ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH TIME 2

We spent the whole last evening at the beach. It was dreamy. It had rained earlier that day so the beach was empty. The boys ran and ran and ran. Sterling and I sat back and admired our darling creations. Israel spent most of the week in the Baby Ergo strapped on to me. We both loved it.

 The boys played a game where they'd run along the surf and try not to get wet. Best game to watch!

 Cutest boys.

The whole trip was Heavenly. I have never been more relaxed in my life and cannot wait to go back. There is nothing like the beach, and nothing better than beach with family.

The Castillo de San Marcos

 We went into St. Augustine and toured the Castillo one day. This fort was built by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695 to defend themselves from the British. It is right on the water and really well preserved. It was fun going back with the boys and Jake and Tyra.

Of course the boys had to sit on every canon possible. Gouverneur thinking he's big stuff. AND he is.

Most of the boy cousins. 

Here we are on the drawbridge.

Family photo up on top of the fort. Beautiful view.

Here I am with my four boys just walking back to the car. It feels so normal to me, although I can see why other people comment all the time. I look like a baby wrangler.

                                    It was a great day in St. Augustine. What a fabulous city.

ST. AUGUSTINE ALLIGATOR FARM 2013

 We were thrilled to go back to the alligator farm with Jake and Tyra and their kids. Our boys were thrilled to see the gators again. They are pretty awesome.

Feeding gators with my boys.

We were standing right above these guys. 

I can't get enough of this family of mine. I'm one lucky girl. 

Cheese balls. 

 

All the cousins on the big gator. (Isaac is sitting right in his mouth.) My boys had such a blast with all these cousins all week long. 

I highly recommend the St. Augustine Alligator Farm if you're ever in the area. It's a lot of fun. Thanks Jake and Tyra for making it such a great day for us.

ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH TIME

The beach house we rented was right on the most beautiful, quiet beach. We spent a good part of every day and most of the nights there just walking around, looking for shells, and fishing. In the evenings the tide would go way out and there were lots of tide pools to play in. Here are some shots from Easter evening.

Little Man found his first starfish in a tide pool. He was thrilled to have found it.

The boys were so happy to be able to run and play on the beach. Here's Dellin, happy as can be.

Israel got lots of holding time and love from everyone. Here he is with aunt Tyra and cousin Abby. 

We took a bunch of family shots. Here's the Hawkins family jumping on the beach. Hawkins hang time.

Getting a family picture was nearly impossible since the boys just wanted to run and play. We got two good ones. The lighting was unreal. 

This one is my family. Look at all the cute boys. 

The sunset in the background was so beautiful. I could easily spend every night of my life walking up and down that beach, watching my boys run and play.

Easter Sunday in Florida

We were lucky enough to spend Easter Sunday in Florida with Jake and Tyra and their family. This is our third Easter in a row with them, and we're really liking the tradition.

We went to church and then came home and had a egg hunt. The kids were hungry and tired and more than ready to hunt for treats. Here's Dellin and Sterling with their buckets.

 Israel got some shakers in his bucket, he was thrilled. Gouverneur got a car and loved searching for eggs.

 Sterling Henry and Dellin loved the egg hunt too. They both raced around like mad men and yelled out every time they found one. Here are some good action shots.

Jake took this picture for us. (The boys were a bit tired by this time.)

This picture make me so happy. I am so grateful for my family.  I'm grateful to my Savior for his Atonement and Resurrection that will allow me to be with them forever. I love Easter and love celebrating the life of Jesus Christ.

Next year, we need to plan better and do our hunt on Saturday, so that we can focus on the Savior solely on Sunday. Hopefully we'll be with Jake and Tyra again next year. And hopefully we'll be in Florida again!

We came home to this cute basket brought over by our darling, 81-year-old neighbor, Val. We love her and she clearly loves us. She is so good to us!

Visitors in Boise

On our way to McCall, Idaho, we always stop in Boise for the night. My fabulous sister Becky and her family drove all the way up to spend the day with us.

They came over to our hotel, and we spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing. Becky's kids are fabulous swimmers which helped the boys with their pool bravery a bit.

