Orlando

A few weekends ago, we decided to make a day trip to Orlando to go exploring.    My only request was that we go see the temple. It is absolutely beautiful.  After we visited the temple we headed to the Florida Mall.  Nate wanted to go to the Apple store.  I am not sure why, it is just like all the other Apple stores, but I didn't argue because it highly unlikely for Nate to set foot in a mall without dragging him.   Inside the mall they had an M&M factory that was fun to visit.  Deklan loved all the colors and he especially liked the huge M&M's outside the mall.  While in Orlando we decided to check out Downtown Disney.  For those of you who haven't been there it is kind of like a free mini amusement park outside the big park.  There were a few small rides, a bunch of restaurants and a ton of Disney shops.  We had a blast just walking through all the shops and checking everything out.  The had a lego store with life-size characters made out of legos.  It was so fun to look at.    Nate and I are wondering how long we can convince our kids that Downtown Disney is actually "Disney World".

This sea monster was made completely out of Legos.

Nate loves Japanese food and so we searched out a nice Japanese restaurant to have dinner at before heading home.  It was a very nice restaurant. Deklan hadn't had a nap all day and refused to sit in his highchair.  Within the first 5 minutes he had pulled the tablecloths off the table and spilled Cherrios all over the floor. We were so embarrassed.  Then, he gaged on this tiny piece of wonton and puked all over the floor.  I am sure they were cursing us, but we couldn't understand them.  No doubt, they were happy to see us go. Next time we will choose a more family friendly restaurant.

We have a park right by our house, we go there at least once a day.  Deklan usually just plays on the swings but this time mom and dad got brave enough to let him go down the slide.  It is a short video clip, but you can see that he is enjoyed it.  Now he goes on the slide all the time.

  He loves to play "I am going to get you"  Usually he crawls away or hides behind the furniture, but when Nate came home from work this particular day, Deklan just stood there and screamed and let Nate get him.

For anyone with kids you know it is sometimes impossible to get you house cleaning done with a baby around.  Most days, this is what my kitchen looks like when I am finished (or think I am finished cleaning it). He is such a good little helper.

Deklan is an early riser, 6:oo most every morning.  The good thing about that is we can get out for our walk before it gets too warm.  Some mornings we even get to watch the sunrise. It is beautiful here on the ranch with the wide open space and the fog still hanging over the pastures. Most times there is cattle in the fields next to the road where we walk and Deklan yells at the cows as we walk past.

Living in the country has its perks like beautiful sunrises and sunsets and lots of silent time, but it also has lots of pesky creatures too.  This raccoon made himself at home on our our porch. He tore a giant hole in our screened porch to come in and explore.   I leave the stroller on our porch because I use it every morning.  I am grateful he didn't tear it to pieces.  

Nate had the chance this month to go bass fishing with his supervisor from work.  His boss told him the least amount of fish I have ever caught is 13.   Well what you see in the picture is what they caught.  I guess Nate must not be very good luck.   He enjoyed the fishing trip, so I guess that is all that matters.

We often go for Sunday evening drives around the ranch to look at all the wildlife.  We have gotten in bad habit of letting Deklan ride on our laps while we are driving on the dirt roads around our home. He loves to sit up front with us.   I can promise you this, he is not the only kid on the ranch who doesn't ride in a car seat.   Our our drive we saw two gators.  We were fairly close to them.  I still think they are super creepy and don't like the thoughts of them roaming around so close to where we live.