I continue to slack on posting anything and I would apologize but it's summer!  Beaching, boating, swimming, and eating has been consuming us.  There's time for little else:)  Plus, we had some very important guests to entertain for awhile...

Typical mean-faced Baron and something distracting my usual cheezer, but the girls look nice don't they?  We stayed pretty buys for their stay but we seriously had SO MUCH FUN!!  First day we were off to the infamous Spanish Sugar Mill for some awesome pancakes.  Man! why are pancakes so good??  After we filled our bellies, Ellie, Josie, Baron, Westen, and I got in the springs to cool off (or I should say cold off) and then we took a walk to get some pictures.  Here's what we captured...

All 5 of them in the tree.  Of course, Baron would only sit with Ellie (his crush:)

A cute one of Jo, I thought

And sweet Hailey
I hope, at least, one child of mine is like her (in a boy way, of course)

Another cute one of Josie.  I got a few solos of her that day that turned out good.

He almost looks friendly...

I love that one of Westen!

Thick as Thieves these two are!

This one's adorable too!

I told them to race back.  Of course, Westen gave it all he had!

Another cute one of Josie and if you look closely, you can see the lizard she caught in that hand:)

Upon return from the Sugar Mill, the kids all got in the pool that night.  I think they were in it everyday they were here - at least Josie and Ellie were.  The next day we headed to the beach.  It was a beautiful day.  Hailey and Ellie got some sun which was their main goal.  Josie barely came out of the water the entire 3 hours we were there.  And Westen and Baron played in the sand like normal.  Here's my favorites of that day...

Come on...how cute is that?  They love playing in little holes with some water in them.  Love that picture.

I think it took us 3 tries but I love how this picture turned out!  Josie, you're adorable!!

This one's for you, Mom!

Again, priceless...

After a long day at the beach, we grilled out that night.  The next day was boat day since Austin was off work!  He was so excited because we got to use our tube!

Ellie and Josie

Hailey

Me and Westen

The Girls!  This time my boys were outnumbered!  Usually, it's me:)

Baron in his happy place:)

Our little snorkeler:)

Baron crashed on the cruise back...

So Westen got some one on one with Ellie!

We spent the next couple days just chillin' in the pool and enjoying some quality time together.  Then, although, I didn't get pictures of it, we went to Orlando a couple days to watch Hailey and the Firebirds fight their way to 4th place in the National Tournament (from 76 teams!!).  I was glad to get to see her play.  And we had Ellie all to ourselves a couple nights too which was fun!  The boys adore her!  We also celebrated the boys' Aunt Lindsay's birthday (Happy Birthday La La). 

We had so much fun with the Ison's and can't wait to see them again.  Have a great weekend!!!

So we had, what I'd call, a marathon weekend.  I should clarify by saying it's probably only a marathon weekend when you have toddlers who need naps:)  Friday night began with the first ever Riverbend Academy Sports Banquet.  We dropped the boys off with some of the other coaches kids who were too small to make it through, what ended up being, about a 3 and a half hour event.  It was beautiful, the food was delicious, it was entertaining, and it was thoughtful!  We had a wonderful time and my husband, a.k.a. Coach, did a great job with his presentation of the basketball recap and awards.  Job well done, Babe!  We picked the kids up close to 10pm, got home, and put them to bed, although it was nearly 11 before Mr. Westen went to sleep.  Then he was up Saturday morning at 6:30am!  Awesome, I know!  Who doesn't love going to bed late and getting up before sunrise??  Regardless, we were to get up early that day anyway because we had our sights set on watching a little soccer that morning.  We were at the soccer fields by 9am to watch some of our friends kids kick the ball around:)  They did great and it was fun to watch, but we were a bit concerned about the plans for the rest of our day due to our cranky three year old.  After leaving the soccer fields, we headed home to grab our swim suits, and firmly told Westen to pull himself together and we headed to our soccer stars' home for lunch and swimming with their families.  It was a sweet time of fellowship with these families and we had so much fun and also got some sun!  Sweet!  We headed home around 3 and put the kids down for a nap, while Austin and I mustered up the strength to do an hour and a half of yoga (have I mentioned that Tony Horton and I have a love hate relationship - him and all his hour and a half P90X??).  Too long of a story to tell the whys, we missed Friday's workout, so decided to make it up Saturday during nap time.  Uggghhh!  All I wanted to do was curl up on the couch after being outside for 6 straight hours.  Instead, downward dog and vinyasas won out!  About 30 seconds upon completing said downward dogs, my husband says, "I think we should take the boat out."  Let me tell you something about this guy...

