And Off We Go......

The cars are packed and we are ready to head off on our great adventure to Orlando. I get to man the car with the Critters while Rian is going to take my car. Reese and I will be heading back to Tallahassee on Wednesday.

We are planning on hitting Downtown Disney tomorrow with the Critters. They get to have their first experience at T-Rex. Maybe they will even get to make a dinosaur. After that we don't have too much planned. We'll be celebrating my birthday on Monday but that is about it.

As I mentioned brother and I will heading back north so we can go to the Florida State University Football fan day. Brother said he wants to have his picture taken with FSU Quarterback Christian Ponder (a Heisman hopeful).

Oh and as an aside I will be doing a review of a product from one of the CSNstores.com websites. My personal favorite is cookware.com. Maybe I'll pick something from Le Creuset.

That's about all I've got, have a great weekend.

Chris

Happy Birthday Grandma B!

Happy Birthday Grandma B! We can't wait to see you this weekend.

Love,

The Critters

We Have the Sickness

Sorry for the lack of posting, we have some illness going around our house. Rian has a sinus infection, Carson has a cold, Brother has a cough, and Hadley is just cranky.

We are heading to Orlando this weekend so we will have some exciting updates. We will be at Disney on Saturday so I know the Critters will have a good time.

Chris

Music (or the Art of Teaching Children About What I Consider Good Music)

While it may seem like a trivial issue to most music is a big issue to me. I really what the Critters to enjoy music, real music not just the "children's stuff" that is pushed on them. As many of you know I absofreakinlutly despise children's music. I literally cringe when I hear it. I don't mean to offend anyone but I just can't bring myself to even consider it "music." I as I write this mini rant I am coming to the realization that it will probably be a losing battle, but I will try my damnedest to have them listen to the Beatles, Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, and Tom Petty before Dora the Explorer or the Backyardasomethings.

Rian and I are doing our best to introduce them to our tastes in music. Rian's taste is a little more modern than mine. Rian's choices in radio slightly differ from mine, she has it fixed on 104.9 and 101.5 (both modern - think Rian Secrest). I am generally a fan of what people these days consider "classic rock." Since when is R.E.M. considered classic rock? Really, I saw them in concert in the late nineties, that's not classic.

So far Rian has introduced them to the following: Lady Gaga, Ke$ha (Brother loves her), Beyonce, Jason Derulo (sp), Katy Perry (Brother is a big fan), and The Kings of Leon.

I have tried to introduce them to the Grateful Dead, Phish, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Cat Stevens, and Zeppelin.

I will tell you guys something that has made me very happy in this whole quest. The Critters absolutely love Jimmy Buffett. I love the fact that they appreciate and seemingly get excited when his music comes on. I love the fact that when I come home from work some days I walk into Jimmy blaring from the stereo. It is funny to watch the Critters every Sunday morning (99.9 Hank FM in Tallahassee plays Margaritaville Radio every Sunday morning) on the way to church clap and seemingly rock their heads to Buffett songs.

Sorry for this random post, the subject popped in my head as I was listening to the Grateful Dead's, Rockin' the Rhein yesterday at my desk.

Chris

Edit: I completely forgot about the Rockabye Baby CD's. They take classic rock/rock bands and recreate their music using five instruments (no vocals). These CD's are great, I have even found myself listening to them.

Hadley Ann at the Beach

I was trying to put a little montage together for Hadley and realized that I didn't have too many pictures of Hadley at the beach. After a little bit of thinking I figured out why. She is always in the water, and I really don't want to take the camera around it. Oh well, I guess I will have to get over that fear of ruining the camera or get a stronger lens to get a few shots of Peach.

Here are the two that I did get:

This is Hadley's usual speed at the beach: full speed ahead toward the water.

A rare moment of rest, probably to eat some sand.

Chris

CarCar at the Beach

To continue with the series, here are a few shots of CarCar at the beach:

Probably my favorite shot of the vacation.

Chris

Reese at the Beach

Here are a few snapshots of Brother at the beach:

Just chillin' playin with some toys.

Hey ladies! Why don't y'all come over here!

Oh well, I'll just eat the shovel.

Chris

Summer Vacation

Flagler College, St. Augustine

I'm back after our vacation, a few days of a 104 degree fever, and catching up at work.

