Back to the Lake

Well, we've been saving our bread and were all set to feed the birds again.  William had the day off of school yesterday and Jonathan was home from his early morning shift, so we could all go together.  It was another SUPER windy day, so we brought the kite along too.  I think that ended up being William's favorite part, since the birds were basically nowhere to be found! 

Both of the kids wanted to wear their hats.  Abbey's sporting the Tigger trucker hat.

William's representing D Town

I had to take this picture to show Aunt Holley Abbey's cute sandals!  Plus, momma has matching ones! :) 

Abbey says, "There it is!"

Hold on tight!

It's WAY high! Oh, and William loved the big steps in the grass.  He hopped all over those things!

William's turn!

It's a Buzz Lightyear kite and William kept saying, "To infinity and beyond!!"  It was really cute. 

Looking for the birds...

Nope, no birds! :( 

A Blustery Afternoon with the Birds

Jonathan is working today, so the kids and I decided to get out of the house.  Instead of heading to a park, we went to the lake to feed the birds.  We had a fun picnic lunch first, but it was so windy that it was a very quick lunch!  Anyhow, the kids had a blast and were totally bummed when we ran out of bread.  I think we will be saving the ends and stale stuff for another trip very soon!  I took a few pictures and a video and William took some good pictures too!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, we couldn't get out of the complex without a stop by the playground.  It was nice and empty today, but the place is kind of meant for bigger kids, so it was a quick stop too. 

 

 

 

Lights of Lakeland

Last Sunday night, we took the kids to the Lights of Lakeland display at the Nazarene church down the road.  We have been watching them put it together and I think it was 2 years ago, that Ed & Gail took the kids, but we had never been as a family.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun and the kids loved it.
 

Abbey liked the 3 singing wisemen.  

 

William was really interested in the pretty waterfall. 

 

This was too funny, the way Abbey crouched down too.  Ladies behind Jonathan (taking our picture) were laughing at her. 

 

Of course, Abbey's absolute favorite part of the night was seeing Dora!

  

They have a pretty authentic Bethlehem town, that you walk through at the end.  Inside there, the kids got to pet baby sheep and saw real camels too!  

 

Now, if you're paying attention, I said the Bethlehem was at the end of this thing, so to get the following pictures, we had to go through a second time! :) 

 

William was amazed by the "snow" falling in parts of the display!

 

 

Jonathan was determined to get our pictures taken behind this thing, but as you can see, it didn't work out exactly as hoped! 

 

 

William was very excited to see Diego back out there with Dora, but he did NOT want to go near him. He was crying on the way out though, about not giving him high five.  Oh well, I think he enjoyed it, and really, in what part of Christmas does Diego belong? :) 

Trick or Trunk

The kids had their first Halloween experience this weekend.  The church was having a "trick or trunk" event and it was perfect for the kids - we knew most of the people there, it was just up the road, and it offered a few other things besides candy - for free! 

The kids hadn't really dressed up before and they're usually not big on wearing something that mommy thinks is really cute, so I wasn't sure how this would all go.  I let them play in their outfits before the big night and surprisingly, they were both very cool with it!  However, William was not interested in wearing his little knight's crown, and he kept talking about being a "captain" so we grabbed the pirate hat my sister made for him and he loved it.  He wouldn't take the hat off all night!  He called himself a "pirate captain!"  He got some people asking what he was supposed to be and I said a knight/pirate.  I really didn't care what he was; just happy that he was happy about being something different!

Abbey looked super cute in her little princess/fairy dress I found at Beall's Outlet.  I had the cutest little crown headband for her, but she confiscated William's crown, so that worked.  She looked adorable either way!

When we got there, William was most interested in the inflatable slides and Abbey just wanted to run around.  I was able to take them down the trunk aisle to get some candy, but they weren't too interested.  Abbey kept handing her candy to William!  We found the calf and both kids liked that.  We checked out the motorcycles and even took a hayride.  We ended up back at the slides though and thankfully I had Gail there to help with Abbey while I kept an eye on William.  Jonathan had to work, but he got off and arrived just as I was ready to head out.  It must have been the hottest Halloween...ever!  It was hot and tiresome running after both kids, but they had a great time and I was so proud of them!  We definitely had a fun evening! 

