The Beach!

So here they are...pics from last weekend when we went to Seagrove Beach. It's a great place, on the Emerald Coast, kind of between Destin and Panama City Beach. We rented a condo in a beachside complex as that's quite a bit cheaper than getting a hotel room. It's a great way to vacation on a budget because, let's face it, we're not exactly rollin' in the dough. Seaside is about a six-hour drive, and thanks to the GPS, we ended up driving through the backwoods of Alabama, quite literally. We went off of the freeway in search of gas, ended up in some farm town, and drove down one lane roads, and even one dirt road. Juston loved it. The beach was gorgeous. The weather was perfect. The vacation was much needed and if you live in Atlanta and haven't been there, I'd highly recommend it (or any beach on scenic 30-A, although some of them are VERY pricey) over any of the other nearby beaches. It's worth the extra two hours in the car.

Clear water....white sand....


Yes, we're already getting sunburned!


Burying an unsuspecting victim in the sand.


Diggerz on the beach.


Playing with Mommy in the water (ignore the 'maternity tent.')


More digging - this was a popular activity.


Yeah, he fell in the hole.


Juston's six pack.


This was the view from my beach chair. Ahhhhh.


Another hole.


Wet and sandy.

We saw this fantastic rainbow after a pop-up afternoon shower.


We found a children's block party in Rosemary Beach, about five miles down the road from Seagrove Beach. Frankie had fallen asleep, but we had to wake him up for the free bounce house.


Juston contemplates the European-inspired architecture at Rosemary Beach.


Fishin'.


After it rained all Sunday night, we found a bounty of goodies had washed up to shore. (I also saw a sting ray when I was swimming in the ocean that morning, pretty cool!)


Playing hide-and-seek in the car while driving back to ATL.


Frankie asked today on the way home from church if we were going to the beach tonight. When I said we would go back next year, he got upset. I hear you, my friend.

Goats. And Dance.

So last Friday we went to the zoo (see previous post) and we didn't have any extra time to hang out because we were leaving town that afternoon. For the first time EVER Frankie was upset that we didn't make it to the petting zoo. I promised him we would go back, and he did not forget. On Tuesday after preschool, I took him to the zoo so that he could get his fill of goats and sheep and pigs.


Doesn't he look so happy? (/sarcasm) He did enjoy it, though. I fear our quick, one hour zoo trips are going to get longer and longer as he adds stuff to the agenda.

On another, completely unrelated note, Frankie started 'creative movement' dance class yesterday. He's the only boy in the class. I had no idea it was a pre-ballet class until we walked up to the performing arts center and he was literally the only kid not wearing a pink leotard, tights, a little flouncy skirt, and ballet shoes. Hey, it's free, can ya blame a girl for signing up her son? We took off Frankie's shoes and he danced barefoot. And he absolutely loved it. The parents were sent out of the room for the main part of the class, and I was told that he was bouncing all over the place. When we got home, he showed me how he made a butterfly with his legs and he did spins like they did in class. Today when I mentioned that he gets to go back to dance class next week, I got an enthusiastic 'Yay!' I'll try to remember my camera next time. I was also told that I should invest in a cape for him as apparently it's a must for dance class. :) I'm glad that Frankie is too little to think of this as 'too girly' and feel self-conscious - I think we try to 'gender' our kids at far too young an age and we close off many opportunities when the kids just want to play and have fun and really don't care if an activity is culturally deemed as being for boys or girls. Frankie is very athletic and loves gymnastics, so I'm not surprised that he took to dance on the first day. I hope that, as parents, we are able to expose our children to many different activities and that we allow and encourage them to form and develop their interests and talents, no matter where they lie.

Last week (the condensed, pre-vacation version)

After I had a particularly bad day that resulted in a four-hour long, hormones out-of-control crying fest (it's a bit much, even for someone who is 8 months pregnant), my mother-in-law Chrys sent us a fruit bouquet. It was a really nice gesture and we all enjoyed the bounty. It also made me feel better; it's nice to know that people care even from 3,000 miles away. Things have been pretty rough - see the next post for a very brief explanation, plus I was pretty sick with a head cold last week - but we're hanging in there.




On Friday morning, we went to the zoo with several ladies and kids from the ward. Frankie made friends with a parakeet.


Meerkats!



The beach pictures are on the way. There's a lot of them, so it's going to take awhile to put up the post and I'm too tired to do it right now!

First Day of Preschool!

