I'm Alive

Yep. It's been awhile. I have stayed true to form...

I am on the treadmill (not literally-which is why my gym will probably call soon and ask why I haven't been there in a few weeks). We are certainly getting into our groove, and it's a busy one! Gymnastics, soccer, church, school, meetings, planning, etc. etc. etc.

Mack's birthday is quickly approaching. She is very excited to turn 8. Ethan is slowly adjusting to school...but I expected this. I love to hear his stories about his friends, like the one with the golden teeth.

Again, I am loving school. My class is full of cutie pies, and they make me smile. I have to remind myself to start a journal of the things they say, like when one of my students informed me that 'whore' starts with 'h'. Thankfully she whispered this one in my ear. Normally she isn't the whispering type. It must have been my lucky day. Of course, she was wrong...but I wasn't about to go into that phonics lesson with her.

Matt has started studying for the CPA exam. This has been keeping him busy.

So that's us in a nutshell. Oh! Here's that picture of the kids' first day of school that I promised...about a month and a half ago.

First Day of School

I watched my heart walk into school today with his big sister. My little guy, with a backpack that measures half his height, followed his sissy through the school gates today. Matt and I were all set to walk him to class, just in case he got lost. But he informed us that he wanted Kenzie to walk with him.

So we went to school with them yesterday, their first day. We walked the big second grader to class and met her teacher. After going into the classroom with her, she walked away to her new desk and didn't look back. (I didn't get a chance to say 'have a great day'. But I understand because I was just like her when I was in school.) Then we went downstairs to take Ethan to class. You would have thought I was selling him to his teacher because it felt like I wouldn't see him again. She asked us to come inside and get him situated. After getting him settled at his table we watched him draw a picture, and we waited with him for awhile until he looked up at us and said, "Are you going to leave?" After a few more minutes, we took that as our cue, gave him kisses and left him. I was strong...for awhile. He had a great day, and he told us that it was his 'best day ever'. Well okay then!

So after watching my heart walk into school today, I realized that I have to let go a little and let him grow up. I think I'm having growing pains.
(I'll post pictures soon!)

School

How did the new school year creep up on me so quickly?? I really can't complain though. I have had a full and very fun summer. I heart summer, remember? So tonight we were talking with the kids and making sure that they were excited about school. Mackenzie is nearly beside herself (she's like me). The way I discovered to get Ethan excited about school? GI Joe underwear.

So their bags are waiting for them in the hallway, full of clean notebooks and unopened packages of pencils and crayons. Lunches are packed and ready in the fridge. Uniforms are hung on the closet doors with care. And I'll be in bed later with a mind that won't stop racing and wondering how my baby got to kindergarten so fast. Unfortunately I won't have the opportunity to have a boohoo breakfast with Matt tomorrow because I'll be leaving straight from their school to mine. Needless to say we have a lot going on tomorrow. Hopefully I can post something about their first day in a timely manner. But you all know how that goes...

Family Trip to Marathon

I'm still coming off my Keys trip high so here is one picture to sum up our fabulous family trip to the keys.

Tallahassee, Part 2

Ok. My last post was a little lengthy. I apologize. But I have a hard time choosing which pictures to post. And I tried to post a bunch to my Facebook page and something went wrong. This time I will limit the number of pictures I post but I'm tired just thinking about our fabulous road trip '09 so I'll limit my verbage as well.

Upon arriving in Tally, our niece and nephew were at Matt's parents house. I think my kids were in the pool faster than you can say 3,000 miles. Our time with the other Cates kids was limited but it was great seeing them.



We got back in the car to go to the beach with Matt's parents and the other Cates kids. Destination: St. George Island. If you've never been there, it's really beautiful. It's a small island with pastel beach cottages up on stilts lining the shore. Here are few highlights:


Matt's sand sarcophagus


Watching Grandpa fish


Making sand castles


Looking for clams


The Cates kids



From the beach we headed west to Panama City, where some friends of ours live. Since seeing them last they have had another child and moved to a new home. Needless to say it was fun catching up with them.



