Mini vacation!

Did you know we have been married for almost 9 years? In the 9 years we have done a lot of really great things, but the one thing we have never done is go away, over night, sans kiddos! Can you believe that? So I decided that it was time to go on a little trial overnight without the kiddos. Most of you who know me know how hard it is to leave my kids. So this was something that was really hard to do. Luckily I have some of the greatest friends, whom I trust with my kids, & who were more than willing to take them in for a night. Seriously, these people are some of our best friends that we love like they were family. The kids were so very excited to go to The Foster's house, & we were kind of excited to get away. So I booked us a little vaca in St. Augustine. I had it all planned out & could not wait for a romantic night with my hubby.

First we went to this yummy restaurant on the bay front in downtown St. Augustine... Acapulco
great food, & a beautiful view of The Fort & Manatzas Bay.

Our dinner view

Then we headed out for a spooky encounter on Ghost & Gravestones trolley tour. It was filled with spooky ghost stories, old haunted places, weird hair pulling experiences, a crazy story telling ghost at the jail, & a very strange capture on my cell phone camera. 

My hott date & myself

Our tour guide for the evening

Death Row at the Old Jail

The Gallows

After we had our fill of ghost stories, & unbelievers BE DOOMED, we headed to our hotel on the beach.  We even had a nice late night stroll on the beach. 

So the next day we went to get the boys and they did not want to leave! They were swimming & having a blast at The Foster's. Luckily we were able to talk them into jumping on the hotel beds & hitting the beach :) 

So that is what we did. They body boarded, build castles, & had a blast. For dinner we hit this really great grille across from the hotel. I personally cannot wait to go back to the grille. We got back just in time to do some evening pool swimming! The next morning I woke up bright & early to watch the sunrise. The guys did not want to get up so I went by myself. Can I just say that it was beautiful. Listening to the waves, watching the colors in the sky change. Absolutely breathtaking.

Of course our adventures were not over yet! We headed to this place.........

We walked through the museum & then headed across the walk to the St Augustine Lighthouse. We climbed these to the top....

219 steps

I was really proud of the kids, they climbed up with us! That is really good for two kiddos 8 & under. 

View from the top

Once we were done exploring the Lighthouse we headed to the Pirate Museum... arrgh! The kids loved it & so did the hubby. It was full of artifacts, a real jolly roger flag, a cannon you can fire, & much more. Outside there were these....

Hee hee hee

It was a great mini vacation!

Pool time!

 We are very lucky to have a community pool in our neighborhood! We utilize it every chance we get. Since the summer started we have been there almost daily. It is a great time had by all. We exercise, laugh, stay cool, become stronger swimmers & most of all get to spend some quality time together as a family. This summer has been a summer of firsts for the younger two! They have both learned to swim underwater. This is a big deal for us. See we are lucky that the oldest is a water bug, loves to swim, dive, & cannonball. The middle one was very scared of the water, he stayed in the shallow end, would not be caught without a noodle & would not dare to put his face under water. (Reminds me of myself when I was younger) So I worked with him on getting comfortable & tried to teach him some basic swimming skills. Then dad came home from deployment & by the second time we went to the pool with dad guess what the middle one was doing? SWIMMING UNDER WATER! Like a little fish. It was amazing. I sat there in amazement at my son, I had tears in my eyes as I watched him swimming under water & then cannonball into the deep end!! Now, let me tell you a little something about my kids, once one does it the other tends to follow. Sure enough that is what the youngest is starting to do. Today in fact he was swimming without floaties under water. Now he has been swimming all over & even going under water but he has always had his floaties on. He even did a few cannonballs into the pool sans floaties! The oldest is currently visiting family but we cannot wait for him to get home so his little brothers can show him what they have learned. Soon enough they will be diving & cannonballing together.

Personally I cannot wait :)

Catch up

Hello... is this thing on? Is there anyone still there? It's me & I am back!

So we last left off in March with another catch up of the happenings in the Land of South. March we were knee deep in Baseball. 3 kids on different teams equals a ton of fun. They all had great seasons. We have a future catcher in the youngest (Future Jason Varitek or Johnny Bench). He throws his helmet off & runs in front of home ready to get the runner out. The middle one hit an in the park home run. His bat swing is getting better, it's probably from the sunflower seeds. Hey it's what the pro's do! The oldest got the best coach ever! He was a huge supporter of the oldest & by the end of the season he had some stolen bases & a few hits! 

Middle one

Up to bat

Future Jason Varitek

As the season was winding down so was school. Which meant that all of the end of the year activities were just beginning. There were tons of field trips, awards, parties, & saying goodbye to the friends & teachers. We have some very smart kiddos in this family. The older two ended the year with A averages, tons of awards for reading, science, citizenship, math, & more. The younger one does not get letter grades but did end the year with outstanding in all subjects, went up 2 levels in reading, & got promoted to 1st grade. I do not know where the time has gone!! They had the best teachers that any parent could ask for. We hope to get lucky again in the next grade levels. It will be hard because these teachers really set the bar high. 

Getting his awards

Going to 1st grade

Was completely shocked at all the awards

This school year was much more than seeing friends, learning new things, getting into the gifted program for the older two, being a safety patrol, being a reading buddy, or having fun. Well for the kids it was not much more than that but for Mom it was life changing. I had the opportunity to volunteer in the classrooms of two amazing teachers. In one I met two amazing women. One was the teacher & the other was the sign language interpreter. We had many a laugh & fun filled days! In the other I had the chance to teach the 5th graders. It started out with flash cards, & then went to preparing for FCAT. I was so excited to be in that class & to see their faces when they had the aha moment. It made me realize that I needed to do that, I needed to be in a classroom, helping these kids. So I decided to become a teacher. I really hope to start school next spring. We have started the process and I am really excited about it. I wish that I could stay with the students I had this year & follow them because they were amazing. 

The class that started it all!

So that is how the school year went.... now it's SUMMERTIME! So what do you do in the summer with three kiddos & a deployed hubby? The answer will follow in the next few posts...........