Dear Family Members....

...Who Are Coming To Visit Next Summer,

We headed down to one of our favorite hang outs today and thought we'd share. Check out what you have to look forward to at our wonderful (Florida) beaches! Again we can't wait for Grandma and Grandpa's boogie boardin' debute...ya better believe they'll be pictures/videos of that! :) We're countin' down the days until you get here for some fun in the sun.

Love,

Rick, Nicole, Blake and Ashlyn

PS - Sorry I cut the beginning of Rick's ride off, my camera has a stupid delay and I didn't take it into consideration when filming...but it still looks fun eh?

PPS - I opted to leave off the video of him wiping out as he was smashed by a wave. I figured that wouldn't be very conducive to getting Grandma and Grandpa out there to give it a shot.

Watch Out Miss Paula Dean...

...here comes the South's youngest and cutest chef! Neither of my kids have ever shown much interest in helping in the kitchen - but I can't say that I minded it though. However, tonight the boys were playing football and Ashlyn was feeling left out so I decided to help HER make some Carmel Popcorn. I was actually surprised at how much she was able to do....maybe kids helping in the kitchen isn't so bad after all.

Watching the kernels pop - she was laughing hysterically about it. With microwave popcorn I don't know that she's seen it popped like this before.

Sifting all the unpopped kernels out so we don't break a tooth eating our tasty treat.

Stiring the carmel sauce to pour over it all.

Spreading it all out to cool off....yummy!

Tinkling the Ivories

Ashlyn has been taking piano lessons for a little over a month now and we've finally fixed the problem with posting videos on our blog (thanks Aunt Shannon!) so ya'll can see how she's doing. Thank goodness the newness of playing has worn off and she doesn't feel like she has to practice her songs every time she walks by the piano...she's finally content with practicing once a day. The only disadvantage that I've found with starting her so young is that she has no concept of reading - left to right, top to bottom - so until she knows the songs really well, I have to track the music with my finger for her while she plays or she gets lost.

Not too shabby for a little lady who just turned three eh?

Blake's been taking lesssons for almost 2 years and is excited that he can play numerous hymns and songs from the Children's Song Book.

He can't wait until he's old enough to start band. He's said since he was 3 that he wants to play the french horn, now he's leaning towards the drums - dad says no. I told him as long as he can play ALL of the hymns I don't care what he plays. He keeps begging for organ lessons, but not until he can play the majority of the hymns.

He Doesn't Have a Mean Bone in Him....

...which leads to problems on the football field. We're still waiting to see what team Blake will be on this year, but group football practice started a few days ago. Let's just say Blake ended up being run over, pushed down and plowed over WAY more than he anticipated...even when he was the one playing defense and it was just him and the guy running the ball! I think it's going to be a LONG season...keep him in your prayers - he's going to need it to stay out of the Emergency Room. It's definitely a WHOLE different world than last year's flag football.

A Day at Magnolia Springs

We decided to hop in the car this weekend for a day trip up to Magnolia Springs. For those readers who live in Southern Georgia, ya really should check this place out! These pictures do not do the scenery justice, it is beautiful up there with it's crystal clear water. We even managed to hit it on a relatively "cool" day and had a great time.
We are sad to report that we only saw one gator this time up there...but I was able to get about 10 feet away from it to snap its picture as it was swimming. We've seen tons of gators in the wild, but I've never gotten that close without some sort of barrier between me and it...I'm happy to report that I still have all of my limbs!
Then after a picnic lunch and some hiking we decided to rent a row boat to take out on the lake to get closer to the swampy areas in search of more gators...we had a fun time, but didn't find any more.
How cute are these little guys, gettin' their tans on? (Click on picture to blow it up bigger.) We saw probably 50-60 turtles swimming in the springs today! Ya gotta LOVE day trips.

Surf's Up!

And up it was! The red flags were flying at the Lifeguard Stations all day, but it sure made for some good boogie boardin'! (Even though our friend's 8-year-old daughter had to be rescued by the lifeguards before we got there.) We headed down to one of our favorite beaches and met up with some friends for some fun in the sun. The Dad's went out ridin' together....I was finally able to drag my friend out for a try at it. She's from California and has lived in southern Georgia for more than 6 years and has never been boarding - what the heck! She wasn't quick to admit it, but I think she had fun with it.Blake was even able to catch a few good rides once it calmed down a bit.The younger kids opted to play in a pit that somebody had dug out before we got there - aka the playpen. The pictures don't do it justice, but it was pretty deep. The older kids had fun running and jumping off the sides down into it.All in all it was a BEAUTIFUL Florida day at the beach, wish ya were there to enjoy it with us!

The Back to School Blues

Today our very big 2nd grader headed back to school. All week he was kind of bummed that summer vacation was over and wasn't looking forward to going back. If you know Blake that is VERY unusual, he hates days off and vacations from school. We always tease him that he's Number 5 from the Short Circut movies - he is always looking for "more imput" as Number 5 would say. After he went to open house last night and found out that he doesn't have the same 2nd grade teacher he did for math last year he was relieved...this morning ya would've thought it was Christmas with how excited and giddie he was. I'm just glad he finally took off the football helmet that he wore all day yesterday. Here's to bumping up to 3rd grade during the day being better than 2nd grade was last year!

Heaven Help Us!

Football season is upon us and this year is tackle football. This afternoon we went and signed Blake up and got all of his equipment,when it hit me that he's old enough to strap on pads and beat other kids up...I'm not too sure how I feel about that. It was neat that all the teams wear white helments and then there are various pro/collage logos on them. Since we don't follow NFL and they didn't have U of O, Blake didn't have any preference. He can't wait to see what helmets his friends and teammates end up with. Now we just have to wait for Dad to come home and tell us which team Blake's is. Practices start in 2 weeks, with games beginning the end of September - wish us luck! (Thanks goodness with our insurance that E.R. visits only cost us $75!)