Birthday boy! Tanner is 4!

Tanner is FOUR!!!! He asked allllll summer long when his birthday was going to be, and last night he sat up in his bed until 9pm, wondering what his presents would be! 

We started off the day with a few presents, and a surprise of fire truck balloons downstairs.

Then we heard Tanner being wished a happy birthday on the radio!!!!! So cool! He's famous!

After we dropped Bryce off at school, we went to Publix to pick out birthday treats for dinnertime.  He chose cream-filled eclairs. (PopPop would be SO pleased. . .he always brought me eclairs when he and Nene came to visit!!!) For dinner he chose steak on the grill, sweet potatoes, and strawberries.  When Bryce gets home from school we'll open the rest of the gifts, and have an early dinner before Eric has to go back to church for an evening meeting.

On Saturday we'll continue celebrating at the fire truck birthday party! 

North Carolina

After all our stops along the way, we finally got to the cabin! This was the longest we had ever spent there at one time, and it was DIVINE! We had so much fun, and lots of time to relax. The boys were a sandy, muddy, wet mess almost the whole week. (Oh wait, actually ALL of us were a muddy wet mess most of the week!) 

It was bittersweet to be there without Mimi, but we sent her lots of pictures during the week, and tried to pretend that she was there.  I kept joking that we needed Mimi there, to help with the DISHES! :) I know she gladly would have done dishes the whole time, to be able to be there, but it's important for her to be at home with Annie Grannie, and we love her near or far!!! And we got in an extra trip to Fort Myers over the summer, so we got to see her a few times down there! 

Okay, so some of our adventures:

We picked about a gallon of wild blackberries. We were covered in scrapes and scratches from the thorns, but we couldn't help ourselves! 

We did a lot of work in the creek. The new "Swimmin' Hole" that Eric made his mission, turned out great, and he built up the sides to get the water pretty deep in one little area. The boys sailed boats down the creek, and they really would have been happy spending all day EVERY day in the creek. 

We went to the waterfalls at Deep Creek, (because we just hadn't had enough creek stomping.) We stopped and had the best burgers and ice cream afterwards, at a little creekside snack shop. (Seriously - everything tastes better, creekside!) The weather was AMAZING all week. Bryce actually complained every morning that I didn't bring him jeans, because it was CHILLY in the mornings!!!

We fed the horses - except for Bryce. Ever since that mule tried to eat his hair last Christmas, he and the horses are NOT friends. :)

The boys had fun in their clubhouse outside, and Bryce added treasures to his museum shelves.

We played at the playground one morning, although it was a little rainy and wet, (and therefore a muddy mess) but it was worth it!

These pictures are completely out of order. . . .deal with it! :)

The begining of berry picking.

Riding behind Poppy's tractor.

Hammock over the creek!

At the plaground. . .

Somewhere we have an identical picture of Bryce on this rock, at Deep Creek.  :)

Bryce found this awesome vine hanging from one of the trees on the mountainside at Deep Creek. He considered a Tarzan move. 

Ice cream and burgers, at a Deep Creek snack shop!

Seriously - LOTS of blackberries. This was the FIRST of two batches!

This is the harbor that Bryce built in the creek. . .we called it Bryce's Happy Harbor. :)

In front of the Jarrett House after lunch

S'mores! We didn't get too much bonfire time this trip, because there had been a lot of rain before we got there, and things were pretty damp, but we managed one decent bonfire!

(at the creekside snack shop)

Tanner was happy to feed the horses, even if Bryce wouldn't!

At the plaground! 

With his pal, the mule. (The one that ate Bryce's straw - I mean hair - last visit!)

It was pretty rough to head home after a nice long relaxing trip! 

Is it next summer yet???? :)

Friends along the way. . .

On our way to the cabin, we were able to stop and see some of our bestest friends! First we saw Annamaria and her cutie patootie family.  Baby Sabrina has gotten SO big! She's a doll, and the boys loved playing with her!

Then we trekked onward and stopped in Greensboro, NC, to visit with our friends (and former neighbors,) the Cox family.  We visited the Greensboro Science Center while we were there, and the kids had a great time! They have an aquarium, an animal park, and a museum. There was a LOT to look at! The three Cox littles have gotten BIG and the twins are walking and talking (and Deb definitely has her hands full!)

Whenever Tanner gets out of the bath and has wild hair, he says "My hair is like Reisa's!" Her hair actually is so completely fabulous.  It's hard not to squish it and fluff it all the time!! :) 

Strike of the sickies (with 4th of July in between)

Right after our trip to Fort Myers, Bryce got sick. And sicker. And sicker. And I think we were probably about 12 hours away from a hospital stay, when finally he started improving.  He didn't eat for 4 days, and lost 6 pounds. He was MISERABLE. I don't think I've ever seen him so sick.  This picture was day 1, when things really weren't too bad.  He watched about 8 hours of tv on the ipad that day, tucked in his bed.  The next few days were filled with every symptom you can imagine, and three hour naps - WHAT!? 3 hour NAPS!? Bryce!!!???? It was pretty sad around here!

Thankfully B was better just in time for 4th of July at the condo.  Here are three of the boys, watching. . .oh look, tv on the ipad again.  ;)

 We stayed overnight and enjoyed the sunrise!

Me and goggle boy, ready for the beach!

 The cousin entourage in the big hole they dug.

Fireworks! Would you believe Tanner fell asleep DURING the fireworks!? Seriously. He was exhausted!

And then, low and behold a few days later, TANNER was down for the count.  Thankfully not as sick as B, but still pretty pathetic for a few days!

 Sick sleepy boy.

Just a few more random pictures. . . .

Tanner has started drawing people hugging each other.  Yes, that blue stuff is the arms hugging.

LOVE it.  

Scary summer-in-Florida weather? Um yes.

swimming lessons and VBS

(I'm sorry the videos are kind of crummy quality. . .but it's better than nothing!!!)

The end of June was a CRAZY week of Vacation Bible School (Tanner's first time going, and he LOVED it) plus swimming lessons in the afternoon (in addition to karate!) We were EXHAUSTED!

I helped out with Bryce's class, so I was able to sneak this video of Tanner and his class, a few rows in front of us.  He did such a great job on the songs and the motions for them! 

Here's Bryce's group up front, leading one of the songs.  (This made B incredibly miserable!!!) 

And swimming lessons. . . this is how Tanner spent most of his days.  Huddled over the side trying to avoid the entire thing!

He was willing to kick his feet and splash. . .but blowing bubbles was NOT his happy place!

 Bryce did really well floating on his back, and swimming under water.  (But he hated it nonetheless! What a stinker!!!)  Despite their protests though, I felt like they both made some good progress, and it was worthwhile!!!! 

And karate. . . .

Tanner is really hoping to start karate lessons when he turns four.  He likes to follow along, by our seats in the corner, and punch at the bags that are stored over there.  {Tanner would love karate lessons for his birthday, if anyone wants to contribute to his karate fund!!!}

And in the midst of it all. . . .there's always time to be a half-dressed superhero.

Fort Myers

The boys and I took a trip to Fort Myers, leaving Eric at home to work. (Sorrrrrrry!)
We played in the pool just about the entire time, and we got to see Nancy, PLUS we got to meet Cousin Debi for the first time! (My mom and Nancy's cousin.)

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures of Tanner from this summer!!!

Bryce got pretty rich, picking up coins from the bottom of the swimming pool!

{Thank you Debi for taking fun pictures with ME in them!}

Even though Tanner looks verrrry happy, I promise, his didn't drink my mimosa!

Reading books with Annie Grannie!

Mimosas with Debi!

ICE CREAM!

OH YEAHHHHHHH!