Spilled Milk and Train Fun

I'm just going to quit making promises I can't keep.  Like someday I will wear a bikini or not ever be late anywhere again or I will update this blog on a regular basis.  Let's face it....ain't gonna happen.  I probably have enough posts rattling around in my head to do one a day for a year, but somehow, when I sit down at the computer to write, I either forget what I sat down for or I get distracted by the little one, the big one or the really big one, like when I was starting this post this morning and Jax accidentally spilled a scoop of dog food all over the kitchen.  Or when I thought I would try supervising Hoss while he fed himself  Rice Krispies this morning. Mothering Fail.

On a side note, if you ever have 1,865,479 soggy Rice Krispies spilled in your kitchen floor, do not attempt to clean them up with anything other than paper towels.  Neither broom, swiffer, dust buster or vacuum are the answer.  You just end up having to also clean all of those tools afterwards as well.  Grab the paper towels and do your best...you'll still find some dried to your clothes later as you head out the door to pick up the big one from school...so I've heard.  And no, there was no crying over spilled milk and Rice Krispies.  I held it together quite well, thank you very much.  Hoss was super proud of himself and managed make this mess without getting a drop on himself.

I digress. See what I mean?  These boys are wearing my attention span down to a nub!  

In the last year or so Jax has developed a love for trains.  It all started when he and Vinnie went to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum with our cousin Rick and Baby Jim (Jax will still be calling him that when he's 25).  You can read about that visit here.  Then this past spring the same group of guys went to ride Thomas the train.  It was planned way in advance.  Tickets were ordered online.  A beautiful day in May for a train ride!  Not.  It rained.  Let me rephrase that.  It poured.  Still, only the dad's were miserable.  The boys had a blast!  See for yourself.

The boys and Thomas the Train

Now boarding...

Jax loved getting to meet Sir Topham

Thumb's Up for Thomas comin' round the bend

Posing with some of the other characters....I apologize for not knowing their names.  I can, however, recite almost every Cars and Cars 2 characters in my sleep with both hands tied behind my back.

There are also several other activities for the kiddos to do while waiting on their turn to ride Thomas. 

 Mine got a tatto and joined a band.

Thomas Ink

Check out the tongue...

Tongue again

Apparently he is an equal opportunity tongue player..doesn't matter the instrument.

He's no Gene Simmons.  THANK GOODNESS!

Then this summer, the Lionel Collectors Association had their meeting at the Chatanooga Choo Choo.  They had some train displays set up with free admission, so we were there!

Hoss loved it.  He couldn't see it from his stroller because he was too low, but once he saw it, we had to keep holding him up because he was pretty carried away with it.

Jax. Was. Mesmerized.

He has a tendency to make friends wherever we go.  He will talk to them about anything.  Sometimes they don't even listen. We have no idea where he gets it...(Granddaddy? Look at the next picture and draw your own conclusions)

 He loved getting to drive this train himself, even though it was just a circle track. 

 He loved having the power. 

This was one of his favorite things, the locomotive that blew REAL steam!  He thought it was awesome and that we should have one.  Nevermind the fact that these displays were bigger than any room in our house.  We should have one. 

This was his favorite thing of the whole experience.  He is still talking about it.  No, it's not a train.  It's a big rig pulling a flatbed trailer with an elephant on it.  It didn't move, was just part of the train display.  The train went under the bridge that the big rig hauling an elephant was on.  He didn't care that it didn't move, he just loved it.  Guess trucks will always be #1 in his heart.  Heaven knows we have every toy big rig ever made!

Boy gathered him up some catalogs, found him a place to sit and started picking out the pieces he wanted for his train set.  "Granddaddy can make it fit" seemed to be good enough logic for my question, "where would we put one"?  His passion has waned a little.  He is no longer wanting a train display the size of our house, but he still talks about that truck with an elephant.  So, I suspect that may be in our future at some point.

That's all for now.  I'm on borrowed time as it is, I'm sure.  I haven't been interrupted once while writing this post, and it's not the middle of the night.  That means all 'you know what' has broken loose somewhere else in this house.  Come to think of it, they are awfully quiet...

