Birthday, hikes, and Pranks

 Every year, Jeremy gets to celebrate his birthday with his Granny.  Their dates are just two days apart, so we always enjoy a lot of family time in mid October.  This year was Granny's 75th birthday, so she requested that all of her children come together for the weekend.  We get to benefit from that since we live so close to her.

 We went to a yummy restaurant with a beautiful view on the Peace River just before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.  Hanny and I enjoyed playing together at the end of the table.

 Lots of fun time with Grammy and Gramps of course.

 Yeah, it's a picture of me.  But, I thought it was good one, so I might as well post it, right?

 It has been fun getting to know Aunt Lisa and Uncle Gary over the past few years.  This is a great photo of them.

I am not sure if Granny or Patches was blowing out the candles on this cake.

Granny and her four children.  She is a proud mama.

 I know I just said that pure joy was a little boy playing in the sand, but it could also be a little boy playing with a little puppy.  These two wore each other out!

 We spent the night at Aunt Lisa's with her grand kids.  The kids enjoyed playing with on another when they woke up.

 We thought the kiddos would need to run off some energy, so we took a couple of hours to go to Myakka State Park.

 We stopped to see if we could find any wild life in the river as we crossed the bridge.

 And we found this big dude chillin out.

 The highlight was the little hike to the observation tower.  The kids enjoyed climbing trees together.

 Our expert climber (check out those bare feet!)

 This picture was the last bit of dry land.  It was so muddy and swampy.  I am a big fat baby.  I pretend like I want to "adventure" until I do it.  Then I get scared and start thinking of everything that could bite or eat me.

 It took a lot of effort to get to this walkway between the trees.  But, I have to say, it was worth it (we were about 30 feet above ground here I would say)

 We made it to the tower, 75 feet high.  Isn't it pretty?

 Back at Granny's, we were all entertained by the story telling that came from the brothers.  Each was trying to beat the other one with a better story ;)

Nicole made fast friends with Aunt Deanna.  

 Me and my little friend Alana.

 OK, So this was a really funny part...and kind of mean part of the day.  Jeremy gets his pranks honestly from his family.  His dad and uncles are incredibly ornery.

 They played a game with Hannah  where she was rolling a quarter off of her nose.

 However, everytime the quarter fell, they would trace it on the paper (she was trying to get it in the larger circle).  So, the next time the quarter rolled across her face, she would actually be making graphite lines across her face.

 Bless that poor child's heart.  She had no idea!  She was so proud at how close she was getting to dropping that quarter into the circle.

 Even big sister got in the action, egging Hanny on.

 She finally did it!  She got her quarter in the circle.  Look at that proud little face (still completely unknowing that she was marking herself up)

 The big reveal......

 Hiding into Daddy's arms.

She was none to happy with us.  But, she got over it about as fast as she got mad.  She was a good sport.  What a great day with family!

Zoo & the Beach

Jeremy's parents came down for a visit a couple of weeks ago.  The kids were really excited to see Grammy and Gramps.  They enjoyed just chillin with them in the garage.

 Wednesday, we decided to take them to the Lowry Park Zoo.  It was a beautiful day.  A lot of the animals were out and pretty visible.  We happened to walk past the orangutan exhibit as they were getting a mid day snack.  Isn't this guy cool?

 The zoo keeper was throwing fruits and vegetables at the Orangutans.  This dude had good eye/hand coordination.

 There's big poppy again, with his feet and mouth full.

 Nathan and I went on the super fun kids roller coaster.  He is a great riding partner

 We did a behinds the scenes tour that was new to us.  It was a tram ride into some special exhibits.

Hannah wanted to take pictures on the tram ride.  So, the following photos are courtesy of Hannah

 Did you notice a pattern?  She was able to capture the rear end of each animal. Poor thing, haha!

We had another special treat, the baby hippo was out.  It was only 4 days old!  You can kind of see it in this picture, smooshed between the glass and its momma.

