Picnic in the tent

How fun is it to have a picnic inside the tent you've just erected in the living room?



Dare I say, uber-fun?

How fulfilling is it to be the mom that successfully snaps an up-close picture of your kids without them knowing it?

What trumps uber?

Our cyclist sleeper

All I can say is she comes by it honestly.

Waterbaby

Katherine enjoyed being on the Y swim team this summer.  She excelled and truly showed us how good of a swimmer she is.

She didn't always like the water.  Her careful nature and disdain of the water in her face made her a pill to deal with in the bathtub when rinsing off her hair.  I remember well, because her little brother is showing the same attributes.

She participated in 3 swim meets and did rather well in all of them.

Her first swim meet:

Warming up

Prepping for the 25m freestyle race

Off she goes

Now for the 25m breast stroke race

MOM!

K and sweet Melina, her dancing and swimming gal pal.

Getting ready for the 25m back stroke

Her second swim meet:

Our little Wahoo

Her freestyle race yielded a 2nd place

Her back stroke race yielded a 2nd place also.

And she got a 3rd place in the breast stroke.

Her 3rd swim meet:

Warm-up time.

Freestyle, she competed against all boys and got a 1st place!

 

 

Backstroke she got a 3rd place.

 

Breast stroke she got a 4th place.

 

 

She did so good this year.  It warms my heart to think of how far she's come from our little toddler afraid of water in her eyes.  Something tells me I'm experiencing just a taste of the heart-swelling I'll be feeling in the future with other events she participates in.

Random updates

So, I reeeaaallllyyyy need to update lots of things, but tonight is strictly for some quick random updates.

For instance, Nathan's favorite color is no longer orange.  WHAT?  I have asked him numerous times if this really is the case and he's for certain, his favorite color is now, GREEN!  Daddy's favorite color is green.  No coincidence there, I'm guessing.  I'm in mourning over this.  Nathan introduced the beauty of orange into my life and I'm forever grateful.  Orange was probably my least favorite color of all, until it became his favorite.  Mine eyes have seen the glory of the many different facets of orange, all because of my middle child.  Not just Gator orange, which was pretty much the only one I paid attention to, but the salmon shades of orange and the beautiful pumpkin/autumn-y shades of orange too.  Brandon can thank his older brother for the beautiful orange design accents in his room.  (That's another update on the horizon.  He's only 16 months old.  His room's been done for over a year and a half).  Excuse me while I listen to taps in honor of the passing of Nathan's favorite color being orange.

Silence...



Ok, so next is about our precious little fuzzy wuzzy, easy-going, he-makes-3-look-easy youngest child.  He has officially turned into a force to be reckoned with.  He has found his volume switch, his accelerator pedal and his activity knob.  He is really starting to understand that it takes lots of volume, repetition and persistence to speak over two other siblings.  I just wish I knew what his combination of consonants and vowels meant.  Spending 2 hours in the car every day is quickly becoming his least favorite thing to do.  Last year, dropping off Katherine and picking her up fit well into his rest/nap times, but now they're not jiving at all.

We're still waiting on Nathan to get into 3-year-old school.  He's been #1 on the waiting list for over 2 months and I am doing my best. to. patiently. wait.  He is more than ready to start a part time school, particularly the one within walking distance of our house.  Two hours in the car already has pre-determined where Nathan will go to school, so now it's just a waiting game.


Katherine's school is going well.  There was no prying of her arms away from my neck this year.  There was a little hesitancy the first day, but she requested to be dropped off in car line the second day.  Something about all the commotion her brothers bring makes her uneasy, I think.

And lastly, I'm officially dumber for watching portions of the show 'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.'  I considered writing about the state of our country with it's impending Presidential election coming up, but somehow Honey Boo Boo and her redneck family was the train wreck my eyes could not avert from.  It's difficult to formulate complete thoughts and sentences when even a muted television of Honey Boo Boo is in the same room.  Flashes of Georgia-clay covered rednecks flying through the air into pools of red mud are images powerful enough to deaden any intelligent thoughts I might have thought were brewing.  So, I'll save my political commentary, something I tend to avoid, for another time.  Another time when maybe, just maybe, the only flash of light in the room is my Blogger page automatically saving my work.

I must get to bed.  I finally got back to working out today and I'm actually tired before 11.  Honey Boo Boo will hopefully deaden the rest of the brain cells I have that are still awake and send me into bliss-filled sleep.

