4th of July Florida Style

 We decided to spend the 4th with the Vannatta family this year.  We had so much fun spending time with them all!

 Happy 4th!

 Ormond Beach threw an amazing party!  We enjoyed magicians, jugglers, music, inflatables and lots of crafts all for free.  I was impressed with all the city did to celebrate the 4th.  Scott even got to join in on the fun when the juggler pulled him on stage!

 Playing on one of the inflatables.  You take turns in each of the windows trying to knock the person off the center and then you get a turn in the center. Jaycee did a great job staying on the platform.

 Alia had a lot of fun on the slide.

 Balloon animals!  Avery asked for a sword, Jaycee a monkey, Austin a parrot and Alia a snake.

 We spent a day at Ponce Inlet just south of Daytona Beach.  It was a beautiful area with very clear water.  We all had fun playing in the waves.   Jaycee is always so full of life and ready for anything.  

 Gaven took Scott out for a few rounds of surfing.  It was fun watching Gaven, Joel and Scott surf.


Perfect photo bomb opportunity!

 After the beach they would continue to swim in the pool. They would swim and run around this pool until they had the water spinning really fast!


 When we asked Avery what he wanted to do for his birthday he said, "celebrate with my cousins and go to a water park!"  We spent a whole day at the Daytona Lagoon.  It was a great little water park with a lot of fun slides and a lazy river.  Alia went down all of the big, scary slides.  At one point she and Scott went down a huge tube slide. The slide was fully enclosed and pitch black. They were on a partially flat tube and half way down they flipped off. Alia hung on to the tube and Scott hung on to Alia. She came out a little wide eyed but decided that it was still tons of fun.  It didn't stop her from going down again and again!

 
See the purple, curly tube slide in the back behind the bucket?  That's the one Alia and Scott flipped on!


There was an arcade at the water park as well.

 Happy 15th and 7th birthday Gaven and Avery!
The boys asked for an ice cream cake so we found one at a Publix.  We were quite surprised when we cut into the cake and it was a literal vanilla cake with ice cream under it!  There wasn't even an oreo crust. 

 Playing around with the frosting.

 It was impossible to get a good shot of them all.  Gaven never did take his shirt down and each shot has one of the kids looking at him. This was our best picture.

 Happy Birthday Avery!!!!

 My silly, sweet Austin

We went to Daytona Beach in the evening to enjoy the the festivities.  We enjoyed quite a few performers.  The guy that got out of the straight jacket and chains in under 2 minutes was impressive.  Scott and the kids enjoyed a ride in the ferris wheel overlooking the ocean and park.


 Gaven at his best!


Amanda painted her nails!  Thanks for the fun trip, we love you : )

Wisconsin day trip!

This weekend my Mom's side of the family had a picnic to remember Aunt Pat who passed away in April.  She was Grandpa Dave's sister.   My Aunt Debbie and Grandpa North decided to drive to Wisconsin to be there.  I have not seen either of them in at least 5 years and I really wanted to be able to give them both a hug.  We checked flights and discovered we were only going to be able to be there for 3 hours so we flew into Madison WI in the morning, drove to Prairie du Chien and spent 3 hours at the park.  It was a fast trip, but I would do it all over again!  Their faces when we showed up to surprise them were priceless. 

 I was so excited to be able to spend time with my cousins Spencer, Caleb and Andrew.

 Avery and Alia with Papa and Bama and Great Grandpa Dave and Great Grandma Joyce North.

 Grandpa Dave with Mom, Aunt Debbie and his sisters Aunt Mary and Aunt Edi and nephew Larry

Cassie some how managed to escape being photographed.  This is the only one I got of her.

 
The kids had a lot of fun because they spent the day at the park.  I thought it was funny that they flew 1,800 miles to play in a park for the day! 

Alia riding a pedal bike!

Seabrook Island South Carolina

 We headed to Seabrook Island SC this year for our family vacation.  It's a private island 45 minutes south of Charleston.  It was a great island with both the river and the ocean on either side of it.  Having both allows for great diversity with the terrain and the animals on the island. 

 This was an amazing oak called the Angel Oak.  It is estimated to be between 300 to 400 years old.  It is 65 feet tall with a circumference of 25.  It was a truly amazing tree!   

 We did a lot of running on the beach.  Alia would constantly yell, "Let's all run together."  or "Let's all skip together."  As you can see from Avery's face here he wasn't thrilled to be doing any of that.  He just wanted to check out every living thing on the beach. 

 We took a day trip to Charleston to explore the city.  We visited Waterfront Park and watched the ships and people.  They had rows of swings to sit on.  We also took a carriage ride around the city to learn the history of the city and see as much of Charleston as we could.  It was a beautiful city with great architecture, lots of restaurants and a rich history. 


 On this trip Avery collected lots of crabs and caught fish.  He brought home a few crabs to take care of.  He would feed this one chicken and check on it several times a day. 

 It took a lot of effort for him to catch this fiddler crab.  He went into the marsh and slipped in the mud several times.  It was quite comical, and I wish I had pictures.

 

 This part of the Edisto river had lots of hermit crabs.  We also saw sharks and dolphins right along the shore here.

This is the first time since she was a baby that she has slept longer than us for us to be able to take a picture of her!  She slept until 9:30!!!!  I guess we wore her out with daily swimming, running, and nightly sunset walks. 

Atlanta Botanical Gardens

We enjoyed a beautiful day at the Atanta Botanical Gardens when Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit. 

They had a lot of neat plant sculptures of animals.  I loved this unicorn and the dog.

There was a really neat children's garden area.  

In the edible gardens.

 Walking the canopy tour.

 Checking out the plants in the indoor rain forest.

 Those things hanging from the ceiling were roots from a plant.

Another really neat garden sculpture. She was easily 40 feet tall. 

Avery's music recital

 He played Summer Days, Sports Days and Follow the Leader from Pianorama book 2.  The lights went out during the performance but the kids all continued to play.  You'll notice during one of Avery's songs that they come back on.  Apparently some of the lights over head were colored because Avery started watching them.   

We took him to a Hibachi restaurant to celebrate.  Alia wasn't thrilled with the fire. 

Happy Mother's Day!

 We started the weekend out picking strawberries at Cottle Berry Farms.  The Chandler strawberries were amazing and with 4 of us picking this year we ended up with 4 gallons in less than an hour.

 Juicy!

 We headed home for an awesome dinner and dessert, yay!

 Playing around with the camera. 

 On Sunday we drove to Cheaha State park in Alabama.  It is our favorite southern state park so far.  The views were amazing and the rocks and waterfalls were so pretty.   

We found the perfect picnic spot at an overlook.  

 The kids had a great time climbing all of the rocks.

 Millipede!

 

 The trail to the waterfall was really pretty. 

 Once we made it to the falls, Avery took his shoes off to dip in the water.  He fell in instantly!

Jumping over the mud and puddles.