Our last day in Tallahassee was spent in the pool and on the couch recharging our batteries for the drive back home on Sunday. Overall, our trip was a memorable one. Even though I joke about the miles we drove, it was all worth it.

Our Road Trip - Atlanta

After a weekend stay with Matt's parents, we headed up to Atlanta, more specifically Dacula (Dracula, without the 'r'). Destination: McCaigers' house.

I've been to LeeAnn's house a number of times over the years, but Matt had not been up there in the past 10 years, since they moved into their house. He also had not met their youngest rug rat and he hadn't seen Brent in a long time. Along with visiting them we also visited with Matt's brother and sister-in-law and with more friends in that area. Throw in a little sightseeing and LOTS of driving and there you have it. Leg 2 of our spectacular '09 road trip. I'll let the pictures do the talking...


There are so many things to do in the Atlanta area, and we chose to visit the Georgia Aquarium. Wow! It was beautiful. I had just visited the Miami Seaquarium the week before our trip and found that almost EVERYTHING there was the same. So I guess if I had to compare the two I would liken them to this...


the Miami Seaquarium- a redneck yacht



the Georgia Aquarium- a real yacht

So anyway, we went to the aquarium and Matt and I were amazed. I took alot of pictures of the fish and the kids but these are my favorites.


This is one of the two whale sharks they have at the aquarium. They were huge and beautiful. All I could think about as we walked through the tank in the big glass tube was that if I was a diver and I came upon one of these behemoths, I would probably have a heart attack and die. Maybe this is why I'm not a diver.


One of the nasty looking sharks in the same tank with the whale sharks. I swear he kept giving me the stink eye. If you look closely, you can see Hunter's reflection in the bottom left corner.


The fam damily


I couldn't stop watching Mack and Hunter. They are BFF's in the making, just like their mommas. :)


The childrens watching the fish-Carter would have stood there and watched them for hours. Unfortunately, Ethan and Parker wouldn't stand for that. Literally.


Cartie.


Remember how I won't swim with creatures that have sharp teeth (no matter how big or small those teeth may be)? It all started with these guys in Peru. Pihranas. But that's a story for another time.


The boys are enjoying our little parking garage tailgate party (i.e.-the aquarium refreshments are a little on the steep side so we brought our own snacks to eat in the car)

Good times good times.

From there we left and went to the Mayfield Dairy Farms, which according to LeeAnn was close to their house. This phrase "close to their house" means something completely different to me in my South Florida world. God bless the Georgians with all the driving they have to do. So we got there and toured the Dairy facility and we even got to wear these pretty yellow hats.






Just in case you don't know the McCaigs, specifically Parker, he enjoys crossing one of his eyes. He doesn't look like this normally. I just happen to have a bunch of pictures of him like this.


Awww! You want to see a picture of me in the pretty yellow hat? TOO BAD! I was the official trip photographer and I stayed quiet about not having my picture taken...but if you're on Facebook LeeAnn posted one of me with it on.

Afterwards we experienced the best ice cream in the south. So yummy!! I had the blueberry cream pie flavor. My taste buds were singing, the clouds parted and a special light shone down on my $1.50 cup of creamy goodness. (Dadgum if the Super Target down here carries every other flavor of Mayfield's BUT that one. Yes, I have already checked!) Sitting on the cute little porch on a rocking chair seemed to make it taste just a little bit sweeter.







Of course we couldn't leave without taking a group picture with the giant cow...



and one of Matt sucking the giant cow teet.



As I mentioned at the beginning of this post we also saw some other friends while we were there. We traveled over to the southwest side to see Kim and her kids. Kim and her husband Steve used to live in South Florida and her daughter Chloe and Mack used to be playmates. Then they moved to the Atlanta area and they have been there since then. I loved how the girls just picked up where they left off. Kim also has two boys, Ian and Jacob. Ian and Ethan are the same age. They enjoyed getting bossed around by the two girls. And Jacob did too. Her father, Bill, was also visiting with Kim, and it was great to get to see him as well.