One Week Later

Well, it was about this time one week ago that we arrived in town. We've come a long way these past 7 days. By last Friday, we had our rooms set up and the storage unit loaded. Sunday was a great day at our old church and we had lunch with a friend who has had 2 liver transplants. He has been a great encouragement and help to Jonathan through his whole kidney ordeal. Today, we got word on what school William will attend, and Jonathan got his first unemployment check. Jonathan will be starting back with Publix next week, which is a great blessing. It will only be part time, but it's a start and a way to work his way back up in the company.

The kids are loving their "new house." They have adjusted well so far and we're thankful for that. I was able to visit my friends at LCS yesterday and that was a great encouragement to me. There are so many good people here that care about us and it reaffirms that we are where we need to be, even under difficult circumstances. Our 'challenge' remaining for the week is to find enough Cellcept for Jonathan to last until the end of the month. Our insurance ran out last Friday and he only has enough medicine to last until this Friday - as in 2 days from now! So, it's a little scary, because his body will start to reject his kidneys without this drug, but we are trusting the Lord to provide exactly what we need. Even if it comes at the last minute, the Lord has proven Himself so faithful that we are not worrying, just trusting!

So thank you everyone for your continued prayers, offers of help, and well wishes. We are so grateful to all of you and especially to our amazing God, who never lets us down!

Day at the Zoo

Last weekend, we went south to visit with Jonathan's parents. We had planned to go to the zoo the last time we were there, but it didn't work out, so we made sure it happened this trip. Saturday morning, we got an early start and had a nice breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We ordered the kids pancakes, but they came with apples and whip cream all over them. Abbey ate the apples, and William ended up eating all of Gail's plain pancakes! I will be sure to order differently the next time! So anyway, the Lowry Park Zoo is rated the #1 zoo for kids, and we were eager to see how the kids would like it, even though we know they're still a bit young to understand everything. They did enjoy some animals and there were a lot of them to see, but by far, their favorite part was the fountains. You can tell by the pictures, where we spent the majority of our time!

We made a stop at the carousel and the kids loved that. William rode on a "horse" as he calls zebras and Abbey rode on a manatee. She was doing great sitting up and being excited until the thing started moving. Then she threw one arm around me, hunkered down and held on with a death grip! Her face was tight and filled with terror at first, but then when she decided she liked it, she let out a scream (literally) of relief and delight. She did like it, but she made sure to keep a real tight grip on me. And of course, she cried when we had to get off.

So after that it was off to the kids' area and the fountains!! I had packed the kids' swimsuits and all that, since I knew we'd probably be there a while. However, I was met with some resistance, from all sides, when I tried to change them before they got their clothes soaking wet. So, we let them get totally drenched and then when it was time to leave, we put them into their swimsuits, because those were the only dry clothes they had! Yes, it's backwards, I know, but some days that's how things go!

So then before lunch, since it was right beside the fountains, we took them through the petting zoo. I don't think they were too interested in it, probably because they were getting hungry and tired. There were these funny goats though, that had a little walkway up to a roof where they could be fed. William noticed them right away and wanted to make the cups go up.

After that, we headed to a nice, cool eating area and had a good lunch. I think we were all about ready to go by then, but Jonathan wanted to take the kids through the Africa area, where they would see the zebras, giraffes, and other animals from the movie, Madagascar. It was a good ways from where we were at the time, even though it ended up being right behind where we ate. Since we had sunblock issues earlier in the day (I won't even talk about that!) and Abbey didn't have many clothes on, I wanted to find a little t-shirt for her. So, we got a shirt, we made it to "Africa," but by this time we're carrying both kids (I've got William) and we were SO HOT and wanting some ice cream or at least something to drink! Ed and Gail stayed back with the stroller, so I didn't have my camera, which was a bummer, because we went up to the place where you could feed the giraffes. We didn't have our money with us either, so we couldn't buy a giraffe cracker (for 2 bucks - ripoff!!), but William didn't care about having food for the giraffes. We were really close to them, but he made his way right up to them and petted one on the face! We were amazed! I wished I had my camera for that! Oh well, we know it happened! So, it took us a while to find Ed & Gail after that and by this time Abbey was asleep on Jonathan and I had twisted my ankle - twice. And that's my 'good' ankle too! We were all very ready to go, even though we still hadn't seen everything. We had a good time and I think we got our $20 ticket's worth. Next time we're in Lakeland though, I think we'll just take the kids to Barnett Park and let them run around in the fountains for free!! :)