Best of Intentions

So I had the best of intentions.  I really did plan to blog more once school was out.  Why Oh Why did I think I would have more time once the 5 year old was out of school?  I'm just chalking it up to "what Mommy learns during the first year of school".  Now, it is the middle of July and I feel like I am just getting into summer.  I suppose part of that could be because it has been so wet and rainy that we couldn't do many summer activities yet.  I had planned to live in the pool this summer....I didn't know our whole town was going to turn into a pool.  Nevertheless, summer is in full swing, with or without me.

The week after school was out, Big Hoss turned two!

Guess what the theme of his party was?  Mickey Mouse!  Shocker right?  If you've been blessed to be around him for any length of time, you know that this boy is all about Mickey Mouse.  We had a beautiful party at GrNanny and Big Guy's.

I'll explain why I look like a pirate in this picture later.

We had a beautiful day for a party and were blessed that lots of friends and family could join us to celebrate!

Cousins - Jax, Taylor and Brayden

JeanJean and the Birthday Boy

Aunt Mel and Big Hoss.  He was just glad to find an adult who would walk 

with him...our backs are tired around here!

Of course we sang Happy Birthday.  We had been practicing at home for a while, hoping that Hoss would learn to blow out his candle after the song.  That's the great thing about having a big brother.  he's always willing to help sing and blow out candles.  Good thing too, because Big Hoss is not a fan of the song or the candle blowing.  We even asked everyone to sing softly at the party.  At first it was ok, but by the end....well, see for yourself.

After a minute with Mommy, he was better.  Then we put him in his chair for cake and he was GREAT!!

In case you haven't been following him very long, Hoss loves, Loves, LOVES CAKE!  Doesn't matter what flavor or color, just give him cake.  No ice cream though.  He gets that from me.  Ice Cream?  Ehh, I can take it or leave it, but if there's cake....I AM THERE!

I love this picture.  It's like my Mama's just told him he gets cake and he is thrilled!

CAKE!!

This is how he points at something he wants.  Hehehe.  I know he will outgrow it, but I think it's pretty cute.

This is how he points more adamantly when someone gives him cake(or anything) and no way to eat it.  It's almost always accompanied with an unhappy grunt.

And this is Big Hoss for, "Now that's some good cake"!

It was a great party and we are so grateful to all of our friends and family who came to celebrate with us.  Thank you also for the gifts and gift cards.  I had planned to get Thank You notes sent to everyone, but I put them away so we could do a painting project on my desk one rainy day and I keep forgetting.

Now, as for why I looked like a pirate in our family picture.  I have had Bell's Palsy.  It started the last Friday in May and I am just now getting back to my normal self.  It has been a long month.  Not terribly uncomfortable most of the time, but when it is, it really is.  The best thing about it is that it provided a month's worth of entertainment for my brother and JeanJean.  They have thought it was hilarious, and it has been.  When I laughed, one whole side of my face stayed droopy and my eye stayed completely open.  The other side wrinkled up into a giggly mess.  Oh how we have laughed.  Autumn, however, did not think it was funny nor that anyone should be laughing at me.  Apparently it is not in her nature to laugh at the sick and infirmed, even when they are a hoot!  I guess she would have eventually given in and joined us in laughing if I had never gotten better, but, I am grateful for answered prayers and good Dr.'s.  I did go to physical therapy, and let me tell you, you have not lived until you have someones hand inside your mouth trying to stretch your face muscles.  Of course he tried to talk to me the whole time too...crazy man, you're not a dentist!

Jax was finally old enough to go to Baylor Camp this year.  He was a junior raider.  Of course he needed Baylor gear for camp, so one Monday GrNanny, Hoss, Jax and I headed over there to deck him out.  It was like going home.  I have so many wonderful memories from being a student there and some very cherished friendships that have survived the years since we graduated.  (I'm not telling how many years).

I was only able to wrangle Jax for a couple of pictures, but they are classic ones.

Jax on the steps of the old chapel, now the study hall.

Jax and Kitty.  If you didn't go there, I'm not sure I can explain what an integral part of Baylor School she is.  She runs the grill in the student center and she rules with and iron fist.  Even when she's chasing you out of the grill, whacking you with her broom, you know she loves you as much as your mama.  She's as much Baylor School as B shirts and beating McCallie.  Just don't misbehave in her grill and never, Never, NEVER let her hear you cuss!

