Thankful Memories

Thanksgiving is always a great time to gather with family. I have some seriously great Thanksgiving memories. Although I have a few that aren't so great, most of my memories just leave a HUGE smile on my face!   First of all for years we used to drive to Wisconson to spend Thanksgiving with my uncle and cousins. My mom and I would load our stuff and ourselves into the car and drive the 8 hour drive to my uncles only to stay up even later prepping for the Thanksgiving meal! (I can't remember how many times I stayed up breaking bread for the stuffing!) My mom and my uncle would do some of the other prepping, there was wine, Mountain Dew, and many laughs! Their favorite thing to make was the stuffing and they really had a knack for it!! Countless wooden spoons were broken...because you don't have the right consistency if you don't break a wooden spoon!! And A LOT and by a lot I mean A LOT of sage was used!! Everyone knows that if you don't need a drink after eating a bite...you NEED more SAGE!!   Its these types of memories that make the not so happy ones...fade to the backgroud. (My mom's last Thanksgiving was spent in the hospital...I brought her dinner, but who wants to eat a Thanksgiving meal there??)   I hope my kids have wonderful memories of spending time with cousins, playing/watching football, eating A LOT of food, and most of all of breaking a few wooden spoons and add just the right amount of SAGE!!   I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know I did!!

Family*Fireworks*Fun

As usual we spent the 4th spending time with family and friends celebrating the freedoms our country offers!

To start our day we headed to the Second Annual Patriotic Parade hosted by my friend Katie from A List Makers Life. We gather at a local boardwalk, decorate our bikes with festive holiday decorations, and pass out candy to anyone on the boardwalk and share some festive spirit. {This year we added some water...its been EXTREMELY warm in these parts!}

A good time was had by all!! It definitely was warm, but worth the heat to enjoy some fellowship with friends!

We headed to the pool after our parade to cool down...3 hours later, we were significantly cooled and ready for the rest of our day. We hung out, played and watched a movie.

To end our evening we headed to the fireworks.

 

Hope you and your family had a fantastic 4th!!

Boing!!

Going on vacation is always fun because you get to see new places meet new people and try new things. Another bonus for us was that we were with family who knew all the fun places to go!One of those places was BOING!

I am not going to lie, this place looked awesome, it is full of trampolines!! They even have Dodgeball...AWESOME! 

Barbara Manatee

The whole time we were in Florida the weather was SPECTACULAR!!! It was perfect, but toward the end it chilled only slightly...which was to our advantage.We decided on one of these days to take the kids to Tampa Electric to their free manatee viewing site. The manatee swim into the inlet when the water is below 68 degress. They have an online camera that you can control so we used that before we hit the road...in our preview there were a TON so we got ready and left! When we got there Emmah was excited...Jake not so much, but as we began to see some he joined in the excitement! We went out on the long dock and saw some there, then headed in after a bit.We then saw there was another viewing dock and thought we should head up there...when we got there you could see 50 or more of them...it was AWESOME!! There were baby ones and rather large ones as well.Here's a little video of our manatee fun:

This free slideshow design customized with Smilebox It was fun and free!! What an awesome experience!

{Fall Fun}

Well today we finally went out and did one of my most favorite fall activities...Apple Picking!!I just love to go and even though this year our fall has been busier than ever I knew we had to make time to go. So today we headed to a local orchard, Cranes and had some fun. We sampled some apples to make sure we got just the right ones. And to my delight my favorite kind....HONEYCRISP were still available!! 

 We had so much fun and just love this fun fall tradition!! We are even going to give making an apple pie a try this year!! I can hardly wait to enjoy all our yummy apples!!

Family Fun

This week we had the best visit with our family from Florida!! My sister Mary and her kids Shelby and Ethan came to visit us at our house!! It was great! The kids were so excited and could hardly wait for them to arrive and LOVED every minute they were here! We played some cards, chatted, took bike rides, did a little shopping, got ice cream at the famous Captain Sundae, ate dinner at a family favorite Crazy Horse, watch the street performers, and just plain enjoyed each others company!!

It is so nice to have family come to see me, I hope they know just how much it meant to us!!
It was sad to see them leave, and I had a moment or two today. I have just really come to realize just how important family is and LOVE all the fun times we are able to spend together! I think my kids have already started the countdown til we go to visit them in December!!

"A family is a gift that lasts forever"

-Author Unknown

Up North

Memorial Day is always a great weekend, not only is it our anniversary weekend, but it means great family get togethers! We usually head up north to hang with the Brown side of the family. Its a fun day full of outdoor activities including my kids favorite part four wheeler rides!!                    

 We also have a new tradition we added last year a duck race down the small river that runs through our Aunt & Uncles property!

It always means a good time, great photos, and awesome memories!! I love it when my kids look forward to things and this is one thing they look forward too!

Thankful Days #21

Today I am thankful for Game Nights!! I am in LOVE with the fact that my kids are really getting into playing games!! We have always sorta had a game night, but now that they are a little older we can play some really fun games!!

Uno has been the recent favorite along with of course Candyland! I am looking forward to adding some fun games to our game cupboard this Christmas! They can learn so much from games and it is FUN! We still play games as adults with friends and family and I am happy to pass this along to my kids!

Thankful Days #20

I am thankful today for lazy mornings!! I love it when we have no place to go and can just hang out in our jammies and play games, chat and share some laughs!! Those mornings are the best. They usually happen on a snow day, but every once in awhile one creeps up on us and we able to enjoy some fun time together!! Cuddles, cartoons and all!