A Southern Whirlwind Trip

I love to take trips with only some of my kids at a time. Recently Jake and Carter got a turn to visit friends and family down in the South! It was an awesome, quick trip! We flew into Alabama and drove to see our best friends the Johnsons in Georgia for two nights and one day! Then we drove to Northern Florida to visit with our cousins the Hamms! The boys were so excited to meet/play with their boys. After a three fun filled days, we drove back up to Alabama to fly home. We saw much of the small town south and saw soooo many trees!


We took some time to climb trees
Darling nieces Alyssa and Audrey
Cousins : Andrew, Alyssa, Audrey, Carter, Aaron, and Jake. The boys got a long instantly like they had never been apart. Hopefully it won't be long until we see you again!
The lovely White Sand Fort Walton beaches

My sister Kim, who is my role model always being 8 years ahead of me she has 5 beautiful, fun kids and is a wonderful mother to them
I bought a volley ball while we were there the weather was so nice that we played beach Volley ball together

My favorite picture of the whole trip
Eating at the Crab Trap....Jake and Carter had popcorn shrimp and thought they were in heaven!
My other favorite picture of the trip
We learned a lot about Alligators. They are cold blooded and Ambush predators. They wait for their prey to come to them and then they can grab it and tear it in the same amount of time it took for you to blink while reading this. We also learned that any sitting water in Florida is assumed to have Alligators in it. Anyone want to wade through a nearby stream?

Last year when I brought Hanna on this trip it was so cold the day that we went to this alligator pool, there were no alligators out. This year was a stark contrast.
The last day we were there, we headed to the Air Armament Musuem. Andrew was our tour guide and showed us through naming all the different air craft. The boys loved the flight simulators the best.

This is an F-16 Fighting Falcon like Uncle Jason flies
This is the B-17 "Flying Fortress"-Gpa Anderson was a gunner on this type of plane in WWII. It was so educational and fun to be there.
I curled Audrey's hair for her to go to school one day....it turned out adorable and she wore a cute outfit and necklace to go with. What a great trip we love you HAMMS!!

Our little SUPER STAR

Hanna's hard work paid off as she performed in her first on stage production. She has been taking acting, singing, and dancing lessons at Hollywood Kids Academy for 5 months now and LOVES it.
This perma-grin radiated on her face all night
She got to perform in about 8 different scenes, songs and dances from different Disney movies
She really stepped into being Captain Hook. She was awesome. She worked hard to memorize all her lines and didn't mess up once! We were soooo proud of her!
Her favorite part was singing "I won't Say I'm in LOVE (Meg from Hercules). She got to be on the balcony and sing with the muses down below. The song goes back and forth between them and her. She was awesome! I asked her when it was all done if she was scared to sing in front of all those people. "She said, No, I was too busy having so much fun".
The Muses she sang to

The whole night was awesome! Way to go Hanna!

Four

In our family you get to have your first friend party when you are four. We had such a great time hosting and planning a Star Wars themed party for Josh. He was all smiles along with the other kids that attended. Such cuties at this age!
While waiting for his friends to arrive he watched as we carefully secured with a rubber band a mini candy bar around some of his favorite Star Wars characters. Then they were hidden around the living room to be found by his guests.
Each Youngling was given a light saber (pool noodles and duct tape!) to start their training to becoming a Jedi Knight. They had to practice by popping bubbles.
Then it was upstairs to the Jedi training obstacle course designed by Jake and Hanna to learn to be flexible, agile, Jedi. Tanner Thornton, Aliyah Allred, Sam Whitlock, Joshy, Hayley Linford, Dallin Taylor, Liam White, Hanna, Camden Lindquist, Jake, Carter, Cameron Taylor.
After training, we were hanging out listening to Star Wars theme music when some enemy foes arrived on the scene: Carter the Clone Trooper and Jake : Darth Vader himself. Thankfully Princess Leia (Hanna) also came to help give aid in fighting the bad guys! Each kid got to battle with their light sabers.....IT WAS DEFINITELY THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE PARTY! Josh has such willing and awesome siblings to help out with the party. Hanna even stayed until the end even though she had a birthday party of a friend to get to. She didn't want to miss any of Joshy's party. (how sweet is that?)




They all passed and achieved JEDI status! They were all granted birthday cake, ice-cream, and soda for their amazing feats.
Joshy had a green light saber cake with skittles. What a kid....we adore you big guy. We can't imagine our family without such a funny kid to brighten all of our days. You are truly a character and bring so much LOVE and light wherever you go. We love you birthday boy!!