Christmas at Sea World - December 20th

First stop - the turtles. Pretty early here.

Next stop, the dolphins. The kids were heartbroken that there was no room to stand at the tank. Fortunately, we found an underwater tank where we could get within inches of them. Really neat.


An alligator. My kids are such Floridians - they are FASCINATED with alligators.
Waiting for Shamu.

Still waiting - this is a different whale. A Shamu impostor!

THIS is Shamu. I could not get over how HUGE he is! Those of you who have never seen the show. DO NOT sit in the "splash zone" rows unless you WANT to get wet. There's a solid 5 minutes devoted to soaking people. Like, Shamu's whole deal is flinging water at attendees. Janna told me she wants to be a whale trainer.

On one of the rides (we only got to ride one!)
With another Shamu impostor! The kids had a blast - and made it to 4 PM! I was really proud of them, and now we're all SO excited for Disney in January!

Christmas Pictures - December 13th.

First Nativity - December 13th

The Sunday school was able to put on a fantastic little program this year - and it included all the grades. The littlest Sunday School Students were "listeners" and sat on the floor as Pastor read the story of the first Christmas. All the preschool students were to wear their best Christmas PJ's. At first, I thought just Janna would be part of it (as J.R. isn't old enough to be in Sunday School yet). At the last minute I was told that JR could participate. So, both the kids were involved - and they might of well put on the poster "starring Janna and JR" - because my kids stole the show. Not in the cute way - but in the "oh my goodness, I am so embarrassed" way.

I promise to put the entire video - including when JR announces that Pastor will be reading the story of Rudolph (and the consequent boos) - at a later date. Right now I am just trying to get caught up on pictures.

In all serious, my daughter was one of the few preschoolers that could sing both the first and second verse of Away in the Manger (we are ready to huck that CD out the window). JR actually did really well for his age.

Some before pictures. Please note that I didn't ASK Janna to pose in any particular manner. She did this, on her own.


I'm in trouble.

Here is JR - doing everything BUT posing like I asked.
And, it continued at the church.
The processional in (JR sat with me during this time)
Pastor is reading to the little ones, the bigger kids are acting it out.
Singing away...notice JR isn't in the picture? He's probably running around the sanctuary at this point.
The kids with pastor - they just LOVE him.
After, they had a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party. Here are the kids, eating cake.
Tired Daddy...
Mommy and JR.

Christmas Parade - December 12th

I thought I would blog about our Pre-Christmas activities - BEFORE Christmas.

I don't know, seems appropro...

Waiting to go. I have NO idea what he is saying here - I just wanted to get a few pictures of his new haircut. I do love what a clear shot you have of his eye color. They make Mommy melt.

Spikes. LOVE the spikes. Janna: Very concerned that we're taking too many pictures and not actually GOING to the parade.

At the parade. You had to get there early to get a spot, which left us with the conundrum: what to do with our kids? Well, Jeff was able to snag a spot RIGHT next to the route, which means we just waited right there, and walked over to watch the parade. The good part? We didn't have anything to "bring down" when the parade was over. Jeff and I flew out of the parking lot and beat the traffic (my Dad would have been so proud!)It also afforded us the wonderful opportunity to bring the tail-gating seats down on my Freestyle (the back seats flip backwards so you can face out the back). There is also a power jack in that back row, so the kids were able to watch Rudolph.

The BEST part was when Janna, about 10 minutes into the movie, asked: "Daddy, why is Rudolph talking in Spanish?" It was our first time using the DVD player, and apparently the language was set in Spanish. I was actually pretty impressed that Janna knew what was being yapped at her (even if she didn't understand what was being said.)

Didn't get too many of the parade, it being in the dark and all.
Afterwards, back at home...

I was really trying hard to get a picture of JR - spiked with just his jeans on. Not to mention the cool Backyardigans tattoo on his arm. Really, it was too cute for words - but I mostly struck out.

Here's as close as I could get.
Off go the pants because my children hate clothing. You can see the other shed pieces in the background.
The closest I could get to a pose. I was TRYING to get him to flex his arms. No luck.

St Augustine Christmas parade

We are in FULL Christmas swing down here.

The barrage of day time parades hit this weekend. I had intended on hitting our local parade, but my girlfriend and daughter were in the St. Augustine parade. So, we headed up there instead.

The large Sheriff boat.

Old cars. This one was my favorite.
The kids and dad watching the people go by.
The princesses. There were a few of these ladies, dressed up in Victorian regalia. The costumes were beautiful.
By far, both J.R. and Daddy's favorite part.
This would be my girlfriend Liz, her daughter Desiree, and partner Jason. Desiree is J.R's betrothed, seeing as how they were born the same day, same hospital, same doctor's practice, and the mommies are friends.


I have to say that I was REALLY impressed by the kids today. Janna sat - and watched - the whole time. I was shocked. Makes me feel a bit better about her being busy - more confident that she's not low attention, just high physical.

Budding Oregonians....

Digging the Starbucks.

We went to a holiday thing in town - where they have this walking loop to see a city light display. Afterward, we took the kids to get Hot Chocolate. My children would sell me if it meant hot chocolate. They know ALL ABOUT Starbucks and how hot chocolate lives there.

Only my kids would get as excited for a Starbucks as they do a McDonald's. Probably more so.