Harrison's 7th Birthday

Last Saturday, Harrison turned 7 and he had a rock climbing birthday party. I wasn't sure what Sage would think about it, but in typical Sage fashion, she was very timid at first. Then we couldn't get her to stop. She was really good, too. I was pleasantly surprised at how much she liked it because it was something very different for her that we don't have easy access to locally. Here's a few pictures from the party.

This was the first time she tried it at all. You can tell, too, by the look on her face. For some reason, on this side, the kids didn't have to wear a harness. Even though there was no difference in the height that they could get or the depth of the potential fall. They could actually walk on top of the wall on this side, too. I later realized that this man in this picture, who I was asking to help Sage, was not a worker but a dad of one of the kids at the party. The child he was helping before Sage was HIS son. Oops! He was so helpful regardless.
Here she is having FUN, and you can tell. She liked climbing with the harness the best.

Sage and Isacah

And of course, your's truly had to try. I realized why Sage had that initial look of fear without the harness. I thought I was just going to climb up and get on top of the wall. Um, not. It was pretty intimidating, and I knew if I got up there, I'd have to ask the dad of the child to come and get me.

Here's a video of Sage climbing.


After the party, we took Chrissie's girls with us to 5 guys, and Sean and Chrissie met up with us. Jaggar was ecstatic to have them with us. The entire time at the party, he kept saying, "Come on, Holland!" Reminded me so much of Harrison and Sage when they were little.

The crew: Harrison, Sage, Isacah, Holland and Jaggar (in stair step and age order). Worked out nicely. :) Aren't they cute?

Feeding the Obsession

We had a birthday party to attend on Saturday, so after Cracker Barrel, we went to Target to find a gift. While in there, I was in the Barbie aisle and saw a Tangled doll. Jaggar's face was mesmerized. "My tangled," he whispered. So funny. He just started at it in the box. We walked around, and I attempted to take it away. Shrill screams. "NO! It's my tangled!!!" (He's saying "tangled" as it should be said now. He is saying EVERYTHING now in very full, complete sentences, actually.) He clutched THE DOLL. Key word: doll. Now, I'm not so like, "oh my gosh...a doll. He can't play with it." But Travis would have died. What WOULD be great for him was the horse (Max) from Tangled. Before he could say "Tangled" or "taun-gan," he'd say "HORSE!" and we knew he meant, "Tangled." But that wasn't to be found there. So, I was on a mission. I knew they had a set on amazon with all of the characters. I took (pried) the doll away from him while he screamed and went to Walmart. I was SHOCKED to see the exact set from Amazon there. So, needless to say, we came home with it. I never buy toys like "just because," but he is so into this movie, I made an exception. It's cute to see him and Sage playing together.

His favorites are the horse and the frog. And Flynn and Rapunzel. So yeah, all of it. There have been several fights over what belongs to whom. Sage is much better with Rapunzel in keeping her hair intact.

Generally, the horse goes with us when we go out.

Cute, cute

Catch Up (Again)

I keep falling behind on this blog! I've just started to renew my CEUs for my xray license. Yeah, the ones I've had almost 2 years to do. I'm almost at the halfway mark...but that still seems so far away. I've got until October to renew, but once I start something, I really like to finish it...but that's not going to be the case because 140 questions in one day about CT, breast cancer in MRI vs ultrasound, alzheimers...blah blah blah...is too much. Pacing myself is good because, unfortunately, school is just around the corner for Sage. Boo. My mom just left, so I thought I'd attempt to catch the blog up.

Random display of cuteness here. And Mayer. Lazy dog.

One evening when Mom was here and Travis was working late, we went to Cracker Barrel. I have had horrible service the 2x in 4 years that I've been to the one here (think "here's a napkin because we're out of plates" after waiting 30 minutes for bread alone), but it was really nice this night. Sage got pancakes, and I've apparently never had them because WOW when I took a bite, they were amazing. I'm food deprived. I think pancakes are a specialty there, too, and I can see why. So afterwards, Mom tried to teach Sage how to play checkers. I'm not sure how it went as I was making sure Jaggar wasn't running into the parking lot. We had such a nice visit, the beach and even in Oxford, with Nonni.

