We headed down to Naples for a little Independence Day vacation and, man, we had a good time!  As I mentioned earlier, Alabama was a wash-out the whole time we were gone so we’re so glad we got to escape the rain and soak up some FL sunshine!

We flew down on Wednesday the 3rd and the flight was great.  Thursday morning we took advantage of the pretty weather and headed to the beach!

Maxwell was sure to take proper hand wear to dig in the sand!  ha!

Friday morning, we once again got lucky with the weather and Robert and I played some golf.  And when I say I played, I mean I drove the cart and yelled “get in the hole!” after each of Robert’s putts.

I think it helped.  Robert disagreed.

Saturday morning we headed back to the beach where Maxwell really got into digging and swimming!  so fun!

King of the hill!

and just a little proof that I was there too!  🙂

When we weren’t out and about, Maxwell and Spencer had a blast playing at home, especially since GJ and Daddo had all sorts of new toys for them.  Yeah, these boys aren’t spoiled at all!

A new trampoline…

some awesome (and slightly dangerous) frisbees…

and new trucks!!  Including an awesome cement mixer.  Maxwell and GJ mixed up some Cheerios cement and made a road…smooth,no bumps!

Yes sir, boss!

Spencer perfected his crawling while we were down there.  As a result, we got to hear Maxwell yell “no no no, ya-ya!” many times as Spencer crawled straight for Maxwell’s toys.  Somebody is gonna get a big lesson in sharing soon!

Some other funny things…

Spencer tried out some knee pads on the rough floors…

Maxwell discovered the joys of vanilla ice cream with Hershey’s syrup!

and he also discovered the joys of his brother’s jumperoo!  ha!

It really was such a fun trip.  I’ve got a few more pictures to share but I’ll wait until tomorrow.  See you then!

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go stay in an awesome lake house with all of Robert’s immediate family.  We had such fun swimming, boating and playing with the cousins!  We didn’t do much sleeping but that’s ok – it was worth it!

The setup was great – the perfect amount of beach for the kids to play on with plenty of shallow water.

Everyone had fun playing with water guns, digging in the sand and paddling the kayak!

Maxwell did really good in the water and got braver and braver as the weekend went along.  He loved “swimming” on his belly with either me or Robert and kicking his legs as hard as he could!  But, after an early morning wake-up and a few hours of swimming, he looked like this…

ha!  He then went on a boat ride and totally fell asleep.  His heavy eyelids just couldn’t stay open with the hum of the Whaler motor lulling them closed!

After his nap, Spencer got to hang out in the lake too in his inner tube!  He was happy as could be…

and had some pretty awesome post-lake hair to show for it!

We loved getting in lots of play time with family…

There’s just something so great about being at the lake.  Covered in sunscreen all day and going to bed without a shower because you’re just too tired.  Having an afternoon beer while floating in the water and then grilling up some ribs that night.  Chatting with family on the porch and letting the kids stay up late.  Good times.

Before we left on Sunday, we tried to get a cousin picture and…well…here’s what we got!

ha!  Mine are definitely not at the age where they pose nicely for pictures!

Thanks for letting us make some fun memories Jenny and Ronnie!!  It was a blast!