Family Reunion 2012

Somehow these pictures were missed back when blogging in September, so here it is, March 30th, and I'm now blogging about September 2nd with Mommy memory.  I'll do my best.

All us Boyers, including Uncle Buddy and Aunt Vivian, made the trek to south Georgia for the Johnson family reunion this year.  We loaded up 3 cars, 3 gas tanks and the 14 of us made the trip, for better or for worse.  Our first stop was at the Agri Supply store in Valdosta.  You might be a redneck if your family stops at the Ag store first, before the family reunion, huh?

We managed to not spend our family inheritance there and kept 3 excited-out-of-their minds children half-way calm and physically out of the chicken coops.  Um, by the way, have you seen the mansions some of these chickens are living in?  Case in point:

So now do you see why it was hard to keep 3 kids out of these?  I'd like to crawl around in there myself. :)

We found the hotel and also found a great restaurant that accommodated all of us, including 6 chirens, served good food, fairly quickly at a great price.  And the restaurant's name is...(hang on while I google it....) Cheddar's!  Pretty good stuff.  I'd go back.  Well now, that doesn't say much.  Jim would go back.  There, you have it.

The hotel was the bomb, because every single Hampton Inn on the planet is the bomb in our kid's eyes.  They swam that night in the heated pool with the cousins and the girls got to have a sleepover in Bamah & Papa's room.  Boys were the next night.

The next day, we were on the trail again to Uvalda, GA.  We did the best we could to keep yungins rested, entertained, fed and bathroomed up for the trek, but no lie, it was a job.  They enjoyed switching cars and hanging out with each other.

We finally made it to the reunion, did plenty of chatting, hugging and (as Uncle Buddy puts it) burping each other and headed off back south to Douglass to prepare for our trip to the Okefenokee Swamp.  We've been there before, but this trip was different.

We did have a little excitement when we were ready to leave the Douglas hotel for the swamp when the Guinn's car battery died.  They called AAA, put in an order and were ready to wait while sending the rest of us along to the swamp, when, lo and behold, the 2 boy scouts stepped in and DISOBEYED.  They were TOLD to take us all to the swamp, but instead they drove around the corner, found a car parts shop and arranged for the battery to be waiting on the jumped-off car when it arrived.  AAA was way too slow and sometimes driving around the corner, literally, solves the answer.  We all were able to go to the swamp at the same time. Go Jim and Rob!

We should have known what it was going to be like when the sign at the swamp entrance read, "WE CAN NOT CONTROL INSECTS ON ANY GIVEN DAY.  THERE WILL BE NO REFUNDS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS OUT OF OUR CONTROL."

Ok.

Well, the horse fly population was OUT OF CONTROL.  Seriously.  And I might as well be a walking fly tape to any flying/biting bug.  That part was NOT fun.  Insect repellent didn't even work.  It just made the horse flies laugh.

We saw the reptile show first.

Last time we came here I was pregnant with Brandon, 2 years ago.  Oh how my babies have grown.  Here are some pictures from 2010.

 

She was 4 1/2 and he was almost 2.  I need a moment to let that sink in.

 

Sigh.

Here we have the 18-month-old addition petting foxes and sticking his fingers in bear's and alligator's mouths.

Thank goodness for train rides and comfortable laps at nap time.

 

 

The sisters

 Pretty foliage

Silly face time on the train ride

 Mom, It's really hot!

I know honey, it's south Georgia, at 2pm in September.  I can't do very much about the temperature.

 I wish I could do this to my hair.  That looks so fun!  Thanks for modeling Aunt Niki.

A stop by Alligator Alley

 

Tickets were bought for us all to go on the river ride, but I opted to take care of Brandon inside the air-conditioned, biting fly-free gift shop.  It was no picnic there either, trying to keep an 18-month old from breaking everything, but my skin was so thankful.

 River Ride 2012

River Ride 2010

 

 

We left the fly-infested swamp and headed down to St. Augustine.  Our family reunion/vacation ended with a walk on the beach.  LOVED IT!

Uh, CUTE!

 

Wasn't a big fan of the waves.

Mommy exercise.

I love watching toddlers explore sand.

And watching "schoolers" collect shells.  (So she's not a baby, toddler, pre-schooler or teenager.  What do I call her other than mine?)

Thanks Bamah and Papa for a great trip!  Making Memories.