Frankie started preschool on Tuesday. He's attending The Children's Garden in Grant Park. He won't tell me much about it, but apparently he's adjusting pretty well (as per his teachers) and yesterday he had a little meltdown when I tried to take him home. Today when I picked him up he was covered in flour from baking bread. The school is very nature-based and they are total hippies. Everyone is very nice and we actually know more parents that send their kids there from other activities around town than we originally thought.

SO happy to go to preschool!




Showing off his "Cars" lunchbox. Yep. He picked it out all by himself.


He was distracted by the tiny cleaning tools so I was able to sneak out. He handled things well!



The only problem with preschool is that 3 times a week at four hours a day may not be enough time for me to get all of my stuff done! It's pathetic, but I'm at the doctor now almost every day (dang complications - the baby is fine, but my physical and mental state are taking a serious beating and I have to see a nutritionist and a psychiatrist along with the normal, now weekly midwife visits) and I'm just hanging on with keeping up with work. And the house is a wreck. Oh well, everything will work out, I'm sure. :)

It's all fun times until somebody pukes.

Yesterday we thought it would be a good idea to go to the Red Bull Soapbox Derby in Piedmont Park. They were anticipating crowds of 50,000, and I think they were about right. The day was warm and humid, we drove and found a parking spot about seven blocks away, and walked to the event. I was fine until we hit the crowds. The place was literally packed with people. We got away from the main drag and into the park to try and find another way to watch the races when I lost it. At least I was next to a trash can. I'm just too pregnant to be outside in August in Atlanta - lesson learned. (I'm also dealing with a nasty head cold; in fact, I should be at church right now, but I just feel gross all around and didn't sleep much last night. No, Mom, it's not the swine flu. I took my temperature to check and it's normal.) So at least we tried to get out and do something different, right?

The 'General Lee'


Nacho Libre in front of his soapbox car.


Mario Kart!


Taking advantage of some free ice cream.


Lunch at Front Page News after I decided I needed to leave and go indoors somewhere. That's a train that Frankie made out of all of the condiments on the table. (And he licked the top of the salt shaker not long after this.)


I don't have any pictures of the highlight of the day - Frankie and Juston spent at least twenty minutes rolling down one of the hills at the park while I sat in the shade. Frankie was really bummed when we dragged him away, but still managed to not take a nap. I think it would've been a really fun afternoon, had it been in a month or so after the temperatures drop a bit.

And for fun....bigger every day. This one is a feisty one!

Dance, Boys, Dance!

In honor of Michael Jackson's birthday, Abe and Jay did some freestyle dancing to "Black or White" at the ward talent show. Frankie decided that their act would not be complete without him, even though he forgot his sparkly glove. Plus, he probably belongs in a mosh pit rather than a pop act.



These boys are my favorites. They all literally smothered me with love (creating something of a 'group hug gone horribly wrong') towards the end of the talent show. They really do love each other, too, even though I sense some trouble in Sunbeams with Frankie and Abe come January....

Ode to Bridget

Photographs by Frankie...she's about the only subject that he can manage to get into the frame as she's quite a bit smaller than a full-sized person.







Man, that is one good lookin' dog.

Sorry mom.

But I needed a change - back to pink!

Wildlife.

Been busy again. Things are sorting out for the rest of the week to be quite a normal pace. :)

About a month ago, my mom, my sister, and my nieces drove to Atlanta and spent a week with us. We did lots of fun stuff, but we only have pictures of a couple of things. It's so far after the fact, anyway, that I suppose that isn't all that important.

We went to the Georgia Aquarium. The jellyfish were definitely the highlight of the trip! They were also the first thing we saw, so no one was cranky yet.



Frankie, Elena, and Audrey catch some fish action.


The next day, we went to the zoo. We go to the zoo a lot, and Frankie really wanted to make sure that his cousins saw the animals. Here's Frankie, impersonating a wild animal. Pretty convincing, no?

Grandma & co. with a gorilla statue.

So it's not the best picture ever of us. But here we are (and you love us anyway.)

This pictures sums up my child perfectly - messy, on a train.


Thanks for coming to visit! We had a blast and everyone was exhausted from fun by the end of the week! Frankie still talks constantly about Audrey and Elena and always wants them to come over - he was actually quite bummed that they couldn't come to his birthday party.

