Family Time in the 1500's

Well, last year we decided to try something new with the kiddos and take them to the Renaissance Festival.  I wasn't sure how it would go, but they had a great time and enjoyed the shows. So, when Doc offered us some free tickets again this year, we jumped at the chance to enjoy a family fun day somewhere a little different.

The wagon is a must-do.  The kids ride in style, it pulls better on the gravel, they have some shade and the actors think they are great to have their own "carriage".

Quick picture with Mommy waiting for the gates to open.  They were a little better this year with their surroundings, but still a little shy with all the actors. At least Sister didn't pretend to be asleep this year when they talked to her.

Brother took a picture of us too :) Thanks, Bro

Main gate...almost time!

Cookie and Doc actually ended up coming today too (and UncleJR and RD), so we got to watch some shows with them too.  It is always fun for the kids to have another lap to sit on!  Family picture time at "Barely Balanced", almost always our 1st stop at the Renaissance Festival.

Sister likes to collect rocks, if you didn't know this you might not really know Sister.

Getting some Cookie and Doc time before the show starts...

Amazing!

Next stop was food...too busy eating to take pictures.  We had turkey legs, fryed pickles, snow cones, etc. SO yummy...one of my favorite things about the festival.  Our 2nd show was the Mud Show. It is always fun to watch guys jump in a big pit of mud.  There were some poor kids on the front who didn't listen to the warnings got covered. (And one obnoxious kid who taunted the actors the whole time with a water squirter, his Dad finally took it away right before the show was over, they made NO excuses about getting him covered. I laughed, it was great.)

Brother wouldn't get any closer...

Potty break and then onto the next 2 shows, they were in the same venue.  "Flying Debri" and "Breaking Point". If you have seen my post from last year I talked a lot about "Breaking Point"...we really enjoyed it.  We noticed that one of the actors was different this year and we learned that he had been killed a couple of weeks ago...SO sad.  He was one of our favorites.  The girl who took his place did a great job filling in, but I really felt for them. I wondered if this was their 1st weekend back without him.  They were splitting the profits and giving 1/3 to a foundation in his name. 

If you look at last years pictures, he is the guy climbing the pole.  I think they did some different things to help fill time, since the act had to be changed and that included little people volunteers! Brother was VERY excited he got to go on stage and "show everyone his armpits":) That is how they tell you to yell at the Festival.

He made music on their heads...very talented and very strong to continue without his partner. Amazing.

Hubby tried to get a quick picture of me and the girl...she is watching the show, they were very entertaining.  We grabbed a jumbo pickle from a barrel and took our snack to head out for the day.  Sister had a birthday party we were trying to get too and they both needed to rest.  I think the last couple of weeks is really catching up to us.  I have a lot to do at school this week too, so we are going to have to hit the ground running.

This summer is going to be filled with tons of fun, adventures and family time...I can't wait!

Kickin' it Old School

Next week is going to be a little crazy for Hubby he works 3 - 48 hour shifts( yep 144 hours) and he starts 2 new classes for school, so we decided to take advantage of a couple of days we have before that happened and squeeze in some family fun time.  We were not sure what we were going to do on Thursday, but we have been wanting to take the kids to the Yellow River Game Ranch forever! Hubby and I literally grew up going there and honestly, I can't believe we haven't taken the kids yet.  I pulled my 1/2 off coupon out of the entertainment book and we headed out. 

I packed them each a bag of food consisting of crackers, apple slices, & carrots to feed the animals. I only spent $7.00 on food and we had plenty to last us the whole trip (I stopped at Kroger on the way). Plus I like that we had apple slices instead of whole apples, so they could feed them to more animals...I was surprised by how many animals loved those apples!

Brother loved being neat the animals and feeding them.  The kids kind of switched roles today, since Brother is the one who doesn't like to get messy and Sister has a "no fear" personality.  Today though, I think visions of the cow licking her recently were in her head and she wasn't a big fan of feeding the larger animals.

See?! Her theory was, set the cracker on the fence and the deer will come get it...ha!

I haven't been in quite a while (probably around 10 years), but I was amazed at how even the squirrels would run up to you to get food.

Hubby's chicken picture...he took so many pictures I could do a chicken blog, but that would bore everyone except Hubby, so we will just look at 1 picture of the fancy chicken.

