The Rest of Florida

The rest of our trip was filled with the beach, some delicious meals and some shopping!  I can't believe I'm just now finishing up talking about this considering it was over two months ago, but nonetheless, here are some more pictures. 

This boy was putting his dance moves to good use in the ocean.

He was also putting some kind of magical spell onto the ocean.

Crazy, silly boy.

"Daddy, please pick me up!"

Doing the "Sanibel Stoop" (even though we weren't in Sanibel).

Karate kick move for the ocean.

We had dinner at St. John's Pass one night....love his arm around her neck.

Waiting for dinner.

Did this all on her own...and I seriously hardly ever take selfies.

I'm pretty sure this was her "winking" face.

....and I guess to round it out...here's Parker with the Captain.  haha!

Florida Part Two--Smuggler's Cove

The night after Parker got his stitches, my mom and sister oh-so-kindly watched Audrey so that Ryan and I could take Parker on a "date".  We first went to Smuggler's Cove, which is the local mini-golf place.  When we went to Florida last year, there was a mini-golf course at the hotel we stayed at in Orlando, and he has mentioned it several times.  He was so excited when we told him we were going to play again.

This particular mini-golf had a pond with alligators to feed.  Of course, Parker liked it!

Check out this sweet little head and neck.

Sweet little boy.

It was fun to play no-rules/no-score golf with my two men.

A little help with his form from Daddy.

A couple funny things about our golf experience.  One was that there was a placard at one of the holes that said something about a ghost whispering the secret of the hole to you (or something like that).  His little face was so concerned until we reminded him that ghosts are not real and that there was actually not going to be any ghosts whispering any secrets to him.  There were also a couple caves in the course, and within one of those caves was a little vignette that had a skeleton dressed a pirate with some treasure-type items.  He looked completely terrified.  We told him it was Captain Hook's treasure chest and somehow that made him seem to feel a little better about it.  He talked about it for the rest of the evening and trip.  

After dinner, we went to eat at The Pub and had a nice dinner on the deck.  After dinner, we went to have ice cream at the Candy Kitchen.  It was such a great night and so fun to do something alone with our sweet little boy!

Florida Part One

We went to Indian Rocks Beach in Florida from April 26th to May 3rd this year as a "second annual" family trip!  We had a really great time.  There was definitely no lack of excitement--that's for sure!

When we arrived in Orlando, we made the drive to the condo to get all of our stuff situated and then headed to a great little restaurant called Marlin Darlin's for dinner.  I took one picture that day and it was of my gorgeous girl.

The next day we went down to the beach for the morning.  Audrey was NOT a fan to start off with.  She pretty much refused to put her feet in the sand the entire first day and screamed her head off any time I tried to make her stand.

She was pretty happy playing with the sand from the safety of her sun tent.

This boy was beyond ready to get into the water.  He was sooooo excited and loved it.

The next day we headed back to the beach again and started off the morning actually down at the beach.  It was super windy, which made it a little cooler, and Parker wanted to go into the pool instead.  We all eventually went up to the pool to hang out there.  Parker and Audrey were jumping off of the side of the pool into our arms and having a blast when Parker jumped to Ryan once when he wasn't ready.  Parker's chin hit the top of Ryan's head and busted open.  It was bleeding and of course he was screaming, and it didn't take us long to determine that he probably would need stitches.  (((alert::: gross picture coming up!)))

We went to an urgent care and saw a doctor who said he'd definitely need stitches but that he didn't recommend us having them done there because they didn't have the restraints necessary if they needed to tie him down.  He recommended that we go to the Emergency Room, so we headed there.  The hospital was very nice but we ended up waiting for around three hours before we were seen.  It was crazy.  When we were finally taken back, we saw a Physician's Assistant who got things rolling.  She brought a topical anesthetic to try to numb the area a bit before she actually did the local injection.  Parker went crazy and freaked out just over having the liquid-soaked cotton ball placed on his chin, so we knew they stitches themselves weren't going to go well.  Two nurses had to come in to assist her.  They had him stand up and put his hands to the side so they could "wrap him up in a blanket so he wouldn't get cold" aka restrain his arms.  Then one nurse stood up at his head to hold his head still and the other stood down at Parker's legs and gently laid a pillow there to lean on to hold his legs down.  Ryan and I stood right by his head so Ryan could hold the phone for him to "watch" and I rubbed his hair.  

Hearing him scream and cry through that ordeal was the worst thing I've ever experienced.  It truly seemed like the anesthesia didn't work all the way because every time she put the needle through his skin he re-clenched his teeth, cried harder and his poor little face turned blood red.  It was so hard to watch that, but it was over pretty quickly.  Here was the final result:

First-ever stitches........done.

The next day we re-visited the Sunken Gardens that we went to last year so we could renew our Botanical Gardens memberships.  It's so beautiful there that we just had to take some pictures! 

My sweeties.  Notice the stroller?  I forgot ours at home and had to grab a $20 one from Wal-Mart.  It did the trick! 

Love this sweetheart with his bandaid chin.

Walking on the "rocky trail."

He was really giving me a lot of smiles that day! 

Here's the real Parker Jefferson.

With my lovely mother and sister!  Love these ladies!

Feeding the fish.

Best buddies.

A re-take of our "love picture" from last year.

Isn't this plant huge?  It was so tall.  And a fake smile from P. 

Audrey was not all about giving me any smiles that day.

Mona, NayNay, and their favorite babies!

More to come!  :)

Easter 2014.......Three Weeks Later

Easter this year was COLD but more fun than ever!  It's fun to see how the kids "get it" more and more each year and have more fun with every holiday.  Audrey was actually interested in her Easter basket this year, and Parker was SO pumped when it was time to do the egg hunt outside.  They had so much fun!  As I mentioned in the Mother's Day post, our Sunday schedule is almost always the same, and the only difference in this Sunday was that I did not have breakfast at my parents' house.  We dropped the kids off and let them eat there because we had to be at both church services that morning to sing with the choir.  Instead of having them in the nursery all morning, they ate at my parents and stayed there until I picked them up after the first service.  Then normal Sunday activities commenced!  

Early morning Easter basket "discovery" at about 7:30 am.

Love the look on his face.

This girl loves wearing sunglasses.

A real and true smile from PBJ!

Okay so now we fast forward to about 5pm for easter egg hunt time at Omi and Opa's!

She got the hang of it pretty quickly.

And of course this boy was trying to find every egg in the yard.

This is Parker's, "Okay, you told me to smile and I'm smiling are we done with this picture yet?" face.

I love mandatory hand-holding!

This is the part where I forced them to sit and take a "good picture" together.  This was the best that I got!

And a little "real life" thrown in for good measure. 

...and here we are all together!

And for fun......here are the kids from last year:

Snaggle toof and the sweetest goofy brother a girl could ask for!  Note that Audrey is wearing the same dress.  I love that the smocked dresses can be worn for more than just one season!