Rian, Grandma Barbara, the Critters and I headed to Cresent Beach (St. Augustine) for the 4th of July. We found a great deal on a condo right on the beach. Unfortunately the first two days there were a little overcast but we still made it out to the beach. The Critters absofreakinglutely love the beach/water. You cannot get Hadley out of the water. Brother prefers the pool but I think it is more for the ladies that hang out there. Brother was in full playa' mode on the trip.

The Girls on the beach. Notice Hadley did not waste any time getting to the water.

Brother in straight playa' mode.

On Friday we headed into downtown St. Augustine. Let me just tell you it was a little warm, oh say about 103 degrees. It becomes even warmer when you have a 24lb baby strapped to your back. Needless to say we all avoided heat strokes. We stopped in an ice cream shop to cool down and get the Critters a scoop or two and after I accidentally knocked Rian's ice cream out of her hands with the baby backpack we were off. Even though it was hot (really, really hot) it was still fun to stroll around St. Augustine people watching. For those of you that haven't been there are some really interesting folks that flock to St. Augustine.

On Saturday Grandma Kate came up for the day and we relaxed at the pool and went for a late lunch. That night Rian and I got out for a "date." We had dinner and then ended up at a dive bar for a few (few too many) drinks.

The sun came out in full force on Sunday, just in time for the fireworks. We hit the beach and the pool for much of the day and then headed back to downtown St. Augustine for dinner and to watch the fireworks. It.was.a.zoo. I don't think I completely realized that fireworks bring people out from the woodwork. It was wall to wall people. Oh and did I mention that it was a little warm out.

CarCar on the 4th.

Hadley on the 4th.

Apparently the candy store knew Reese was coming.

We had dinner, with only two high chairs, which made it very interesting and then we headed off to find a spot to watch the fireworks. I was planning on the grass around the fort, but apparently a few other people had that same exact thought. We settled for the median right on the river, it actually worked out for the best.

The fam in our spot to watch the fireworks.

A larger than life photo of CarCar. (I am not sure why it came out so big.)

An hour later the fireworks started and we were already one Critter down, Hadley was fast asleep. I was waiting for her to jump up as soon as the first firework exploded but I was wrong, she didn't even budge during the show. How is it that she can sleep through a fireworks show but if I drop a utensil in the kitchen she is up and alert? Halfway through the show we lost another Critter, CarCar finally succumbed and fell asleep. Reese was the only one that was truly interested in the fireworks, scratch that, he was fascinated by them. He sat up the entire time and pointed at them.

Ten minutes until fireworks!

And she's out.

Down goes another.

I know this picture of Brother is out of focus but I just love that it is so busy and you can just tell Brother is enamored with the fireworks.

After the show we headed back to the car and tried to head back to the condo, notice I said tried. About 10-20 thousand other people were trying the same exact thing. But here was our situation:

One Dad,
One Mom,
One Grandma in the waaaaaaay back of the Jeep (with the wagon).
Oh, and three tired, hot, and cranky kids in the back seat.

This is not a good mix for an enjoyable ride back. Forty five minutes later we arrived at the hotel and got the Critters to bed. You would think that they would sleep in, oh no, they were up bright and early at 7am the next day.

We just relaxed on Monday at the beach and the pool. We tried to go to the outlets but I quickly got in a bad mood when my iPhone stopped working and the stupid Apple customer service was of no help. Don't worry after promising the checkout lady at Target that I wouldn't huff it I was able to buy some compressed air to blow some sand out of the earphone jack. I swear it is probably easier to start a Meth Lab than buy a can of compressed air.

We unfortunately had to head back to Tallahassee and reality on Tuesday. All in all we had a great vacation in St. Augustine. Thanks Grandma Barbara!

Chris

Visitors from the VA

The Critters and I had some visitors down from Virginia to keep us company while Rian was at her conference. My Dad stopped by the house for a quick stay. We had a great time and he was truly amazed at how quickly the Critters are shooting up. He was also a little surprised at how mobile the two girls are.

He got to truly experience feeding time with the Critters as we went to Piggy's BBQ on Wednesday, kids eat free. They are gonna hate to see us come soon. Well the kids love the veggie plate there. I think that Reese also loves that they seem to hire rather attractive females to dish you your food. As hard as he tried he could not convince one to come have some dinner with him. After some good BBQ we headed home to met up with Rian and watch FSU baseball tank in another College World Series.

Some Pics:

Brother and Grandpa Dave.

Grandpa Dave leading the drum circle.

CarCar and Grandpa Dave.

Grandpa Dave, the Critters and me.

Chris