G&G Peper are here!!!

On Saturday evening Gramma & Grampa Peper FINALLY rolled into town!!!  We've been missing them and were so glad they could make the trip to spend Thanksgiving week with us. 
Monday we took them to Gulf World Marine Park...

Brynn got picked to help out in the Dolphin show which she loves! (A few of these pictures are actually from when we were there a week ago with friends).

And then we went and checked out Pineapple Willy's for dinner - where we all tried alligator for the first time... tastes like chicken.

Today we took them to the beach to play...

In other news they have also managed to see the crash site of the F22 Raptor (from the incident that occurred on Thursday afternoon - obviously this picture of the plane is not from the crash site which looked very different).  They got to see a dolphin swimming in the wild.  And they have already seen Harlow our backyard alligator!  Yay! Oh, and they even got to play a rousing family game of Bingo; which is apparently a very Floridian thing to do since there are about 10 Bingo halls within 5 miles of our house :)

Tyndall Elementary School

I love the kids new elementary school.  I remember when Brynn, and then Tyler, started school.  It wasn't a bad experience, it just wasn't exactly what I thought it would be.  I didn't have that feeling of involvement that I thought there would be.  I didn't know their friends or what their classrooms were like and there were 30ish students in each class.  It got a little better with time.  But I really like this new school, its more what I pictured.  I get to volunteer each week in Brynn's classroom (because the teacher personally asked me to).  The classes are capped at 18 students.  And they are constantly inviting the parents to come participate with daily activities.  On the Friday before Veterans Day, Dylan & Kate & I headed over in the morning to watch the kids Flag Ceremony.  It was so sweet to see the whole school circled around the flag pledging their allegiance, singing our nations songs and honoring veterans...

Tyler (2nd from left) watching the flag being raise with his classmates.

And then today Dylan and I got to go eat Thanksgiving Lunch with Tyler and his classmates (we thought Kate would have more fun playing at a friends house while we went)...

...Dylan was beyond excited and had his lunch packed (I knew he wouldn't eat the schools meal) and in his own backpack first thing in the morning.  It was a long wait until lunch time :{ But it was very fun and both of the boys were so proud.

SOLD!

We bought our first house when we moved to Arizona for medical school.  We bought it at just the right time, and for a fair price.  It was in a great location and right around the corner from our besties the Petersons.  A lot of memories were made there.  A lot of family milestones happened inside those walls.  It was a good started home for us.

But we all know what happened to the economy and the housing market.  And when it came time to move we knew we had to rent and not sell.  And so we've been landlords for the past 4+ years, to around 4 different renters.  It hasn't been fun or easy doing that long distance.  And it seemed unfair to be asking our friends to be helping us out so much.  But we did what we could because we knew it was the right thing to do.  We could afford to keep it so we needed too, even if it cost us a little. 

But then one day we had a real estate agent from that area show up at our church here in Florida while visiting family.  Of course PJ started talking to him and he said he knew he could sell our home for us.  We didn't really believe him but we really wanted to.   This fell at a time when, once again, our renter would be moving out in about a month. So we told him we'd give him a few weeks and see what happened.  Sure enough, he put the house on the market on a Thursday evening, and by bright and early Monday morning we had our first all-cash offer.  And then by later that afternoon we had another full-price offer.  In the end, we sold our first home for what we owed on it.  Everything went smoothly and we closed on time.  It was hard to think about the money that was lost on the down payment, the years of paying the mortgage, and the high fees for closing and real estate agent fees.  It wasn't exactly the investment we had hoped and planned on.  However, it was a relief to have that burden of debt and responsibility off or our shoulders, knowing we did it the right way.  A few days later we got the following email from the real estate agent...

Good morning Preston and Kelly!
We received word late yesterday that the sale is complete! The house recorded and you no longer own a home in Arizona.  Hopefully all is well for you. Please call me when you get this to confirm.
Thank you,
Rob

It was a bitter sweet moment.  Our first home... SOLD!

Living in Bear Country

Living in bear country is neat.  In the 4 months we've lived here we've seen bears on 4 different occasions already.  The times I've seen them I was safe and sound in my car, but that also meant I was unable to grab my camera for a quick picture :{  And the time PJ "ran" into one... oh never mind, lets be honest, even if he had a camera while on his run he wouldn't have stopped to take a picture for me.  But the kids have seen them too and Kate will often look out the car window asking where the bear went.  And while I find this very neat, living in bear country also has its challenges...   

 

When we first moved in, it was Brynn's chore to take out the trash.  Only we realized that she has a hard time getting the lock open and shut right.  After the first time I had to clean up trash the bear had helped himself too we changed her jobs.  But the bears had already learned to check our trash can.  So quite frequently we find it knocked over and scratched up.  And unfortunately every now and then they catch us on a bad day where the lock didn't get shut all the way.  Somehow I'm always the one that finds the mess and has to clean it up.  

Grrrrr.......

And while we are technically living in bear country, I think it could also be called frog country.  Kate and Dylan especially love all the frogs.

One night the froggy jumped onto the headband Kate was holding in her hands.  She wasn't very happy at him for doing that :)  But it was pretty funny because at first she couldn't figure out where he had jumped off too and while she was basically holding him in her hands she was turning in circles trying to find him.

Dylan also found a walking stick...

And of course bear and frog country also comes with the perk of playing ball on the beach in November :)

Other Halloween Randoms...

One night for family home evening we invited Grandma over and put her in charge of the snack.  She brought these cute spider cookies for the kids to make.

We are missing our Eckerts Farm from Illinois.  And we couldn't find anything like that around here :{  The kids were a little confused when we took them to Walmart to "pick" their pumpkins out.  

Oh well.  I guess you can't have it all in one place ;)  We moved from the farmlands to the beaches so we need to adjust to a different way of life.  But since we couldn't have our Eckerts frozen custard afterwards either we headed to Dairy Queen instead...

And as we sat outside and ate (in the beautiful weather) Kate saw that "monster" in the window and was scared of it - and of Dylan who thought it was fun to imitate it :)

We got around to washing our pumpkins but somehow never found time to decorate or carve them.  I wasn't sad about that at all.  But the kids definitely mentioned it a few times.

One night before bed PJ decided to let Brynn and Tyler have their first Cry Baby Sour Candy and challenged them to see who could keep it in longer.  Brynn won.

Brynn loves headbands so we made her a special spider one to wear to school on Halloween...

And after Dylan won a costume contest at daddy's work party, he also won the one they had at our community center.  The kids were very excited about the big cauldron with surprises in it.  

Halloween Night!

Ladies & Gentlemen!  Presenting, The Wilson Family Circus...

 

Dylan and mommy the clowns, Kate the lion, Grandma the elephant, Tyler the Ringmaster, and Brynn the acrobat.

 

We started our evening by having our neighbors, the DeSio's, over for our usual spooky dinner.

And of course we finished the evening with Trick or Treating!  Kate and Dylan came back to hang out with me in the driveway and eat (I mean hand out) candy after the first hour.  But Brynn and Tyler were going strong for another 30-45 minutes :)

The weather was gorgeous - which we were thankful for after the "cold" front we've had the last few days due to the hurricane/storm.  What a fun night!