Summer Swing

We are back in the swing of summer, but not for long as we head out to see my brother and sister in law this weekend in Arkansas. This week feels somewhat like summer though as we swim, have camps, play with the chickens, garden and stay up a little later.

I think the kids are past the point of exhaustion....seeing as how we didn't get home from TX until midnight on Sunday and they were up until 9 last night reading in their bedrooms. I guess those new library books and toys that they forgot they had while we were gone kept them up. I was out pretty quickly...that 11 hour drive is a doozy and I took the late shift since Adam had to work..I did every trick to keep myself awake and basically rubbed peppermint oil under my nose or on my neck every 15/20 minutes.

The oils came in so handy on our trip. We didn't need bug bite meds for the kids, or after sun care for Adam, or any face moisturizer or make up cleanser. We didn't need any meds for my dad when he fell at the water park. We didn't use any advil for any of the 5 headaches we got between Adam and I. We didn't need any meds for Adam when he started feeling sick on the way home. The kids loved getting daily massages and we even loaded my Nana down with a hand and neck massage that she loved. It was so nice just having my little box plus our toothbrushes, instead of 5 different bags of "just in case meds".

Yesterday I did a good job getting the overtaken garden back in order. I also planted our tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers....our pumpkin plant is taking over and so I cut it back. I also cleaned up the weeds growing in between our stone walkway by the garden...I am telling you I have never sweat so much in my life...and my abs were killing me by the time I raked all those weeds. Goober helped out and cut the grass while Dad was at work so that he could just relax when he got home.

Road trip pictures...

Day before we left was Goober's birthday...We had a fun day at the water park with these sweet friends plus two others who left earlier. 

At the pool in our hotel in Conway....between this and baptizing each other they had a good time!

We met our sweet friend from seminary with her 4 kiddos at the Bass Pro Shop in Memphis TN...this is about right as far as the kiddos expressions.

Shooting some rodents!

Deanna and her husband Andy were some of our closest friends in seminary....5 years later and 7 kids later we still picked up right where we left off!

Our next stop in Nashville TN was to see and stay with our friends the Kendricks. Adam and Daniel were close buds in college and Baby Boy quickly fell in love with their cats!

Earlier that morning I had a great run for the first day of July!

Avie and Ribbit were fast friends..they are the same age!

The Kendricks showed us around downtown Franklin and treated us to dinner at barTaco!

Boys will be boys.

More of the instant BFF cuteness!

We treated the Kendricks to dessert at Sprinkles..the first cupcake bakery...They had never been. All 3 Kendricks got cupcakes and my three opted for ice cream!

Road Trippin Part 2

We are currently at my parents home...and have finally been in the same town for more than 24 hours. Its nice to be out of the care some too but I have to admit that seeing college/high school friends with their kiddos makes any road trip worth it.

So far we have been to Conway, Arkansas-----Memphis, TN----Nashville, TN---------Huntsville, AL------Lake Guntersville, AL--------Bay Minette, AL------Pensacola, FL-------Dauphin Island, AL.

We spent the 4th of July out on Lake Guntersville with Adam's family. They have a lake house there and we spent the day with his mom's side of the family swimming, kayaking, sliding, and fishing. The kids were literally doing something with the lake ALL DAY LONG. They loved every part of it, especially kayaking with their cousins and grandparents.

We stopped in Birmingham the next day and had lunch with Steph and her two sweet boys...who I swear have aged 10 years since the last time I saw them...they are only 3 and 5 :). That was the last of our wonderful meals with college friends. So far we have eaten with the Chessers and their son Julian at Martins BBQ in Nashville, barTaco with the Kendricks and their 3 sweet girls in Franklin and stopped to see Deanna and her 2 sets of twins in Memphis. Its funny to see how great of parents your goofball college friends make :)....like really awesome parents who teach me something every time I am around them.

Since we have arrived here we have DONE A LOT.

