Update time- November!

Since it has been awhile since my last post, I will quickly fill you in on the latest goings-on around here.  We celebrated Veteran's day in Pensacola, FL at the Naval base, which is the home of the Blue Angels.  

Side note: one perk of living so close to where the Blue Angles are stationed, is that during their show months, we can go watch them practice (they practice twice a week, and on one of the days, we can actually meet them after the practice).  It is basically a private air show, and it is AWESOME.  I took the boys back in August, and we look forward to going as many times as we can this spring and summer before we move away.  

So, we opted to skip the day show (missing the Blue Angles) and saw our first ever night air show.  The sunset was amazing, and the show itself was pretty neat to see, as well as being a special tribute to our Veterans.  The night show included various planes doing routines while shooting out fireworks, a firework show, and a wall of fire.  Taking pictures at a night air show is an art that we are still trying to perfect!

This is was helicopter routine with fireworks, and  flying below it was a huge American flag while the song "God Bless America" was being played

My boys- concentrating very hard!

This ALMOST NEVER happens...three asleep in the car, that is!  I thought it was cute how their heads are all going in the same direction!

My brother, Kelly, came for a visit the week before Thanksgiving.  We had so much fun showing him around the area, taking him to the beach, and I especially enjoyed the wonderful talks I got to have with my big brother!  Something you should know about Kelly, is that he is SO much fun to be around.  Thanks so much for your visit, Kelster! 

Feeding the turtles at "turtle peak"

We spend Thanksgiving with some of the other residents and their families.  It was a marvelous feast, good company, but a little odd to be wearing t-shirts on Thanksgiving (not complaining about that)!  The boys had a blast running around with their friends, and Josh thoroughly enjoyed watching football with some buddies (we don't have a TV here in Florida, so this was a special treat).  

Here are the boys "helping" me make pie crust.  Actually, they were pretending to be "Pizza Man" making pizza crust.  After a few mishaps, we no longer let Henry toss the crust in air!  

That following weekend, we rented some kayaks and took them out to sea!  It was so much fun, although once we were out of the bay, the water was pretty choppy, and rowing can be hard work!  One of the best parts was watching a very hungry pelican fishing for food right next to us.  We could have watched this all day long!  It is incredible how they fly above the water and dive in so perfectly, then come out with a big fish, shake their feathers, and fly off.  I wish we had had the video camera, it was such a great show.  We were all in such awe at the speed and precision of this process,  that we were speechless....all we could do was gasp and laugh!  These pictures make the water look nice and calm, but I promise, it wasn't!

This guy knows how to entertain

Kind of scary how they didn't notice anything weird about the three of them floating away into the ocean without us!

Have I told you that Henry and Sean are experts at catching lizards and geckos?  Well, they are.

 And finally, here is a picture of the boys waaaaaay back in July (Henry's cast is bagged- ahh, the memories).  I love this picture, I think is is hilarious.  Here is the story behind it- we were walking down to the beach for the first time after arriving in Florida, and I just KNEW I was going to get "the perfect picture" of my darling little boys in their new surroundings.  I quickly learned that noon is not the best time to photograph on the beach.  The conversation went something like this:

Me: boys, sit still, smile and LOOK at me, open your eyes!

Boys: but maaaaam, we can't open our eyes....its too bright

At the time, I have to admit, I thought the picture was a failure, but now when I look at it, I see:

 my darling little boys in their new surroundings- the sunny beach!

I just love how you can tell that they are trying their best to open their eyes, and appease their crazy mother!  Great effort.