Note to Readers:

It has been brought to my attention that I have not posted anything in the blog in many, many months.  So….here is what we’ve been up to for the last 6 months.  It will be mostly pictures with brief introductions.  If you have someplace to be soon, you might not want to start taking a look at this blog post now.

Remember that clicking on the image will open it larger in another tab.  Right clicking should give you the option to save the pictures to your computer.

June:

Fun in the Back Yard

We decided to get out the ‘ole slip-n-slide and enjoy the beautiful weather.  Here are some pictures.

Flag Day

I had to Google holidays in June to figure out why Jenna would have had a flag out.  I forgot that Flag day was in June.  Actually, I had forgotten Flag Day existed.

Day Trip to Lake Butler

The kids enjoy driving over to the town of Lake Butler to play at the splash park and get into the lake. Carol had bought a new floatie that we wanted to try out.  After a few minutes of blowing into the thing, I was really wishing that I owned an electric pump.  Before we’d even gotten a chance to get in the water, some folks walked over and let us know that there had been some alligator sightings earlier in the day.  After a bit of discussion, we decided to keep an eye out and take our chances.

   

Random Pictures from the Month

Grant received some awards from school at the end of last year.  We painted some rocks for hiding in the community.  It was an exhausting month for Lucy.  And the kids still like to play with the clothes hampers.

July:

July 4th

We enjoyed a quiet July 4th at home this year.  Due to rain, we actually had to do some of our fireworks the Monday or Tuesday after the 4th.  Here are some pictures of our 4th of July festivities this year:

 

Pool Fun

We bought a new inflatable pool.  And quickly realized that we should have bought an electric pump as well. (I should have learned my lesson after blowing up the floatie at the lake nearly made me pass out.) I will be buying a pump before we inflate this again.

Trip to the Midwest

We made our annual trip back to Nebraska and Kansas in July this year.  We had a rough start as a storm in Gainesville delayed our departure by hours.  We didn’t get into Nana’s house until 2am local time (3am ET). But once we were there, it was a very nice trip seeing both sides of the family.  Here are some pictures:

Travel

Some pictures of the storm that delayed us and then some pictures from the airplane on the way there and back.

Kansas

We had good fun with Nana, Aunt Laura, Uncle Chuck, Aunt Sharon, and Mason (for a short time).  We were sorry that Uncle Paul and cousin Alyssa couldn’t join us.  Aunt Laura told us about a really cool city park that the kids enjoyed. Nana took us to an indoor play area with a climbing wall, bouncey pillow, dancing room, stage, and other fun areas.  Nana kept us well fed, as usual.

 

Nebraska

We had a really nice time in Nebraska spending time with Gramma and Pa and Aunt Alicyn and Uncle Andrew.  We were also able to see some of the kids great-aunts and great-uncles as well as great-grandma Bonnie.  It was really nice to be able to see more of the family and share a meal together.  While in Nebraska, we were also able to go out to a lake and each of us took a turn driving my Dad’s little fishing boat.  My parents wanted to burn out an old dried tree stump while we were there.  We really wished that we’d had some lighter fluid to use instead of gasoline, because we weren’t really able to eat the marshmallows that we went to the trouble of roasting.

   

Random Pictures from the Month

Dada and Jenna Selfie.  Dada and Jenna holding Lucy “like a baby”.  Happy Jenna.  And silly Grant.

August:

Trip to Carrabelle, FL

We decided to do a last weekend getaway before school started.  Carol found us a really cute little house to rent for two nights in a nice small town called Carrabelle up in the Florida panhandle.  It was only 3 hours away and some of the drive was right along the Gulf and was quite beautiful.  The cottage was built around 1910, but had been nicely restored.  The house had two bedrooms with one bathroom, an open kitchen/dining area and a living room area.  It had a separate building with a washer and dryer and also an outdoor shower.  It had a nice fenced yard around it and they allowed pets, so Lucy was able to go with us.  We really enjoyed staying there.  They have these crazy albino squirrels there.

  

St. George Island State Park Beach

We tried to go to Carrabelle beach, but we got rained out.  It poured on us and we thought our chance to make it to a beach during our weekend away was going to be lost.  Luckily, it was less rainy after lunch so we decided to try it again.  We saw that it looked sunnier in the distance and decided to head over to St. George Island State Park where we’d heard there was a nice beach.  We were thrilled when we got there and it was not rainy at all! It turned out to be a very beautiful beach and we were glad that we took the extra time to drive down the highway a bit from Carrabelle.

First Day of School

The first day of school is always exciting. Both kids are really enjoying school and doing well.

Random Pictures from the Month

Jenna and Dada selfie.  Silly Dada. Silly Grant. And Jenna reading a book in her chair.

September:

Date Night

Carol and I got fancied up, got a babysitter, and went out to dinner at a fancy-schmancy place.  The sliced meat was good.  So was the cheese platter.  I am pretty sure it was free-range cheese, which is why it cost so much.

