Spring Break

We (Amy and the kids) spent the first half of the boy's spring break in Tallahassee visiting my sister Katie and her husband Ryan and their two boys, Mason and Gage. I uploaded a bunch of pictures from our visit.....they will tell the story of our adventures, along with a bit of commentary from me.

Easter festival manicure

Saturday we visited a nearby church for their Easter activities. The plan was to join in on their egg hunt, but we got there right at the beginning of the event and the egg hunt was in the last 15 min (2 hrs away) it was a tad windy and we had too many little ones who needed naps, so we played for a while and headed home. Marlow got two bunnies painted on her cheeks and her nails done. She scratched the blue polish off about 3 minutes later because she didn't like the color she picked.

Ready to go hunt for eggs!

Ryan put together an awesome egg hunt in their backyard since we didn't do the one at the church.

Marlow and Mason looking for eggs


It's all so exciting!!!

Their huge sandbox was an awesome place to hide eggs. Actually, their whole yard was great. Ryan made some of them pretty easy for the little guys, but a lot of them you really had to look hard for.....I think it took us a good 15-20 minutes to find all 100 of the eggs he hid.

Sweet Gemma


Early morning coloring session while the moms rest a bit more.


Walking down the road at Grandpa's house.

The kids and I went out to my Dad's one night for dinner. The kids enjoyed visiting with their grandparents -- Grandpa and Zippy. We had a lovely dinner out on their deck, with perfect Florida spring weather. Their property is gorgeous with lots of beautiful plants and trees.


Playing in the pool


In the bird sanctuary at the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science -- Down at the end of the line Ezra is looking at a bald eagle.

I lived in Tallahassee from when I was 4 till I went away to college at 17. Over the years I went many times, mostly during elementary school years, to the Junior Museum (now renamed the Tallahassee Museum of History of Natural Science). It has animals that are native to Florida like deer, panthers, turkeys, black bears, alligators, skunk.....the list goes on. It also has a farm with farm animals and old farm buildings, an old church, school, train car, and plantation house. I loved going when I was a kid and it was fun to take my kids -- especially since and it was well kept up and virtually unchanged from when I was a child. The only big change was an awesome playground -- super cool.


Looking down at a deer

There are long boardwalks that go through the wild animal section and make it easy to view the animals. I love the feeling of walking around in the trees and looking down at the wild animals.

We had more lovely spring weather and the animals were out enjoying it. This black bear walked right up under us and started digging around in the dirt....he looks tiny in the picture but was pretty huge -- about three times bigger than me.

I loved playing in the old caboose when I was a kid. It was fun to see my kids doing the same sort of things I did at their age.


Marlow, Asa, Ezra, Eliot and Mason


Me and the kids: Asa, Eliot, Ezra, Amy, Gemma & Marlow


All the little crazies: Asa, Eliot, Ezra, Marlow, Mason and Gage

We had a fabulous week visiting with Aunt Katie, Uncle Ryan and our sweet cousins. Katie and I survived the house full of rambunctious kids and enjoyed our evening thank-God-all-the-kids-are-in-bed chats (I am not at all implying that Ryan didn't survive....He was fabulous playing with the kids....but being the Dad, he had to go to work and wasn't with the kiddos as much as we were -- he very graciously welcomed us and didn't complain a bit about the added chaos of five more kids.) We compared parenting techniques and had a couple of nights spent praying for family and friends. I am always so refreshed after spending time with my dear Katie.