I've Got a Dream

You MAY have gotten the drift from my recent posts that Jaggar is pretty much obsessed with "Tangled." Before we left for the beach, I noticed that he was actually singing with the songs...very quietly. O my gosh! He sings! Well, as the days went by, he was REALLY singing with the songs. One of the cutest ones is the "I've got a dream" song, and I've captured it on video this morning. Prepare for cute overload.

Final Day on the Beach

Yesterday was a dreaded day: our last day at the beach. The trip just wasn't nearly long enough. You know, most of the time I'm ready to be back in my house with my bed...not this time. There's something wonderful about having the largest sandbox and pool in the world right out your back door. So reluctantly, we got our things together and made our way back to RAINY Alabama. I am having post beach trip depression, if you can't tell. Here's the final pictures from the trip.

I just had to post this. Is she my child or what?

Jaggar woke up really early everyday that we were there. He and Travis had their morning pick-me-up's outside one last time.

Sigh...

The one place we didn't get to go that I had wanted to was Seaside, so we headed there before the trip home. We ate a fish taco at the Mexican place there, and then Sage remembered the cut outs here from last year.

And she definitely remembered the playhouse from last year. Why it's not painted so cute like that anymore, I don't know.

Those kids sure are cute though!

And this was Jaggar for the majority of the trip home. Sage was all the way in the back, so that's why I have no car pictures of her. Both kids were absolutely wonderful the entire trip, and I think it's safe to say that EVERYONE had a wonderful time. Until next time...

Beach Videos

Here are all the videos I took to, from and on the beach. They may not be funny to anyone but me but oh well. My only regret is that I didn't get Sage "surfing," but it was a battle to keep my phone in and out of the sun.

This is on the way to the beach. Jaggar is saying he wants "Tangled" or "tahngun," (as he says it) over and over. And over. Bonus features include Travis complaining about driving behind people that don't want to do 80 on a two lane road.



This is that video and audio I promised of Jaggar's reaction when we put him down on the beach. Priceless. :)



And here is a "makeup" video when he enjoyed the beach. I will say that throughout this trip, I repeatedly asked him if he liked the beach. His reply was ALWAYS, "I go to mall." Serious.



Travis and Sage caught a bucket full of crabs last night. Here they are. The big one pinched Travis. The tiny ones are everywhere in the mornings. I know this because Sage screamed every time that she saw one.



And this? Well, this is hours in the car. And watching Tangled countless times. And part of it is how whacked out I REALLY am. :)

A Beach Miracle

After Jaggar's 4 hour nap last night, it finally happened: he ENJOYED the beach. Travis took him out, and I looked to see him walking as fast as he normally does along the beach. Yay!

A stick makes it even MORE enjoyable.

Even though he is super smart, he did not write that.

Out and About in PCB

We had a little bit of a mishap on Monday night with dinner. One of Travis' favorite food is raw oysters. Mary suggested this place called "Hunt's Oyster Bar," so we left to go that evening...and got lost. This turned into lots of driving, strong suggestions to turn around, even stronger suggestions to ask someone for directions. So he did. He stopped at a gas station to ask. He was instructed to go down even further. I swear it looked like we were in Pell City at that point. No beach was to be seen. Finally, we realized we passed it. LOOONG ago. The gas station instructions were bogus. We seriously drove for over an hour. It should have taken 20 minutes. All of that aside, we finally did get there. Travis parked (in the wrong parking lot) and then moved the car while we went to put our name in. There were some people outside. Were we okay with a 2 hour wait? Right. 2 kids. It was 7:30 already. Um. No. So we left. Without oysters. Not a pretty picture. Kids were very hungry. Tempers were short. Anyway, YESTERDAY was a new day, and we tried it again for lunch. I am pleased to say that we got there easily, walked right in, and ate. We were already off to a better start than the following evening.

