4,230 miles later....

3 weeks ago we headed home to Wisconsin to visit family. It had been a year since we were home again, the longest we've ever been away.  The journey driving across country was a fun one.  We only had one breakdown in the middle of a Wal-mart parking lot, which couldn't have been a more ideal place.  Scott bought the necessary tools to fix the van and we were on our way in no time.  We had perfect weather driving there and back to Florida which was awesome.  We spent our 52 hours listening to Magic Tree house, playing on our Nooks, reading books, drawing and talking.  The kids have always been great travelers so we always look forward to our car trips.

We made it in time for the annual Wunderlin Family picnic in July.  This is easily one of my favorite get- togethers all year.  We had a great time catching up and getting rowdy playing bingo.   

 

 Grandpa Wunderlin and his kids.  I love this picture of my dad, the grin on his face makes him look like he's 12!

They had to stop for a drink from the Smith Park Lion.

Alia and Bama enjoyed picking blackberries.  Alia adopted that frog while we were there and carried it everywhere.

The kids had a blast hanging out with Aunt Cassie. 

We celebrated Avery's birthday together. 

He picked this cookie from the bakery.  He never really wants cake and was happy to have a cookie for his birthday.

We all enjoyed a hike to the Belmont Tower.


After a few days we headed the 6.5 hours up north to Grandpa and Grandma Davis.  We were very excited that Laura and Tony would be there at the same time. 

Tony taught Scott a new way to wrestle.  I love Scott's joy here!

We headed for a hike at Houghton Point. 

Scott doing one of his favorite things when he gets back home.....jumping from Houghton Point.

We headed to the beach in Washburn only to discover there wasn't a beach.  The water levels were up this year on Lake Superior because of their heavy snow year.  We loved having the picnic table in the water.

Maia and Venus both went for a swim.  

Venus decided to sit on the bench after a long swim.

He found a piece of charcoal.

Hanging out and enjoying the cheese platter.

Half way through our trip Scott and I left the kids with Grandpa and Grandma and went house hunting in Seattle.  We will begin our next adventure on the west coast!  Here we are on a ferry to Vashon Island.

We went to a hostel on the island and spent the night in a teepee.   


While we were gone, the kids kept grandpa and grandma very busy!  Here they are helping to pick vegetables from the garden.  They always love doing this and talk about it long after we are gone.


They visited the Duluth Zoo.


Avery was teaching Alia how to do a cartwheel.


Playing on Grandpa's toys.


A favorite pastime in Washburn- playing hide and seek in the graveyard.

Avery loved playing with this because he knew Scott played with it when he was little.

Out for a ride in the boat.

See the dog in the picture?  She carried that stuffed animal everywhere when I was gone.  I guess it was her surrogate because when I got back she stopped carrying it around. 

Picking strawberries

Alia helped Grandma make jam.  When I got back she asked me if I was going to pick berries because she said she was too tired to help me make jam too!

Fishing!

Avery loves fishing and that was all he wanted to do when he was with Grandpa.  He wanted to catch his own fish and eat it.

Preparing the fish.

Yum, breaded perch.

Avery and Jana-
On the way back home we stopped in Peachtree City to visit friends.  We had a great time catching up!  The kids were beaming when we were driving around, telling us all of the things they remembered about our old home.  They had so much fun with their friends, they didn't want to leave.  

Erin and I with Alia and Hayden

Avery and Alia with Emma Kate and Thomas

Sara and I

Happy 8th Birthday Avery!

 
 Avery and Banana age 8.  He is still willing to pose with Banana just for me. 

 
 This is how he actually feels about posing with him.


 We were able to celebrate with my family this year.  Avery wanted to pick something from the bakery to celebrate his birthday.  He has never really liked cake so he picked a cookie and ice cream.  

 
We were able to celebrate with Scott's family too!  We all enjoyed a slice of Grandma Davis's homemade graham cracker cake. 

Avery's only rule this year was that he got to play as many video games for as long as he wanted.  He spent so many hours playing Star Wars.  We did get him out to enjoy the sunshine when we went for a hike. 

