Photo Shoot

Today Emma, Pamela, and Josiah were hanging out with us while their parents were running various errands. We had tons of fun playing in the pool and then just had fun entertaining Josiah.

Josiah and the lovely Miss Emma.
Josiah and the glamorous Miss Pamela.
Josiah and his twin monkey shirt friend, Ethan.
After playing in the pool for 15 minutes, Josiah crashed! He slept in the pool for 15 minutes and then slept in a pool chair with me for another 45 minutes. Apparently, Sam needs a pool to get him to sleep.
We are now about to learn some dances and paint our fingers and toes blue! We are all off to the springs tomorrow. We are trying another Florida spring out tomorrow.

Date Night at The Melting Pot

Reverse order here...


This is our bananas foster fondue. It was so delicious!Just for Greg and Karen...picture of our food.

Chris is setting the joint on fire with his charm! He even got Josie, our waitress, to hook us up with a better table.
More for Greg and Karen. I would have gotten more, but I think I was embarrassing the others at the table snapping pho-toes.
Everything was super delicious. Katie and Matt deserve a reward for watching all six kids so we could go out! I think Matt will probably sleep well after his Guitar Hero World Tour, swimming, and wrestling! Katie had the kids in bed by 8:00, wink, wink. Okay, she had them loaded on Burger King and Coke at 8:00! The kids gave them a big thumbs up on their babysitting skills. Soon, Katie and Matt with be bringing babies for us to watch! (Not too soon people, don't read into that!)

Pool Time

Friday Fun

We went back to the spring today. The kids love it and loved it even more today with even more friends to hang out with! This is the "walkway" or "cheating" way up to the head of the spring. You can swim against the crazy current, if you want to.This turtle is covered in algae!
Emma, Melissa, Paige, and Sophia on the log.
Josiah and Sam. JoJo wasn't too fond of the cold water!
Fish.
Sammy, Sophia, Noah, Emma, Paige, Ethan, and Bryce.
This is the head of the spring. There are divers over 100 feet below that entrance.
Pamela, Will, Noah, and Ethan.
Will, Noah, Ethan, Sammy, and Andy.
Bryce, Sammy, Josiah, Pamela, Andy, Ethan, Noah, and Will getting ready for some fun!
After the springs, we cranked up the heat in the spa and warmed up there. I'm not sure how you can be cold on a 90 degree+ day, but the springs keep you chilled for the rest of the day!

Summer Festival

Last night we went to the summer festival on Flagler Avenue. The weather was a bit iffy, but the boys enjoyed walking around and seeing some familiar faces.

Here Will waits outside of the surf shop.Waiting outside Inlet Charley's.
Chris and Ethan posing while the girls buy Italian ice.
Will was quite thrilled with his balloon!
After the downpour!
Look, Kate, it is LoLo's behind the boys!

You can't really tell, but that is an enormous Twister mat in the middle of the street!
Today we are going to the science center for a bit and then back to Blue Springs with the Dads tomorrow.

Pool Day

Today we actually stayed home! We played in the pool most of the day.

Twin tubing!Melissa has a monkey on her back!
Will, Sophia, and Noah!
Melissa forced me to dunk Josiah for a picture opportunity! Luckily, he came up laughing!
Sam had something to do today, so we were lucky enough to get to entertain Josiah for a while. He had fun in the pool with the kids.
Oh, and he loved my swimming pool dance moves!
Look out, he's coming for you!
Will sort of looks like Ethan in this picture!

Beach, Beach, and More Beach

Yesterday we went to the beach again. We spent a few hours there. Because it is so hot, we were in the water a lot. We reapplied sunscreen several times, but still managed to get nice and pink! I'm not sure how many more times we could have applied it, but obviously it wasn't enough!

The kids did take a break from the water to play in the sand for a bit.


Monday night, we tried for the launch again. This time we stayed nearby and headed to the local beach. Good thing, because the second we touched the beach, the launch got scrubbed. After playing on the beach for a bit, we headed over to DJ's Burrito Bar for some delicious black bean tacos!
These are some seriously sad kids. Yet another scrubbed launch! Colin, Noah, Will, and Caroline are giving Florida thunderstorms a piece of their minds!
A bit of running around on the beach will make up for just about anything though!
Today, Ethan went with Mike to Young Minds at Work Day. Mike took Emma, Paige, and Ethan. Ethan was super excited about going. Perhaps tonight we can actually see a launch! Dinner and a launch at the beach sounds perfect!

Tubing at Blue Springs

Today we went tubing at Blue Springs State Park. Once again, swimming at the springs proved to be tons of fun. We go here often in the winter to see the manatees, but in the six years we have lived here, we have never gone in the summer to swim. You drop in near the head of the springs. If you choose the long, hard upstream battle, you can get to the head of the spring. We made it up there twice. Half of the time we were shoving the kids tubes to get them upstream. It was a serious workout! The kids weren't even impressed with the spring head, they just wanted to play on the logs!

Here are 7 of the 8 on the log. Ethan was off with Melissa.Will tubing down the spring.
Liz and Colin are not far behind.
Here is Miss Caroline and Miss Sophia. Like that face on Sophia? Or should I say, Sophlia?
Walking back up the boardwalk to do it all again!
There is a swim platform at the exit area.
Ethan relaxing.
The kids liked getting ahead of the adults. They thought they were hot stuff since they were "beating us" down the spring. Somehow, they have no concept of the lazy river option!
Part of the crew.
Noah is ready to take to the water.
At one point, a lady came up to Liz and I while we were loading the kids in the water and said, "Oh, are you from a school?" I guess when you are with 8 kids all within the 5-9 range, you get that!