Rainy day means updating the blog...

Today is just a rainy day and we are stuck in the house. That's probably not such a bad thing. Yesterday Aiden had tubes put in both ears. The procedure took less than 20 minutes. We had to get there at 6:15am and we were out of there by 8am. Ryan was such good big brother. He took care of him and thank goodness there was a playroom he could have fun in while we were waiting. Aiden slept most of the day which was nice. He never seemed to be bothered by the whole ordeal. Let's just pray the tubes keep the ear infections away.

The following are just a few random pictures of some of the fun we've been having this month.

Pool fun with friends!
Bowling with friends. Notice he tries to tell the ball which way to go.
Playing pictionary. He wrote the word!
He drew the picture!

Random picnic at a park by Scott's job

We've enjoyed meeting Scott on his lunchbreak some this summer to have a picnic at a park near his job. I love old playgrounds and it doesn't seem to matter to the boys if they are new or old. They just love going. Ryan is really proud of himself in this picture for swinging by himself. He has forever wanted us to push him but he knows how to pump his legs. I think mostly he just wants us there playing too!

Earlier this month

Earlier this month it was getting a little hot and we were needing some rain. Well we got it. The following pictures are of Ryan playing out in the rain.

Alien Night

For some time now Ryan has had a wild imagination and loves to make up stories. He will use his little super hero figures while he develops the most elaborate plots and most of the time act them out as he recites them fully accompanied with sound effects and karate moves. I decided today to start typing them up for keepsakes. I typed it just as he dictated it to me. The entire time I was typing he kept asking me, "did you get that? did you get that?" So here is his first "published" short story.

Alien Night
By Ryan Thomas
4 years old
July 15, 2009

One black night...from a space ship...In that night, he killed one bad guy. And he went to an alien lab and there was another bad guy recording his movie, but he destroyed him. He destroyed it for good. And there was another bad guy taking money and the good guy took the money and gave it to people. He went to the forest and talked to God. He said that he loved him. Then one night the good guy was being killed until the same alien came down and then snuck some money away and gave it to another people. In the morning they saw it recorded from the alien. Because it was recorded from an alien and by the bad guy and outside he saw some hands. The hands of the alien were the "cuttiest." {translation-as in the most cutty, as in the sharpest} The alien was the good guy. Until he fell in the swamp and an alligator chomped him up and the good guy turned into a rock. Sometimes aliens have magic and it turns them to stuff and they can hide their bodies into other bodies. Then a gorilla came and the alien snuck on the gorilla and was being killed. He killed the gorilla cooked him up and ate it. The alien died after he ate the gorilla. And the year was 1918. Then the dead alien came back to life. Then they snucked up to the bad guy and destroyed them forever.

The End.

First Time Aiden Ever Stood on His Own

This was the first time Aiden ever stood up unassisted. We were at the beach on June 29th on vacation and just happen to get it on video! We were all so excited, we couldn't hardly keep it in. Even Ryan is cheering him on in the background.

July Fourth Blowout!

We had great plans for July 4th to go to the Trussville Freedom Celebration that our church puts on. Great food, music, inflatables for the kids, and then a truly spectacular fireworks show. I had even gotten the boys some darling patriotic clothing. They were going to be so handsome! But all that got blown out when Aiden woke up Saturday with a fever of 103! He was so pitiful. He just wanted to be held all day. He slept a lot, but when he was awake he was whining and crying. I could see a little tooth about to bud and was hoping that was all it was, but I was just living in fear all day that it was an ear infection. We didn't do much all day, just hung out around the house and let Ryan play in the pool. He kept talking about the fireworks and we wer feeling so bad that we couldn't go. Well, we kind of gave in that night. We drove down to the park where it was to be held and the whole town had showed up! There was no way we could walk with the Aiden being so fussy and then find a seat, so we ended up getting ice cream from Dairy Queen and went up to the Sam's parking lot. We thought we might be able to see some of the fireworks there. Well, we weren't the only ones with that idea. It was packed. People had brought lawn chairs and sat on top of their vehicles. It was hilarious. We all watched the fireworks from there. We could even hear them popping. It was great and we didn't have to walk a mile back to our van when we left. It of course was no where near as good as being down underneath the show, but at least we saw some of it. But we got home not a moment too soon. Aiden was so uncomfortable. Orajel and ibuprofen were his best friends that night.

Sunday wasn't any better. We had to miss church because he still felt so bad. But he sure did sleep. Well, today is Monday and I think he is on the mend. I was at first worried, because he slept until 10:30am! And that was only because I went in to check that he was still breathing. That is unheard of. I don't think Ryan has done that a day in his life. Aiden's fever is gone and he seems to be much more playful. I'm hoping today will be a lot better. By the way he does have the cutest little toothy grin with tooth number 5!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Our last full day in St. Augustine was spent touring the Fountain of Youth, the Lighthouse, downtown, and back out to the beach. What great last day!

Ryan was a little leery of drinking from the foutain but we had been reading books leading up to our trip and he was so curious if it would keep him young. The water was horrible mineral water and tasted like sulfur. We all took a drink. Let's see if it helps. I should have gotten a to go cup! The grounds had beautiful gardens, Indian burial grounds, a planetarium that showed the nautical sky during Ponce de Leon's day, even white peacocks. On the coast line we could see a million little crawdads crawling around. Very neat place.

The lighthouse was of course gorgeous too. Kids were not allowed to go up it though for safety. O shucks! I was so disappointed that we couldn't climb all those stairs in all that heat! he, he. It has more steps than the Statue of Liberty. We did get some pretty shots of it though.

You will see some random photos of downtown, including Flagler College. Flagler built the first hotel that had electricity in America. Thomas Eddison came and designed it himself. The only thing was the people were afraid to use the switches so they had servants by each switch to operate them. It has the largest collection of Tiffany stained glass in the world. It is now Flagler college and a sight to behold.

