Lions, Tigers and Bears!

We were invited to go to Zoo Atlanta last week with Jackson's 3K teacher and her sons. Cheryl was such a great teacher but also became my friend and very close to Jackson. Her son, Noah, was in Jackson's class and became great buddies with Jackson by the end of the year. Seth, her other son is just a year older than Jackson and Noah, so he is great company for the boys as well. We had a great time. Although we did go to the zoo last summer with Daddy, there was a new exhibit this time that we hadn't done before. After seeing how much fun Ella and Kate had with it, we couldn't wait to go see the parakeets! At first, we didn't buy the sticks to feed them, but then the boys showed interest so we went back and got some sticks. That really was priceless to watch. Preston kept saying "Here birdie birdie..come get your breakfast!" And, then when the bird had finished, Preston began jabbing the poor bird with the empty stick!!! I had to throw that one away quick! Only Preston. Jackson was gentle and kind, but impatient. If he saw a bird eating someone else's stick, he'd stick his up there, too. I tried to explain they could only eat one at the time. :) Finally they each found their own bird and "breakfast" was served. :)
And, of course we stopped by the big playground they have. I am just now able to "let them go" on the playground and at parks. It is ALMOST where I can actually sit and watch them. I had wondered if that would ever happen! :) Everyone told me it would so fast I'd soon miss them needing my help. But, today it was nice to be able to chat with Cheryl for a while while they all played.

Jackson had the idea the night before for us to take some leaves to the giraffes to feed them. So, of course he didn't forget the next morning! :) I took ziploc bags and we (hopefully not breaking too many rules) snapped some leaves off the trees at the entrance to the zoo and then took them into the zoo and placed them right on the ground at the giraffe exhibit. So cute. I think they really and truly believed they were "feeding" them. :)

Much more than I enjoy the freedom at the playground to chat, Preston really enjoys being able to do things by himself and join in playing with the big kids.

And, of course we rode the train and the merry-go-round...

Preston with his "giraffe food"...

The boys all doing a silly face picture...well, except for Preston. He hasn't mastered the peer pressure factor yet. :)

What a great day with great friends! It was a very memorable day! I will just leave out the last stop made at the end of the day (yes, we were at the zoo from like 10am till 4:30pm!) at the souvenir shop that isn't filled with too many good memories..rather some disrespect, dirty diapers, and some tantrums. (From both boys.) :( They were super exhausted, and I have no idea what I was thinking attempting that at the end of the day. Funny how a week later, that is such a faded memory. But, the good ones stick! :)

One of My Favorite Parts...

of vacation are the family pictures we are able to snap while we are together uninterrupted. It is sometimes hard to get all four of us in the same place at the same time with a camera and someone to use the camera to take our picture! But, on vacation we usually manage to get a few. While I didn't do the whole white and khaki clothing this go round :), they still turned out good. (P.S. Stay tuned because in November I plan to torture them with the matching outfits. :))

All good things must come to an end. And, so our trip had to end. And, now the beach blog entries must also end. :) But, hang in there. We are headed to Daytona in November for the big car show down there we usually go to. So, there's more fun blog entries coming your way! :)

Simple Sand and Sun

Finally, on the last day there was enough wind for our Buzz Lightyear kites. Jackson did a great job holding his. Preston on the other hand about choked a kid with the string on his and kept smacking people with the streamers that hung off of it. :)

There is NOTHING that melts my heart more than seeing big JPM interact with the little JPMs. Priceless.

This was a fun activity but it wore us out doing it to Jackson since he weighs so much more than Preston. :( Sadly, I don't have a picture of Jackson doing it, too, although he did get to a few times. We called it belly boarding. :) After this trip, now that they are older, I am finally seeing which beach "gadgets" we need for the next trip. I really needed to visit a shop down there and get some, but since it was such a short trip we made do with what we had. There was a really neat "boat" thing that they could have sat in and rode the waves. It had a rope so I could hold on to them, too. I want one of those. :)

Sorry for Paul's silly smile. On the last day, he was feeling camera weary. With only 200+ pictures being taken on the short trip, I have no idea why. :)

I always wonder when I get pics back and there are random strangers in them how they feel about being "photographed," and then I wonder how many places my big rear is posted without my knowledge. :)

It was Father's Day weekend, so in honor of that I snapped this little picture. This is also a very important picture because I have known Bobby for 18 years, and this is the first time I have seen him set foot on any beach at all. :) We felt honored.