Thursday we spent the whole day with my Aunt Robin and Uncle Discipline, uh I mean Carl. We REALLY LOVE THEM..they have been a constant in my family's life through some trying times. They are always quick to love and support us and they love on my kiddos....including with sweet homemade cards in the mail from Aunt Robin lately. They met us at IHop and then we spent the day at Sams Fun City waterpark in Pensacola. The kids LOVED everything there....we did all of the slides, in double tubes, single tubes, as a race, etc. We did the Lazy River or according to Baby Boy, the "Lazy Liver" at least 20 times around...at least. We laughed so hard at each other. They had a bucket that would dump a massive amount of water on you without any notice. Carl kept getting dumped up and would throw his hands up and say "What the heck" while looking like a drowned rat...IT WAS HYSTERICAL!!!!!! Watching my dad, Adam, Carl and Goober go down the scary slide was also awesome. To top it off with my two youngest and my dad were rinsing off when a booty shaking song came on and in the middle of the park they all started busting out moves.....typical white man moves and so hip wiggling moves from my two youngest.

Today we had a BIG DAY. We got up early and headed down the Dauphin Island Sea Lab...it was small but very neat and educational. We learned all about zombies, pufferfish, weird things called leopard searobins which look like a cross between a fish and a crab...seriously the weirdest thing I have seen in a while. We felt sting rays, octopus, sharks, eels, sponges, crabs, snakes, etc. We saw what looked like electric jellyfish and sharks that look like they are upside down but really its a part of their body that lets them attach themselves to other sharks ...like a parasite almost. We learned about estuaries and how Mobile Bay is a large one..with fresh water and salt water mixing. We saw shells, crabs and oysters and beautiful scenery. We ate lunch at a nearby small italian hole in the wall and then looked around at Fort Gaines.
Then my parents kept telling the kids that we couldn't go back over the bridge to get home...we were going to have figure out some other way. They were psyched to see that we were all getting on a ferry, along with the van and riding over to Fort Morgan. It was neat to do something that I have never done so close to home. The ride was quite enjoyable and we saw oil rigs, pelicans, other boats, lighthouses and took in the sights of what we consider "home", but from a different perspective.

My 3 studs in stripes for church!

I love our church family. We celebrated our good friends promotion with lunch and homemade ice creams!

His 12 year old flat top..geesh.

Jedi Lego Camp with friends!

Science Camp Ocean day snacks...twinkie submarines which she didn't like and banana dolphins...SO CUTE

His actual birthday! We snuck behind him and got this knife he wanted from Costa Maya on our cruise.

Birthday kolache!

Birthday CrossFit workout with mom!

Science Camp Farm day....shaving sheep!

They LOOOOVEEE getting cards from Aunt Robin and they proudly pin them on our shutters in the living room!

I found this birthday card for Goober on my shopping trip to Waco..Its framed now in our living room.

Ducklings and their momma a block from our home...you should have heard the kids when they saw this...I think I heard the word CUTE about 10000x!

Baby Boy's battle bot from Jedi Lego Camp!

Pictures from our Road Trip to come!

Road Trippin

Our road trip thus far has been utterly exhausting, but for the most part the good kind of exhausting, where you are happy to worn out and happy to go to bed!

We stayed in Conway AR the first night at our favorite hotel…Country Inn and Suites…we love the rooms, customer service, pool, work out areas and the breakfast is by far the best hotel breakfast we have seen. I woke up early and got in 8 miles on the treadmill before everyone else woke up. Then we showered, ate breakfast and hopped in the car headed to Memphis.

We arrived in Memphis and went to the Bass Pro Shop at the Pyramid to meet our good friend from SWBTS (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary). She and her two sets of twins were waiting there to show us the fish and other stuffed animals. Her husband was out of town so between the 3 parents we had 7 kiddos…..5 under 4 years of age to wrangle. BUT it was fun. We hadn’t seen Deanna in 5 years….she wasn’t pregnant yet and we had just adopted Goober and Ribbit. She threw us a huge party and also came to Ribbit’s 2 year old birthday party. She stayed with me when Adam went out of the country and we had weekly dates to watch a show that we both loved. Adam and her husband Andy loved watching Harry Potter movies together and the wives loved that we weren’t drug along to watch those J. It was such a sweet, but too short, stop and we left there after 1.5 hours.

