The Beach

Our 10th wedding anniversary is May 31 so we decided to head to the beach for a few days of R&R. Since we have to factor babysitters into the equation we decided to go over Memorial Day Weekend. We headed out Thursday morning and came home Monday night. It was wonderful and way too quick! 

The first night we had dinner at Henderson Park Inn, it was fantastic. That place is gorgeous and the food was excellent plus you can't beat sitting on the deck overlooking the ocean.

We stayed at a little place that was right on the beach. We just opened our back door and walked into the sand. There were no high rises around us so there was plenty of room to spread out. 

Every morning I wandered out to the beach to have my coffee. Then Brian and I would take a walk on the beach, then we would camp out all day under the sun and then head up to get ready for dinner. We ate out at our favorite spots in Destin - Graffiti's, The Back Porch, The Crab Trap and our new favorite Cuvee. We would eat and then head to the outlet mall after dinner, we didn't want to take up an entire day at the mall so we would just shop for an hour or so after dinner at night. 

my morning view while having coffee

yes, I was cold. Brian though it was hilarious so he took a picture. Only I would get cold on the beach :)

 Apparently this is the new way to fish. We saw several guys doing this, one guy was even standing on the top of his ladder. I don't know how they kept their balance. It was fun to watch.

Every night Brian would smoke a cigar on our porch. I snapped this photo of the moon over the beach while we were out on the porch one night. 

This is what happens when I ask to take a picture of Brian. He hates to have his picture taken so he just acts silly, he's worse than the kids.

Here he is finally acting normal at The Back Porch :)

And this is what happens when I ask him to take my picture - sheesh!

I sure am missing that view from my porch!

Soccer

We just finished up our 6th season of soccer. These girls have been playing together for 2 seasons and they improved so much this season. They also happen to be all first graders from Westminster so not only is it fun for the girls but it's tons of fun for the parents to get to socialize outside of school functions. I must admit that I spent most of my time chatting and not really paying close attention to the game :)

trophy time at Garibaldi's

soccer season is over, on to tennis.....

Jack's Spring Program

Jack had his spring program at Farmington. He is not a fan of these things. The trouble starts when I walk into the cafeteria and he realizes that I am not coming up there to get him but that I am seated way too far away for his comfort. 

Notice the "what the heck are you doing way over there" look.

Another thing he has going against him is that he can't handle clapping which of course happens after every song. It is so pitiful - there are no words to describe it, just watch the video all the way through. And since the computer still hates me, here is the link:

Jack's Spring Program

P-I-T-I-F-U-L!!!

This sweet little thing is Jack's girlfriend. She waits for him every morning and walks him to class. His teacher says that she takes care of him all day. She is the most precious little thing!!

After the traumatizing Spring Program, Jack needed some major consoling - I didn't mind the snuggle time at all ;)

First Golf Lesson

Last year Brian decided to start teaching Emi how to golf. I can't decide if she likes it because of her pink golf clubs or if she actually likes to golf. Every now and then Brian will take Kevin (he's behind Brian in the picture) and Emi to the driving range. Last week Brian decided he would take Jack too. Here he is getting his first golf lesson - he liked it for about 5 minutes and then he was done. Something else he gets from his momma ;)

Literary Character Day

The kids got to come to school dressed as any character from a book they have read. Emi read The Wizard of Oz last year and since we just happen to have a Dorothy costume and some red Toms, that's the character she chose. She made a pretty cute Dorothy :)

Fruit of Character

Westminster Academy hosts a Fruit of Character celebration for their first graders every year. The children had been studying character traits all year and then the teachers select a character trait to give to each child. It really is a sweet program. 

I had no idea what was going to be Emi's "Fruit of Character" and I only had my phone  (which hardly had any storage left) with me so I knew I had to record at the correct moment or just miss out on getting it. Thankfully she was one of the last to get her character so by process of elimination I knew she was up next and was able to record it - yay!! :)

Emi and I being silly before the program started.

since the computer hates me and refused to load my video, here is the link to it.

Fruit of Character

how appropriate for our sweet girl

the first grade class with their certificates

Jack turns 5

Sweet Jack turned 5. We opted not to do a party this year - we decided to take him to the mall to do his absolute favorite thing instead. We have to purchase a new stroller for him and since insurance already paid for a wheelchair they will not pay for a stroller. Since they run around $1,000 we decided to save our money and put it towards the stroller. 

pure joy :)

the grandparent paparazzi 

After jumping we headed to the food court to have cupcakes.

Jack does not like sweets - he definitely did not get that from his Momma!

My grandmother, GG, and Jack share a birthday. Here are the two birthday kids with Emi Joy ;)

After cupcakes we headed down to Build A Bear where Emi pouted and stood in the doorway refusing to come inside because she couldn't get a bear. It's not like she has never done it before, the lady helping us recognized Emi because she has been in there so many times. She is SO mistreated and we had to hear about it for the rest of the night - sheesh!

Jack picking out his bear. He didn't go for the camo one - he IS my child after all!! ;)

picking out a sound. he picked a dog barking. he now has a black bear that barks :)

washing his bear - he could have cared less about this part. It makes a loud noise that Jack was not found of.

picking out the outfit. Dad was trying hard to get him to pick the Star Wars set but he went with the Spiderman PJ's instead. Still not a bad choice!

This year was not as emotional as years past. I was expecting it to be very hard - if he were typical he would be starting kindergarten in the fall but he won't. In fact he will never go to kindergarten, we were told a few months ago that he will start the Life Skills class in the fall. It was very sad when they first told us but after the news settled and we thought about it, the Life Skills class is the best place for Jack. We are just trying to navigate down a different road that we haven't traveled before. It is scary and sad at times but it's not always like that - thank goodness!! We are very blessed to have a great support system in our family and friends. 

Happy Birthday my precious boy!