These are the questions from this year:
1.  Favorite color: blue
2.  Favorite toy: remote control car
3.  Favorite food: cherries and watermellon
4.  Favorite animal: Fluffy- his hamster
5.  Favorite books:  C.S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia and The Magic Tree house Series
6.  Best Friends:  Jaycent and Austin
7.  Favorite thing to do outside: catch bugs
8.  Favorite holiday: Summer vacation and my birthday
9.  When I grow up I want to be a Scientist because they are cool.
10.  Favorite subject: science and experimenting
11.  Least favorite subject: Music, I love listening to it but not playing it.
12.  What if you could buy anything, what would you buy?  A farm because I like animals
13.  What is your biggest accomplishment this year?  I learned to be kind to people.
14.  What is your favorite thing to do?  I love to play with things because I am creative.
15.  I like to collect:  bugs and spiders
16.  Funniest thing that happened to you this year?  When I did an April Fools joke on Dad and he tripped.
17.  What do you like to do with dad?  Wrestle
18.  What do you like to do with mom?  Play made up games
19.  What would you change about this year?  I would live in a bigger house and have my own room   so Alia doesn't wake me up in the morning.
20.  Favorite memory this year?  Going to Disney with my cousins.

State parks, forts, baking and vbs!

 
 Hontoon Island State Park - We decided to explore a few more state parks in Volusia County.  When I read about this park online it indicated that is was an island and to get there you would ride the free ferry.  That sounds cool!  Once we arrived at the free state park we realized the ferry boat ride literally took 3 minutes and covered about 50 meters.  Once on the island we decided to take a 3 mile hike. 


 This was a really neat tree.  The limb of the fallen tree was actually living and thriving.  We tried to get the kids to take a picture next to it but one of them yelled "bee" and everyone refused to stand anywhere by it.

 We saw an owl in the tree!  It was neat to see one during the day.

 This is halfway point on the trail.  We are actually standing on one of the two mounds on the island.  The Timucuan Indians were the first inhabitants of the Island and they gathered snails from the St. John's River.  Through the years the discarded shells accumulated to form this mound.  We were proud to be standing on the only elevation in Florida!      

 It started to pour!  There was so much rain coming down, Alia stopped to get a drink from the rain coming off one of the palms.

 
 Alia saw this picture in one of my magazines and asked if we could make them.  We baked the cupcakes together and then I told the kids to pick out their candy so we could decorate the cupcakes.

 This is what they decided to do.  I am pretty sure this was all about how much candy they could get on the cupcake and not about the actual cupcake!

 This one actually has kit kat legs.

 On Father's Day we headed to St Augustine since it is within range of our electric car and we love exploring and history.

 Our first stop was Castillo de San Marcos.  For many years this fort was the northernmost outpost for Spain's vast New World empire.  Thanks to Ponce de Leon's early discovery of the area in 1513, Spain knew that this was the perfect spot to control as their fleets full of treasure sailed past .  This is the oldest masonry fort and it is well preserved.

Even though Spain claimed Florida through Ponce de Leon's discovery, France gained the first establishment there by establishing Fort Caroline on the St. John's River in 1564.  Spain saw this as a threat and King Phillip II sent an expedition under Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles to get rid of the French and establish a fort for Spain.  Menendez tried to board the French ships unsuccessfully and decided to sail south and established a fort at St. Augustine.  Almost immediately the French sent ships to attack but the ships were driven southward by a storm and wrecked and the mission failed.  Fort Caroline was lightly guarded now and the Spaniards marched north and captured the fort.  England became Spain's next contender for Florida and Sir Francis Drake attacked and burned St. Augustine in 1586.  Then in 1668 British pirates again burned St. Augustine.  This caused Spain to build Castillo de San Marcos.  It took 23 years to build the fort.  Time and time again the fort successfully stood up to siege after siege.  Great Britain and Spain traded Florida a few times during various wars and then in 1821 Spain finally ceded Florida to the United States.       

 St Augustine was a quaint little area.  We walked around the narrow brick streets and visited several little shops.  The area was a living history area and you could go into these shops and watch people in costume perform.  We also visited the Colonial Quarter which is a historic adventure tour.  The city is a replica of the 16th 17th, and 18th, century Spanish colony.  Everyone was in period costume and you followed a tour guide around telling you about St. Augustine. 

This week we went to vbs at Oasis church.  The theme was Glow for Jesus.  Wednesday night we all wore our team colors along with various glow things.  It was a really fun week!