First day of camp!  As we were getting off the freeway, Jax said, "Mom, I'm really excited, but I'm a little nervous too".  I walked him in and hung out until his group was ready to go in the wrestling arena.

He was good to go by then!  

He loved camp.  He got to do lots of fun things that he doesn't usually get to do, like rock climbing.  He was absolutely worn slap out at the end of every day and by the end of the week he was sore from using muscles he doesn't usually use in his normal five year old non stop activities.

Hoss has been for his two year check up where he got great reviews.  He's not even on the growth curve for height or weight, but he is parallelling it and he is very proportionate.  He has all the teeth he should have and is catching up, though still a little behind, developmentally.  Hey, we'll take it.  Compared to where we started and where we've been, he's a rock star!  He also had a urology appointment and was released for the next 12 months.  We'll follow up then, but it looks as if he's outgrown the reflux!  It was a long week of waiting in waiting rooms and eating goldfish, but worth it for the good reports.

Other than that, we've been trying to keep each other entertained in the house because of all the rain we've had.  I'm not going to lie, we've all had cabin fever.  We've all been ready to pull our hair out and go to our separate corners.  But, it's been fun to see the boys interacting with each other too.  Here's just a few of the things we've done to stay busy in the rain.

We've played with a new farm set, compliments of GrNanny and Granddaddy.

Hoss has learned how to tickle.

We've played trucks, talked trucks and fought over trucks.  We've not learned to share trucks.  I'm not sure two years of rain would see that happen!

We've read books.

and we've watched TV...too much TV, but give a mama a break y'all, TWO weeks of soggy days!  

There have been other adventures, but right now, all is quiet in this house and I'm going to catch a few winks before the chaos fires back up.  I'll blog more later!  I'm just not promising how much later.  

Beach Bums

We did it!  We went on a family vacation!  On the Monday after Mother's Day, we loaded up and headed to Panama City Beach.  GrNanny and Big Guy went with us, but Uncle Bubba and Aunt Audi didn't get to go this time.  This was the first time the boys have been to the beach so we weren't really sure what to expect.  You know Big Hoss doesn't always adjust to new experiences really well.  For example, it took months of taking a bath before he realized he could splash and play.  It took many times of him screaming the whole time we were shopping because he didn't like to ride in a shopping cart.  Turns out the beach was really no different.

It didn't take long though before he was adjusting, just a little time in Daddy's arms.

Before we knew it, it was old hat...playing in the sand, riding in the dump truck, checking out things Bubba was finding in the ocean, like this crab.

It was all fun and games until the surf got him.

For me personally, I can only take so much beach.  I mean really, the ocean water tastes awful if you accidentally ingest it, it burns your eyes and there are just some places that you just never want to get sand.  So, I spend a good bit of time at the pool by the beach.  Turns out my boys like the pool almost as much as the beach.

Of course we went out to eat and had some fabulous food.  The first night we went to Angelo's Steak Pit.  YUM!  It was fantastic!  It got too dark for us to take pictures with Gus that night so we went back the next night to make that memory.

 Hoss wasn't afraid at all and even "honked" Gus' nose.

The next night we went to Captain Anderson's.  It wasn't fabulous, but we still got some cute pictures and had a fun evening.

For our third night we went to Margaritaville.  We had never been to a Margaritaville before, but we will go back for sure!  Did you know there's one in Nashville?  We all ate something different and everything was delicious.  During dinner, there were stilt walkers there who were making balloon animals and hats.  They were fantastic at keeping the "party" upbeat and happy.

By the way, that's about as wild and crazy as Granddaddy ever gets!

Another dining experience was Fudpuckers.  Now when I say experience, let me tell you it was an experience!  There is a moat under the restaurant that is full of gators!  We went inside and ate gator! We all had a bite, but Granddaddy and Hoss liked it the best.  When we were through eating, we went back to "Gator Island" and got to feed the gators, then Jax got to hold one!  It was a true dining experience.

