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!
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
This was one of the better black and whites.