I don't have many more pictures. While we have been doing things lately, nothing has been so exciting that we've had to take pictures or share it with the world (or the five people who read this blog.) I did sign Frankie up for a dance class today, so maybe in a few weeks? And I booked our vacation over Labor Day weekend. We're driving to the beach and I cannot wait. I love going to the beach and Frankie hasn't been since just before he turned 1, so hopefully he'll love it, too. I figure it's my last chance to really do anything before the kid comes, and honestly, it's about all we can afford at the moment, but I'm really excited just to get away for a couple of days.

One other thing - should we abandon potty-training? I'm about to give up for awhile. Take today, for instance. We've been home since about 1:30 PM. It's now 5:45. In that time, he has wet three pairs of underpants, used his potty twice, and most recently, looked at me, said "I have to potty," and then proceeded to go right there, all over the floor. He knows when he needs to go but refuses to do it. Is he just not ready? What's going on? The kid is three, and I am so tired of changing his poopy diapers, especially since I know that he's able to use the potty and he knows and is aware of when he needs to use it. Yes, I know I'll have more poops soon, but it's different. I feel like he should know better and it's frustrating me to no end. Help!

Huzzah!

I'm pooped, so don't expect me to be witty or entertaining. (It's been a long and kind of depressing day, but enough about that.)

Here you go, family. Short videos of last weekend's rockin' birthday party.




Notice how Frankie goes straight for the beverage; he and all of the other children were playing really hard outside and we used the cake as a lure to bring them inside away from the mosquitoes and the impending rain.
(Please ignore my grossness in this last video. Everyone looked rough after playing outside, and, well, I tend to get pregnant all over, which apparently also includes my neck. It's one of the fun side effects of being 5'2" tall - on a good day.)

And for fun, how about this blast from the past?

They call me Dr. Spots....

We are pleased to announce the addition of the newest member of our family, Dr. Spots!



We inherited him from our previous tenants, who were trying to 'downsize' pets when they moved from the house into a one-bedroom apartment. He's pretty fun, actually, and not gross at all. Frankie especially likes watching him eat his superworms; not sure what that says about my kid.



(P.S. As attractive as we are, two minutes is a long time to watch a video like this. I hope that you packed your extra endurance! Juston probably intended this as an 'edit,' but please, I don't waste time on that kind of trickery anymore!)

Birthdaystravaganza!

Since on my last post someone said that 'no one cares' that I'm not posting and I'm pretty sure that the anonymous person is right, I'll just unfold the past few weeks as I get around to it. :)

We'll start with the present and work our way backwards....

It's Frankie's birthday! He's three! We started the morning with presents...



...and since it's only 10:30 AM, we're still lazing about in our pajamas, so we haven't done anything else. We're going to go swimming in a bit.

Yesterday was Juston's birthday! Both boys got RC cars yesterday (although we didn't have enough batteries for both.) And yes, Juston actually wanted that.




And Frankie picked out this gem of filmmaking for Juston - although I think it had more to do with the fact that the cover is red.


Saturday night was the rockin'-est party ever. It was for both Frankie and Juston, but the kids easily outpaced the adults. We kept it really simple because I'd just come off of a couple of crazy weeks, but because Frankie has been so excited about his birthday, we had to do something. And this party is proof that you don't need a fancy, expensive party for your preschooler - the skate ramp in the backyard was probably the most entertaining thing for the under five set. No one cared that there were swarming mosquitoes and that the humidity was close to 100%.


My 'dinosaur cake.' No, I don't have mad cake-making skillz. No one cares, right? :)

Sweat, dirt, and chocolate: I think this face really says it all.

The burro pinata - Frankie picked it out. After all of the other kids had a whack, the other, bigger birthday boy had to bust it open.

Frankie gets some lovin' from Kembe.


Even though we said no presents, he still got a few and loved them all!


Kembe, Abe, and Jay got THIS for Frankie. How can you top a basketball tent???


Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us; we're still recovering from our crazy weekend birthday marathon. I've still got a lot of other things to blog, along with some videos from the party, but like I said, no hurry, right?

Stopping by...

So this is going to be quick. I haven't posted in a couple of weeks and if things go the way that they look to go, I won't be posting for a couple of weeks, either. I had family in town all last week, and now I'm doing a freelance job on top of final essays and exams and doing grades over the next two weeks. So most of my spare time will be spent working. I know that like two people are upset with not getting more pictures, so here are my excuses. Just know that when I come back, there will be lots to update. We even got a gecko! It eats worms, which is super gross. :) Alright then, back to work for me.