We also did lots of fun things that you usually do on vacation you know, the Gulfarium, miniature golf, The Miracle Strip at Pier Park, go karts, meeting celebrities.

Nothing like a little late night ice cream to keep tired boys happy!  Hoss loved GrNanny's Georgia Peach and Jax had Superman flavored.  

 Here are my big boys taking a spin on the carousel at The Miracle Strip.

Jax spent some energy bouncing on this thing.  It's like "The Blob's" that are in lakes at summer camp only instead of being in the water it was buried in the sand.  He loved it and wants one for our backyard!

 Jax's first time on a Ferris Wheel.  He was great, even when it stopped at the top.  Vince was a little less great.

 Then they rode these balloons.  Jax loved it!  Vince, however, does not recommend eating a Cheeseburger in Paradise at Margaritaville then riding the Ferris Wheel, Carousel and Balloons back to back.  Can you say Woo

ooozy?

Arrrrgh Matey!  Praite Golf was a blast.  Granddaddy got two holes in one and I spent a lot of time getting my ball out of the bushes or water.

We spent a morning at The Gulfarium in Fort Walton.  Mom and I went in 1998 and loved it, so I wanted to be sure the boys got to experience it.  Quite frankly, it was as wonderful as I remembered it being.  Kind of like when you go back to your elementary school and everything is so much smaller than it was when you were a kid.  I think because our Aquarium here is so amazing that it's hard to beat that.  The one thing that saved the day was the dolphin show and sea lion show.  The dolphin show was very educational (which was good since Jax missed a week of school to go to the beach) and the sea lion show was educational and fun!

 Boys on the half shell!

We didn't see much wildlife actually in the ocean, which is fine with me.  Jellyfish and sharks can really ruin a beach trip!  One afternoon though, after we had gone back to our room for lunch and quiet time, we heard squealing from the beach and realized there were some sting rays swimming along the shore.  There must not have been much to eat in the stretch of beach where we were because they didn't stick around very long.

On our next to last night there, Mom and Dad drove by Bayou Bill's Crab House and saw this sign:

So it was decided where we would eat our last night at the beach.  Now y'all just have to know that my Mama, Daddy and Jax love, LOVE to watch swamp people, especially my Mama and Jax.  And so it was that we pulled in the parking lot to this 

Well my Mama has always told my us to act like we know what we're doing so Dad bypassed the double line of people around the building waiting to see Troy and Jacob Landry and marched himself to the hostess stand to get a table to eat.  Turns out the wait for that was very short and because we were eating, he also got us a number to meet the guys.  We had a fantastic supper and finished just as it was our turn to meet The Landry's.  Jax got an alligator tooth necklace and had Troy sign it, and a t-shirt and the picture of him holding the gator from earlier in the week.  I'm just glad it wasn't any of The Robertson's or we would have gone to camp out the night before.  We ALL love the Duck Guys!  As we headed to the car after meeting them, Jax declared he now wants to be a "swamp people".

Of course Jax squeezed in some go kart time while I was shopping one afternoon.  I think his thumbs up kind of sums up the whole trip!

I know my boys had a blast everyday because every night this happened on the way back from supper.

Too soon it was time to pack up, snap a couple of pictures and head home.  And, Ladies, if you've ever wondered how to get your big floppy sun hat home without crushing it.....

On our way out of town, we met up with Vince's sister, Carolyn, and two of our great nieces, Savannah and Jordan.  Jax was thrilled to meet more cousins and we had a good visit with family we don't get to see nearly enough.

I hope y'all enjoyed sharing this glimpse of our vacation!  I have learned two things from this trip.  If Mama needs a vacation, taking two little ones to the beach is not the way to get it.  About the time we got everyone fed, sunscreened,and down to the water, someone was hungry or had a diaper or needed a nap. The second thing is that I now need a vacation to recover from my vacation.  "Welcome to motherhood" was my Mama's response as she and Dad headed to their chairs by the sea!

Just kidding, we could not have done it without them.  They were so helpful with the boys and Mom and I stayed up late talking like we did when I lived at home.  They treated us to many of our "extras" and we are so grateful to share these memories with them!

 I'm planning to start blogging more often once school is out, so check back soon.

Love, Carie