Callaway Gardens

 

After Virginia Beach and Alabama, we headed to Pine Mountain, Georgia. We stayed at the beautiful Callaway Gardens Lodge & Spa.  We had another gorgeous view from our balcony.  We did a lot of swimming there.  We also enjoyed the gardens.  We watched a “Birds of Prey” show that was really neat, hiked, fed all kinds of water creatures, and visited the Butterfly Center.  What a nice place that was!

Virginia Beach

We had such a fun time at Virginia Beach.  We were very blessed to take another trip out there, thanks to the company Chad works for!  We did a lot of driving.  Our first 13 hour trip was here where we stayed right on the beach…the same place as last year.  Heaven!  Chad and I enjoyed three mornings of gorgeous sunrise.  I have a bazillion pictures of that!

The best benefit, though, about going out there is visiting with a good friend and her children.  We spent the entire day on the beach, only to take a break for lunch.  We even saw Air Force One fly closely over our heads!    We stayed a night at their house on the end of our trip there.  I love them so much!

Beach Camping Pictures

I took loads, as you can see.  These are with my camera.  Of course, I’m not in any of these!  I’ve got to get Chad on the other side!  I Instagrammed quite a few, though.

Vacation Blessings

Ok, I promise this is the last post about our vacation!  I just had way too many pictures I had to share!  I still have so many more, but I’ll stop!

Our vacation would not have happened, and we wouldn’t have received such a huge blessing had it not been for some dear friends of ours,  Larrry and Esther.  They are like parents to us.  And loveable, huggable grandparents to our boys.  Chad worked on their farm  here in Indiana for over 10 years.  They were great role models for Chad in many ways.

We stayed at their place on the Gulf side of Florida.  They live in a really nice retirement community for the winter months.  We were delighted when we were invited to come for a visit.  There are palm trees everywhere.  I think that’s my favorite part about that area of our country.

They were amazing in every way.  We immediately felt at home and were completely spoiled.  Gone out to swim?  We’d come back with lunch or dinner on the table.  We ate out only twice, and once was when Chad and I went out on a date together!  The strawberries were incredible.  Ask Samuel.  He ate a few of them…

They had a grapefruit tree in their backyard.  We picked them and had them every morning.  Yum.

The village has a really nice pool.  We were there at least once a day.  The sites were beautiful.  The boys loved the ponds full of animals all around it.

We got around on the John Deere golf cart, which the boys loved.  Larry took the boys all around the place.

I think I am ready for the retired life.

We can’t thank you enough, Larry and Esther.  You blessed us so very much.  We’ll never forget our week.

Picture Editing

You have seen my picture of the three boys at the beach a couple of times, right?

I love the picture, but I didn’t like all the distraction in the background.  Don’t you agree that it takes away from my boys’ faces?  And we can’t have that.

So I sent my picture on over to Catherine at Homeschooling Momtographer.  She has amazing talent at taking pictures, and she does a great job at editing them, too.  And to top it all off, she’s just an incredible homeschooling mom who loves the Lord!

So take a look at my new picture, all ready to print and frame…

Isn’t that great?  I love the work she has done for me.  And for $6, it is well worth it!  It’s so easy, too!  I just email her the photo.  She does her magic and sends it back.  I paypal her, and I am happy!

A visit to NASA

The last part of our vacation was on the Atlantic Ocean side.  We stayed on Cocoa Beach.  The hotel was nice.  We enjoyed more swimming!

The best part about that visit is that we met my brother and family there!  They live about two hours south of the Cape Canaveral area.  They drove up that morning to meet us there.  We were blessed to spend the whole day with them!  We were the park from 10 until after it closed!  Then we went out to dinner together.  Special times we will treasure forever.

This is my brother, Tim.  I really love this guy and miss him so much.  We’ve been away from each other so much of our lives.  He is 13 years older than me, went into the military, and then got married and has lived in Florida since.  I cried like a baby at his wedding.  Their wedding video will prove that!  I look up to him and respect him. 

Here is his lovely wife, Stephanie and their son Sean.  The boys loved hanging out with Sean.  I enjoyed visiting with Stephanie.  I always appreciate the love shared between family.  There’s just nothing like it.

Here is my sweet and beautiful niece.  She’s in college now.  That’s so hard for me to believe!  The boys just loved all over her.

We had a great time seeing all the amazing sites at NASA.  The boys were in awe of the size of the rockets, shuttles, engines and more.

The boys are all into all things space, now!  It was a great learning experience for us all.

Thanks, Tim and Steph, for a wonderful time together!  We hope to see you soon!

The Beach

Of course the best part of our vacation was the beach!  We went to three different ones, so this a mixture of pictures.  We also went swimming in a pool at least once a day.  We love the water!

Here’s a picture of the three boys together that I forgot in my previous post!  It makes me smile at their cute little squinty eyes.  I just wish I would have brought my better camera for this one!  We took it the first time to the beach, but sand gets everywhere!

Shells were plentiful.  Here’s Samuel showing off one.

The sand was white and beautiful.  Blue water and blue skies.

My babe and I were relaxed.

He looked hot.  Not just from the sun.

Our family was together.  On vacation.

We saw so many dolphins one day.  They were very close to the beach area, so we watched them the whole time.  It almost felt like we were swimming with them!

Samuel loved the taste of the salt water.  It was absolutely hilarious watching him lick his hands!

Boys in one big sandbox.  Now that’s fun stuff.

And at the end of the day, the babies were konked.

3 boys = a great vacation

I can’t believe it’s Friday already!  This week has been so busy with so many visitors!  Four of the five days we have had someone come over!  We have completed a full week of lessons, but not a whole lot more than the basics.  I hope to get one or two more unit studies in before we call it a year.  Right now it’s survival mode!

I will have to post a series of pictures from our vacation.  This one is pictures of my three sweeties together.  It’s my favorite way to photograph.  So much love!

We stopped in Montgomery, Alabama to see some friends.  They have been named a new aunt and uncle!  The boys were in awe of the red dirt there!

There’s something about seeing your boys all sleeping together, like little kitty cats.  Precious.

At the beach…

I’m not much on feet, but these are adorable…

In more water…

We stayed with some dear friends (that are like Grandma and Grandpa) that Chad farmed with growing up.  They live in a beautiful village with lots to see and do.  This was a neat place to take a picture!

At the very interactive and fun science museum…

Jumping together on the hotel beds (because that’s absolutely acceptable)…

Having an early Easter egg hunt with our ocean animal eggs…

I hope you all had a good week!  It’s really Spring around here.  We are ready!