Jilli's Best Bud's Birthday!

Jillian's best buddy, Bella, had a birthday party last Saturday and I made the cutest pillow, card and gift bag for it! I just had to share the pictures!! Jilli had the time of her life playing at Bella's house and watching her open her fun presents! The cake and ice cream was yummy and she got a cute little gift bag to take home! Yay! We just love birthday parties!!


Jilli posing with the pillow

Cute card and gift bag!

Cute girls at the party!

Jess and Jilli helping Bella open her gift!

Chris' Graduation from Warrior Leader Course

After our fun times in Florida, we drove up to Fort Benning to see Chris graduate from WLC. He was on the Commandant's List (top 20% of his class) and he did awesome! Afterwards, we went with the Taylor's to the BBW (Best Burger King in the WORLD!) for lunch and then to Monkey Joe's to jump off all the kids' energy before heading back home. It was a great end to our fun trip - getting Chris back!
On our way home, we stopped in a little town for dinner at a Cracker Barrel. Chris was still in his uniform and we went in a sat down for our yummy dinner. When we got ready to pay, the waitress informed us that the bill had been taken care of - including the tip - by someone who wanted to remain anonymous as a way to say thank you for Chris' service to our great country. It was incredibly heart warming. There are still some good people in this world!! Thanks to them!

Sleeping with her Princess balloon ( a gift from Kelly & Kay in FL!)

Monkeying at Monkey Joe's!

The showdown between Chris and John!

Jessi peeking!

All the pictures of Jillian are fuzzy... she wouldn't hold still!!!

Family shot

Getting his certificate

His roommate and buddies

At the BBW - HUGE with an amazing playground!!!

Tampa Bay and Clearwater Beach

We spent a day at Clearwater Beach. It was AMAZING! The Gulf water is like bath water which is a new experience for us! There are little fishies that swim around your feet and the sand is like powdered sugar! It was hot and very humid, but clear and beautiful. The kids played in the water and hunted for sand dollars and seashells. I was just amazed by the sand most of all! So white and soft to my feet! Lovely! We ate our snacks under a little rented umbrella and watched the seagulls beg for food. It was a very wonderful day! The best part was being with our friends and having lots of arms to hold Jilli and friends to play with the kids!


On our way to the beach...

Gulf waters

Kiddos

Jessi hogging the beach chair!!

PetLand!

Kay took me shopping at Home Goods (AWESOME!) and while we were there, her daughter walked the kids in to PetLand to hold and play with the animals. It's an awesome pet store where they let you get hands on their pets! You can hold pretty much everything in there and the kids had a great time.


Miah and his rodent friend

Jilli and a baby dachsund

Jess by the bunnies

Tarpin Springs

We spent a day in Tarpin Springs, FL and got to see all the sponge boats loaded up with tons of sea sponges. The town has darling shops and delicious Greek restaurants! We shared delicious fried goat cheese and I had a Greek salad that was to die for!!! MMMM! The shops were packed with little beachy knick knacks and toys, beach apparel and the like. The best shop was a little soap store selling soap made with goat's milk and sea sponges. I bought some and had the darnedest time picking out the scents! All of them are yummy! It was a fabulous place to spend a day!


Statue of the diver - they dive for the sponges

Kids with a sea turtle statue

Kids with a shark (Not real... they wouldn't be this close if it were!!)

The Candy Store!!! Barrels of any candy you desire!!! And they desired it all! Hee hee!

To Do List...

Pretty much we just didn't have a "To Do List"! We did whatever we felt like, it was AWESOME! Kay cooked amazing food and has such a beautiful home, we were so comfortable and happy! Jilli calls it "Kay's World" and asks to go back daily!! Here are a few pics from our days...

Licking brownie batter off the beaters!

Sleeping!

Singing in her "pool"

Playing with Sambashi and Momma Kitty

The BEST Pool in the World!

While in Florida, we spent most of our time at "The BEST Pool in the World!" (or in other words, our friend's Neighborhood Pool!!!) It was enormous, empty of people AND had a huge playground with slides IN the pool!!! Talk about FUN!! The kids just loved it! Or I should say, the older two loved it and Jillian wanted NOTHING to do with the playground... Mostly because of an ENORMOUS bucket that would fill up at the top of the play area and then DUMP 100's of gallons of water over everything!! It was terrifying to her! She loved the pool as long as she was FAR away from the "bucket!" Everytime it would dump she would rush away shrieking. I thought it was AWESOME!! We all got suntans and just had a blast!!


Jess posing!

Miah

Jilli at the kiddie pool which was under a nice shady porch! This place thinks of EVERYTHING!!

View of the playground... the bucket is up top...

Our Trip to Florida!

While Chris was away at Warrior Leader Course, we decided to do some driving and headed South to see our friends in Florida! Yay! The drive took 7 1/2 hours and most of the drive was spent on backroads through cute little towns... but we made it! The kids were great - thanks to Nintendo DS' and DVD's! We only stopped once for a lunch and bathroom break at McDonalds in some small town. (I highly recommend the new Angus Mushroom and Swiss burger... MMMMM!)
We arrived at our friend's home right around dinner time and were treated to yummy tacos and a walk on their neighborhood Nature trail! It was awesome!! We even saw a little alligator in one of the ponds! The kids were so excited to see their friends again that they hardly complained on the 3 mile walk! Jess did get a blister from her flip flops though! Ouch!
Check back for more photos and recap from the trip... I'll try to get it all on here soon!


Stopped at the rest stop looking at lizards!

Nature walk with our friends!

Love the hat!

Posing for a quick photo with our good buddy! (Hi Nathaniel!)