Florida

We just returned from a much needed vacation in Florida. Eddie and Louise Creighton have a beautiful house on Fort Myers Beach and graciously let us crash at their place for the week. (And hopefully again in March?!) The boys know this as the "warm beach" because the California coast is all they know. There the water is in the mid to low 50s while the gulf is around 78 degrees. So Fort Myers Beach makes for a much more comfortable temperature to play in the sand----and it has shells! Alex spent most of his time digging in the sand and collecting shells. He would only go in the water if it served a purpose. Like looking for shells or getting water for the sand "volcano." Adam, on the other hand, loves water. So he didnt have a problem getting wet, or sandy.

The boys were a hoot to watch. Alex takes shell hunting and sand building very seriously. Adam is just tickled pink that his big brother is letting him help. He's adorable to watch from the backside----his little bottom wiggles back and forth as he walks and carries a bucket of water. :)

Mom came with us so it was really nice to have the extra hands. And then during nap time, Andy and I could go for bike rides on the beach. Dad was able to come about half way through, so at least they got to play with Papa for a few days.

Eddie's boat was broken for the first half of our week there, but it was fixed eventually. They boys really liked the boat ride, but loved watching boats go by the house. You could see the boats go by out the back windows. Adam especially was facinated.

Our days usually consisted of beach in the morning, swim in the pool (not Alex though), lunch, nap, boat ride or beach again, then dinner, bath and bed! Whew! What a day. Wish I was still doing that routine. When we got home, Adam found a shovel and ran to the door, pointed and expected to go out and play. We do have a lot of sand, but it's a bit cold. No beach here.

A picnic on the beach!

Sunrise

Beach patrol

Copy cat

Louise

sunset

Eddie and Dad

To see a video of the boys, click on 'Older Posts'.

It should give you a chuckle!

Funny Video

So we just got back from Florida and I can't resisit putting this on the blog. I will have pictures in the near future, but you'll get a kick out of this.

Poor Adam. He didn't cry too long. Which is good because Andy and I were laughing so hard it took some time for us to get to him! :)

Trick-or-Treat

This was the first year we took the boys trick-or-treating. Alex wanted to be a constuction worker, so Daddy dressed up as one too. We made Adam the foreman. :) First stop was the neighbor's house. Then we went to West Lafayette to the Berger's subdivision and trick-or-treated with them. Their son, Gunnar, is the same age as Alex. He dressed up as Curious George and his daddy was the Man in the Yellow Hat!

Alex and Gunnar were a hoot to watch. It took Alex a few times to get over being shy at first, but Gunnar knew what he was doing. He would knock --and continue to knock-- until someone opened the door! It was a lot of walking, but they both enjoyed it. Adam, well, not so much. It's kinda like the first birthday syndrome....he would get one piece of candy in his bucket and would want to eat/play with it. He could care less about going to the next house and was not pleased about being made to do so. Eventually he was throwing fits at every house, so Adam and I went back to the Berger's to play. He was much happier.

At the end of the night on the drive home, Alex kept repeating, "I had lots fun at Gunnar house." "Gunnar house fun." "We go back Gunnar house?" :)

Helping Pop on the Farm

Andy took a couple days off in October to make a long weekend. We went up so he could help his Dad chop, but mostly so the boys could ride in the combine. :) I can't begin to describe how excited Alex was to ride the combine. In fact, he slept horrible the first few nights (which was most of them!) because he was so excited! Adam liked it because he got to see tractors and trucks all the time. Adam is all boy---he's all about trucks, tractors, trains, and machines in general. Alex likes them too, but he loves the kitchen just as much. (Adam doesn't get as excited about the kitchen stuff as Alex does.)

While Pop and Daddy were out chopping, Alex was helping Mimi get some work done in the kitchen. They made cookies and diced tomatoes to be canned.

The boys looooved wathing the tractor pull the wagon back and forth across the road and down the lane. One way the wagon's full of silage, the other way it's empty!

And if you ask Alex where the silage goes, he'll tell you! "Silo!"

I really didn't take too many pictures of the chopping. It was really windy and very cold those days. But here's a shot of the boys watching (from inside the tractor cab) the silage unloaded from the wagon.


Ok, time to combine the corn!
But first we have to take the bean head off, and put the corn head on.

Now we're ready to work!

What's the next best thing to helping Mimi in the kitchen and driving the combine?

Playing in the wagon full of corn!

You wouldn't believe the nooks and cranies I found corn in on those boys at bath time. Or maybe you would. :) Alex would get so tired of corn in his shoes he would take them off when he was in the wagon! And mind you it was pretty chilly!

But boy did they have fun. :)