Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down 2012 #28

Up:

• Hope everyone had a fabulous Independence Day! We headed to Columbus, Georgia to hang out with Mike's Aunt Donna, Uncle Kent, and kids Reed, Kristen, and Madison. Donna pulled out all the kids old toys and Jackson had a blast! He's been somewhat toy deprived since we didn't have much space in the van to pack toys other than some blocks. He loved this little money machine and Reed's favorite childhood toy - his rocking horse, Wonder! It was so great to see them; our visits are too few and far between and everyone changes so much. Last time we visited was before Mike and I were married. Wish I had gotten some pics with everyone in them.

My little red, white and blue angels!

I love Kennedy in this pic! Where's Kennedy?!

There she is!

Jackson riding Reed's old rocking horse, Wonder!

Kennedy was cheering him on.

YeeHaw!

• Friday after Mike got off work we headed to Pensacola, Florida for the weekend. It's been way too long since we've been back. We lived there from 2005-2008 and absolutely loved it. This was also the kids first time to go to the beach. They both really liked it. Kennedy preferred the water and Jackson like playing in the sand. We also enjoyed some good shopping and food. The weekend flew by way too quickly.

Kennedy with Daddy at the museum on base. 

Jackson loved getting to sit in all the planes!

Of course his favorite part was the indoor play place, we couldn't pull him away when it was closing time!

Building sand castles on the beach!

My camera fogged up from the humidity, but she looks so adorable!

Eating sand!

Brent and Heather came down to join us.

Brent showing Jackson how it's done!

Kennedy passed out while Mike was holding her in the water, sleepy girl!

at McGuire's Irish Pub - best food ever!

Big mistake ordering one of these; I'm a lightweight anyway when it comes to drinking, but this was super strong.

I only made it 3/4 of the way through it before I decided I wanted to be able to walk out of the restaurant on my own!

Down:

• Jackson hasn't had much exposure to thunderstorms in Idaho so he is getting a whole new education here. On Tuesday night a thunderstorm started right as we were putting him to bed. He was terrified. We kept putting him to bed and he would just scream and cry he was so scared. I tried telling him the God was having a bowling party which calmed him down for a little while, but then he said he wanted to God to go back to church! There were endless trips back and forth from our room to Jackson's and none of us really got much sleep. Hopefully there won't be many more nights like that.
• It was sort of weird having the 4th on a Wednesday. It made for an odd week. Mike was off Wed. and Thurs., but had to go back to work on Friday. I missed having a 3 day weekend especially since we went to P-Cola for the weekend.

Favorite Thing:

One of the great reasons I love my iphone is the Pandora Radio App! You have access to all sorts of awesome music for free! I'm constantly playing music around the house. It's a good break from the silence and the kids really like it too. My favorite stations right now are the Summer Oldies station and if you enter in the artist David Nevue there is wonderful piano music (thanks to Sally and Martha for getting me started with that station)! It's almost like a sound track to your life just playing in the background. Plus it's portable! They even had patriotic music for the 4th and great holiday stations around Christmas time!