Gavin's 8th Birthday Party

Gavin went back and forth about what kind of birthday party he wanted to have this year. One day, out of the blue, he asked me if there was such thing as a snake party. I told him that I didn't think there was such a thing but that I would check and see. I contacted our local herpetological society and to my surprise, they do have members who do these kinds of parties. So for Gavin's 8th birthday party, I had 20 kids in my basement, along with 4 live snakes.

Erin made this fabulous cake for the party!

Happy 8th Birthday, Gavin Wallace, you sure are a lot of fun!

Denver

The Springhill worship band was invited by Global Encounter to play for the students during the Denver Project. Matt and I rented a car to make it an easier trip, only to end up with a Ford Focus. 2 adults, 1 child with a booster seat, 1 baby with a carseat, and loads of luggage made it a little bit harder than expected. We left Springhill at 8 pm and drove through the night. We made it to Denver around 7:30 in the morning. The band only had to play in the morning sessions which allowed our family time to hang out together in the afternoon.

One afternoon we went to the Denver Aquarium.

We had been walking around with Gavin, keeping Cael in the stroller for most of the time. I got Cael out so I could take a picture of the boys and Cael saw the tanks. He got really excited and start shaking. It was so sad that he had missed out on so much already. Daddy or Mommy carried him through the rest of the aquarium.

For some reason, this aquarium had tigers. The keepers had just laid fresh meat out on the rocks so we got a good view of the tiger.

We saw lots of fish

and Gavin got to feed a stingray. He was a little scared to try it!

We went to the zoo,

saw lots of mountains,

and spent lots of time just hanging out on our air matresses!

One particular afternoon, we decided that we wanted to go see a glacier that was about an hour outside of Denver. We used our trusty GPS to lead us to the glacier....well, the GPS led us up the side of a mountain on a rocky path. Once the path was gone and our 15 passenger van could go no futher, the boys got out and got us turned around and we headed back down the side of the mountain. I will never forget the smell of the brakes as we headed s-l-o-w-l-y back down the mountain. This was the said mountain....

After we visited the glacier, we went to eat at Casa Bonita.

After Casa Bonita, we went and showered at a hotel that we had rented out for the trip. Cael "showered" in the sink.

We had a great time with our family and friends in Denver. Next year we have been invited to do the trip again, but it will be in St. Louis, a much closer of a drive....thank goodness!

Gulf Shores, Alabama

I know this post has been a long time coming. We took a trip to Gulf Shores with a couple of other families in June. We shared an awesome condo, spent some time on the beach, and did plenty of other fun things while we were there.

This was our condo. Our group had a whole floor to ourselves.

Gavin spent most of his time on the beach searching for seashells.

Cael spent most of his time on the beach sleeping.


But when he was awake, he sure didn't like the water!

One night the boys all went across the street and bought buckets, nets, and flashlights to go crabbing. I didn't get to go because I needed to feed Cael, however, I'm not sure I would have wanted to go either. The crabs crawl out of the sand at night to head down to the water. This is what Matt and Gavin brought back up to the condo. Yuck.

One day we took a trip to the National Air and Naval Musuem in Pensecola. Cael screamed and cried most of the way there, making it a very unpleasant trip for all involved. Here is a rare moment when is actually smiling instead of crying.

The Blue Angels are stationed at this base. Gavin got to sit in one of their jets.

This was the first boat-plane ever made. It was constructed somewhere around 1818....I think.

After the musuem, we met up with the Berry's for a dolphin cruise.

The groups were split up into 2 boats. After a few minutes in the ocean, the boats would line up together and started accelerating. The dolphins would come and ride the waves in between the 2 boats. It was pretty cool. This went on for about 30 minutes. It was a lot of fun.

So much fun that it completely tired Cael out.

We had so much fun with the Bryan's and the Berry's. We were sad to have to leave the beach and drive 14 very long hours back to Springfield.

We look forward to doing it again sometime!

Cael really needs......a haircut!

Another First

Cael had his first bloody injury today. He toppled over on top of the portable dvd player. Ouch!

I promise I am going to catch up on this summer's events....it may take awhile, maybe this weekend :)

MMA Cage Fights

Saturday night was date night. One of our friends from church, Chad Wallin, was fighting for the first time in a MMA cage fight, so a whole bunch of us from church went to watch. I have never been to anything like this before and it was interesting to say the least. If I had to describe the people there, I would say it was like going to the fair - except worse because they were selling beer. Chad did an awesome job! He did some high kicks and broke the other guy's nose and dislocated his shoulder. But......his opponent managed to get him to the ground and put Chad in a choke hold. Needless to say, Chad passed out....or almost did. He was able to get up and move around, but he did have to take a trip to the ER later that night to get hydrated. Chad told our crowd that his opponent had fought twice before and the last time he knocked the guy out in the first round So we were really proud of Chad making it just shy of the bell to end the second round. We stayed and watched the other fights. I think we watched around 12 or 13 before we headed out. Chad says he will do it again someday. I know we'll be there watching. Way to go, Chad. We're so proud of you.
Date Night

This is my friend, Rachel, from school. She got tickets with us for her husband for Valentine's Day. That's love all right.

I was too nervous to get pictures of Chad's match, but here's the view from our seats.

And last but not least.....if you look very carefully through these guys' shoulders. You can see a guy passed out. He had too much to drink, and even though his buddies shook him violently to wake him up....he didn't and missed who he came to watch. Bummer.

House Update

As of this weekend, the trim is up and ready to be painted. Matt is finishing up taping and will begin using Dean Anderson's high powered sprayer to paint the trim and the primer hopefully by this weekend. Yea! The cabinets turned out nice. I especially love my red kitchen wall! I will love it even more when it gets totally painted - you can't see it very well but it's a very deep red.
This is the very deep ravine behind our house. Gavin loves it, but we're going to need a fence for Cael!