Mr. Bill became the jungle gym after awhile.


Who knew that the girls were not the only High School Musical fans in the group? Jacob was seen busting a move during their Wildcats basketball game. He was getting his head in the game. So cute!


The Wildcat cheerleaders wear tiaras.


The Wildcat players, with jersey numbers and all.

From the Chin house we went to eat with Todd and Janie. And then we made the almost two hour trek back to the other side of ATL. Can you see how we drove 3,000 miles during this road trip?

After a fun trip to the lake...







we dressed the kids all alike and went to see a laser light show at Stone Mt. What a fun way to end our stay with the McCaigers!

Stone Mountain









Next stop...Tallahassee, Part 2!

Our Road Trip - Tallahassee, Part 1

I thought our road trip to upstate New York was long two years ago...

We drove 3,000 miles on this road trip to Tallahassee and Atlanta and lots of places in between. But it was so worth it! Usually our summers go like this:
*school gets out
*kids go to VBS
*Matt goes to an island or a South American country
*I get phone calls from him
*maybe we have a fun visitor from out of town
the end.

So when we knew that Matt wouldn't be going on any trips this summer, we knew that we would take a road trip. The prospect of going to Tallahassee to see his family was a good one because we normally don't get to stay with them but for a long weekend now and then. I said 'part 1' in my title because we broke our trip up into three stages: Tallahassee, part 1, Atlanta, and Tallahassee, part 2. My goal (and Matt's too) was to spend lots of time with his family and see lots of friends we haven't seen in awhile. So here it goes...

We started out our vacation by going to Wakulla Springs with his parents. Both of us had been there back in college but our kids had never experienced the home of Tarzan before. Normally they run glass bottom boat tours but the water is unusually dark these days so we went on a normal boat. Ok. I took a stupid amount of pictures of trees, birds, and alligators. Old lady-ville here I come!


Look at this devilishly handsome fellow! Don't let the smile fool you. He was bored, but what 5 year old boy is going to flip out over the flora and fauna of a North Florida spring. That's ok. I made up for his lack of excitement with my overexuberance in picture taking. (I spared you the many pictures of the trees I took. Come on! They were so pretty with the moss and the big roots!)




We didn't bring the kids' suits but they could have gone swimming here if we had. Matt and Kenzie put their feet in the water and it was pretty cold. It sure would have been refreshing on that H*O*T summer day. HOWEVER...I vowed last summer to no longer swim with creatures that have sharp teeth (no matter how big or small those teeth might be), and one of those creatures (an alligator and a few dozen of his closest family members) was in the water about 100 yards from where the swimmers were frolicking. That would be a big NO THANKS for me!



I got to see one of my friend's who lives in the area. And I got to meet her beautiful baby girl! Evie was sooo cute, and it was fun catching up with Kiley.


Seeing babies like this one makes me wonder if I should have a third one. She was so cute! (Don't worry. Ethan reminds me daily why I won't have a third child. :)

We spent the 4th at his parents' house. Apparently there aren't many big displays of fireworks in the area, and Matt likes to buy those big packs of firecrackers so that's what we did, aside from spending a good part of the day in the pool with friends and family.


The kids having chicken fights on Matt and Joey's shoulders. Joey was the best man in our wedding. We enjoyed time in the pool with him and his wife and their adorable baby girl Katie. It was fun catching up with them.




Cowabunga!




Where there are fireworks or any loud noises you will find Ethan assuming the position- fingers in his ears. He takes after me. I'm not a big fan either.




Have you heard this one? How many people does it take to light a firecracker? There are actually two little people missing from this picture who also assisted in the firecracker display we put on in the driveway. One chose the next firecracker to light and the other one sprayed the smoking, spent firecracker down with a hose.

So there you have it. Part 1 of our fabulous '09 road trip. I'll post about the second leg of our trip soon.