My Boys and Me

The rest of last week at my parents was great. My Dad made some awesome ribs on the BBQ, we swam some more, went for ice cream, visited Mike’s Aunt in Orlando and finished the week with a delicious lobster (my favorite) dinner. Now we are home and things are boring, quiet (Braeden is in Panama City with Aaron’s family) and HOT- who’d have thought it would be hotter and more humid here than FL. Although I am totally a home-body, I absolutely LOVE where my parents live and visiting them is always so much fun. I feel sad and lonely once we get home, PLUS I am missing my little man and Mikey keeps asking and looking for him

Here are some more pictures of our fun trip-

“Check out my DO!”

“Now take a picture of me Mommy!”

The boys slept together on the pullout couch-

This was them one morning-

My parents were SO impressed with how well Braeden reads-

Mikey had so much fun watering the “plants!”

I can’t believe we are already on our 4th day of vacation. Time flies when you’re having fun and FUN we are having! Real quick- speaking of time flying- we were riding in the golf cart on the way home from the pool yesterday and Mike was telling the boys how he wanted them to be little again. I said, “I know, I can’t even remember Braeden as a baby.” Braeden said, “why because I was so cute?”

Tuesday we went to the pool in the morning and then came back and got ready to head to Tampa to see the PHILLIES play Tampa Bay! Monday night Mike was browsing on the Phillies website to see where they were in the standings when he happened to glance at who they were playing next- TAMAPA! My parents live about 2 hours from Tampa, so Mike and I started searching for tickets. We found some tickets on e-bay for great seats on the visiting team side for a price less than face value. We couldn’t pass up the chance to see our favorite team play the same team they BEAT in the World Series 8 months ago (and it was the first time they would go head to head since). We left Mikey behind with my parents and got to the stadium almost 2 hours before the game. We watched the Phillies practice and saw some of the players really close up. Braeden was able to see his favorite baseball player Chase Utley (2nd baseman for the Phillies) hit a home run. It was SO MUCH FUN! There were a lot of Phillies fans sitting around us and we won 10-1! Worth every penny. Mikey actually did really well with my parents, only crying for a few minutes at bed time.

Braeden and Daddy standing by the field during practice (next to a Tampa Bay fan)-

Jamie Moyer, Phillies pitcher for the night. He was SO focused-

Chase Utley, look how close he was to us-

Chase Utley hitting-

Mommy’s favorite player Shane Victorino (he’s a cutie too) nicknamed the flyin’ Hawaiian because he can RUN!

So, I think I have decided to finally come to terms with the fact that my life is consumed with BOYS! I have at least another 16 years before both kids are off to college, so I may as well start enjoying the things THEY love. I watched the first Transformers movie the other day and actually LOVED it. Braeden and Mike have been waiting anxiously to see the sequel since seeing the first, 2 summers ago. It came out yesterday and we took Braeden to see it. It was JUST as good as the first.

Braeden’s even wearing his Transformers shirt-

Not much going on today! Just relaxing. I went to bed with Mikey last night at 7:30

First off- Father’s Day! Poor Mike spent the morning working (as he does at the church every Sunday), was able to enjoy some homemade lasagna at his Mom’s for lunch and then spent the rest of the day driving to FL- at least we were all together as a family. The boys gave him a couple small gifts- a new adidas t-shirt, a baseball book about all the past World Series and Braeden framed him a piece of school work- it was a letter in which he wrote that he wanted to be a Police Officer and also Security personnel at church when he grew up! He drew a little picture at the bottom of the letter. When I saw it in his folder a few weeks ago, I thought it would be a perfect Father’s Day gift and quite fitting for Mike to have framed and on his desk at work. 

We arrived in the Villages late Sunday night. The boys slept until 9:30 am yesterday and we had a great day. We went to a neat little water park about 20 minutes away. Its just as hot here as in SC, so being around water is a necessity. My Dad had been up in Winnipeg Canada visiting my sister (my brother and his girlfriend were also visiting her from San Francisco- maybe one day when I am not terrified to fly, I can participate in these fun family get togethers Anyway, he got home late last night.  We enjoyed grilled hot dogs for dinner with my Mom and then went to the pool in the evening.  The water was SO warm and it was really relaxing. Here are some pictures from yesterday. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog to find out the exciting event we are going to tonight. 

Little slide-

Mikey went down THIS slide too-

Here’s the proof-

Swimming-

We had such a great day yesterday.  Braeden, Mikey and I met Robyn, her two boys (Austin is 7 and Bennett is 18 months) and one of her friends and her two kids at the pool.  Braeden and Austin have always played so great together and had so much fun swimming at the pool.  They hadn’t spent time together since being able to swim and are both little fish. Sweet little Bennett was more interested in running around the pool area than swimming and Mikey simply wanted to JUMP in and out over and over! It was literally close to 100 degrees so we stayed in the pool almost the entire time. Of course I forgot my camera!

We got back home long enough to shower, take a quick nap and then head to Braeden’s end-of-season baseball party which also involved swimming. One of the parents had access to a great club that was near the beach- the breeze from the ocean felt so nice and the kids loved the pool that had a diving board and slide.  We ate hot dogs, chips, yummy side dishes and some great desserts. Coach RJ out did himself (as he has done all season). He gave each player a picture collage of the team and each player and instead of individual trophies he gave them mini helmets with the two stickers he felt to be most important of all the ones he gave out during the season- Hussle and sacrifice.  He related each term to every day life, spoke a little bit about each player and made us parents teary eyed.  He announced that our team, The Bulldogs, placed 2nd overall for the season.  The team received a trophy to share. We are so sad the season is over, but insisted that he coach again next year and that we have as close to the same team as possible.  We all felt so lucky to have had such an amazing coach leading our boys and teaching them so much AND a team filled with such wonderful little kids each of whom inproved so much in 2 short months.

It was such a GREAT day/night!

Braeden about to test out the diving board

Passing the trophy around-

B and Coach RJ

Tomorrow we leave for vacation……..