We ate lunch from our cooler and arrived in Nashville that afternoon at our friend. We went straight to the Kendricks home, Adam’s friends from college. We have seen them off and on over the past 7 years but normally only one at a time and never with all 3 of their girls. We loaded up all 6 kiddos and headed to a local pool. The kids wore themselves out swimming, showing each other tricks, racing the parents and jumping in. The parents caught up on life…the dad’s in the deep end and the moms in the shallow end with the younger kids. Their oldest is Ribbit’s age and they were instant best friends. They held hands and sat by each other. Ribbit was so happy to have other little girls around. Then we all changed and headed to barTaco ….a newer pace in the revitalized part of Nashville. It was pretty good. The kids shared a large kids tray which had 3 skewers of huge pieces of pineapple and watermelon, a bowl of cucumbers, 3 tacos, 1 quesadilla, a bowl of guacamole and drinks. Adam had the falafel taco, a pork pastor taco and fish taco. I had two pork pastor tacos on a piece of lettuce and spicy cucumber salad….a long with about 3 cups of water as were were THIRSTY!!! The kids were so excited to find a  SPRINKLES (the first cupcake bakery) right down the street so we let them choose dessert. All 3 of our kids wanted icecream and all 3 Kendrick girls got cupcakes…..hehe.

This morning I woke up and used the  large hill to the Kendrick house for my workout. I did 15 rounds up the hill with a set of either dumbbell rows, deadlifts or manmakers in between each one, totaling up 2 miles. Then I walked down their steet to the high way …on the way back up the hill I did opposite leg toe touches and 3 different plank exercises (a great ab workout) and I loved the scenery!!! Then we headed straight to downtown Franklin. We stopped at Frothy Monkey coffee and the kids got a banana chocolate drink while Adam and I got coffees. We walked around downtown Franklin, checking out the old theater and statues before we headed to the best Farmers Market ever at the Factory. There were so many things to see, taste, do. There were vendors with every kind of handmade goods you can imagine, all kinds of super cute artwork and jewelry….and we TRIED EVERYTHING….we didn’t even need breakfast.

From there we  headed to eat lunch at Martins bbq with Adam’s friends from high school who are now practicing attorneys in Nashville. They along with their youngest met us there just in the nick of time….right as we ordered the lunch crowd came in and the line went out the door. It was funny that the last time we were all together was at our weddings…1 year apart.  The food there was great and my smoked turkey salad with pecans, cranberries and onions was to die for. The kids loved their brisket and the mini moon pies they gave away. I saw that they had Cheerwine which is like a cherry Dr. Pepper. I drank it a lot during the two summers I worked in NC during college. I let Goober get a glass bottle of it and he loved it too!!!

From there we headed to go some touristy things around Nashville and Lolly met us. We went to Lipscomb, where Adam attended for two years. We went to see the Parthenon and take silly pictures. We went to the Bluebird Café which for me was HUGE as I love country music. We then headed to a little street that Adam remembered from college. There were lots of neat stores and restaurants there. We window shopped, tried weird ice cream flavors at Jeni’s and looked for 2 specific presents---to which we were not successful. Goober surprised me by buying a purse that I liked. He told Adam about it and they agreed that he could use birthday money to buy it. So while I thought Adam and Goober were outside people watching they were actually scheming and Goober was so excited when he handed me my purse. I was speechless and said “ you shouldn’t have done that”…his response was “well I don’t need the money and you wanted it”. What a sweet boy with a big heart.

We settled at Double Dogs for dinner where they serve your food in dogs bowls…not the best in my opinion but the kids liked it J. Now we are en route to Lolly and Captains for a few days and I am honestly stoked to be in one place for more than 4 hours and not living out of our van.

Teacher Trip to Waco for some antique shopping...this was quite a fun and funny day! Love these ladies!

Showing off their bubbas food table at his party.

Someone got into the face paint at her bubba's party!!!

12 year olds apparently like watermelon flavored cupcakes...eecchhkk

The sweetest group of 12 year old boys plus a 4 year old who thinks he is 12.

I forgot to include these cute answers from Baby Boy about his Daddy on his Fathers Day Card.