Although it was 5pm, with thoughts of dinner not yet conceived, and the kids were still napping...I knew when what I was thinking was, "we had a late night, early morning, busy day, and more busyness tomorrow" but what I said was, "Okay, Babe," that I was in for something more.  When Austin gets his mind set on something, there's often no turning back.  So what could've been a leisurely cruise down the river for some dinner, turned out to be the debut of this...

Austin bought this tube about a month ago and has been dying to use it with the boys.  Now, here's where I give you a little background.  Austin grew up on the water - swimming, water skiing, boating, you know...FL activities.  I, on the other hand grew up in KY!  Swimming a couple times in one summer at a friend's house was my extent of water sports.  I've ridden on a tube pulled behind a boat just once - EVER.  Yet, on this day, the expectations were for me to either, A. ride on the tube with the boys, or B. drive the boat - neither of which I've done enough to feel comfortable with.  But I did marry Austin, thus this picture was taken.  Westen and Austin got on the tube first and apparently I did okay driving the boat because here they are...

Unfortunately, that left me on the boat with a crying Baron who was mad that Daddy and Brother were on that tube without him, so I was driving the boat, checking back every few seconds to make sure my tube passengers were okay, and trying to keep a mad Baron and excited Cousey in one place, preferably close by.  For my first time, I felt a bit stressed.  We made it okay, though and then it was Baron's turn.  I didn't do so hot this round, thus the lack of a picture.  Apparently, although I thought I was to "ease into it" and me thinking especially so with my 18 month old out there, I didn't pick up speed quite quick enough, so the water went crashing over my husband and Baron, not once, but two times.  After two times, I think we were all done.  This scenario is exactly what I saw playing out in my head on the way to the boat dock.  My inexperience ever so evident, my husband frustrated, and at least one child crying:)  Thankfully, the boys have about a 1 minute rebound rate, so they were back to happy pretty quick.  
So, then we continue to cruise north because, at this point, day light is limited and we've yet to eat dinner.  On our way to the fried seafood restaurant, I'm sitting on the front of the boat with Baron in my lap when I feel an insect hit my forehead.  I didn't really think anything of it until a couple minutes later when I felt something sting me on my stomach.  Apparently, whatever it was, I still don't know what, hit my forehead, then dropped down into my sundress.  It stung my stomach and at first I didn't see anything, but then after feeling it fly around some more, I looked down my collar to see it flying around.  I stood up and began to strip my dress off.  I think when Austin thought that I'd probably, finally, lost my mind, he saw it fly out.  It was the worst sting I've ever had!  My stomach was sore when I went to bed that night and there's still a mark on my stomach today that doesn't look to be leaving anytime soon.  I guess, if nothing else, it took my mind off of my novice boating skills:)
Moving on...since I didn't get a picture of Baron on the tube, here he is sucking down my sweet tea...

We got our food to go and headed back to the dock to make it just before dark.  So there's room for improvement as far as taking our toddlers tubing goes, but overall, as always, time out on the boat always feels good.  There's just something about being out there with the wind blowing our hair back, and taking in the beauty of the water and scenery that makes us feel good, you know??  Anyway, to bed late again (at least for the boys), then church and a church picnic on Sunday.  Like I said, a marathon weekend!  It was one of those weekends that were fun filled, but Saturday and Sunday nights both, I think we all completely crashed!  Here's a few more pictures from our boat trip - my sweet little boys...

All my boys at the wheel because they all have the need to drive the boat and drive it fast!

And then this precious pic of the 3 of them...

Then I had to zoom in on that most precious part...

That little 3 year old arm around his little brother makes my heart melt!  There was no prompting for that - it just happened naturally which is always the best, but I rarely capture those moments.  Score!
Anyway, it was a fun weekend!  Hope you enjoyed your's:)

Every year for Labor Day weekend, we head up near Tifton, GA for the Brownlee Family Reunion.  We drove up Friday morning and came back last night and had a wonderful weekend up there, as we always do.  We spend quality time with our family the whole weekend, but the main event is on Saturday when everyone in town heads to Uncle Kenny's and Aunt Jan's lakehouse for lunch and a day on the lake.  It seems like there were more kids than ever this year. As you can see on the boat are many (although not all) of the kids.  And yes there are 3 adults on that boat to supervise (thanks Cousin Bob for taking them all out).  Westen is in the driver's seat with Cousin Bob.  We absolutely love our Tifton family and look forward to seeing them every year.  The food is always great and the company even better.