Jaggar has been obsessed with the 3 movies we brought since we got here: Tangled, Despicable Me, and Thomas. Here he is watching Thomas. I turned around, and he'd done this with the case. lol

Praise!

Here is Travis' delight. I don't really get it. It just tastes like tasteless slime to me, but to each his own. Mom and I opted for the crab cakes, which were awesome.

After we ate lunch, we walked over to the pier to look at all of the docked boats.

See docked boats

Then we walked in this random store across the street where the hit was their dog. IN a beach shirt. The dog refused to leave the counter. He "knew that was his spot," the owner said, but he'd throw a fit for the kids (or anyone) to pet him. It was quite amusing. Look at Jaggar's face.

The experience of driving mindlessly for an hour the night before allowed us to pass a "Ripley's Believe It or Not," and we thought that'd be a fun thing to do that afternoon. The upside down building behind them is Wonder Works. We didn't go there, but it made for a fun picture.

This was really a good choice. We had such a fun time. I hadn't been since I was a teenager to the one in Gatlinburg.

Sage by their mini eiffel tower.

Money car. We thought it was appropriate. You may notice I'm wearing the same dress in every picture. The reason for that is because I wore the same dress whenever I had to put clothes on. I don't know why I even pack other clothes because I always end up wearing the bare minimum--literally.

This was like a digital Mr Ripley that talked to you when you first walked in. My kids just could not get enough of it. Jaggar kept going back over there to see it again and again.

This was a replica of a man that was 8' 11" tall--believe it or not!

This was a replica of a 1400 pound woman and also a reminder to stop eating donuts.

I don't know what these were, other than fun, but I will say it took us a few minutes to realize we wouldn't be walking through someone's picture taking efforts. Ha, they looked real. And Jaggar just loved it clearly.

Sage and her pirate face ;)

Who doesn't love "Big?" There was SO much in this museum: a shrunken head, 8 legged cows, 2 headed lambs, the world's smallest radio, a piece of the Berlin wall, footage of a man that could pop his eyeballs out of their sockets...but I couldn't possibly read about it all or take pics of it all. But I'd highly recommend going if you've never been.

On the way home, Jaggar let out a cry in the middle of his movie and then crashed: he literally fell asleep, no drifting. He could not hang on anymore. He slept for the rest of the car ride and then we had to wake him up 4 hours later at about 7pm. The days had finally caught up with him.

A Walk on the Beach

This morning, the first thing we did was take a stroll on the beach as the sun was coming up. Okay, it wasn't THAT early, but it was a morning walk on the beach. I like wanted to WALK--for speed--to burn 1/4 of the amount of donuts that I ate yesterday...and today, so I took off. Then about 1/2 mile up, I decided I'd go BACK to our place, get a bucket for shells and come back to where they were. This was better in theory than in reality. Because as soon as I got back to the condo and felt the cool air and got my water bottle, the couch looked more appealing. But I did go back to where they were. We had a really busy day that I have pictures and stories from, but for now, here's our morning stroll.

As soon as we walked out the back door, this "little" guy was waiting. The kids were thrilled with it.

This is the sand castle that Sage and Travis built yesterday. Isn't it great? She refused to look at me because the sun was in her eyes. :) Typical Sage.

And off we go. I think the horizon is breathtaking. I don't know how anyone could ever be unimpressed with that.

Well, ya know, I have to. I think we should do a flip book of before we got here to now because I'm really positive I'm about 15 lbs heavier.

Jaggar. Hating life on the beach. :)

Jaggar really hating life on the beach. Check out that seaweed. There are few things that feel nastier than walking on mushy seaweed. Ugh!

Feet. Betcha can't guess which ones belong to Sage.

Sage and Nonni

Photography by me.

Foot art by me. Not pictured was the "Julie and Travis" I did with a heart because the sea kept washing it away before I could finish.