We also saw the Oldest House in America. It was originally built as one story by the Spaniards and then the British came along and put the second story on it. The streets were so narrow as to allow the breezes to funnel through from the ocean, as well, as protect the city from invaders. When the enemies would come marching in they would just pick them off one by one.

I have so many pictures, and I'm sure more than you wanted to see, but this isn't even all of them. I still don't know how I'm going to scrapbook them all. I just had to blog about some of them though so I wouldn't forget the events. I hope you have enjoyed some of the memories we made. The previous posts are not done in a slideshow format. Sometimes I like slideshows and sometimes I don't. Enjoy!

The Carousel Ride

Another failed attempt at the Perfect family photo

This is the one when the storm started blowing in. Poor little Aiden was getting sand in his eyes. You can see the spots of sand all over. It looked like snow.
The storm was beautiful. I love storms at the beach.
This is the coquina jetting up out of the sand--shell stone.

Cutie pies I love the storm in the background.

Ok now that is just adorable!

This was one of the better black and whites.

This might be the best one in color. A little too much hip action going on though.
This is one of the better ones of Ryan.

Ok, this was candid, but I thought it was funny how NONE of them were looking at the camera.

Sunday, June 28, 2009 continued

This tree was called "The Old Senator." It was over 600 yrs old.
And old rusted canon.
The first Ripley's Museum. He bought without even looking at it. It was some kind of castle back in the day. It had one of the two original David statues there.
Lunch at Pizzalley's.

Beautiful Hibiscus all over town.

Sunday, June 28, 2009 continued

This cross (7 stories high-tallest in America) was erected by the first Spanish Catholic settlers at this Mission were the first mass was given in America.

The oldest wooden school house in America.

Greek Orthodox Shrine dates back to 1700s.

Sunday, June 28, 2009 continued

Castillo de San Marcos from the Bridge of Lions

If you could only see the sunburn forming in that sleeveless shirt!

Loved this shot!

Looking up in the turret

Sunday, June 28, 2009 continued

Inside the fort and looking out at the entrance gate. Just inside the main gate

Soldiers marching to the canons for the 11:30 firing

"Cover your ears!"

Sunday, June 28, 2009

This morning we had waffels for breakfast! Yum! Hotel breakfasts are getting better than they use to be. We got tickets for the Ripley's Red Train tour. This was a great way to see the city. Ryan loved it...what boy doesn't love trains? Aiden even slept on the train. Yeah! And Daddy and I got to hear and see the history of the city. What a remarkable thing...to see and walk and touch the same places Ponce de Leon discovered. Well, the Native Americans discovered it, but Ponce de Leon claimed it for Spain. We saw Castillo de San Marcos, the Spanish Fort. It's the largest still in America. We heard and saw the canons fire. Did I mention we heard them? wow loud! The Spanish soldiers yelled "Cover your ears!" and they weren't kidding. I got a great pic though of the moment it fired. The only price I paid was just a little hearing loss. I tried to cover one ear on my shoulder and the other with my hand, but then trying to snap the photo was a little difficult. But I got it! Ryan enjoyed crawling through one of the rooms that had a pint sized door. Scott had to crawl in after him. I wasn't about to go in. Some of the others on tour were talking about how they felt ghosts present. They were getting all creaped out and acting like they just felt the spirits of the dead crawling all around. Some people...

We hopped back on the train and saw other neat things like the Winery (they use muscadine grapes native to the Southeast), the oldest wooden school house, Flagler College, downtown St. Augustine...everything is old there: increadible houses, monuments, and gardens. I just love that sort of thing. And of course the train tour was narrated with cool historical stories. Well worth the $15 to tour for 3 days! We all had a great time. The only thing was I was wearing a sleeveless shirt...and no sunscreen on my arms. I put some on my face, but my arms rarely get burned. This was a rare day to say the least!

We ate lunch at a great place called Pizalleys. Great pizza! Great atmoshpere! Great air conditioning on a HOT day! After getting refreshed we walked the cobblestone streets in the old city and saw a Greek Orthodox shrine, did a lot of shopping and picture taking. We found our Christmas ornament! Actually three. Every year we get a Christmas ornament on vacation or of something that characterized that year. One shop had some hand carved wooden ornaments of things around St. Augustine. They were so neat we got three.

After all that fun in the sun, we had to go back to the hotel and rest a bit. Did I mention I love cold, dark hotel rooms? While Scott and the boys napped I would catch up on facebook and email. We decided to go light on supper and ate at McDonalds...can you believe it? I never eat McDonalds. Well, I guess never, say never huh! We drove out to St. Augustine Beach to find a location of a place our last night's waitress told us about. We actually drove straight to it by mistake. It was great! And it was beautiful. The coquina (shell that has turned to rock and used in all the buildings down there) was plentiful on the white sandy beach and the sand dunes were paradise. SO...I had a crazy idea of trying to get that perfect family picture again. Well.....a storm was brewing and we had to work fast. Again, the boys wanted to play more than pose for a picture. The sand ended up blowing in our faces and it looked like snow. We never got that perfect shot, but we made lots of memories. The clouds and lightening were crashing all around us and the photos did not do justice, but it was amazing! We let Ryan play a little, but the rain came and we had to go. We ended up driving around the town at night seeing the sights, the lighthouse was gorgeous at night too, and we rode the antique carousel. Another great day!

The old city gates from the inside. The only thing left standing from the original city wall.

The Old sugar mill. They use to mill cane sugar. Now this was our first train stop where we parked the van.

Palm trees everywhere!

Presbyterian church.

Oldest working Drugstore in America.