Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter, Teenager and assorted fun!

Well, today we officially entered a new stage of parenthood-the teenage years!
So, today we went to Easter Services at Grace United Methodist but then the rest of the day was hanging out at home and fixing one of Cody's favorite meals.  Burgers, oven baked fries, baked beans, angel food cake with cool whip and lots of strawberries!  Yesterday we ate at Cici's pizza with Lee, Lyndi and Drew and then stopped at Toyz R Us and Cody used his birthday money for LEGOS, Star Wars characters and an XBox game.  So, he will be entertained for the upcoming Spring break.

The Easter Bunny Loves the Beach too!


The kids found boogie boards and squirt guns and buckets of stuff to help them in sand and shelling adventures.  So, next weekend for are planning our next trip to the beach.  Hopeful that it will rain but that just has not happened in awhile down here.  So, I am sure we will be able to work on our tan again!



Here the kids all ready for church.  Amberlyn has made lots of new friends at Grace Place.  And
Cody is enjoying seeing his Octane friends at services.

Yesterday Amberlyn was able to go an Egg hunt at the church.  They had a huge service before the hunt and the kids were loud but they sang and danced and just had so much fun!!!!

Last week we had another visit with Grandpa Chester.  Hopefully it will not be the last this sesason, as he is itching to get back to Ohio in time to help plant the beans.  He wanted to stick his toes in the water at Howard Park while we were up.  It was another great weekend on the gulf.
Hope that everyone had a great Easter weekend. 

The title of the sermon this morning rings true everyday-the outrageous love of God never fails us.  Something we usually do not think about daily-but if we did it would certainly make each day better!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Downtown Disney, dolphins and more

Whew, what a couple of weeks we've been up to.  Yes, the blog has remained silent but our schedule didn't.  Started a couple of weeks ago when we decided to make the hope, skip and a jump over to Orlando to hit the MegaCon Comic Convention.  We got to see lots of comic stuff, see some old friends and great people.  The crowds were high and the space was limited but we were able to squuueeeeeeezzeeee in a fun time.  Amberlyn was really impressed by all the artists doing sketches and drawings and was intent on picking up some of their skills.  Lookout world.


While we were over in that area, we decided to jump on over to Downtown Disney.  Not interested in chunking out the money just yet for Disney, we still wanted the kids to have some fun.  Downtown Disney was perfect.  We got there right as stores started to open and there was lots to see. 


Toy stores, candy stores, Lego stores galore!  Of course, Cody immediately wanted to hit the Lego store but he had to wait his turn.  Once we got there, both kids had plenty to look at.  Amberlyn spotted a pretty cool Woody made out of Legos.  The other cool think was the dragon that was in the lake around the area.  Made entirely out of Lego bricks.  Pretty darn awesome.


And finding a candy store that had a silly mirror, well, it was too good to pass up.

So it was neat to get to the area to see the fun stuff without having to pay a ticket price and just walk along and see the  neat stuff.  Sure plan on getting back to Disney for some fun down the road.

The last two weeks however, we've kind of been beach bums.  We've found a nice beach out on Sanibel Island, a bit down from Jenny's work place.  Not as crowded as the normal Spring Break beaches but still, lovely beach, great water and incredible scenary.  Both Saturdays we've been able to luckly spot a dolphin or two at the beach.


This past Saturday however was the best.  Both kids were playing in the water and about 25 feet out, here is a dolphin trolling for his lunch.  The crowds certainly flock when these beauties make an appearance.  And we can see why, just amazing!


Needless to say, it never gets old when we can see this wonderful product of nature.  We'll be going back as much as we can!

Which is good we got to spend some relaxing time in preparation for a full week ahead.  This week will be filled with FCAT tests (state standardization tests) for Cody and a busy week for Amberlyn.  Hoping to get up to Grandpa Chester's place this coming weekend to get some landscaping and trimming done for him.

All in all, been a busy but fun few weeks.  Ones we hope the kids don't forget for a long time.  Special times!