Grandma's 80th Birthday

 

We were in Gainesville a couple of weekends ago to help my Grandma celebrate her 80^th birthday!! We went to her favorite restaurant (Red Lobster) for lunch where our Georgia family (aka the Dixie DeSantiago’s) surprised her. She was definitely surprised! After lunch we celebrated with cake and champagne back at the house. For her gift, the family collaborated and created a memory book to celebrate her life. I thought it turned out quite nice and I know my Grandma enjoyed it.

{the whole gang at Red Lobster}

{Grandma with her children and spouses}

{Grandma with her grandchildren and spouses}

{Grandma with her great grandchildren}

{Grandma opening her gift}

 

Happy 80^th Birthday, Grandma! I'm so happy we could be there to help you celebrate, we love you!!

 

You can view more birthday pictures here.

 

 

Monster Jam

 

We took Connor to Monster Jam a few weeks ago. To say he was excited would be an understatement. He even had his own countdown to the event. Every day on our drive home from school he would tell me how many more days until Monster Jam. Grandma and Papa drove up for the weekend to babysit the kids Friday night and then Addie on Saturday while we took Connor to the show. John took me out Friday night for my birthday. We had a delicious meal at Boscom’s, a chop house in St. Pete.

 

 

 

On Saturday we met up with our friends around 3 pm as we had Pit passes prior to the show. It was fun because there were so many ‘new’ cars this year. One of Connor’s favorites is Monster Mutt and while we were there the crew members were putting on one of the tires. I think Connor enjoyed seeing that. After the Pit we tailgated for a couple of hours before the show at 7 pm. The boys had fun playing with their monster trucks, a little bit of football and corn hole as well. As we were walking into the stadium we got to see them all start their engines and drive in. It was pretty cool and something Connor imitates with his cars now at home. The show itself was good, Maximum Destruction even did a back flip! When we got home Connor was still awake and very enthusiastically told Grandma and Papa all about the show.

 

 

 

I can tell this will be a fun, annual event for the years to come. Addie may even join us next year as she loves playing with Connor’s trucks too. The show has certainly regenerated Connor’s love for Monster Trucks as he has been putting on his own Monster Jam shows for us ever since.

You can view all my pictures here.

 

I was going to add a video of Maximum Destruction doing his back flip but Blogger seems to be missing the 'Browse' button :|

 



Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!!!



Christmas: Part II

 

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and I'm happy to report that both kids were well our entire holiday vacation. We all were for that matter, a small miracle. We arrived in Cape Haze on Sunday and just spent the day visiting. The kids made ginger bread cookies with Grandma on Christmas Eve. They both thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, especially the decorating.

 

 

Grandma made us a yummy ham dinner that evening and then the kids got to open up one present each before going to bed. Connor picked out two of the cookies they had made for Santa and then we sprinkled some ‘magic reindeer food’ outside to help guide the reindeer's to the house J

 

 

I can’t begin to describe the look on Connor’s face Christmas morning but he was speechless. I didn’t get a picture because I was busy filming it. Below is a short clip John took with his phone. They each opened their stocking and then we had breakfast. After breakfast we opened presents. Andrew just moved to New York and couldn’t be with us this year but was able to join us via Skype. He was also able to give us a tour of his new apartment, all 500 square feet of it! Gotta love NYC!

 

 

 

 

That evening we had another delicious meal, this time Grandma cooked turkey. It was such a fun and relaxing day with the family.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

We only stayed in Cape Haze until Wednesday. We wanted to get back and enjoy some of our time off from work at home. This may sound awful but we sent the kids to school on Thursday and had a fun day just the two of us. We went shopping, had lunch and even saw a movie! I can’t even remember the last time we went to the movies. The kids were actually very excited to go to school and play with their friends so we didn’t feel too bad. We are paying for it after all, they may as well go ;)

 

I hope you all had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did. You can view the rest of our pictures here. There are quite a few to go through....over a hundred actually. I had a hard time cutting down as I know there are a few of you that want to see all of them. Enjoy!