Sunset Stampede Race

On May 1st, Barrett and the kids ran in the Sunset Stampede 5K and one mile fun run out on Navarre beach. The race was in the evening and was supposed to be around sunset, but the weather was cloudy and windy, so unfortunately we didn't see the sun the whole time. However, everyone had fun! Several of our friends ran it as well, so we all had a great time together. This was Caleb and Isabelle's first one mile run in an official race. They both did a good job and finished- even Isabelle ran the whole way! I think we will have more road races in our family's future! Before the race, there were activities for the kids and face painting, and after the race we got some food at the restaurant that was hosting the event.

Pre-race activities:

Ready to run:


Just a little bit tired, but glad to be finished:

Baby Shower

The women in our church hosted a joint baby shower for me and Kimberly Todd, who is due in August, at the end of April. They did such a beautiful job with the decorations, and Jean Hart made a diaper cake for each of us which lended to the baby charm. They had us play a couple baby shower games, one of which was a contest between me and Kimberly to see who could multi-task the fastest. We had to pretend we were talking on a cell phone while holding a baby doll and hanging baby clothes on a clothesline all at the same time! Since Kimberly is having their first child, I felt it was my duty as a mother of two to win- after all, I should know how to multi-task by now! I had a great time and a lot of women were able to come. What a wonderful church family we have, and we are going to miss everyone so much when we move!

They put our baby pictures on the cake:

Me and Kimberly:

Jean's diaper cake:

Strawberry Patch

Caleb's kindergarten class took a field trip to a local strawberry patch to pick strawberries at the end of April. They each got a pint container and could pick enough berries to fill it, as well as sample some of the delicious fruit as they picked! At eight months pregnant I wasn't in a physical state to be picking my own strawberries, so I gladly watched Caleb do it! It was a perfect day for it- a little overcast so it wasn't so hot, and then for a treat afterwards the kids got to eat homemade strawberry frozen yogurt- yum!

Eglin Air Show

The weekend of April 10 was the Eglin Air Show here on base. They usually do an air show every few years, but this one was extra special because it was celebrating the 75th anniversary of Eglin Air Force Base. We were planning on having both of our parents and Barrett's sister's family here with us for the weekend, but because Susanne got sick and was hospitalized, Grammy and Pappy were the only family that were able to come. They came up just for the weekend, and we had a great time again with them and we all enjoyed the air show. We got there in the morning for the beginning of it, and saw lots of plane demonstrations, including a Tora, Tora, Tora reenactment with the WWII japanese Zero planes. There was a stunt biplane, the Raptor jet, as well as numerous other demos, and the show ended with the Thunderbirds. It was so much fun being right there and seeing the planes flying right over our heads and right in front of us. The Thunderbirds were especially fun to watch. Getting to the air show was very convenient since we live on base. However, leaving the show and getting home was a different story. It took us an hour and a half to get back to our house since they routed us the wrong direction so we had to sit in traffic all the way around the base, only to be told that we had to exit from the opposite side of the base and drive around on the interstate to get back to the housing side of the base! It was just a little frustrating, but we made it back. The next day we went down to the beach behind our house to see the Thunderbirds from a different angle, and it was just as enjoyable.

Easter Activities

Easter was at the tail end of Spring Break this year, so the kids got to participate in an easter egg hunt in Largo at the local Publix before we left to go home. Isabelle had her easter party at school before spring break. On Easter Sunday we went to our friends, the Wards, for lunch after church with another family, and all the kids got to hunt eggs in their huge back yard.

Isabelle's school Easter party and egg hunt:



Egg hunt at Publix in Largo:


Easter Sunday:

Easter platter that our friend Destiny made- it was just so pretty I had to take a picture of it:

Spring Break

For Spring Break this year, we went down to Largo to visit Grammy and Pappy. On our way there, we stopped at Homassasa Springs and went to the wildlife park for the afternoon. We got to see manatees in their natural habitat as well as other animals throughout the park. The kids brought their own cameras with them and enjoyed getting to be photographers.

In the underwater observation room watching the manatees:

Boat ride to the park:



Another day during our visit, we went to Dinosaur Land, which has replicas of lots of dinosaurs that are built to scale. It was neat to see just how big some of those dinosaurs were in relation to people! They had some fossil dig areas for the kids to play, and they got to keep three real fossils as a souvenier.

Digging for fossils:




The week was fun and also relaxing, and we did a lot of the activities we normally do when we are visiting the area. We visited Lisa, the Macaw, at the Sand Key shops and watched her dance to the music and say "Mango". Caleb and Barrett did a little fishing with Pappy, and of course we made our regular trip to Chuck E. Cheeses. The kids enjoyed getting to do some art work with Grammy in her studio- they are becoming quite the little artists (taking after Grammy, of course!)

Budding artists:


At 7 months pregnant (curtesy of Isabelle's photography):

Caleb's 6th birthday

**Sorry that this blog is so outdated! We have had computer problems and were not able to access many of our photos for a while. I am going to try to do some quick updates to get our blog up to the present.

We celebrated Caleb's 6th birthday the second weekend of January at White Sands Bowling Alley. Thank goodness we planned an indoor party for that day! It was one of the coldest weekends of the winter, so anything outside would have been miserable. Almost all the friends Caleb invited were able to come, and Grammy and Pappy were able to be there to celebrate with us, so we had a great time. It was fun watching the different bowling styles of each of the kids, but with the bumpers up, everyone was a winner.