Wiki Wachee Springs

Nana is in town (Don's mom), so we took a little trip to see the mermaids at Wiki Wachee Springs. It's a natural spring with year round 74 degree water. It must've been cold for the mermaids. It's a pretty cool show.

We were looking out at the turtles that rested on the manatee's back under water. You can see the hump of the manatee in front of the dock. We're the royal family of the sea here.

We saw a bird show where birds rode roller skates and swung on rings. Isaac got his ears warmed by his Granddad then sat on his Nana's lap.Isaac needed to get out and walk while we watched the show.

We went on the boat ride too. The driver was a ranger who pointed everything out to us including "monkey island" where they put some monkeys until there were too many tourists. We saw another manatee and a bald eagle. She told us about how they have to cancel the mermaid show when alligators are in that part of the spring.
It was a good time for just enjoying family.

There is a mermaid show with real mermaids. The theater goes underground and has windows that open into the clear springs. The mermaids were lip-synching to some songs then just dancing to others. One did a free dive way down in the spring. I liked it when they blew kisses and blew bubbles out. Dylan wanted to go back for another show.

We're waiting for the curtain to open.

THANK YOU Mom and Don

for taking us!!!!

And for even letting me take lots of pictures and for posing for pictures! You got us to all look when we were being pearls here. You know how to make me so happy:)

Why my knees hurt to go down my stairs

It was one of my New Year's resolutions to run a 10K. In 1007. Then I got pregnant with Isaac and felt yucky and depressed and gave up for '07. I didn't make it a goal in 2008 because nobody I knew would want to run one with me and I doubted that I would actually do it alone.
Then I met Lindsay. She pretends to make curtains with me (we'll make hers some day I'm sure), is always in the mood for Cold Stone and/or Panera, and doesn't mind hanging out with me even though I come with kids. She actually likes my kids and Dylan gets so excited when he sees me with her. He says "Is Lindsay you friend, Mommy?" (Apparently all of my other friends are just moms of HIS friends, so they couldn't be my friends. His associations are pretty funny. Maybe I need to get out more.) Also, she has tried to go running with me a couple of times. (I've tried to go running by myself a couple of times too.) I have a lot of excuses: The latest one is that the Friendship trail is CLOSED! I bundled and loaded up Noah and Isaac and headed for the bridge to Tampa and after 1/4 mile, there's a chain link fence. So I ran in circles and had enough. The week before I fed and bundled the babies then realized I had forgotten the stroller. I ran the day before this Turkey trot with my boys. BUT we stopped to pick oranges and wild flowers and pine cones. Dylan stuck croquedema leaves in some to make turkeys for center pieces. We signed up for this 10K Turkey Trot and that was the first time we got to run together, but we really did it!

There were bands and people singing from the Bible along the way. There were so many people there. We talked the whole first half and took it pretty easy. Then Lindsay asked if she could zoom ahead w/o me. It was so much better than I had anticipated. A family was passing out life savers and ate one. I smiled the rest of the way. My neck and arches hurt for part but then I was fine. I only stopped to tie my shoe real quick but jogged the whole thing. I finished 7 min after Lindsay's long legs that have run a marathon before. We're going to run in the Bay to Bay together. I wonder if I'll train. I need people who will make me better b/c I know myself and I won't do things for myself. I'll do them for or with somebody else.

Anyway, I'm glad that I can finally check something off of my 2007 New Year's Resolution list. Yay for me!

Beach Boys

TIMBER!!!

This is the tree my dad just chopped down. You can see how big it is by the little girl in front. Did you see her? Now I'll zoom in. Did you notice my dad up there? Here he is.And this is my Uncle Bernard, my dad's brother. It's his tree so it looks like he helps. I bet my dad didn't even give him the option to do too much. My dad is a bit of a spaz and I'm sure his head was thinking a step ahead of him the whole time. I can only imagine, the ropes, the pulleys, the bow line knots (over under around and through). My dad loves being efficient, daring, hands-on, and helpful with a touch of danger (or stupidity maybe sometimes).

Like some moves-planning-chess players, I'm sure my dad saw this stage of the tree before his first cut. Uncle Bernard looks scared to interfere with the process and my dad looks like he's scared to loose focus by looking at the camera.I love this next picture. I'm not sure if this is one of my cousins climbing behind my dad. I don't think so.

Ta Da!!!

About 60% bow-saw and 40% chainsaw.

It took exactly 3 weeks according to the dates on the pictures. I'm not sure who took them, but thanks! My dad's a maniac. I think I remember him and Martin cutting a tree for home teaching then Martin got sling shot (sling shotted??) up in the air pretty high on accident. Martin was sitting down on a rope so the tree would fall a certain way. My dad let go of his rope and Martin didn't. My dad turned to look and didn't see his kid even though they had been right next to each other. My dad said that he looked all around and Martin was too high for him to even see him in the sky until he was back on his decent. He landed on the sand. SCARY! I don't think they told my mom. They were amazed nothing was broken then laughed the rest of the day. Martin's in Mexico now on his service mission.

