family

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New toys

Byron has been begging for a scooter for the past 8 years finally he got what he has wanted since he was 8 yrs old or so he says. Can you imagine big Byron on this little scooter that only goes 40mph max pretty funny! and he says he was embarrassed to drive the Altima to work anymore but hes not embarrassed to drive this scooter...funny
This is my "new" van. I hated the color of the old one and have been begging for years for a new color one..funny thing is its the same year as my old one but has 25k more miles on it but has a dvd player with headphones, navigation, back up camera and beepers, halogen headlights, sunroof but best of all its not dirt brown!

Mexico Snorkle

Byron even chased a baracuda.

Cruise

We were blessed again to get to go on a cruise paid for by Byron's work. Byron's parent came and watched the kids for 6 long days while we were gone. We went to Grand Cayman and Cozumel Mexico. We got to do a dolphin swim, stingray swim, snorkle, hold baby sea turtles at a place that breeds them, eat lots of good food. The ship even had a putt putt and rock climbing wall and full court basketball. We also bought an underwater digital camera which was way cool and the same price as a regular camera.

Family pics 2011

Dancing Queen

Jazz/Tap
Hip Hop


Kenzie did 2 dance classes this year, not sure I can keep that up next year because one was off the island (hip hop) and one was on the island, plus soccer at the same time. So that also meant 2 dance recitals and 2 dance rehearsals. I am soooo glad to be done for a while. We didn't get any still pics of Kenzie dancing but these are her costumes.

Soccer time of year

Zack and his "girlfriend" going for the ball, Zack is in the middle. It was hilarious for the first few games they would hold hands on the field and run together. Zack had more of a gallop than a run.

Things have been quite crazy since the beginning of Febuary when I started working part-time. I love it! I do bookeeping for a lady at the end of the street! This is also the time of year for soccer. This season Byron is coaching Kenzies team, he also tried to do Mikaylas team but it was too much. Zack also played this season so every Sat for the last few months we have been on Jeykll from 8:30-12:00 for 3 games. Mikayla also was amazing this season she really improved over last seaon. Everyone scored at least 1 goal for the season, even though they were all on the losing team.

3 legged Bandit

Mikayla has been asking DAILY for a dog or bird now for months. Zach loves dogs and I feel he was missing out on that part of childhood. Mikayla said she wanted something that was just hers that she could take care of...so we ended up at the Humane Society and I thought that maybe in 6 months we would find the perfect dog to replace my Sunny and Sandy (yellow labs that my parents have). 2 weekends ago after painting all day and telling Mikayla if she was good we would just stop by the HS, we hurried over 20 mins before they closed. And there we found the most loving but yet sad 3 legged dog (sorry pic doesn't show it well, its his right front paw) and we just couldn't leave him there. The positives to a 3 legged dog are that he can't dig, can't pull the kids down when they walk him and can't jump up on people very well. He also doesn't bark and weighs only about 30 pounds..which is nice compared to our 70lbs labs that drug us everywhere. Everyone who meets Bandit (Mikayla choose the name) loves him and says how sweet he is.

NYC

While my parents were in town we went to NYC for my first time. We were there 2 nights 2 days and had a great time, shopping, eating good food, and doing a double decker tour. The only negative was when B's wallet was stolen out of our safe at the Marriott just as we were headed to the airport. So we had to run 10 blocks to the train station to get the airport early so they could call the FBI and ask lots of questions and do lots of pat downs to finally let him on the plane.

Orlando

Byron had a work conference in Orlando, staying on site at Disney at a nice resort with a waterslide and playground, foosball table and lake so we decided to go with him. I took the kids to Sea World all by myself 1 day from 9-6pm, we got to see and do everything but feed the dolphins because they closed it early so Kenzie was sad about that, next time. Sea World had a special going on where kids where only $5 with a paid adult. It was a beautiful day, the park was empty and the kids behaved except for during a sit down lunch at the shark exhibit where Mikayla proceeded to put pepper on Kenzies mac and cheese so that she could have it for herself, which of course thru Kenzie into a tizzie. But other than that they were great. They even got to ride the kids rides again and again without getting off cuz the park was so empty!


On the way home from Orlando we stopped at Byron's gma who lives about an 1.5 hrs from Orlando.
The kids loved the waterslide and pool. We were there at 8am just as it opened because they loved it so.....not many other people there that early....Zach also loved the foosball table, we played that for a few hours, and we rode our scooters around the lake.

Family pics 2010

My snuggle puppy!
By the looks of this pic you wouldn't believe me if I told you they fight all the time!

FAll fun

Zach's preschool did a little thanksgiving program/sing along

The most sparse corn maize I have ever been too...you could see thru the corn!
Zach loved the cow train at the corn maize though

Jax zoo

We did the Jax zoo this past fall

long over due....halloween

Ichetucknee river

Since Linsey was here we decided to float Ichetucknee river on a Sat right before school went back....BAD IDEA! The park rangers said that before 8am 750 people were already waiting to enter the river. by the time we got there at 10:30 only the south enterence was open, we waited in line for about an hr to enter the park, then again in line herding like cattle into the river, then played bumper tubes with crazy people all the way down the river. Wish I had a pic to show you but don't have a waterproof camera. Just imagine cattle herding down and river and thats what we looked like. AND Mikaylas expensive glasses got thrown into the water...we won't say who's fault that was....mind you we 3 days soon just come back from the eye dr. who said she didn't need new glasses....now I guess she does. The water is 72 degrees year round and cold. Next year we will be sure to go during the week. The upper pic is of the kids getting into one of the cold springs watering hole.
This is a deadly cotton mouth snake that was on the edge of the water hole that my kids were swimming in....there were 2 that I saw and I can only imagine how many that I couldn't see.

Costa Rica

Byron has been begging to go back to Costa Rica (where he served his mission) ever since we got married. Thanks to my sister who was willing to watch the kids we went for 5 days. The roads are terrible there, windy, narrow and a lot of the time you are driving in the rain and through a cloud forest. We rented a 5 speed Toyota Yaris that Byron had fun driving thinking he was a race car driver going around the turns with a cliff on both sides, with Amber saying slow down and ready to puke. We decided to just concentrate on the rainforest and volcano and hit the beach another time since they span each other by about 8hrs.
This is an active volcano and we stayed at the only hotel that you could actually view it from.
This is one of many waterfall hikes that we went on, on average we hiked about 2x a day.
This is the view over a cloud forest right outside of our room. The placed we stayed was tons of acres owned by a bunch of Israels. The great part was the on site food and activities, so we never left the resort. We ziplined here and river rafted and hiked.
This is me ziplining. I was terrified to do it cuz I am scared of heights, but since you can't see the ground because the trees are so thick it wasn't so bad and I just never looked down. We were about 26 stories up. We had a great time, but I was ready to come home to the good ol USA were there are actually street signs and no bars on the the windows.

Swim time

Byron taught the kids how to do flips forward and back this summer much to Amber's dismay.