Florida--Day 5: a kitten and the beach!

Day 5--Sunday. It started early. With church at 9 a.m. and Lance still needing to tie dye his Disney World shirt before we left so there would be enough time for the dye to set, we were scrambling to get ready and out the door.

We miraculously made it with a few minutes to spare (thanks to Cole who wakes up around 6:30 or 7 every morning regardless of his bedtime).

After church we drove over to Grandma's house to have a big dinner with all our extended family.

While we were there, Laura and I introduced the boys to one of our favorite past-times when we were kids visiting Florida: lizard hunting!

Can you spot the lizard?

I used to be pretty good at catching these little guys, but try as I might, I was not successful.

Lance especially thought it was fun and spent a good hour walking up and down this fence chasing the lizards. Ah, memories.

Laura and Mason

I tried to get a picture with my boys, too. This is the best we could do:

I've come to the conclusion that I will probably never get a picture with all three boys looking AND smiling.

When our family arrived, we had another unexpected visitor:

My aunt's cat had died in the storm the previous day, along with two of her three kittens. This little guy was the only one left and was too young to fend for himself. So, my aunt was bottle-feeding the baby every 3 hours, even at night.

All the boys thought he was the cutest thing they had ever seen and all fought over who would hold him.

We finally had to hide the basket in a back room so the kitty could get a little space. It's good to be loved?

Wrestle time!

Cousin Josh made a great opponent for these five crazy boys.

My boys and Amy and I went back to the condo after dinner to get ready to walk on the beach. Right after we left everyone else decided to visit Grandpa's grave. I was sad we missed this special experience.

While we waited for everyone to come back to the condo (we weren't sure what was taking them soooo long), I couldn't keep the boys way from the beach anymore and we went down for about an hour before it got dark to enjoy the first sunny day of our trip.

Aunt Amy is the best, braving the cold water and crashing waves so she could bodyboard with Lance.

Jude had been begging me to bury him, so Amy and I decided to bury ALL the boys!

Cole wasn't too sure if he liked it or not.

My three boys. :)

It was awesome!


That night we stayed up to put the finishing touches on our tie dyed shirts because tomorrow we were headed to DISNEY!

Aunt Amy putting a glow-in-the-dark spider on Lance's shirt.

Florida--Day 4: 5 mile walk and Ironman

Saturday was the first day that wasn't pouring rain, so we did our traditional 5 mile walk that morning down to Flaglar and back.

Laura and I braved it with the kids, both of us pushing strollers. Lance spent most of the time walking too, although he did sneak a ride every once in a while.

Jude enjoying some water time with a family friend that was visiting for the day.

Stephen

Not the prettiest weather, but we'll take what we can get.

Jude and Mason had a great time running to try and catch up to the adults. I was impressed with their energy.

The boys thought chasing these flocks of birds was the best fun they'd had yet:

Most of our group.

Lance was trying to throw sand at the birds. He missed.

Aunt Linda and Mom took over pushing for a bit so Laura and I could run. I love all the helping hands!

(Can you see Lance in the background? He was bummed he had to walk. To be fair, it was a long way.)

Jason and Kailey--cousins! These two just got called on missions for our church. It's fun that they get to serve at the same time.

Bethany and her friend.

I finally let Cole out of the stroller. You can probably tell he how felt about getting to run around.

The sun! I can see it!

These two were buddies the whole time.

That afternoon, we spent some time at the pool where we caught a couple sunny moments:

And our family came over to play! Valerie and her husband Brian came to visit as did Maria and her boys and Caleb and his fiance.

Late that night, Amy, Stephen, Laura, Jake, Lance and I went to see the new Ironman movie.

Lance thought it was awesome (especially since he got to stay up til midnight).

And of course because our vacations are never restful, the "big kids" stayed up to tie dye our Disney World shirts.

Who's ready for church at 9 a.m.?