Just a little bit wobbly

My Cornucopia (updated w/ your comments)

My Horn of Pleanty includes mainly my two boys.

Next year I'm going to do an advent calendar for November to count down the days until Thanksgiving. We'll refresh our memories of the First Thanksgiving and will write what we're thankful for each day on pieces of paper. We'll put the papers in pockets then will read some of (my) favorites on the special day. I'm going to order a pad of paper that reads "I'm thankful for . . ." at the top so it'll be ready for next year. Or I might get a stamp then can stamp note cards. This year, we'll just do it in our journals like usual. Dylan is thankful for some pretty funny stuff in our nightly prayers. He includes family and friends of course. I love listening to who he thinks about even when we hadn't seen them for a long time. He then goes on to be thankful for Batman and buggies and dinosaurs.

What are YOUR cool holiday traditions? I want to start some more. I ordered a Christmas advent calendar too. Lacey made me one that we'll do along with the kid one.

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Comments:

Amber: what a great idea!!! I love the pics too!

Kat: So where in the world is this cornucopia thing? And I like the info about Dylan's prayers. Buggies, huh? I thought only Malia liked those!

Oh, and I particularly like the photo in which Isaac is going in for the kill--aka he's about to take a big bite out of whatever-the-heck-that-thing-is-made-of. (It's the fourth one down.)

Lindsay: Those are awesome pictures. Does Dylan ever say that he is thankful for me??? :) I was going to ask you how much your aunt charges for pictures? I am interested in doing Christmas cards for friends/families. Or maybe I can just have you take some pictures for us?? :) We don't really have any traditions yet. BUT, my grandpa used to put just one kernal of corn on everyone's plate because that is what the pilgrims had at their first Thanksgiving (I hope that is correct history...they could have been making it up for all I know), then they would go around the table and say one thing that they are thankful for. I think my mom tried it out with us kids for awhile...but it didn't last!! I can't wait for the holidays to hit. I wont feel so guilty stuffing my face cause I will have just run 6.2ish miles! Are you signed up yet??

My Replies:

Kat, It's on 54th Ave N near Park Street. It's so random, but perfect for Thanksgiving. I was trying to think of some Thanksgiving card like "my cup runneth over with blessings" or "I have pleanty of blessings" since it's a horn of pleanty, or something corny for the cornucopia. I just put it on my blog instead.

I did use one of the pictures on the "I'm thankful for . . ." note pad and put a scripture on the bottom too. I'm really liking that idea for next year. It might come in time for Thanksgiving day this year too. And I kinda wanted them to be eating fruit, but I only had oranges from our tree, so they are holding (and throwing) them in some pictures. Isaac's eating that red fruit too b/c he's trying to pull himself up to standing but he's wedged in there:)

And Dylan doesn't like bugs, but I think there was a book about bugs on the floor when he was peeking in his prayer. Of course I peek too, and so would you if you could see him squirming on his knees with his arms folded trying to sneek his thumb:)

Lindsay, I think he did say "Thanks you for Lin-see."

I'll ask my aunt what she charges, or I'll take them for you if you take some silly ones for us.

I think your grandpa was doing an object lesson with you with the one kernal thing. Saying what we're thankful for is a tradition my mom keeps up too.

And YES, I signed up for the 10K Turkey Trott! Can you believe it? It's been a goal of mine, so thanks for doing it w/ me even though it's a tiny run compared to what you've done. I'm going to hate it from the start, but I'll be able to check it off of my list. You will probably finnish waaaaaaay before me with your long legs, so wait around the finnish line for me, k?

Good Daddy

We went to Busch Gardens last week. Steven took the day off to take us there b/c his pass will expire soon and he knew we needed a staycation. We had a day of fun.
There should really be more flamingos around.

Dylan could really push on the screen to touch this big lizzard guy

Dylan is old enough to really like the kid rides. He rode some with Daddy.

And some with Mommy.

He played with Isaac some.

But was thrilled to go on some by himself.

Pure happiness

I thought he'd be scared on this airplane ride, but he wasn't!

I got Isaac out while we waited for Dylan and Steven to go on one ride. He had gotten pricked on his toes for Iron testing that morning. They had to prick him twice because it was a bad reading the first time. The 2nd prick told us he's A-ok.Dylan went on Stanley Falls with Steven. (I think that's the name.) Dylan was so scared on it. Mean Daddy. I don't think I would even want to go down it.

See the splash and tear drops on his face? He forgave Steven.

Profiles

The animals are a fun part of this park. We could spend days and days here.

Dylan's not too pleased with me posing hif for pictures.

Isaac and Dylan were DONE by the time we left even though it wasn't that long.