Strawberry Pickin'

After our great experience with picking strawberries last year, we knew that this event HAD to be on our list of things to do this year. There was no way we'd miss it! So, April is the high time to do this and April 15th happened to be the day we made it happen. All the stars aligned and Garrett was able to take the afternoon off work, so after Tyler got home from school, we decided to hit the road. The farm we picked at last year was closed that afternoon, so this year we went to Mrs. Heather's instead. The strawberries were a little more picked over since they had just had a field trip come through right before us, but of course there were still plenty left for us. And they were still delicious! We wasted no time getting to work!

(Geez, Garrett...if looks could kill. j/k! Not sure why I was getting this look, but it made me laugh to look through the pictures!)

Sam has never been a huge strawberry fan. Tyler is definitely more of the strawberry lover. But Sam was being really 'mature' this year and decided he'd give it a shot. It was more of a tiny little nibble and he claimed to really love it, but you could tell he didn't. It was funny!

Strawberry stains on your hands are definitely better than blood stains on your hands! :)

And...the highlight of the day for the boys was all of the AMAZING activities they had at this little farm. And we were literally the ONLY people there at the time so we had the place to ourselves. They were in heaven and could have stayed there all day long!

A kids' zip line...

A great big jumping pillow...

Rubber duck races...

The zip line was probably the biggest highlight. Tyler absolutely LOVED it and got in complete cowboy character, of course. He went over and over and over again. Sam, on the other hand, was being a little "scared", but then he decided to be brave and try it himself. He went once and these pictures crack me up because I can remember vividly just how brave he was trying to be and I can still see it in his face! He survived and said he liked it, but he didn't go on it again. :) That is SO Sam!

So we headed home with strawberries coming out of our ears and enjoyed them immensely for the following week. We froze some to use in smoothies so we were able to enjoy them for even longer. We made milkshakes, jam, smoothies, strawberry shortcake, strawberries & cream, and my newest creation was a Berrymisu. I had to take a picture of it because I was so proud. :) It was DELICIOUS! Now, I am in the mood for some strawberries!

The Best Weekend of the Year, with a pretty sad ending!

So, if you were to ask my boys what their favorite weekend of the year is, they would both tell you it's the weekend of the Fathers/Sons campout. They absolutely love going camping with their dad...and I'm pretty sure he enjoys it just as much as they do! And if you were to ask me what my favorite weekend of the year is, I'd give you the same answer! I must say that the advantage of having only boys is that once a year I get 24 hours completely, 100% all to myself! Those are some precious times, folks. :)

So, this year's campout was held the last weekend in March at Fontainebleu State Park. The boys left to go and came home just as I was headed out the door to go to a Young Womens function. They looked tired, happy, and both boys looked pretty pink... Hmmm, it sounds like they had spent about 5 hours at the beach that day without a drop of sunscreen. Yikes! And keep in mind, this was in March, so it's not like we had been out basking in the sun prior to this. This was the first time their skin had seen much sun in months.

(the only picture Garrett took at the campout...with their friend Aaron at the breakfast. Cute boys!)

So, I got home after the boys were in bed and just as I was getting myself settled in for the night, Sam came out shrieking in pain. So, that slight "pink-ness" was the worst sunburn you've ever seen in your life! He was in so much pain, it was impossible to console him or help him in any way. I gave him Ibuprofen and took his shirt off and finally after about an hour, he calmed down enough to sleep a little bit. But of course he was in my bed and I wasn't about to move him so I slept on the couch and Garrett slept next to him. About an hour later, Tyler came out in tears. Same story... So, just as one would have the Ibuprofen kick in, the other would have it wear off and we did that same round for at least 24 hours. We stayed home from church on Sunday, which might sound like we are wimps, but I am telling you that there is no way in the world I could have got a shirt on Sam that morning. By that morning, he was covered in big oozing blisters from shoulder to shoulder and could not move without crying. It was absolutely miserable! Tyler's got better pretty fast and he was fine to go to school on Monday morning. Sam, on the other hand, was basically at home and shirtless for at least 3 days. It was the worst sunburn I've ever seen. Once the pain started to subside, he would wake up several times a night because he was so itchy from the peeling skin. Oh, good times I tell ya! So, after about a week, we were somewhat functioning again, but it was a loooong week! We definitely learned a lesson there, I'm pretty sure!

Don't ask me how there is a smiling picture here. I sure don't remember even one single smile out of that entire week!

So, this post wraps up March. We're moving on! Still plugging away here!

A Quick Trip to the "Park"

So, a little background here...Garrett started a work assignment the first week of January that was one of the most demanding assignments he had been on to date. He was working 6-7 days a week and working very, very long days. We had seen very little of him, it seemed. So the assignment wrapped up the Saturday before Mardi Gras. Yay!!! So, we knew Mardi Gras was approaching, which meant Tyler was out of school for the week and that Garrett's office would be closed for Fat Tuesday at least. We also figured he deserved an extra day or two off that week as well. :) So, Sunday after church, Tyler was so excited to have Garrett around that he had put together a 'schedule' for the rest of the day's activities. And it was precise, I tell you. I wish I had a picture of it. It included things like: Fishing--5:01 pm, Kite flying--3:54 pm, Play catch with football--2:19 pm, etc. It was awesome! :) But Garrett and I had actually been talking about getting out of town for at least a little bit of time since we were just feeling like our family needed something of that nature.

So, that Sunday afternoon, we told Tyler to pack up all of the items needed for the activities on his schedule so we could go to the park. And we told him we were going to a park a LONG ways away. He happily obliged. I also packed an overnight bag for everyone as well. So, it was a huge surprise to our kids when we pulled into a hotel in Biloxi for the night. I thought they'd be so excited to realize that we'd taken then for a little beach getaway, but instead Tyler got frustrated because it wasn't the park! But then he finally put it all together and figured out that he would still be able to do all those things on his schedule--they would just be done on the beach! So, here are some pictures to recap our fun little 24 hour surprise getaway, which was so fun!

When we got there and got checked into our room, the sun had just set, but we knew we needed to head down to the beach anyways. So, these first few pictures were taken at night. I was still playing with the wide angle lens and having a TON of fun with it at the beach!

The next morning, I somehow managed to get up and out of our room before anyone else woke up just to get a walk on the beach in the early morning light. It was actually VERY cold and I wasn't dressed well for the occasion!

After we had a chance to lounge around the hotel for a while, we set out to play on the beach. It was a very chilly day, so we were about the only ones there. And all I had packed for the boys was shorts. But they didn't seem to mind! It was windy--perfect for flying our Blue Angels kite. We spent a ton of time with it and got it doing all sorts of tricks. It was great!

And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep them out of the water. I knew it was cold and that they'd freeze, but at that moment, they couldn't have cared less! But later on, they definitely cared. :)

We took two soaking wet and freezing cold boys back to the car and changed them into some warm, dry clothes and headed back towards home to continue on with our Mardi Gras festivities. It was so much fun to go. I think it is true that sometimes it just does wonders for everyone to just get away...even if it's only an hour away. It's away and that's good!