it is time.

i need to write about christmas....(and probably a bunch of other stuff too). i need to get these memories out there so they are not forgotten. you are probably like "christmas? i'm sooooo over it."

me too. me too.

but people, i am still recovering from it all. the traveling. the festivities. the illnesses. the food baby i am carrying...what?

yes, i am behind. but I have my reasons...

anyway, here it is. finally.

so before we flew down to florida, we tried to make the most of the christmas season at home...

 so we decorated our tree....like a month early. no lie. anyone who came over would be like, "wow...the tree already, huh?" yep, indeed.

 

one screaming baby and one too many stink-eyes later, we arrived. woohoo!

i almost kissed the ground when we landed....almost.

 

first, we went on a family bike ride to the beach...

 where spence got to man up and ride a "real" bike.

this trip was the first time for harrison and spence to visit a florida beach. spence put it eloquently when he said, "hey! is this called snow sand?!"

they totally ate it up.

   no...not literally.

this was one of my mother's photo posing requests.
harrison was not pleased. spence was afraid to move (or stand apparently). but nate was like, here i am fools, and i am beautiful.

 nothing better than sand and water between the toes.

 (i just realized he left a little present). oops.

to culminate the biking adventure, we then (of course) stopped by the DQ on the way home.

 i mean, it WAS on the way. what.

later in the week, we stopped by the zoo. this year complete with a private tour of the monkey islands courtesy of grandma and her zoo training...

 not to mention a really cool giraffe feeding!

then harrison and i got VIP treatment in grandma's convertible.

i think this picture sequence of h-man best sums up the before and after of the convertible experience.

then the grandparents wanted to take the boys fishing, but the boat exploded.

so we opted for the trusty pier...along with all the european tourists!

 i have to say, grandma T was quite impressive with her fishing skills. boyscouts done 'er good.

 ummm....we got a little something.

 we eventually moved down to the beach since the pelicans were making a meal of our bait...

 and subsequently buried ourselves in sand....

 to hide from the carnivorous pelicans who were sitting right next to us.

 i heard they eat baby toes (or at least that's what i told my kids).

 as it got closer to christmas, scout (our elf) found us and brought a special treat.

and since donuts are not unhealthy in any way, we decided to wash them down with some gingerbread and candy. harrison wins the gold star for sugar consumption in a 24 hour period.

nate (left), spence (middle), harrison (aka mom and dad) (right)

 christmas eve came before we knew it...

 then christmas morning, with one feverish kid and another barfing kid later!

 this about sums up the experience...

 just kidding, the toys distracted him for a little while.

then we braved alligator alley that night and headed over to the grandparents, part deuce!

 on that coast, we played at the park...

 with cousin Henry.

tried to feed some reeeally ugly ducks (and were subsequently attacked and bitten for thinking such thoughts)...

 braved miniature golf...with more european tourists (thanks grandma G!)

 and even got some private golf lessons out of it.

later grandpa carved some sah-weeeet guys out of wood
(thanks to the amazing guilt trip skills of the boys).
the one on the left is a Tron guy and of course, Spiderman, on the right for nate.
grandpa also bequeathed his harmonica to my half hobo/gorilla children.
the boys will be sure to be sharing the cold and flu season love with that thing around!

finally, it was time to return home....

but not before having some more ice-cream for new year's eve!

 

there is always room for more ice-cream.

happy new year!