We're Still Here!

I know I haven't blogged anything but presidential birthdays in a couple weeks. I still don't really feel like it, but I think I need to start making myself do some things I don't necessarily want to do. It's been a rough couple of weeks here, since we lost Gracie. But, after a few days around the house, I kind of decided want to or not, we should be getting out and about or at least doing some things around the house. So, while I haven't felt much like sharing our adventures over the last two weeks, we have had a few things going on here and there. We are still here! (Well, most of us, Calib left for Ohio last night, and Asa is in the office. It's making for a REALLY weird, quiet day). 

We made time for a beach day, out at Honeymoon Island. 

And even though it's still summer vacation, it was pretty uncrowded. (It was a weekday, after all, but I still am counting the days until traditional school is back in session!) 

We found this cool crab of sorts. 

He was fascinating to watch, the boys named him Lenny. 

But they decided they didn't want to stress him out too much or have him eaten by a bird.. 

..so they looked at him for a few minutes before setting him fee.  

Then they were off to the rocks to locate some other crabs and various tiny animals. 

Calib and Asa, meanwhile, played some football. Until, Calib got nicked by a sting ray when it came in on a wave (he was doing the stingray shuffle! It just didn't matter). It was too bad of a cut, but it did sting pretty bad. 

I also thought we needed to start getting to work on our summer bucket list, and without anybody voicing anything they wanted to do, this was a good go to. 

We visited the Spraygound in Dunedin. 

And got some snow cones. 

And played on the playground. 

(Asa and Peyton liked to try and make each other super dizzy). 

We have been trying to spoil Sophie to help her cope with her loss. A few years ago we had to stop getting anything rawhide, because it would cause fights. As sweet as my puppies are, they would fight over those, and when one fight resulted in Sophie with a bloodied ear (Gracie did feel terrible about it though, afterwards), we just stopped buying them. Anyway, we got Soph's her first bone in years, and she was very excited. 

I wasn't sure what she'd go for, so we got a variety of sizes. 

She seems to like the sticks the best. She just constantly carries them around (and tries to hoard them under her dog pillow). 

Speaking of funny pets, Maybel seemed to enjoy the stuff I picked up at the 90%off summer clearance at Target. 

(She does look annoyed at me every time I take her picture though.)

So, the summer clearance. I picked up all of this for less than $15. (I also got a couple of lanterns and lighters that didn't make the picture, opps.) 

A few days before, we had stopped by when it was 70% off, and we picked up some more cups, and a beanbag toss we thought would be fun for tailgating in the fall. (Or various games/events I come up with). 

But the best purchase of all was the baby pools. With the 90% off they came to 99 cents. Originally I thought I wasn't going to get any, just for space/storage reasons, but then I realized one is the same as five, because they just stack into each other (and we already have two anyway.) You might remember when we made the pillow pool last summer/fall. Well, this year, I decided to buy four. The cashier thought I was crazy for buying them, but I knew better. As soon as I took my picture of the clearance, one by one, without even saying anything the boys just took one and drug it off to fill it with their pillows and blankets. 

And the dogs seemed to enjoy them equally as much. 

The boys decided to have a sleepover in them, and I agreed. I wasn't so sure how well Calib would sleep in his given his height, but he made do. 

Even Sophie slept in her pillow pool for the sleepover. (Which was repeated the next night.) 

But the pillow pools, days later are still floating around my house.. 

I no longer have a living room. Just a city of pillow pools. 

I did get all the boys portfolios, too. They all like looking at them, but nobody appreciates theirs more than Hayden. 

Another year down! 

Oh, and AAA is worth the membership in home school projects alone. We might do a USA week again, (in fact I'm thinking of making the first part of this 'new year' really theme week heavy) but these are for the August presidents. 

Asa made us some awesome snacks and meals this week too. 

I realized I don't hardly take pictures of anything he makes unless it's a special occasion or a president's birthday. The picture of the shrimp corn salad with cilantro lime dressing is a little blurry, but it was SOO good. I might just ask for it for my birthday. 

Even though we've had some really rainy weather lately, we made time for another summer bucket list item, and we went to Island Nights at Adventure Island. 

Since it was cloudy and rainy most of the day, it wasn't too crowded, which was nice. Basically, Island Nights is just Adventure Island being open later with some special events going on, animal ambassadors, stilt walkers, sand sculptors-- that sort of thing. 

We left just before the downpour, but had a good couple hours there, and we stopped for summer of shakes at Sonic on the way home. 

