Water Park

When we were unable to go to Branson in November due to the boys' hernia surgeries, we thought it would be fun to stay at a hotel and go swimming in KC over the holiday break. After we started looking into making reservations and seeing hotel rates about triple this week, we decided to try out the Ramada in St. Joe since it has a water park.





We swam 3 times and each time the boys got a little more comfortable in the water. By the time we left, Brett was swimming with his lifejacket on by himself! Brett went down the kid slides a couple times, but mostly they just enjoyed being pulled on the inner tube/swimming and going around the "loop" which was lazy river-style, but not very much current at all.



And there was a big slide that was all outside of the building. We were a little tentative to try it (or at least I was because I get so claustrophic in the tube slides!), but were glad we did. It was dark and then had lights halfway-through and then got dark again.

I was little early taking Ed's picture coming out of the slide - this is all I got!



We ate at Whiskey Creek, the restaurant attached to the hotel, Monday night. It was good and the boys loved that you could throw peanut shells on the floor!

Fun in the Tub

This is what you call trouble -



2-year-olds hiding from me. . .

On the Farm

We were really excited it was nice outside the day after Christmas and took a walk around my grandparent's farm with the 4 dogs. BT, Becky and Bro came along with us and our boys - all of the boys had a great time checking out the trees, tall grass and finding sticks to make into walking sticks or guns.

And I love this picture. . . . if only the dog was theirs. We had to laugh - everytime we tried to take a picture, Mandy (my parent's black lab), was always in the middle of things. Oh well, she's a good dog!

A few of my favorite things

Ed's always good about getting me the stuff I "mention" on my Christmas list, but he's also good about picking out things that I would never think of, but really like.

I think these were supposed to be slippers, but pretty much haven't taken them off since I got them. So comfy (and cute I think!). They have a furry inside. . . .



And I love that he adopted April (his picture below) from the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida. Since I've always had a thing for turtles, we stopped at the hospital on our way to Key West in 2005 and were amazed at what they are able to do for turtles that have been hit by boats or developed a fungus that so many of them get and can cause blindness.

April is a permanent resident that was rescued in 1990. He is blind in the right eye and only sees shadows in his left eye. We got a picture of him along with an adoption certificate.

Santa Claus came

I wasn't sure if he would, but Santa made it to our house! The boys got some really cool wooden toys - a stall with 12 horses and a corral for Brady and a toolkit for Brett. He also brought a lot of crayola bath stuff and Power Ranger swords/masks. I don't remember all of it, but they were happy little boys (and our living room was a tornado when we left for Lebo).

After opening presents Christmas morning, we headed to Lebo to celebrate with my family. My dad was able to bring my Grandma Rowley over for a little bit which was really nice. However, I was really upset when I realized all of the Christmas presents we had bought and wrapped for everyone were still in a bag in front of my dresser in Kansas City!! Luckily, the VanArsdales were going to Gardner Christmas night and agreed to pick them up for us (they must have been feeling very nice since they were leaving on a cruise to Mexico Saturday morning!).

A snapshot of the Christmas chaos :)



The boys got a lot of dress-up costumes and Brynna was more than willing to play and be a blue Power Ranger!



And Ed got a nice pack of baby wipes from my brother (for wiping off at work after his bike rides!)



After all the presents were opened and everyone couldn't eat anymore, the Wii came out.



Dad even got in some bowling.

Christmas Eve

Ed's dad/Jacki and Uncle Tim/Aunt Debi came down to celebrate with us on Christmas Eve. The boys love to play with Grandpa Stockwell - who wrestles and gives them piggyback rides around the house.

Watching the Polar Express -

And of course, they got lots of great gifts - even popguns! Ed and I had to laugh. Brady was playing with one of these at Cabela's the weekend before and we both came very close to thinking we should get one, but didn't. I guess Grandma Jacki couldn't pass them up and she even made camo cases to keep them in - very cool.

Just before Christmas

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Now that it has come and gone, I'll try capturing some of our activities.

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated with the Ed's mom/Randy, his grandparents and his brother's family. The kids had a great time playing!

I also spent some time making some Peppermint bath balls (Oh, Martha makes it look so easy! :) I made these and put them in a cool container.

(You can see the red ones ended up being half pink and half red which looked pretty cool.)