July 22, 2013 By 1 Comment

Va-to the-Cay

Well I’m just plain tired.  Like exhausted.  I think I could sleep for days.  I guess that’s what vacation does to you…or the fact that Amon decided to grace me with his presence every single morning of vacation at 5:30ish.  Rude.  Crazy rude.  In real life he does not get up this early and I was solo parenting since Josh was in Nicaragua.  Ummmmm, I’ve decided I do not like babies at 5:30am.  There, I said it.  He’s cute and all, but I need more sleep.  I digress.

We seriously had a great time.  So much stinkin’ good fun.  Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom are those really kind people who just smother you in hospitality and love and yummy food and fun.  They’re those good type of people.  Like really good.  It was wonderful to be with them and spend every day on the beach.  I’ve decided I would like to live on the beach.  I could do it.  Can you imagine how amazing it would be?!?!?!?!  Sigh.

The kids loved every single thing about the beach.  No fear at all which was amazing to watch/scary to watch.  I was on high alert, but didn’t want to scare the crap out of them, so I just played it cool with educational beach/wave/under toe information.  And Ashley and I kept our eyes on them.  Right now I’m doing the Meet the Fockers v-shaped finger eye point Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro do at the red light near the end of the movie.  Yep, that was us.  Eyes on those wee Kelleys.

Huddy did some serious ninja chopping of the waves.  He literally spent 99.9% of the time in the waves…deep and fighting them.  It was quite the Boy VS Nature battle.

There was sand castle building of course.  And Ashley wore herself out on some serious sand castle building.  It was intense.

Amon was hilarious.  He adored it.  He would run straight into the ocean and would have easily drowned himself if Ashley and I weren’t so dang good at picking him up.  We finally dug him a hole and put him in it.  He liked this very much.

Amon’s favorite thing about the beach was easily the people watching.  You see, he’s a creeper.  A little tiny cute creeper that wants to get all up in your business.  It’s just how he rolls creeps.  Example A:  This family got some chuckles and big smiles out of him.  He did some serious creeping on them.  Lucky family.

Amon’s other favorite thing about vacation was Uncle Tom…or Baba as the kids call him.  Amon + Baba = BFF.  Amon literally just followed him around the house.  He wanted Uncle Tom to hold him the whole time and if he wasn’t holding him Amon just creeped around Uncle Tom’s legs.  Yep.  Amon enjoyed hanging out with Uncle Tom’s legs a lot.

We had quite the time and everyone was sad to leave, but I know we wore Nina & Baba out.  They were so gracious and sweet to us, but I know if I was tired, they had to be too.  I’m so glad we decided to venture their way and I’m even more glad they were cool with welcoming us in.  A sweet, fun time was had by all.

Thanks again Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom for always being crazy kind and opening your home up to us wild Kelleys.  Thank you for loving us so well.  We totally appreciate it and think you guys are really stellar.

Happy Monday.

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November 27, 2012 By 7 Comments

Orange Picking

Several weeks ago Huddy started asking me about taking him apple picking.  I explained that this wasn’t the time to go apple picking and how we would have to wait until next fall to try and do so.  He has really been into fruits and plants and how they grow lately.  He actually asked for fake pumpkins for Christmas so he could pretend to grow them.  He’s such an interesting little guy.  While we were engrossed in our “picking fruit” conversation I told him about the time when I was a kid and I went orange picking with our family and Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom in Florida.  He was totally enamored by the story.

Just a few days later Aunt Linda called to talk about our up and coming Thanksgiving trip to Florida.  She was telling me about all the things she was planning for us including a trip to a friend’s house who had orange and grapefruit trees so we could pick some.  When I told Huddy his eyes lit up…he was just too excited.  He could not wait to go orange picking.

And it did not disappoint.  It was a bit cool, but everyone had the best time.

And the oranges were delicious.  We all peeled and ate some before we even left.  They were sweet and juicy and just perfect.

The kids loved it.  We loved it.  Josh said the smell in the trees was amazing.  The colors were beautiful.  It brought back truly great memories and I am so blessed to be able to have the same sweet memories with my own kiddos…all 4 of them.

And on a major side note…I posted this picture last night on my PPA Facebook page and on Instagram.  And by this morning I had several comments and emails with questions.  So tomorrow I will brief everyone on our kindness advent.  We did it last year and you can read the post HERE on how it all began.

Hope you have a great day.  Happy Tuesday.

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November 21, 2012 By 3 Comments

A Beachy Thanksgiving

You guys are too kind.  Thanks so much for all the sweet comments and emails.  I really and truly completely appreciate them.

So I really wanted this Thanksgiving to be a bit different.  I wanted something new and fun and memorable and I wanted us to be together as a family.  My sweet Aunt Linda & Uncle Tom asked us to join them in Florida and we said “Absolutely.”  They hadn’t met Amon yet, so I knew this was the perfect way to celebrate such an important Thanksgiving for our family.

We hit the road after school yesterday and Josh drove us on through the night.  He’s pretty great to us.

After a long night and a good sleep in this morning, everyone was up and happy and already diving into Nina and Baba’s company.  They are always too sweet to us.  So excited to be here with them.

And then we headed to the beach.  The glorious beach.

Who knew November was the best time to go to the beach.  It’s 70s and sunny.  The weather is amazing and I’m hoping to come home with a tan:)

My beachy wee Kelleys.

I got a bit tickled to catch Sol in this little act.

And now I’m sitting in my Uncle Tom’s dark movie room watching Brave and listening to lots of little wee Kelley laughs.  It’s been quite a good day.  A day of joy.  A day that was much needed.

Happy Wednesday.

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