Pool Party at the Ciaks!

Since March we had planned to have a pool party at the Ciaks house and over the weekend, we executed that plan! Marisa flew in, Craig came over, The Baileys braved the long ride and we drove over from Katie's house (with Katie and Melanie in tow!) Gary and Nina are the most hospitible friends I think I have! They always show us a good time and this party was no exception! Nina kept us food with constant yummy munchies on the counter and Mr. C. got to show off his cannonball in the pool! He even made a few waves for us with Allie the alligator! Nina treated us to her "Lazy Lazagna and homeade Mac n' Cheese. We laughed and poked fun at each other and caught up on our busy lives! The kids weren't too destructive and Wil's dinosaurs visited just about every room! You couldn't ask for a more layed back and fun weekend and we are so thankful for Ris for planning and her awesome parents for hosting!

Dinosaur World!

Last Friday, we took the kids to Dinosaur World in Plant City. You would have thought Wil had died and gone to heaven! This was definately his kind of place! Both kids enjoyed strolling and walking down the paths to the next dinosaur and we enjoyed reading the informational stones that depicted each dinosaur. There was a sand pit with a Stegosaurus fossil partially unearthed. (Grab a shovel and brush to help escavate it!) We did the fossil dig and Wil took home some treasures! After our awesome time at Dinosaur World we cooled down with dinner at Freds!

Family at Freds!

After Dinosaur World, we met drove over to Bill, Becka, Wyatt and Ramona's house and hung out until Katie, Brian and Melanie made it to Lakeland. It was fun to see Romona walking and Wyatt was very interested in us! They are sweet kids who are always happy it seems! We all ate out at one huge table at a country buffet restaurant called Freds. Every one of the kids behaved so well and the adults got a chance to talk about grown up things-mainly the oil spill again! It was the first time getting all 3 girls together-Elsie, Ramona and Melanie. They cooed, pointed and reached for each other at the end of the table and the boys just dug in, ate and listened as we talked and laughed!

Fathers Day!

Hope everyone had a nice Fathers Day! We love our Dad's so much it is a shame Fathers Day comes once a year! They deserve more recognition that that and we are so thankful our Heavenly Father has blessed us with such good men! We celebrated our Dad, Jason by day at the pool and a nice dinner at a Seafood buffet! Michelle and Olivia joined us at the pool. While we waited on them to arrive we pushed Dad on the swings and waited out a refreshing rain shower under the picnic pavillion. The shower cleared out all our neighbors and we had the pool to ourselves afterwards! After a nice nap, we woke up and spruced up for dinner at Blue Water Bay for a Fathers Day Buffet. They had all kinds of fancy food on the buffet but Jason's favorite was the seafood gumbo! The kids were very well behaved and kept eating the fried shrimp! Happy Fathers Day, Dad from your biggest fans!

Horsing around our house and Baseball!

Having a few weekends home was good for us! I have been snapping up some good pictures of the kids and we had our good friends Jake and Kim over to watch the Gator Baseball game. We were happy to win the SEC and make it to the college World Series, but were eliminated by UCLA. At least it was a good excuse to have the Eldreds over for some laughs and dinner!

Beach Blast!

We took a drive over to Freeport for a day of fun at the beach! We figured we would enjoy the water before the oil hit it. We turned out to have good timing as tar balls showed up on the beach the next Thursday. The topic of conversation was the oil spill and I think all of us adults were thankful for a beautiful beach. Hester, Winter, Justin, Wes, Kasey, Zac, Gracie and Wyatt joined us on our beach blanket. It was fun to swim, sift through the sand and bask in the sun with some of our favorite surfers! We arrived around 11 am and left around 1pm to get to Cassi and Travis's baby's shower. Us girls enjoyed seeing Cassi's round belly and eating all the good food as the topic of conversation switched to babies again! Meanwhile the guys were gearing up for an early Father's Day dinner for Ralph. We celebrated our woderful Father with sandwiches! We rubbed aloe on our sunburn and Wes rubbed calamine on his poison oak! Stopping by Grandpa Hoyt's house was fun on Sunday, but pictures were not taken unfortunately. Mom had had a long weekend working and tending to Grandpa and I think the sun had taken its toll on us fair Hollingtons! Mom fed us a nice meal and then let us pick veggies from her garden. I came home with cucumbers and squash-my favs!

Driving back down with Brayden!

Our surprise Sunday morning was that Brayden Hollington joined us for the trip back down! Aaron & Jessica's flight flew into Tampa and they met us in Lake City to pick their son up. But until then...he was ours! Brayden is the sweetest and easiest kid! We had fun experimenting how 3 kids in the back of the Corolla would work! I think Elsie and Wil appreciated the back seat entertainment from their older cousin. Brayden will turn 4 in July and he is an entertainer! Sunday we traveled and made it to Atlanta again. We planned on taking Elsie and the boys to the aquarium the next day. The kids acted like rock stars jumping on the beds and running all over the hotel room. I bathed all 3 kids while Jason recorded the fiasco! During the bath, I learned an important lesson about childrens' toothbrushes. Do not stick a suction-cup child's toothbrush on their forhead to entertain them! If you do, gently get a nail under the cup and release it verses having the child yank it off his forhead! That is the mark on Brayden's forhead-a suction-cup toothbrush hickey! Good times! The aquarium was fun with a new explorer on board! Brayden, Wil and Elsie are all good travelers but I think everyone of us enjoyed pulling into our own driveway!

Madison's Graduation

We woke up early and made it on time to Madison's 9 am graduation ceremony. We were all getting tanned and cozy on the bleachers but cooled off with a few glasses of sweet tea at the Graduation BBQ. Tim and Pam closed J.W.'s BBQ for a "private party!" We watched a slide show of Madison's youth and we let the kids run wild! Wil had a good time especially with Brayden and Mason! Later we hung out with Stanton, Anita, Stacy and Danny at Stanton's house and then we stopped by Tim and Pam's house to visit and wear the kids out! We all went to bed at a good hour and it was a good thing too-we had a surprise the next day!

Memorial Day 2010-Driving Up!

What a fun Memorial weekend we just finished up! Jason's cousin Madison invited us up for her high school graduation festivities in West Virginia. We planned on some fun in Atlanta with the kids and a lot of good visiting time with our West Virginian family! We left Thursday night and made it to Atlanta. After making excellent time getting the kids out of the hotel, we arrived at the Georgia Aquarium and stumbled upon the grand re-opening of the Coldwater Conquest! This is where the beluga whales, sea otters and penguins reside. The kids enjoyed the ribbon cutting ceremony because Scooter the Penguin, Domino the Whale Shark and Deepo the fish were there to high five and dance with the kids. I think Scooter was doing the Charleston! We took some pictures and then enjoyed a penguin cookie. All the kids that had cookies were easy to identify because they all had black mouths and chins from the frosting! After our morning of exploration the kids were primed for a good nap and we made some good time arriving in Clarksburg WVA at around 11 pm!