Memorial Day 2015

Tyler had a fluke holiday off because of all stars aligning. So he took Nick with him to go golfing this morning. This is just about as amazing as anything can get:

While they were golfing, I took the twins to help me pick out a cantaloupe and grapes and Popsicles to take with us to the beach. We packed up everything, and drove down to meet the other boys at the beach. When we got to Naples Beach, we found that it was full. Like, officially- with signs and traffic cops and everything. 

So we drive up to Bonita and it was full too. We were just about to call it, and head to our pool instead - when I remembered a nice family in our ward who lives right there, and they had given me their number to call if we ever wanted to use their beach. We were right there, so I called , and they saved our beach day. :)

The best part: look how NOT crowded we were :)

So, I found this starfish- crawling on my leg. I couldn't see it totally clearly at the time so I quietly (and very quickly) made Tyler inspect. He pulled it out so that I could see that it wasn't some kind of Sea Spider. Will tried to feed it seaweed. 

I'm actually still not convinced that it isn't some spider-relative. But all of that aside- everyone continued to have a blast. My little beach babies are pretty bold. I had to force Will to put on his water-wings so I could relax just a little. 

We headed home around 2:30 so that we could get ready for the Ward cookout at 4, and the babies were pretty well spent. They fell asleep in the car, and I'm such a sucker for sleeping babies (ok toddlers...)

We hope you had a pleasant Memorial Day, and we especially want to thank those who have fought and sacrificed for the many freedoms we are blessed with today. 

After work and daycare, we met at Culver's for some burgers and Frozen Custard. 

As we were driving home, there was a super bright rainbow. 

It got me admiring the sky and the clouds, which are pretty everywhere - but I swear that there is something different about these south Florida skies. 

After dinner the kids got to run around in the yard and play with swords. Then it was bath time. 

This little gem was found on the daycare's Facebook page :)

Time Flies!

I got to take N to his kindergarten screening so they could assess where he's at and recommend things for him to work on over the summer so that he's on track for the upcoming school year. I can't believe my baby boy is really starting school. 

For dinner tonight we had corn on the cob. I haven't been able to convince all of my boys to eat this many vegetables in one meal before and felt the need to document the occasion! (Plus, William was basically a pro and it is so cute!)

Beach Day

Tyler had a big thing for the Everglades chapter of GCSA called the Poa tournament (or something like that) and we got to go stay at the Naples Beach Club Hotel. He had a golf tournament that morning and then that evening there was a luau. The whole family was invited, so we went to the beach there at the hotel for the morning. 

I was nervous to take the kids by myself so my friend Susan and her son Ollie met is there and we hung out together. It was a perfect beach day. 

The boys were pretending to be alligators crawling through the water and roaring at people. (Because that's totally accurate) 

After the beach, Tyler came and helped us lug all our stuff up to the hotel room, and the boys took a short nap until it was time for the dinner. 

James and Will were the first to give in to the sleep, but Nick tried to fight it. So he and I had a "stare-down" where he would try to sneak out of the creases of his eyes and see if I was looking at him so he could open them again. Of course, I was looking - so he kept them closed. 

Finally, in an effort to not get caught with his eyes open- he put his hand over his eyes. And he fell asleep about 30 seconds in to that scheme. 

The Luau was really nice, with excellent food. But the boys were pretty beat up from a morning of sun. So it was tough to wrangle them. They had a blast "dancing" up by the band, but routinely got pulled in for supervision when dancing turned into "chase each other around the tables where people are eating." 

The whole get-together is kind of a big deal, and I had no clue really, because we're still new to the area. If you are interested, here is a link to the brief history of the event:

http://www.evergladesgcsa.com/Default.aspx?p=DynamicModule&pageid=296053&ssid=177942&vnf=1 

It was good to see some of the people from Tyler's course, and cool to meet more of the Turf community. It's a pretty tight-knit group. 

Nicholas got his first Shirley Temple:

On the way back to the room we had to figure out how to navigate through the rain

And when we found it, we all stopped to appreciate the cool stormy ocean sunset 

Then this morning we were waiting (somewhat impatiently) for Daddy to get off work

Then we wrapped up our mini "stay-cation" with breakfast, and headed home