An Artist Is Born

Just thought I would show you all what we did tonight...

Jack used his Thomas stickers to decorate my leg (or the track as he put it). I personally think it shows a lot of artistic ability myself. The color schemes and placement show a lot of promise, right:) He must get that from his dad:)

Blue Lake

You've seen that we've been to the beach MANY, MANY times this summer, but lately we've found a new relaxing spot at Blue Lake. We've taken a couple of trips there with friends. Shonna and I took the kids again this afternoon and had a great time. My battery in my camera died before I could get a lot of pictures but I did get a few...


Of course, Jack took all his trains, but at least he has learned to share them and let Caroline and
Maggie Ruth play with them too.





This last picture portrays them perfectly I think. Jack and Maggie are stuffing the food in, but petite little Caroline is just looking at her food and drinking her juice:)

They were all really great and we had a fun day. It's nice to have a place so close to home (although we still have to have our beach fix every now and then)!!

More Summer Fun

I know everyone is tired of beach pictures, but that is literally all I have this summer! We took a trip to Destin today with the Fores and were able to hang out on the beach for a while and then eat at our FAVORITE resturant, Louisiana Lagniappe. It was a great time and it was actually Jack's first time at Lagniappe, but he loved it too! He, of course, eats like a grown person and he got his love of seafood from both parents, so it suits him really well too!

We'll try to go somewhere other than the beach soon so I'll have some different pictures but we just love it soooo much!! At least this time Ben was able to go with us. I will say, though, as much as I love having the guys with us, they are real slackers when it comes to staying on the beach. We like to hang out ALL DAY and they are ready to give it up after a couple of hours?!?! :D We did have a lot of fun and I took some pictures to prove it!

Notice the trains on the towel... I wasn't kidding before - we take them EVERYWHERE, resturants and all. He even complained at the beach that we didn't have ALL of them b/c we left a few in the car.

Uncle Jay Jay and Jack enjoyed chasing all the ducks!

Thomas and Friends: A Circus Comes to Town

I had alluded to a fun day with Thomas in my last post and it probably seemed like we were going to spend "A Day Out with Thomas" (and we are going to try to do that soon), but this time, we actually went to see "Thomas and Friends: A Circus Comes to Town" in Huntsville. I have said before that Jack is OBSESSED with Thomas and all his friends and I don't exaggerate at all!! Those of you around us a lot are aware that my child has what may be quickly becoming an unhealthy fascination with these trains:)

I was still a little unsure of how well Jack would do in a seat for two hours watching a show, but he LOVED it!! It helped that we were on the second row and Thomas and his friends were about 30 feet from us the entire time, but it was really great. I recommend it even if your kids aren't crazy Thomas fans like mine. Any young child would enjoy it. There is lots of singing, dancing, a few circus acts, wrecks on stage, confetti, etc..... Here are a few pictures of the actual show.

An aside to Shonna: Caroline did not make an appearance in the show, but I think she's going to TRY to show up in Andalusia around August:)

Percy (He is actually Jack's favorite train - yep, he beats out Thomas)

Cranky the Crane and Harold the Helicopter

Gordon and James

The circus clown and Sir Topham Hat Suggestion: If you do take your children, be aware that these actors are on the floor right in front of us. You want tickets UP FRONT! I don't know how the kids in the back could have possibly seen them. It was a really BIG arena and they weren't even on stage. They did this for a lot of the show.

All the trains: Gordon, James, Percy, and Thomas

Thomas the Train himself

These are a few of Jack's expressions during the show:

"What in the world is going to happen next?"

"I really like this show!"

"I can't believe I'm this close to Percy!!"

We had a really great setup and that helped a lot. We stayed in a hotel that had a walkway to the arena in Huntsville so there was no driving and fighting traffic after or before. Just a really relaxing time all around.

This was just too funny not to share... This is how we ride everywhere now. Jack commonly states, "I want all my trains" and he means all of them.

Just in case you were wondering, he's also watching a Thomas DVD now too and has about 10 Thomas books beside him. He knows all their names, colors, and numbers... not kidding about the obsessed thing!!

4th of July

We had a really great holiday weekend. First, I got the idea to get this great pool from Shonna and Jack has enjoyed swimming in it all weekend!!



Friday night we were able to spend the night at home with some really great friends sitting around J's little pool and grilling out. It's so wonderful to have a house now and really amazing people to enjoy it with. Then, Saturday, we went to Papa and CeCe's for swimming, ribs, and grilled hamburgers with them and Nana.


And, of course, Jack spent most of the weekend, like every other day, playing with his trains. If he's in the pool, the trains are in the pool. If he's on the beach, the trains are in the sand. At the nusery at church, the trains are with him! They go everywhere with us and as you can see, we are getting quite the collection:)



We actually have a really cool Thomas the Train adventure coming up tommorrow that I'll post about soon.
We ended up the day at my parents' house eating crawfish. All in all, a really fun and relaxing day. I hope you all had a great holiday too!