Meeting Alyssa

Over Memorial Day weekend we were able to have my brother and his fiance, Alyssa over for a visit from Utah.  It was SO much fun!  I had never met Alyssa before other than skype a couple of times, but she is awesome.  We have a lot in common I think :)  Brayden was so excited to have them come over that we ended up leaving for the airport 20 minutes early because I couldn't come up with any more excuses to delay.  In the car Brayden kept saying "go get Alyssa."  And I'd say "Yep, we'll go get Dan and Alyssa."  Brayden: "Yeah, go get Alyssa."  Haha. They got in Friday morning and I took them and the boys to Lake Ella for a little walk and it turned into a mini photo shoot for fun too.  When we got home both boys took a nap while we made lunch and played Qwirkle.   We had tuna melts that I totally dropped as I was pulling them out of the oven.  Luckily with Dan's help we were able to salvage all but one that slipped out of the oven.  Leave it to me to provide such adventures.  Dan got to watch Rio for the first time on Brayden's request while I made dinner.  Later that night for a family date night we went to Chuck E. Cheese and had some fun.  We got 20 free tokens for Zander's half birthday (I love birthday clubs!) to add to our little collection of tokens from almost a year ago.  We have only spent $15 on tokens and it seems like we always have a constant supply.  But I'm not complaining!!

Saturday we ate banana pancakes and then headed off to the beach at Alligator Point.  It was a blast!  I realized while we were there that we have lots of random hobbies.  I had my camera out a lot, we brought Preston's trick kite, we had our frisbee (which Preston and Dan are both very into ultimate), we played bocce ball, and just the fact that we like to travel to places like the beach.  Not to mention piano, guitar, singing, harp, crafts, and so much more.  But, the jack of all trades is the master of none.  So, I guess it's really not impressive.  Just something that occurred to me again.  Anyway, back to the beach.  We went swimming a lot, and played in the sand and ate pizza :)  It was great! And nice weather! Not too hot and perfect water!!

Sunday was a nice relaxing day of church, games and just hanging out together.   Plus we ate a roast, which is always yummy.

Monday was also fun, and very relaxed.  No plans and not a care in the world. :)  I wanted to take Alyssa to Country Dollar because I think it's a cute little store.  Unfortunately it's closed on Mondays.  Drat.  But, it's next door to T.J. Max, so why not stop there?  Alyssa found some cute jean capri's! And they secretly bought us a candle that makes our house smell like I'm baking sugar cookies.  Preston was slightly disappointed to find out it was only a candle the first time I burned it.  During Brayden's nap we played some more games and then we watched Newsies (which Dan had never seen!) before dinner.  Sadly we had to say goodbye to them at 6:40am (well, it ended up being 7 and they ended up missing that flight and having to leave an hour later).

It was a fun trip! I tried to take lots of pictures, but I did forget my camera at Chuck E Cheese.  Oops.  Hope you enjoy what I did manage to get though!!  Here's the happy little lovie doves.

I love this picture minus all the shadows on their faces. 

 

Brayden was immediately best buds with "Auntie Lyssa" and was not shy one bit.

Finding the turtles in the water

 

Brayden made new friends and started telling them all about the helicopter.  He started walking with them until I pulled him away to go back to Dan and Alyssa.

Just a great picture.  Brayden drinking and me making a face because I had just squirted B on accident.

My Friday night dinner from Pinterest. Broccoli Chicken Braid or something. Turned out amazing.

Eating pizza.  Not the greatest picture of them, I know. But, they still look good!

Burying uncle Dan's feet!

Brayden through a mini fit where he tosses himself on the ground.  His face got all sandy and I wanted a picture.  This was his face in response to my request to smile.

Zander in the Pea Pod.  Took a good little nap :)

Jumping over the waves.

busy dumping water in a hole.

Zander's formed a habit of getting laying down every time we get in the water.

Feeding the birds.  These birds would catch pieces of pizza in the air!!

The group before we left.

Playing with Auntie Lyssa

Memorial Day Bocce Ball. They crushed us.

I love Preston's tongue sticking out as he throws. Ha.

Dan and Alyssa not looking thrilled with the toss.  But they won.