Only July 21st, 2008, Asa and I got engaged after four years of dating. But, with the exception of the last two years, we usually spend that anniversary apart, since it's usually our time to be in Ohio. This year Calib's flight to go to Ohio was on the 21st, so Asa and I decided to celebrate early, so on Sunday we left the boys with a big pot of chili and headed out to Disney for the day. 

We decided Tables in Wonderland is both the most awesome purchase ever, and the worst purchase ever. We never used to eat at Disney, besides some snack staples. But with Tables in Wonderland, every time we want to have a date day, we're like "yea, we should totally hit a Disney restaurant, we have 20% off!" So while, we're saving money, we are spending money. The best strategy to help combat this: eat breakfast at Disney! It's the most affordable meal, and it is awesome every.single.time. We settled on a late (11:00am) breakfast at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian. 

Asa got the Samoan, which is poached eggs over a pulled pork hash. He gave me a few bites, and it was amazing. 

And while I really considered the macadamia nut pancakes with pineapple sauce, but ultimately, even though I've had it before (downstairs at Captain Cooks where its about $7 cheaper), I couldn't pass up the Tonga Toast. 

You guys, it's these giants pieces of french toast, stuffed with bananas and rolled in cinnamon sugar. 

Like I said, you can get it at Captain Cooks too, but you'll be missing out on the strawberry compote, which is just AMAZING on it.

After breakfast we just hopped on the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. It was crowded, but I did have some fast passes scheduled, and we just hit the rides/shows that never have a long line, so it wasn't too bad. 

There was no need for lunch, but we had some pulled pork waffle fries for a snack. We found this little table off in the corner, where there was nobody else, and it was really quiet, in the shade. I could have stayed there all day. 

A few more rides and we headed out (it was a hot one!) 

We took the boat to the Grand Floridian.. 

..and crashed the pool. At least there are still some places you can do that! (for now)

After a few hours at the pool, and some very pruned fingers and toes, we went back to the Polynesian to the outdoor section of Trader Sams. 

Even with our waters, we got little umbrellas in our drinks, and then we picked out some appetizers, since it was dinner time and all. 

We'd been to the indoor section of Trader Sam's before, but not the outside patio. It's lovely out there (but inside is definitely more fun). 

On our way home we stopped for some fro-yo. It was a lovely date day, but I did get quite a bit of sun. (I forgot the sunscreen, yikes!) 

We've got a lull in president's birthdays (the next one isn't until Obama on August 6th), so I got 'Dreams from my Father' and when the boys do their reading, I've been doing mine. It's a good read, but so far, I liked 41 better. (Isn't that crazy?) 

We also made a few trips to the pool here and there, and our neighbors had us over for swimming in their pool once too. (Thanks for having us guys!) 

We kept working on summer bucket list, and played chalk squares, per Calib's request. 

I draw a whole board on the driveway, the boys start in different corners and X off the spots they step on, moving one square (forward, backward, sideways, diagonally) at a time. The person who ends up with the most squares wins. 

This time it was Hayden! 

We also did the Diet Coke/Mentos volcanoes. 

It was a pretty impressive "explosion". 

We tried to drop another one to see if it would react with the 1/3 of the bottle that was left, but it didn't do ANYTHING. 

Oh, and that happened. 

He did really well! (Even if it was just an empty parking lot). 

The day before Calib left he also wanted to go out to summer of shakes. We're still working out the new arrangements of everything. Usually, if all 5 of us went some where, Sophie stayed behind because there just isn't much room. Porkchop isn't really a fan of car rides, so he doesn't usually go either. But, Sophie has wanted to go EVERYWHERE with us lately, and we can't leave Porkchop home alone, so everyone came along for the ride. (And it was mayhem!) 

But eventually everyone settled down. 

Oh, and Calib requested a game of Spy Alley as well. (Sophie has inserted herself into everything we do there days.) 

Yesterday, since it was our dating/engagement anniversary we told the boys we could all go out to dinner. We went to BJ's Brew house since they have "Happy Hour" with half priced appetizers and mini pizzas.

Then we took Calib to the airport, and enjoyed the view for awhile. 

With the last few things off our summer bucket list, this is what we have left. A lot of them are game week activities, so we'll get to those when Calib gets back. 

That's it from here. Sorry if the blog seems a little dry and disjointed. I just wasn't feeling it, but I am all caught up now. 

Next Up: Calib's in Ohio for the next 11 days, so things are always a little weird around here, but I'm sure we'll find something to do. If nothing else, I have a mini Art Week planned.