Mexico Beach

We had such a fun week this past week in Mexico Beach! Our family, my parents, Lindsey, Max and Trista, and my grandmother were all there for parts of the week. We took advantage of everyone being together (minus Lindsey's husband, sorry Chris!) and took some family pictures. They turned out pretty good dispite the fact that we were working with a timer on our camera instead of a photographer. I'll post the fun beach pictures later, but I wanted to go ahead and show these off first!

I just had to put this last one on here. We were being attacked by giant bees the whole time we were trying to take pictures. I actually got the bee in the picture on this shot!

Jeff and his girls

I love this picture! This was after church yesterday on Father's Day.

Swimming Lessons, Check

That's one thing we can check off our list this summer. Swimming lessons finished on Friday. The girls did pretty good, they got better about putting their faces in the water and trying to swim, but they do have a long way to go. We'll try level 2 again next summer. We've got to do some practicing on our own before going back. Here are a few pictures of the lessons... (of course Maryella had to get in on the act in that last picture.)

Treasure Hunting!

A couple months ago, our brother-in-law, Rafael, introduced us to geocaching. It's like treasure hunting. Things called caches have been hidden all over the world and you can look up which ones are in the area closest to you and go find them (go to geocaching.com if you are interested, it can tell you pretty much everything you want to know). Some are as small as a 35 mm film container and just hold a piece of rolled up paper that you sign. Some are much larger and have little trinkets inside that you can take - but you bring something along with you to replace them with. You use a handheld GPS to track where all these caches are located.
So for an early Father's Day, we gave Jeff a handheld GPS and got to work tracking down a couple geocaching sites in our area. It was so much fun! Kaylin and Annlee complained of being hot and tired on a few occassions, but overall, we had a great time! It's such a wonderful activity to get your family outdoors and active! And it's so educational too! Not only will the girls eventually learn about a compass, coordinates, and distance and all, but they get to see things like deer tracks. Annlee was able to track where a deer had crossed our path and gone off into the brush. Hopefully we will be able to go out at least one or two times a month and do some more!
Here are a couple pictures from our adventures!

Flip Flops!

In preparation for our trip to the beach in a little over a week, I wanted to make some of those cute flip flops with bows on them for the girls. So I found some cheap flip flops at Walmart and got some cute ribbon and this is what came out! I'm so proud of what I did! I've been making bows recently for the girls (you inspired me, Jamie!) and figured I ought to be able to make some to attach to flip flops as well. Anyway, I just wanted to show them off!

Party Invitation

I can't believe that Maryella's 2nd birthday is just around the corner!!! Amazing how time flies! I wanted to show off the invitations I made for her party. I thought they turned out so cute!

Santa Fe Teaching Zoo

This is a really neat little zoo in Gainesville where college students can go and learn about caring for animals. They take in a lot of injured and older animals. They also try to breed as many of the endangered ones that they can. It's pretty cheap to get in and it's shady - so a hot summer day isn't too bad. The girls had lots fun going today with a group of kids from the church.

I don't know if you can tell, but behind Annlee is a peahen (female peacock) with her babies.

And here's Annlee checking out a peacock with it's feathers out!

Kaylin was fascinated with this crocodile that was hit by a car and lost one of it's legs.

It's finally finished!!!

Jeff took the past 2 weekends to put the porch on our playhouse. It looks so cute! The girls are very proud of it. I just had to show off his hard work!

Swimming lessons

It's that time of year again. The girls are both in level 2 this summer. In order to pass level 2, you must swim the width of the pool. We may be here a while. They have completed 4 days so far and I'll give an update at the end of next week, but unless a miracle occurs, we are stuck in level 2 for all of the foreseeable future.
Kaylin actually made some progress today, but Annlee absolutely refuses to put her head in the water. She lets the water barely touch her lips and then pops her head right back up. The instructor laughs at her, but I told him today that he should just push her head under so she can get used to it. She does it at home, so it's not like she's afraid or anything. For whatever reason, she just gets intimidated at swimming lessons.

SNAKE!!!

Ever since we've moved here, we have been finding snake skins in the backyard. But until this summer, we had never seen any live ones. Yesterday, Jeff killed his second snake, but we aren't sure that that was the last. This morning he found a small snake outside in the front yard and the girls loved looking at it. Annlee thought it was pretty neat how it would "hug" her finger (with Daddy holding the head, of course).

We've heard that these are good snakes to have around. Those big black ones apparently eat some of the thousands of frogs that are constantly around (I have a small idea of what the Egyptians must have felt when God sent the plague of frogs!) Therefore, we haven't been too aggressive in trying to get rid of them, but we do kill the ones that we see out in the open.

Notice the frog practically sitting on this snake! Guess he hasn't learned the art of frog killing yet.

A Bit of Entertainment from Maryella...

Just thought everyone might enjoy Maryella's rendition of "Shake Your Booty". She picked it up from the recent dance recital and has her own take on the song.

Marmie and Granda Visit!

These are pictures from our visit with my parents this weekend. We love when grandparents come! It's always a nice excuse to take a few pictures!