Saturday's Adventure

Carter's dad had to travel for work this weekend, so we decided to take a little adventure!
And we found THE best park-how I wish we could bring this place home to Nashville!
We drove to the tip of a tiny peninsula (Ponce Inlet) about 15 minutes from our house and spent most of the day exploring! And we had so much fun that this mom didn't take her camera out enough to capture everything ...but even without digital evidence, she won't ever forget days like these :)
We found a beach and a huge (completely fenced!!) park surrounding the Ponce Inlet lighthouse. Yes, of course Taylor and I came here when we lived here, but we never viewed it through the eyes of a parent. The park had slides, swings, a gazebo, a rock pathway with lots of pebbles to pick up, winding tree-lined walkways, a beautiful war veteran memorial, and an adorable restaurant with friendly, almost domesticated (?) squirrels and a view of the water, complete with boats, pelicans, and dolphins! Carter even let his mama enjoy a glass of wine while he snacked and perfected his favorite words of the day (squirrel, pickle, bucket, beach, ocean.. seriously, he talks ALL the time!).
This sweet boy of mine passed out the second I started driving away- the definite sign of a good time!

Location:Sanctuary Garden Blvd,Port Orange,United States

Our little Monkey!

We spent Carter's second Halloween in Port Orange, in our sweet, quiet neighborhood with lots of eager houses full of candy and far too few children trick or treating! Therefore, our little monkey brought home lots of sweets to share with his mom and dad. He was absolutely adorable walking up to each door, shoving his little orange basket toward the adoring neighbors, carefully inspecting each piece of candy and picking out two from his basket (one to hold, still wrapped, in each hand), and finally scurrying off to the next house! He woke up the next morning, found his costume and brought it to us while pointing and squealing at his (empty) orange basket... we eventually had to hide all things Halloween to avoid any meltdowns... 

Holidays with Carter are the absolute best- who knew we got to relive some of the best memories from our childhoods with these precious little ones! We can't wait for Christmas this year!

Florida Days!

We have been battling a mouse infestation in our beloved Nashville home for a few months-- and by battling, I mean that I have been trying every possible humane way to catch and release the cute little critters, under the assumption that this world is quite big enough for us all and we just needed to help them relocate. However, the mice decided otherwise and waged an all out war on our home, and I begrudgingly allowed our somewhat exasperated pest control man to use his chosen course of action. And while I hate to admit it, he had been right. And our mice had set up camp in our vents, where they had also chosen to die, and the vents were too old to be cleaned without tearing our house apart. So, our newly renovated home had to have the mouse-infested vents removed to make room for vents that were actually "up to code," in our contractor's words. So, long story short, our house is undergoing some major construction. And we needed to move out for a couple weeks...so we decided to head down to our old home in Florida! 

And it has been wonderful! Being in a climate where Carter can be outdoors all day is absolutely ideal, and I'm not quite sure how we'll ever adjust to indoor life again in Nashville!  We'll be the only family bundled up in snowsuits on the playground day in and day out, I guess! This boy is wild and precious and on the move every second... and he is loving having both of his parents around so much (as is his mom!). Even if dad still has to make conference calls and sneak off on work trips, we love love love having him around so much more than usual! While we were pretty disappointed to have to leave our home, we found a way to create quite a fun-filled silver lining...

The more enjoyable portions of the 12 hour drive  looked like this.... the less enjoyable portions included screeching, desperate attempts at entertainment by mom, and a last minute stop at a roadside Chik-Fil-A to run off some of this wild man's pent up energy! All in all, we survived, but we are not looking forward to the drive home...

Our sweet furry four legged kiddos slept the whole ride down!

After a sleepless night with Carter in the pack n play, we decided to splurge on a  crib we found on sale, and it was the best $100 we have ever spent.  And now C has is own room down here anytime we want to visit!

We experienced the beach for the first time!

We discovered that waves are not always our friend... and it's pretty frustrating when they knock us down.

  

We visited Aunt Anne and Uncle Bobby in Orlando

And cousin Gus!

and played in their pool at their beautiful new home!

                                               We searched for baby lizards

We celebrated mom's birthday lounging and playing on the beach

We found new playgrounds 

And "hugged" giant ominous-looking crabs

And searched for treasure

We found more playgrounds

And ventured down jungle walkways

And danced in a warm unexpected rain shower

And even more playgrounds... notice how no one else is at the park, and he is bundled up in a jacket.   It was freezing, for Florida at least.

Carter has no use for the small, toddler sized slides and insists on finding the highest one possible these days. ..such a little daredevil!

We bonded with the dogs...

We picked lemons off of the tree we planted in honor of our sweet Yellow Lab, Tubbs

We batted at the wall....

We tried a banana blizzard...

And loved it!

We made lots of messes

Carter mastered his climbing skills and continues to freak his parents out on a daily basis (no worries, his dad was right next to him in this picture!)

Carter and Violet reconnected after first meeting in their mommy's tummies!

We enjoyed lots of pancakes

We fed birds and turtles

It was fun until the birds got a bit too aggressive...

We braved an oncoming hurricane- anything to get some energy out before the storm locked us indoors! 

And when the rainy, cold weather did arrive, we got creative!

We are planning to head home soon and are spending these last few days soaking up the gorgeous sunny weather! Figuring out how to keep this outdoorsy boy entertained indoors this winter should be interesting!

Searching for butterflies!

He has yet to form an attachment to a soft, stuffed animal but is starting to refuse to leave the house without a truck or two! 

Melting his mama's heart with those blue eyes...and about to stress her out as he attempts to climb a chair and scale a fence. ..