Getting Out of Dodge

Yesterday I decided to "Seize the Daytona," as The City of Daytona's advertising slogan encourages all to do.  I decide to leave for Florida two days early due to the severe weather predicted for the Carolinas today.  I figured I could spend Thursday afternoon in the basement sheltered from severe storms, or I could spend it at the beach in sunny weather.  I chose the beach.

We are having a great time.  My parents are spoiling us and we are enjoying all of our favorite activities.  

We leave for Jacksonville on Saturday where we will board the Fascination for a five day cruise to the Bahamas.  Since I do not have access at my parents' condo or on the cruise boat, I doubt that I will be able to blog very much over the next week.  However, I will post lots of pics when we return!

Relaxing oceanfront dinner at North Turn Restaurant.

Mommy and Baby

Beautiful Daytona Morning

"Spy Agents"

Bummed

(My first picture with Chizzle - August 5, 2009)

I was supposed to spend last night hanging out with one of my favorite buds, Chizzle, at the Gastonia Grizzlie game.  Instead, we spent the afternoon huddled in the basement with sweet neighbor friends while tornado sirens were sounding and a cell of rotation went directly over Roebuck.  Nothing ended up touching down, so we are safe and sound, but there were 13 very scary minutes from 2:05 - 2:18 PM.

Thankfully we have two very nice days ahead of us and should finally be able to enjoy some time outside.  Although, storms are predicted to return on Thursday.

Pic of the Day

Sleeping Baby

Every night I kiss the boys goodnight before I go to bed.  I find Caleb in his bed only about half of the time.  The rest of the nights I find him in some random location.  Sometimes under the bed, sometimes in a fort, or sometimes in the middle of the floor.  Gray is always cozy in his bed.

Bowling Buddies

Today was another rainy day, so we moved our activities indoors. We went bowling with a sweet friend from church.  The boys had a BLAST and think that Bryce is the coolest!  

Here are a few pictures from the afternoon:

Bowling Buds

Yay!

Caleb won the first game and I was able to comeback from a loss and win the second game.  Although...  The boys said they were all on one team and I was on my own team.  So, if you add all of their scores together, as they insist must be done, I lost the second game as well.

Rainy Day

Today turned out to be very rainy, so our plans for a nice picnic in the park were cancelled.  I had to "punt," as Lee would say.  I ended up using the morning to do some much needed shopping and then took the boys out for a special lunch at Taco Bell.  They were SO excited and sang, "I love tacos" most of the morning.  We hadn't been to Taco Bell in years and the boys thought it was the neatest place!

Hopefully the weather will be nicer tomorrow so we can continue with our planned outdoor activities.

Lunch Date with Daddy

Today's activity was a special lunch date with Lee at Qwik Trip (QT).  Our family loves QT.  Great hot dogs, fresh fruit and sandwiches, and lots of slushie choices for the boys.  It is a great place to meet Lee for a quick lunch date.

Greenville Zoo

For today's adventure, we were off to the Greenville Zoo.  The main purpose of the trip was to see the new baby giraffe, Kiko.  Caleb absolutely loves giraffes and was so excited to see the zoo's new addition.  Kiko will only be at the zoo through the fall at which time he will be sent to a zoo in the northeast.  He will be one year old at that time.  (Yes, we were not very fast at getting to the zoo to see the new baby, but late is better than never and summer is so much nicer than cold winter!)

Mommy (Autumn), Daddy (Walter), and baby.

Baby Kiko.

Caleb was quite the photographer.  He took lots of pictures so he could show Lee when he gets home.

Lunch Time!  We always enjoy bringing a picnic lunch to eat in the play area across from the giraffes.

More playtime at the big park playground.

Graysen (always the creative problem solver) figured out he could go much higher and faster if he was on his belly.

Greenville Children's Museum

I had so much fun with the boys at The Children's Museum of the Upstate.  It was a perfect day.  The museum was empty and we practically had every exhibit to ourselves.  The boys had not been to the museum in years and had tons of fun playing for hours.

The boys piloting the space shuttle.

Caleb spent a significant amount of time in the "bakery" decorating cakes.  He was too funny and had such a "cake lady" expression on his face the whole time.

Working at the register.

I felt like I was watching a construction crew from "The Three Stooges."

Playing tic-tac-toe with a robot.  The robot won.

This is a huge multi-level climbing contraption.  The boys made it all the way to to the top and spent a long time exploring the space.

The day was absolutely perfect and I am SO excited about a fun summer with my two little buddies.

Stay Tuned...

Today is the first official day of Summer Break for the boys and I.  I have a really fun activity schedule planned for us and we pretty much have one fun activity planned for every day.  I plan to blog most of them so that the family can see pictures of the boys and keep up with their growth.  They are at a wonderful age and are SO much fun to be with.

The first summer blog post should be later this evening with pictures from our first activity...  The Upstate Children's Museum!