The love of my life

look , we coordinate lol.

I am always the one taking pics . Pat and I rarely have any pics taken. Glad Delanie snapped this shot of us.

Three protected nest were in the ocean front of our hotel. A park ranger does turtle walks at night but you had to make reservations.

The turtles should hatch the end of June to the first of July.

Yep, you are seeing right. A seahorse. Nathan, who spends most of time looking for animals and insects and amphibians found this seahorse on Saturday. Unfortunately, the sweet thing was dead but non-the -less it was cool to see one this up close.

I am so thankful......

When the kids were little I hated Pat to travel. It was so hard on me having so many little ones to care for by myself, some with medical issues and a very demanding baby.
Now Pat travelling is such a blessing since that the kids are older. The boys have been to numerous job sites and seen so many interesting things that they would never see at home(example- when they had to relocate 100 yr old cyprus trees that were protected).
Jon Tyler has walked on roofs of more Walmarts than he can count. And Nathan has taken in all the big rigs and how they work. Plus, they each have there own hard hats. How cool is that?
Our weekend in Vero Beach was a work related trip. On Friday Pat went to several meetings while the kids and I played at the beach. On Saturday both Pat and Jon Tyler went to job sites and the kids and I played by ourselves.
The positive....when Pat got back he had the kids ALL TO HIMSELF as I rested on the blanket soaking in the rays.
Moral of the story....it gets easier :)

Now, the nitty gritty......
Vero is not a big city. There is only 3 resturants (that we saw) and NO tourist shops etc. It is a VERY WEALTHY town...very very very wealthy.....you just would not believe.
We ate at Mulligans both nights and it was great. Nothing spells relaxation for us than eating on a backporch , overlooking the ocean while listening to Buffett:)
And now, we are home.....

Vero Beach

My sweet Delanie. She loves the beach! I told her that when she is looking out into the ocean I know she is developing new poems and stories.

How in the world can one child love the sand as much as she does. And, it doesn't bother her in the least!?!?!?

Just like brothers should be...side by side. The fearless duo.

Off to the beach we GO!!!!

89 degrees, low humidity and sunny with a few clouds .
Burb is packed with boogy boards, bathing suits, towels and sunscreen(and a few other essential things lol).Rosie is watching a DVD, Lanie has ear-buds in listening to her tunes, the boys in the back taking in the sites and Pat and I up front posting too much on Sonlight . Listening to good country music. ALL is WELL in my heart! See it smiling?
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYES:
Green grass and little lakes and ponds.
Gators swimming lazily and sunning on the banks.
Herons ducking heads like little oil refiners gathering bugs.
Tall pines scaterred on the roadside with little palm trees at they roots ,surrounding the pines like skirts, just enough to remind one that they are not in mountains but grasslands.
Small white birds riding the backs of cows as they graze.
Hawks swooping down in pastures looking for a snack.
Vulture on a post keeping watch .

Life is GOOD!

Does it matter where you sleep?

My mil and fil used to tell people that Pat never knew where he would wake in the morning. That the bed he would go to sleep in was never the bed he would wake in. And it was the truth.

Nathan was such a sick baby that he stayed in the room with us, esp when he got his feeding tube and was recieving 10 hr feedings at night etc. Delanie would get scared and need to come to our bed and Pat would take hers. Or Jon Tyler would get in our bed at night and Pat would go to his etc. Never a rhyme or reason..I literally never knew who would I would wake with. Sweet Baby Rose always stayed in our bed and just recently got her own bed :) still in our room lol

Well, Nathan has a fondness for our couch. He had rather sleep on it any night. I really could care less besides the fact that it is not close to me to check on him at night (yes, I still check on him at night as habits don't die easily).

Thank you , Father, for my sweet boy. Thank you for allowing me and Pat be his parents.

Are we really through with China????

Rosie decided spearing food is better

delighted with his accomplishment

Core 5 users...Did you feel like China was NEVER going to end????I did . BUT, we LOVED every minute!!!!!

The books are awesome, the information in the EHE is great and the movies we watched were LOVED! Side note......almost all the readers etc do not have happy endings. And come to think of it, neither does the movies.

Movies we watched...Chariots of Fire, Seven Years in Tibet and Children of Ha Shaung (not spelled correctly..will fix in a bit) and tried The Long Road Home but reading all the subtiltes to my youngest son sounded too time consuming so we took that bugger out of the dvd lol.

Being a festive gal that I am , I decided tonight would be chinese for supper. Ok, it wasn't that far fetch of an idea. We did not finish school til 3:30 and I had not thought of what to do for dinner . Chinese seemed like the only alternative lol.

May freedom fly...

In AL, one true joy was in January to go to Guntersville State Park (in the freezing temps) and see the bald eagles. That was about the only time an Alabamian could see one in the wild.

So, imagine how excited I was when I realized that bald eagles were very popular in population here in central Florida.

Now, I will warn you.. I am a huge nature freak. I love all things in nature. I enjoy teaching my children about bugs, snakes, critters and birds. EVEN, if I am not sure about a critter, I still have great joy just watching with my kids. Since being here I have seen dozen of bald eagles, turkeys, deer, coral snakes (another story about stinky husband mowing grass and capturing one...), a plethera of frogs and amphibians and the list goes on.

My 16 yr old neighbor informed me that the 2 bald eagles have returned to our trees, in....my.....back...yard.....HOLEY SMOLEY!!!! Bald eagles in my pine trees????? This is a dream come true!!!!

Just look at those talons....unbelievable.

AM I the only one who gets teary eyed seeing an eagle? Bald eagle, american flag, military and FREEDOM all run hand in hand in my book!

Summer must be renamed

According to my oldest son, we should just rename summer since he is not going to be able to enjoy it........
His friends are getting out of school this week and they are so exicted ( as I used to be ). They have all told JT that summer begins this week and they are FREE!. Actually they are not all free , as they think, as most will be in summer camps and programs.

Well, JT thinks he should not have to do ANY school this summer as that is what summer means, no school.
Needless to say, he was not happy with me when I told him that he would be having his school during the week of summer(just lighter loads of school).

His response "WELL, just rename summer since I won't get it!".

Gee, what a mean mom I am lol

Spending time with Nana and PawPaw

Nana and PawPaw came last week for a week long visit. It was so nice to have them here that long. Nana needed to "get away" for some change of scenery after the death our of Mimi.

We all had a blast. They were able to see the boys play ball, go on a field trip and just hang with us. It will be awhile before we see them again so we enjoyed every minute we had.

This picture is at The Boardwalk in town. We took them there to see all the wildlife aka gators :)

Field trip to Gillispie Museum at Stetson Univeristy

Digging for crystals.







Jon Tyler examing crystals.

The field trip was so great. It was only 2 other families so it was not crowded. Our tour guide was AWESOME!. I assume she was a geology student at the university. She told us all interesting facts , and just enough for the kids to understand.

After she finished with the teaching, the kids got to dig for crystals, look through the microscopes and play games .

I highly recomment this tour! And it was CHEAP!