As you can see Preston got my sister's genes, and he tans quickly and very well. Sorry, Jackson, baby. You got my genes. :) Thank goodness for sunscreen. If your child burns easily under their eyes like I did as a kid and like Jackson does, I finally found the trick. It is this zinc oxide jar of stuff that is only SPF 45 (but worked better than the SPF 70), and it is specially made for the face.

Too bad you can't see our toes we went to get painted before we left, huh? :)

My he sure is lazy... :)

A big thank you to Maw Maw for the boys' sunglasses. I don't know how we would have survived without them. They also kept under Jackson's eyes from burning.

Almost as good as daddy and son pictures...grandparent and grandchild pictures...

This was on day 2 when Jackson was SURE there was enough wind to fly a kite. That was humorous watching him run around trying to get it up in the hot, stagnant air.

Ahh..posting these makes me want to be back there...

Stay tuned...believe it or not there are actually STILL more beach photos to post. But, I just left the zoo (literally), so that will have to wait until another day. And, just think I have zoo photos to post, too! :)

Double Nickels

We started this week out by celebrating our beach buddy, Gail's, birthday! It began by visiting their new pool they just opened up at their house. We have been anxiously awaiting to go swimming in it for months! I must digress here to say that we did have a slight mishap though resulting in much chaos. :( You all have heard me before discuss pushing, and you know how we struggled with it with Jackson, our oldest when he was about 3 years old. For the most part, thankfully, just as everyone said he would he has outgrown it. It is normal childhood behavior, although I wish it wasn't. And, for sure my children are pushed just as many times as they push by other children even if the other child's parent doesn't notice. And, really it should for the most part go unnoticed. Because like I said they learn and outgrow it. So..since Preston is now 2 and 1/2 he also pushes. We do discipline him just like we did with Jackson, and I really didn't think we had done a less serious discipline with him but now I am wondering. The deck is not complete yet around the pool (it is above ground). There is a rather large wooden platform though about 4 feet in the air with steps and all to assist you in getting in the pool. The children (as you can tell from the beach photos) love to jump in the pool. After several times jumping, it just so happened they both were on the platform at the same time getting ready to jump. It was a little crowded because they had to be careful to jump away from the pool steps. So, the argument ensued as to who should jump first. Well, Preston PUSHED Jackson off of the platform and well, I will just say I really expected to find Jackson unconscious when I finally got out of the pool and was able to get to him. :( It REALLY scared me. Bad. I still cannot get the image out of my head. I just wanted to say a special gracious thanks to God on here for sparing us any severe injuries (or anything worse!) He has a gash on his leg that Neosporin in taking care of pretty well, and lots of scrapes, abrasions, and many bruises, but thankfully that is all. Whew.

Okay, on to more fun topics...

It was Gail's birthday after all and even though Paul had to work (and even though I had had that kind of day:)) we decided to join her in celebrating her birthday with dinner at Red Lobster...

Maw Maw came...
I think you can look at this picture and see how clearly emotionally and physically tired I was....but we still had fun...

And...thanks for some delays in service Dad still was able to join up with us after he got off work!

And, of course Paw Paw was there, too...

And the lucky (well, blessed rather) boy, too! See, he doesn't look too beat up, huh?

And, there's the birthday girl giving out lots of hugs...

And, the boys were ecstatic there was cake (good job, Shane!)

But, even more so we are ecstatic Gail is a part of our life and the boys' lives, too.

Happy Birthday, Gail! Hope you enjoyed your special day God made just for you!