Vacation Day 4

WOW! What an exciting day! We had so much fun!

We started out the day by going to Gulf World-we were super excited about seeing all of the animals and shows, especially the dolphin show. We got there just in time for the parrot show, which was pretty cute.  The parrots did fun tricks like roller skate & ride a zip line.  Next was the dolphin show. At one point during the show, they asked for volunteers from the audience to help be “trainers”. Evan volunteered! I was very proud of him for being so brave.  He got to go down in front of the tank (he took Nick with him).  Along with a group of other volunteers, they had the dolphins do some cute tricks like turn circles, jump and wave.  When they were done, one of the real trainers asked Evan if he would like to go up on the stage! So, of course, he said only if Daddy could come.  It was so cool watching them be a big part of the show. They even got to shake hands with the dolphins!! Mommy was sooo excited for them, but also so jealous! =)

Other things we got to see & touch were a parrot, a lizard, a king snake, and sting rays. 

After Gulf World & lunch, we came back to the condo & went down to the beach, where we buried Evan in the sand and swam in the ocean with lots seaweed!

Here is a collage of just some of the many pictures from today:

Vacation Day 3

Today was a very relaxing day.  We spent most of the day at the beach, had dinner at Spinnaker, then went to putt putt.

Heading down to the beach! 

 

 

 

 

 

We had to come up with a compromise for the elevators. Evan gets to push the up & 21 buttons every time we are going up to the condo & Gracie gets to push the down & G button when we are going down. So glad I thought of this the 1st night. We would’ve had many fights over this!

 

Looking for shells

  This is Gracie’s favorite kind of shell-“bacon” (she found a bunch of bacons last year, which is when she came up with the name).

Daddy took the kids back down to the beach for a walk while Mommy got cleaned up to go out to dinner.

Here is a note they wrote me in the sand. I also caught Nick in the act of making a heart…aaww! (hope it was for me!)

Waiting for dinner at Spinnaker:

Putt Putt:

Vacation Day 2

Oh.my.gosh! The weather here is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! We seriously couldn’t ask for better.  Mid 80s, slight breeze, no humidity, sunny, few clouds…aahhh-perfect!! As an added bonus, we love, love, love our condo. 

Day 2 consisted of Yahtzee, beach, pool, beach, Pineapple Willy’s for dinner & a little more beach. During dinner we got to see dolphins out in the ocean. One small dolphin even did some tricks for us!

Perfect first day at the beach!!

view from our condo on the 21st floor

1st time in the ocean

 

 

 

 

 

working hard to bury mommy’s feet

	Dinner @ Pineapple Willy’s & playing on the beach, watching the sunset

Vacation!!! Day 1

Day 1 of vacation mainly consisted of lotsa driving.  We did, however, stop at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  I had never been there before, so I was as excited as the kids were.  We got to see a lot of good stuff including a rock from the moon. Nick, Evan and I got to ride the G-force accelerator, where we got to see what it was like to have 3 Gs pushing on our bodies.  This was something else I was really excited about, but after riding it, I don’t think I’d ever ride it again. It was really intense!

Here are some pictures from our visit to the museum. 

Evan is Seven!!!

I can’t believe my baby boy is already seven! Time really does fly! Here’s a look back through the years.

 

His 1st Birthday:

 

2nd Birthday:

 

 

3rd Birthday:

 

4th Birthday:

 

5th Birthday:

 

6th Birthday:

Signs of the Times

Tonight at dinner, we got into a discussion about discipline at school now versus discipline when Mommy & Daddy went to school. Here’s a little recap:

It all started when Evan was asking if Nick or I had ever had to “flip our strip” when we were in school.

 

 

*for those of you who don’t know, this is a pocket chart where each child’s name is on a pocket that contains 4 different colored strips-if the kids get in trouble, they have to flip to a different color. 

 

 

We told him that they didn’t have strips back when we were in school.

 

 

Nick went on to say that “way back when” the teacher could actually spank you.

 

 

 

I told him that when I was in school, if someone got in trouble the teacher would write your name on the board.  Then, if you kept being bad, you would get a checkmark by your name and if you got so many checkmarks you had to go to the principal’s office. 

The conversation continued for a while and at one point I mentioned that if you were really bad you had to go to ISAP. Nick said “What’s ISAP stand for? Is that like in-school suspension? We called it ISS.” 

Evan said “Like ISP?”

Nick said “ISP?”

Evan said “Yeah, Internet Service Provider.” (Duh!)

 

Lesson of the day: Apparently they learn more than how to play Oregon Trail in computer lab nowadays!!