BFFs! More visitors!!!

Since the day we left Scott AFB Dylan has been asking to play with his "best friend Jonathan".  They were always together.  So there was a void when we moved.  But he has only had to repeatedly ask about him for two months because on Tuesday his "best friend Jonathan" brought the rest of his family to visit us!!!  Wahoo!!!!  Really, we've all been missing the Morgan family and have been anxiously awaiting this visit.  We were sad that Clark got sent TDY two weeks before the scheduled vacation but had to be happy that Kara decided to brave the drive with the three kids by herself anyway.  She would have had to explain to Dylan and I don't think she wanted to do that ;)  Little Miss Ada has gotten so big since we left...

And in two days we've already pack in a lot of fun.   We've been to the swimming pool twice - and on one of those visits there was an end of the summer party going on with snacks and activities. 

 And we've introduced them to some of our fun animals...

 And while Brynn and Tyler were at school today we hit the beach...

Lorelai and Kate had to be coaxed into having fun at the beach :) and they did relax at times. But the boys were very busy and had a ball.  There were fish everywhere, the dolphins were out, and we even had a stingray swim close to us!  The boys are ready to head back, not sure the girls are yet :)  

Boring yet?

Not only do I love taking pictures, but most especially I have always loved beach pictures.  I don't know... I think there is something amazingly special about families walking barefoot hand in hand, kids frolicking in the waves, the looks of pure joy and relaxation, the majesty of it all.  And so I've taken a few pictures since we've moved here ;)  But last Saturday, when we spent the day camped out at the beach with our neighbors, I decided to not take my camera this time.  I don't know why or what I was thinking.  I always have my camera with me.  But I thought maybe, just maybe, in the 4 years we were here I wouldn't always have to take pictures at the beach because what if you could actually have too many beach pictures.  Well shoot I was wrong.  The beach is never boring or the same.  There were lots of new adventures and so I'm thankful I could at least snap a couple of pictures with my phone. 
This particular day there was a shrimping boat out on the water.  And I think that caused the dolphins to get excited and do some fun jumps and tricks that we hadn't seen before - up until now we have just seen the dolphins out swimming.  And so when they were doing jumps and flips Brynn was in awe.  She exclaimed that she didn't know they could really do that! (???)  I asked her why since we've seen them do that before on TV or even at Sea World.  She said she thought that TV was sometimes make believe and that they were just specially trained when we saw them in their cages.  Huh, glad she got to see and understand them in their natural habitat.  I didn't realize that there was that disconnect there ;)  And for some reason ever since we've moved here, whenever we are at the beach, Brynn has been asking and begging for us to catch her a fish.  Well they are easy to spot but hard to catch.  But randomly this day of course we caught one.  It looked like a catfish.  The kids were excited.  We checked him out for a minute and then let him go.

The dolphins were playing not too far off the shoreline and so Preston swam with Brynn and Tyler out to a sandbar to get a little closer.  (These pictures were my attempt at getting a picture of the dolphins in the air - ha!  That didn't work at all but at least I tried...)

Well as it turns out they were visited by a school of jellyfish while out there.  Not big ones, maybe the size of your palm by all accounts.  But everyone got stung.  I think they were fine while still out in the water but once Brynn made it back to shore she broke down and started crying and needed some babying and rest time ;)  Don't worry she survived.

So no, its definitely not boring or normal here yet.  Still special.  We love the fun and adventure and wildlife.  Our most recent discovery was this armadillo.  Too bad he wasn't alive when we saw him.  But the kids still enjoyed checking it out.

PJ went for a run the other night.  He returned home about a half an hour before I expected him back.  I asked him what was up.  He responded that he ran into a bear and decided to cut his run a little short :)  OK, probably a good idea.  It was dark, around 8pmish.  And he got within 20 feet of the bear before he realized what was staring him down.  So he stopped, walked backwards for a long while until he got far enough away to turn and run home (but he did stop to warn a guy walking his little dog that he may not want to head that direction).  He's not like me - so no pictures were taken ;)

We've also checked out several local places to eat.  My brother and husband insisted on getting BBQ from this roadside trailer (aka Sea Breeze BBQ).  Thankfully they brought it home so I didn't have to see where it came from ;)  But like they always say, these places are always the best.        

And I can't imagine that these skies and sunsets will ever be boring...

Our Days...

While I'm still sad for Dylan that he couldn't get in to preschool this year (the fun of working on letters and numbers with mommy is wearing off quickly) its actually been nice having him home.  He takes care of the manly stuff for Kate and I during the day - like killing the spiders, holding doors open for us on our outings, and catching the lizards...

:)  And he and Kate are best friends.  She'd miss him if he were gone.  And she keeps him and I entertained.  Dylan and I found Kate teaching Mickey and Minnie how to use the potty...

I think she'd like to be potty trained too.  She asks to go sit on the potty quite often.  And I'm working up to doing it... I'm just not ready to tackle that quite yet :{

And PJ thinks we should move her out of the crib for her own safety...

... no she's never fallen or actually gotten out.  But I'm also not ready for that struggle either. 

And one afternoon the three of us got to go have lunch with daddy at his work Luau...  

And we just like to hang out...

I find these two cuddling and loving each other all the time.  They melt my heart and make me smile...