Grammy is taking a picture!"

Riley has a fascination with mouths...


The giraffes have always been my favorite part of Silver Springs.

Attempting to feed them cookies.
See how "close" Chandler is to the giraffe. We couldn't get her any closer than that. She would start freaking out! :)
We ended up giving away the rest of her cookies to another little kid who actually wanted to get within 100 feet of the giraffe.


Silver Springs is most well known for their alligators...

Isn't is creepy??
They would sit in that circle until someone threw "alligator cookies" into the water. Then, faster than lightening they were on the hunt. It really gave me the creepy crawlies!

Terrifying!

After Silver Springs we had dinner at Sonny's BBQ. Oh if only they had Sonny's in Tennessee!!!

After dinner we had to make a quick stop at the grocery store... we all waited in the car while my dad ran inside.

Just goofing off!
This is what waiting in the car in the Florida heat will do to you!!

Monday was a trip to Wild Waters!

Chandler wasn't quite tall enough to ride most of the rides. She was really bummed about it. We even took a chance on one of them that she was technically too short to ride. Brandon took her all the way to the top only to have the lifeguard send them back down. :( Chandler was SO upset!!

She did enjoy playing in the kid's area...

She was tall enough to ride the Mini Monster...

I think she rode it about 1,000 times.
It didn't even phase her when the lifeguard didn't catch her at the bottom.

It thundered a little at one point so everything was shut down for a little while... it was a great chance to grab some lunch.

Riley enjoying a double cheeseburger!

After lunch, everything opened back up.

Riley in the wave pool. She pretty much hated the life jacket.

But, she LOVED the frog slide!!!


The child has NO FEAR!

On Tuesday we loaded up and headed to Jacksonville to visit my sister, Erin, and her husband, Joel.

Joel had to work on Tuesday so Erin took us to the Jacksonville Zoo.

It was CRAZY HOT that day, but we had a great time!

Erin and the girls.

The zoo is not a really big zoo, but everything was kept so clean and nice. The best part about it was the all of the animals were SO CLOSE!

I took these photos without using my zoom.

Spotted Leopard

I could not get over how close the zebra was! I've never seen one so close. I was fascinated by the fact the I could actually see the stripes going all the way down his legs... I guess I had just never noticed that before. :)

Giraffes at the feeding station. In Jacksonville they feed the giraffes leaves and branches. No giraffe cookies for these guys!

Chandler and Erin

The girls took a little time to splash in the fountain. IT WAS SO HOT!

After the zoo and dinner, Erin took me, the girls and Taylor (Erin and Joel's beagle) to the dog park.
Chandler insisted on watching a movie in Erin's car even though the ride was less than 15 minutes!

Riley kept herself busy at the dog park by playing in the dirt. I think she was having more fun than the dogs!

After we got home Riley and Taylor spent a little time competing for Erin's attention!

Riley couldn't get enough of Taylor. The poor dog was just worn out after being chased all day!

I tried to get a picture with Taylor, but she kept licking my face!

Here she actually licked my TEETH! GROSS!!!

Apparently, she also enjoyed using me as a "salt lick". We were so sweaty from the zoo and the dog park. I guess I just tasted good to her! UGH!

Wednesday we had lunch with Erin and Joel. Then it was time to hit the road... AGAIN!

Chandler, Erin, Joel, and Riley

We made it to Warner Robins for dinner. We were so tired from all of the traveling!!

On Thursday, we headed over to our new favorite play place, Monkey Joe's.

Cousin Colten and Riley playing in the little kid area.

Colten, Uncle Ben, and Riley

Riley on the Carousel.
All 3 kids played HARD!
Chandler took off the second we hit the door. We hardly saw her unless she stopped in to ask me, Brandon or Uncle Ben to go slide with her. She is an old pro at Monkey Joe's.
Riley LOVED every second! She wanted to do everything... and we did everything!
It took Colten a little while to warm up to all of the excitement, but once he did there was no slowing him down!!!
Ben, Brandon and I were EXHAUSTED! Climbing to the top of all of the inflatables while carrying Riley and/or Colten was enough to wear anyone out!!

The girls and I CRASHED when we got back to the house!
You KNOW Riley's tired when she climbs up into your lap and STOPS MOVING for more than 10 seconds! :)

The next day we took it easy.

Colten & Riley enjoying a little movie time

Brandon and Ben played a little whiffle ball.

Gran and Chandler left for a little granddaughter/grandmother time.
Chandler had a BLAST!


They did the play place at Chick-fil-A and then hit the one at McDonald's.

Gran and Chief bought a blow up pool for the grandkids to splash around in. All 3 kids had a great time!

Chandler being Chandler!

One afternoon, Brandon and Chief made water balloons for the kids to play with in the pool. Chandler knew just what to do with them and she pelted them relentlessly. The little kids weren't quite sure about them. Riley pretty much ignored them and Colten threw them out of the pool onto the concrete.

Brandon & Me on the July 4th.

We did a few sparklers with Chandler on the 4th, but my pictures didn't turn out very good.

On Saturday we loaded up and hit the road!
I think we were all ready to be in our own beds after being gone for 9 days!

Just before loading up and driving the 3.5 hours home.

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!
Thanks Grammy, Squire, Aunt Erin, Uncle Joel, Gran, Chief, Uncle Ben, Aunt Lainey, and Cousin Colten for sharing our vacation with us!!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a fun vacation! I love the family picture of you guys at/before/after? church.

That alligator totally creeps me out! Whenever we go to Florida to visit my in-laws, I'm always so paranoid that one will come out of nowhere and grab one of my babies! They're everywhere down there, even in the ditches sometimes!

debi9kids said...

WOW! Great vacation! Fabulous pictures! Everyone just looks so happy (even in the heat!)
The girls' dresses are GORGEOUS!!!

kristy.lynn @ kristy.makes said...

my word woman. could you guys have done ANYTHING else in the span of 9 days?? y'all looked like you had a blast! sorry we didn't get to meet up with you again w/ the kids... would have loved to have spent more time together... ahh such is life! :)

Graham said...

Great pictures, precious girls, handsome couple - y'all have always been ID (an expression my sister and I used back in highschool when couples were perfect for each other - we said ID for "identical" because couples will start to look like each other after years of marriage; some even "match" before they are married). You and Brandon are ID. And it's amazing how much Colton and Riley favor each other. Love, Miss Danna