Pictures That I Promised

A Great Day With The Family

We had such a great time today. We decided to go to St. Augustine and visit the outlet mall and the beach. We packed a lot of fun into one day.
We ate at a restaurant on the beach that I thought smelled very bad but tasted GREAT! I think that I was the only one that thought the food was good. Maybe I was just very hungry.
Then we found some gorgeous trees to take the kids' picture by. Isaac walked through a huge spider web and lost it. Poor guy. I know how he feels. I get the shudders just thinking about watching him walk through the web. Ugh...
Next we went and visited the beach. We didn't take any beach clothes or towels so we were trying to get the kids to keep from getting too wet. They really wanted to be rolling around in the sand but did a pretty good job of resisting.
After the beach, we decided to check out Castillo de San Marcus, the oldest fortified masonry in the United States (?...Jay says that Wikepidia has a nice write-up about it. ;)) Jay remembers studying about this fort when he was in the second grade and always wanted to visit it. So this was his day!! We all had fun but I didn't realize how much the boys would really enjoy it. They looked in every room and just took everything in. We were told that pirates were held as prisoners in the fort so that was HUGE to the boys.
We drove through downtown St. Augustine and decided that we needed to come back sometime in the very near future. It is such a neat place to visit.
The outlet mall was fun and I could have spent a lot of time there if we didn't have the kids with us. The kids were great but poor Olivia was just hanging on and needing a bed.
We came home and Jay grilled out hamburgers and we had a great meal together. After Olivia woke up from her nap, we had a little birthday party for her. She turns 1 on the 29th but it was nice to have family here to celebrate her first birthday with us. She loved every minute of her party (well, except for the bath after the cupcake...she just wanted to keep eating and forget cleanliness). She didn't know how to open the presents but really liked everything that she got. It was simple and all so sweet.
Now...we are all exhausted. So why am I still up and blogging? Who knows.
We (Amy and the kids) take my parents back to the airport tomorrow. Isaac is very sad because he just thought that Buff and Gee (grandparent names) would live with us forever. It has been so nice to have them here as we have been getting settled in. It's made the transition a whole lot easier, just being able to see familiar faces for awhile.
Well, that was our day. I will try to post pictures but I'm not sure if the server will let me do it at the moment. If not, I will try again tomorrow.

Fun with Buff and Gee

There are so many fun things to do in the Jacksonville area. We have stayed very busy. Plus, it has been very nice to have my mom here because she is helping me decorate the house. We have officially opened every single box and have the last few empty boxes sitting by the back door awaiting trash day. It's such a relief!! Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days. Oh, and Isaac has learned how to blow a bubble with his gum. Gee taught him and he is so proud!!

My boys were never attached to blankets. Isaac liked his Baby Buzz but he could live without it. So it has been so cute to watch Olivia become attached to....Josiah's pajama pants. She carries them everywhere with her. If she is crying, we hand them to her and she calms down. I think that it's hilarious.

Josiah was reading the "Bible" to Olivia. It's so fun to watch him interact with Olivia because he hasn't been too interested in her until lately. Olivia loves to follow Josiah around and see what he is up to.
Today the boys decided to take pictures with my camera. They did pretty good. :)

Daddy's Boots

Isaac came tromping out into the living room to "go on a fox hunt". He would only pose long enough for one picture but Josiah gave it a whirl too. Notice Olivia laughing in the background. Josiah makes us all laugh.