I remember this sign from when I was a kid...love it.

Sister did not think this one smelled very good.

The sheep were FEISTY! They kept knocking each other out of the way to eat, so we were really selective with who got our carrots :)

This little goat jumped out of the pen and was following us around...I think he connected with Sister on her level.

Pig happy Brother stopped to give him a carrot.

Bunny HUT! As a kid I always remembered the bunny hut being at the end of the walk and it being my favorite part. It was pretty much no exception today and the kids loved it too.  This bunny loved Brother a little too much...he wanted those apples!

Sister even enjoyed petting and feeding the bunnies :)

Hubby was there too...he just did a great job taking photos most of the day.

Sister and her "favorite" floppy eared bunny.

Love it! She said he was "SO SOFT!"

The apple-lovin bunny came to climb in her lap too and get some food :)

Yay for family time!

After we finished at the YRGR we decided to continue with our theme and go somewhere we loved to go growing up for lunch.  We made a quick stop at Grandma's house and then headed to the Stone Mtn. Pizza Cafe...yum! Aunt Kiki and GO met us too, so the girls could catch up some.  It ended up being a great day and the kids were excited we did something we used to do as kids too.  Kickin it old school because that's how we roll.

Sand, Sun and Seaside

Since we took the kids to the beach last year and they LOVED it, we decided to try it again this year if we could get a good rate.  At this point I guess it will be a yearly thing and we will become like everyone else out there :) We looked at going to Gulf Shores again, but the weekends didn't work out well, so we opted for Destin.  Hubby and I use to go there a lot before kids and I forgot how absolutely BEAUTIFUL the beaches are. We had an amazing time. We got a good deal since we went before Memorial Day (and Hubby and I had decided we were celebrating Mother's Day and Father's Day anyway too.)  I honestly can't wait to go back and I told Hubby we need to work on stretching our beach trip to a full week, the kids are getting older and no one was ready to come back yet this year!

We had been in the condo about 5 mins when the kids announced they were ready to play in the water! It was a little late in the day & the beach was PACKED, so we headed to the pool for awhile before we made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner...yay for new adventures!

The next morning we were up and ready to hit the beach bright and early.  The kids did great all 3 mornings we headed to the beach, we had 2 long days 8:30-1:30, and 1 short morning b/c we were heading to Seaside. I love that they are getting old enough to really hang in there and have fun.  I packed lunch and snacks for us on the long days and we had a blast.  Family picture outside our condo on our way to the beach!

We stayed in an area we stayed in quite a few times before kids, it was pretty much like I remembered. We did a different condo this year, but it was perfect for the kids and their ages. We were the closest condo to the back pool and the walk to the beach wasn't bad at all.  It was actually shorter than last year, which was nice.

We got a great set-up the first day (it was included in the condo) and the kids & Hubby headed straight to the water.  It was BEAUTIFUL! The water was crystal clear and the sand was pure white. Thank goodness I had sunglasses!

Playing :)

SPLASH!

Day One beach set up, we brought a little umbrella for the kids to play under, Hubby played in the water a lot and I got to enjoy my chair and read some books on my kindle...it was perfect!

The kids both really enjoyed the sand this year too. The had fun collecting water to make towers and build castles.

My favorite guys and their matching swimsuits!

Digging a hole to bury something in I am sure!

Daddy and his sweet girl

I love this picture of the water...he was trying to make a "moat"  he did it about 3 times before he said "HEY, where does my water keep going?!" ha!

Sister had a blast playing with Hubby in the water too...I love these pictures (& my camera :)

Up, Up and away!

Love <3

My view Day One and one of my favorite pictures.  It actually turned out to be a pretty busy day at the beach, but the morning was peaceful and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Daddy helping in the sand...

Mommy helping bury Brother...

cheese!

Hanging out under the umbrella!

Enjoying my spot!

He dug a hole for Sister to sit in...

Silly kids.

Now they are both in holes and Hubby put a tunnel between them, so their legs touched each other.

This picture cracks me up every time...I guess Sister was tired, but she looks so funny!

One of my favorite pictures...

After a "short rest" each day and an early dinner (Dewey Destin- Night 1) we headed to the pool to play until bedtime.  Sister was ready!