After swimming we got cleaned up and headed to Big Juds, the famous burger joint in Boise that was on Man vs. Food. The burgers were insanely good and let's not forget the fries, tater tots, and fry sauce. Why does fry sauce not exist on the east coast people... It makes me crazy!

This is one of the smaller big burgers that Hema and little Hema split. The challenge burger is twice this big. After seeing it, I sort of wish we'd done the challenge. Maybe next year.


After eating, we put the kiddos to bed and Becky and I started the real party. She brought up all her boy clothes for me to look through. We had such a great time. It was fun to go through them all. Thanks Becky! My boys are set for the next few years with some really great clothes.

The next morning they came over to our hotel to say goodbye. Here are the dads with all the kids.

My boys trying to sneak a ride home with their cousins. It's no wonder, when the Katoas are so much fun. I wanted to sneak back with them too!

Here is a cousin picture that I will always cherish!

We had such a great time in the less than 24 hours we got to spend with the Katoas. Thank you so much for driving all that way just to see us. It meant so much to us. We love you dearly!

St. Augustine

On our last day, we spent some time in St. Augustine. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States. The main attraction for us was to check out the Castillo de San Marcos. We happened to be there on the day it was free which was a total bonus. Although we wouldn't have minded paying because it was really cool.

Little Man was pretty into the film about the fort.

All the guns were a serious attraction. Little Man could jump on them and shoot them and no one cared that he was touching them.




The fort sits right on the water and the view is absolutely beautiful. Here is the view from the top.

Dad and Little Man. The little boys were both passed out in the stroller so they missed most of the photo ops.

Me and my boys coming out of the fort. This place seriously kicked.

The family next to the water.

Here we are on St. George street. This street had tons of cute shops and eating places. It was 200 degrees that day so we were trying to get to our car as fast as possible. The boys all wanted to be carried. So did I for that matter.

The oldest wood school house int he U.S.A. We sort of stumbled upon this. Pretty cool.
We loved St. Augustine. We only spent 2 half days there but enjoyed both of them. I could totally go back and stay in St. Augustine for a week. The city is really charming and has lots of things to go do and see.

We miss you Palm Coast! We miss you St. Augustine! But most of all, we miss all the Fillmores who flew across the country to see us. We love you!

St. Augustine Alligator Farm

Let me just start by saying that the St. Augustine Alligator Farm was about one of the coolest things we've ever done. Our boys our obsessed with gators and crocs so this was a dream come true. We'd looked this place up before our trip and were looking forward to going to it, but had no idea how cool it was really going to be.

The first thing we saw when we walked in was an albino alligator. Who knew??? Apparently they are really rare and don't have much of a shot in the wild because they have no camouflage and since they are white, can get sunburned. We saw two of these babies. They look completely fake. I sort of thought they were till they moved. Amazing.
They had a huge enclosed area with lots of gators in it. Dellin's face in this picture is priceless.

We were there for feeding time. If you ask me, this guy is nuts. Look how big that gator is.

And that one too.

The boys could not take their eyes off the gators during feeding time.

Dad and his boys. Not sure why this picture is slanted... Maybe because it was a sweltering jungle of heat and I could barely stand up by this point. Cute picture of the boys either way. This walkway was really cool. It had tons of gators in the water below and tons of exotic birds in the trees above.

Feeding the gators. This was one of the coolest parts of the park. A quarter bought a huge handful of gator food. The boys loved feeding them.

They also had a huge snake collection. Yucko if you ask me, but the boys loved it. These are the times when I have to pretend like I like things like snakes.

They had a huge Komodo Dragon. Here is cousin Ezra and Little Man. This Komodo Dragon walked back and forth in front of us licking his chops.

They had tons of exotic birds. I've never been really into birds before but I thought these were pretty awesome.

The boys on a fake gator. I love this picture of the boys. They look so tiny and yet so big at the same time.

This picture is classic. Not sure if Sterling Henry is helping to open or close the mouth. Dellin looks worried either way.

All the cousins minus Eric and Marci's kids. Gouverneur was crying his eyes out by this point.

One last picture of dad and his boys. I love my boys. These boys are pretty lucky to have such a cool dad.
If you are anywhere in the area, you have to visit the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. This place exceeded our expectations in every way. The boys loved it and so did we!