 

Natural History Museum

The kids always enjoy going to the museum.  They had a really neat frog exhibit going on at the time that we went. Amazing that those tiny little colorful frogs are extremely poisonous.

  

Hurricane Irma

We lived through our first (and hopefully last) hurricane.  We were feeling ok about things until we heard that the storm might be strengthening again.  We freaked out at the last second and spent the day before the storm finding someplace that still had plywood and boarding up the windows.  The winds got pretty bad during the night, but we didn’t experience any major damage. No trees down, just branches. Three sections of our fence blew down. We were lucky compared to some people in the area.  We only lost electricity for less than a day, but we had purchased a generator so we were ok. Our backyard flooded but the water didn’t make it into the house because we were able to run a small pump to pump the water out.  I was prepared for a lot more water. Our street was flooded for half the day.

  

Horse Retirement Farm

One of the places that we visit over and over again is the Horse Retirement farm up near Alachua.  We always love feeding carrots to the horses and giving them pats and hugs.  I especially love interacting with horses that were former police or military horses.  I always feel so happy for them that they get to retire to a lovely farm after serving in those important jobs.

Depot Park, Splash Park, and Pool

It is hard to see, but the one picture is of Grant getting ready to go down the water slide by himself. First time ever for him. Carol took the kids to the splash park the day before the hurricane hit because school was cancelled.

 

Random Pictures from the Month

Silly Grant.  Silly Dada. Jenna and Dada selfies. And Jenna with a half a globe on her head and the other half under her bottom.

  

October:

Yoga Retreat

In order for Carol to hang on to the last bit of her sanity, she scheduled a weekend getaway to the Ocala National Forest where the Amrit Yoga Institute is located.  She enjoyed her time doing yoga, eating healthy, and learning relaxation techniques to deal with her crazy mom schedule and new work-from-home husband.

Pumpkin Patch

While Carol was off getting in tune with nature and learning deep breathing techniques at the yoga retreat, I took the kids to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins for the yard.

New Job / Business Trip

As alluded to above, I started a new job in October. It was difficult to leave my old job after almost 10 years and after having made so many friends, but I felt it was time for a change.  My new job is working for a company based out of San Diego, but it allows me to work out of my home.  They have set me up with a computer, monitors, printer, and office supplies and I can work remotely.  There will be some travel out to San Diego, but most of the time I will be at home.  In October, on my second day on the job, I traveled out to California to meet some of my new coworkers.  It was a good trip.  They put me up in a nice hotel and the people there are very nice.  I was able to go to a couple of great restaurants while I was out there.  And on the flight home, there were several service dogs on the plane.

Visiting Jenna at School

One of the perks of my new job is that I can go pick up Jenna from school from time to time as my meeting schedule allows.

Coon Hollo Farm

Every year at Halloween time, there is a really neat place called Coon Hollo Farm that opens up.  Lots of fun fall themed activities. The kids enjoyed it.

Halloween

Grant was a puppy and Jenna was a pumpkin this year.  I am still eating their candy after they go to bed, they got a ton of it!

Jenna’s Halloween Party at Preschool

The Preschool that Jenna attends does a Halloween party and parade, and Carol volunteered to help.  Jenna seemed to enjoy being in her costume and playing the games and eating the snacks.

 

Grant the Acolyte

They were looking for volunteers for elementary school kids to serve as acolytes at church, so Grant decided to serve.  He’s done it twice now and does a great job.

Performing in Church

Also in October, the choir that Grant is part of sang in church in preparation for their concert in November (see below for more information).

Random Pictures from the Month

Silly Grant. A piano duet. Pretending to sleep. Laughing Jenna. And fun with face paint (Grant painted me; Jenna painted Carol).

 

November (so far):

Grant’s Field Trip

Since I work from home now, Carol was able to go on a field trip with Grant while I picked up Jenna.  They went to the Natural History Museum.

Grant’s 1st Concert

Grant expressed interest in joining a choir, but the one at school wasn’t practicing at a convenient time.  Instead, there is a choir at our church that practices every Wednesday afternoon and Grant decided to join that one.  His first concert went great! Watch and listen closely at the 5:10 mark, as Grant has a speaking part.  Sorry about the shakiness of the video shortly after that as Jenna got fussy.

Jenna’s Thanksgiving Program

Jenna and all her classmates did a great job on a Thanksgiving party at Preschool.  Jenna was pretty excited to see both Mama and Dada there, so she had a little trouble remembering to stand still and sing with the other kids, but it was all very cute. The kids made pumpkin pie and served it to the parents.

   

Random Pictures from the Month

Silly Grant.  Jenna riding in Grant’s big kid booster seat and realizing she can roll down the window. And a message that Grant left on my desk for me one morning for me to find when I started work.

Well, that is officially the longest post I have ever made.  I hope you enjoyed seeing all the pictures and videos.  Check back in another 6 months.  🙂