"Laying Out"

Sunscreen on and ready to go...

One, Two, Three JUMP

The next morning the kids looked kind of rough...the sun had worn them out the 1st day, but they were ready to go back right after breakfast, I was glad it was our short beach day though.  We were meeting Hubby's sister and her family in Seaside for lunch and to walk around for awhile.

Day 2 view... we were a little further back this day, the guy setting the chairs up did a curvy line instead of straight, does anyone know why?! We thought it was strange, but no biggie.  They did come clean up the seaweed shortly, so the kids didn't even notice...they just thought they had more sand to play in.

Silly Sister eating a snack and ready for Day 2.

I played in the water a good bit that day 2.  There was a LARGE group next to us that was distracting me from reading, sometimes people watching is much more entertaining and it was our short day anyway, so we took advantage of all the time we had.

The girls :)

We headed back to the room around 11:30am to get cleaned up and drive the 20min drive to Seaside.  Hubby and I had been there once before, but didn't really get to stop and enjoy all the sites.  We actually loved it so much I think vacationing there would be fun one year.  The food was AMAZING!  We ended up meeting family and eating at a little taco stand near the town square.  I think Hubby and I voted it was our favorite meal the whole trip.

Interesting fact about Seaside is that the town parts of the movie "The Truman Show" were filmed there...it really is a great little town! I love this picture of Sister with the square in the background.

The girl cousins found a cute butterfly bench to sit on.

Brother found a boy bench too.

Seaside post office...

Family picture with the ocean in the background...thanks RP.

love them!

Girls (picture by Brother :)

I love the white, crisp colors and lines all over Seaside. These chairs are a stable. I think at this point we were waiting on some fried pickles, you can't pass those up either.

Cousin picture! Brother, Sister, CP and RP...we had so much fun hanging out with them for an afternoon.

One of my favorite things about being in a condo is being able to eat in a couple of meals a day. Since we had lunch out, Hubby cooked hot dogs and sliders on the grill for dinner. Yum!

We did play in the pool for a little while, but it started to get a little stormy, so we opted for popcorn and a movie (Chuck the Truck), the kids loved it and their new cups...perfect for popcorn on the go!

The next morning was our last full day at the beach, so we headed out early.  Brother and Hubby played Frisbee for awhile while we got everything set up.

Day 3 view...we were closer to the water, but still in a curve, so a little lop slided. Not sure what that guy was doing...we didn't care though as long as it was near the water and a pretty day.

The ran for the water today...SO ready to play.  We all played for hours today.  We even had some friends we met at the pool who we talked too and their son played with the kids for a long time.  It was a lot of fun.

Me and my Kindle...it was great on the beach.

After another long beach day and short nap, we headed out to get an early dinner at Pompano Joes.   We took advantage of the opportunity to take a couple of family pictures 1st though.

Luckily, the restaurant didn't have a big wait since we got there early, but honestly it wasn't our favorite place on the trip.  I would have MUCH preferred the cheaper food trucks in Seaside. I hate when I pay triple for a meal and I think the other food was better...Hubby felt the same way too, but what can you do. Live and learn.  The atmosphere was great though, and we enjoyed eating by the ocean. (And the kids did love their kids meals )

We ran by the store and let each kid pick one souvenir from our trip (bracelet for Sister and goggles for Brother...he really needed a new pair, so we thought that was a great choice.)  Hubby and I got them each a t-shirt too to remember the trip :)  Last night at the pool...

After the pool we took a quick trip back to the ocean to say fly kites and say goodbye!

It was a perfect day for flying kites, so the kids had a blast.  It was a perfect way to end the trip.

We enjoyed hanging out together on the beach and putting our feet in the water /  sand for one last time.

They are already asking when we can go back.

We stayed out there until dark and walked back up to get ready for bed...we were all exhausted.

The next morning we took a few pictures while we were packing and getting things ready to go.  I like to have pictures of the condo in case we visit there again.  It was a perfect fit for us and we really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure about being on the ground floor, but it was great.  We always came in from the beach on the patio and sliding door, instead of the front of the condo.  It was great and the kids had a "yard" to play in. SO fun!

I know we all really enjoyed our trip.  I can't wait to go back again soon, many more summer adventures to come though, b/c that is how we roll.