 I've never seen their Florida Panther active.  He was running all over the exhibit today.

 The kids always love to touch the sting rays.  Even Nathan got his fingers down in the water that day.

 They had some special one on one time with one of the zoo keepers.

After the zoo, we headed to Madeira Beach to meet Jeremy for dinner. 

 Silly boy and I took funny photos.

 I really like this beach.  It is huge.  It has sugar sand.  It has a draw bridge.  It has food and shopping.  It has a bathroom.  And it has beautiful sunsets.

 There is almost nothing more pure than a little boy playing in the sand.

 Trying to hold the sun up.

 My absolute favorite picture.  Click on it to make it bigger.  I love that I caught him in mid jump.

 Of course, we had to finish the night off in a typical family style.  Jeremy remembered that he had to take his truck somewhere to have a bed liner put in, so Greg following in my van.  We crammed that van (already full with 7 people, including three sleeping children, with tools, boxes, etc, and even strapped a truck topper and ladder to my van top.  Straight up hillybilly here ya'll.

Jeremy had a Birthday

We have had a super busy, but super fun weekend.  It all started last week when Jeremy's mom and dad came down to visit.  We were excited to see them, because it had been since May!  Those pictures will come later this week.  

Then we had a fun time celebrating Granny's 75th birthday and visiting with more family....yep...those pictures will come later as well. 

I wanted to make sure I got Jeremy's birthday posted first.  You see, he is the man of our house, and we are so very thankful for him!

After a really great church service, we took off for Ybor City.  I'm still a little nervous down there, and will probably never show my face at night, or much after 2 in the afternoon.  However, I have learned to appreciate the history of this once booming area of Tampa.

 Jeremy decided he wanted to eat at Tampa Bay Brewing Company for his birthday lunch.  We visited this restaurant a month or two ago, and we thought his parents would enjoy it.

 The boys enjoyed looking at the....um...tanks?  I don't know.  What are those big things called that they make beer in?  Distilleries?  Vats? Big metal cylinders?  Either way...even for a non-beer drinker like me, it's kind of cool to look at and learn about.

 One of their favorite things about this restaurant is that they can sample any and all of house made beers.  It's a cool concept.  I would prefer a chocolate tasting, but hey...it's not my birthday!  Jeremy actually said he liked the seasonal pumpkin brew the best.

 The second best thing about this restaurant is their variety of food.  They have a cool menu with the best cheese dip in town, and lots of interesting variety.  Last time we got Shepherd's Pie...it was delicious.  This time, Jeremy ordered "The Bomb"

 "The Bomb" is a colossal burger covered in bacon, fried onions, cheese, and wrapped in their house made pizza dough.  It was a thing of beauty, and quiet delicious.  I could only hold in one bite, but it was a good one!

Nicole loves this restaurant because she can order a nutella sandwich.  

 We finished off the day with a much needed nap (how else can you begin to digest "The Bomb"), ball toss in the street, and yummy cheesecake and gifts.

 Our annual tradition is for the kids to make scrapbook pages of pictures with just them and their daddy and give it to him for Father's Day.  Well, we missed it this year...so that became him birthday gift.  It is always fun to go through that album, and the kids did 100% of the work this year.

 To top off a wonderful birthday, Jeremy's "Best Friend" Peyton Manning made NFL history and broke the record for most Touchdown passes thrown in a career.

Jeremy, we love you!  Thank you for celebrating another birthday with us.  We'll go hiking soon ;)

Why we pray (Nate's point of view)

Conversations with Nathan:

N: Hey mom, wanna know what I know about God?

M: yeah buddy, what do you know?"

N: I know that he loves all people. But I don't know what he looks like and I've never talked to him.

M: Buddy, you talk to God.  Every time you pray, you are talking to God.

N: I aaaaam???

(Thinking) mommy, I thought that if we don't pray, the rocks will.

M: well, um, kind of

N: hey mom- how do rocks cry out if they don't have mouths?

(Then he runs off)