Here's Austin and Westen out in the lake.  It's so nice and relaxing out there.  Off topic, I know, but I have a funny story to share about the weekend.  Saturday night Austin, Westen, and I arrived back to the hotel around 9ish that night.  I headed to the room to bathe and get Westen ready for bed while Austin went to order us some food as we hadn't eaten dinner.  I was finishing up as he was just getting back with the food; so we put Westen down to sleep in his pack n' play and Austin and I went out to our screened in balcony to eat our yummy burgers.  Keep in mind we're on the second floor.  Our room was right next to a marina where a live band was playing so it was super loud.  I told Austin to peek his head back inside to check and make sure Westen was sleeping. He got up to do so, then turns to me and says, "The door is locked!"  That's right!  My husband and I locked ourselves out of our room on the second floor balcony.  To our defense, we didn't even know the door locked and our room key (the credit card kind) couldn't even have gotten us back in; it was a lock for a completely different kind of key (like a house key).  So really, why is there even a lock when the visitors have nothing to unlock it with??  Anyway, thankfully, I had brought my phone out, so we called the front desk to let them know.  Thankfully again, Austin had not put the dead bolt lock on; however, Westen's pack n' play was right up against the door, so the lady that came to let us back in had to push extra hard to open the door.  Crazy, I know!  Westen was, in fact, asleep an never woke during the whole ordeal.  Surely we can't be the only ones this has happened to, could we??

Our drive back wasn't bad, but I thought this picture of Cousey was the epitome of what we all felt like - TIRED!!  It was an awesome weekend and we had so much fun! Thanks for the wonderful hospitality Tifton Family!  We already look forward to next year.  For more pictures from the weekend, click here.

So today was a fun day with Aunt Marissa, Uncle Alan, and Cousins Lauren and Grant.  They met us out for a day of fun on the boat!  This is they're tube they've been letting us borrow.  We headed out to the Halifax River and went tubing.  Then we had lunch at Carribean Jacks where Nana and Uncle Ryan met us (thanks Nana for hanging with Uncle Ryan all morning:).  Then everyone came back to our house for some more fun in the pool.  Thanks for spending the day with us Johansens!  We loved having you!

Westen had his first tubing experience today.  After Lauren and Grant took turns riding on the tube, Austin got on with Westen (thanks Uncle Alan for driving) and took a ride.  We certainly weren't going that fast, but we expected some kind of reaction from the little man.  Instead he remained Mr. Cool the entire ride never once showing any emotion on his face - not even when Austin pretended to throw him overboard.  His face showed more of a "Whatever Dad - I know you won't do it!"

During our last leg of the boat ride, Westen wanted to put Grant's goggles on.  Once on, he refused to take them off.  I could tell he was going to fall asleep when we got in the car, so I attempted to take them off then, but he got ticked off.  Choosing to only fight some battles I face with him everyday, I decided he could wear them home regardless of the sweat and red marks now circling his eyes.  As you can see he did fall asleep with them on and I had to gently slide them off afterwards.  Then he slept for 2 hours!

First of all, Happy Birthday Aunt Na Na!  We spent today on the boat with our lovely friends, the Pendry's!  This is Westen's friend Alexander!  Here the boys are having a who can scream the loudest match!  We headed out to the Springs where we all played in the sand, saw lots of fish, ate lots of snack, and played with Cousey.  We had a great time with this sweet family and hope they'll join us again!

Above is Xander's brother, Carson, who got to drive the boat the whole way back.  And below is just another cute pic of Westen and his buddy!

After a day spent on the boat and a good nap for Westen, we headed to the Soriano's for a cookout.  There were lots of kids there, but apparently Westen took a liking to Miss Addison.  They played so sweet together while checking out Tim's and Lyndsay's dogs through a sliding glass door.  Then Austin asked Westen if he could give Addison sugars which moved him to pucker.  Addison did the same and then I think they saw fireworks!  Of course, everyone loved it so they continued to do this on command, thus the perfect picture:)  I must say Westen has good taste.  This little girl's a looker!  Addison's mom and I have arranged for a 2nd date;)  Thanks for the good time Soriano's!

 

We headed out to the springs today and were amazed to see this plane there.  He cruised it out to Lake George, took off, then came back for a fly-by over the springs.  Kind of cool, we thought!

We took the boat out today to the springs.  We took this net and a fishing pole.  Austin caught a few small fish and Westen played with the net.  I have to include that Westen did fall face down into foot deep water the first 10 minutes we were there with no attempt to get himself up.  Freaked me out!  I guess we'll be continuing swim lessons;)

Westen passed out on the cruise back. Below is him under the hat.  We were trying to keep the sun out of his face.  And he missed the big gator we happened to pass.  Yikes!