Tuesday, January 2, 2018

A is for August

The beach vacation I've dreamed of taking!  Nothing fancy; simple is what I wanted.  Hayden made an awesome sea shell necklace & James found a horseshoe crab shell that was super cool.  We took the boys on a Pirate Cruise at sunset in St. Augustine one evening, and they loved it!  It was not what I would call a 'good' show, but the sunset couldn't be beat.  Their favorite part was probably getting their faces painted, but oh the tears at bedtime when Calvin had to wash his off!  The dolphin!!  We all floated away in his river of tears that night.






We were so close to St. Augustine that we went in for dinner a couple of times over our week.  I found a new favorite, The Floridian!  Yumm! The best.  Our kids always love riding the cannons in the square, so I always take their picture.  It's been fun to see them growing up as I look back at my insta hashtag #proseboysridestaugustinecannon.  Love seeing them so little!


I finally got to send Matt to the Surf Shop to pick out a new surf board for his birthday!  It was a blast seeing him go out for the first time in a long time.  He had an instant fan club, and these boys were all about jumping into the waves as they crashed on the shore.  They had one day where it was so rough in the surf that we called it 'jumping into the washing machine' as the waves ate away a cliff off the old 'gentle' slope of the sand.



The sound of the ocean & the sunsets.  And my baby crawling up into his big brother's lap? Crazy lovely.  James found a new love in life: River Monsters.  He started school saying he wanted to be a marine biologist so he could be like Jeremy Wade on that show.  Made my heart so happy! I would LOVE to see my boy fall in love with fishing or biology or both!



The boys wanted to take Mimi&Grandpa over to their favorite restaurant where they could eat & show them the crabs too.  We were so excited to have them come stay with us for a day or so.  We got to celebrate Matt's birthday & Hayden lost his second tooth!  It fell out right there at dinner.  I was lucky enough to get a before because he was showing me how loose it was, ha!







My sweet little squishy babies.


My sweet husband gave me the best gift.  This vacation was magical for me.


Our end of summer days... the countdown to school!


The older David gets, the bigger of a ham he becomes.  He surprises me everyday!


I finally took the boys to ride these animals at the mall.  It was a blast & they loved it!  Wish granted.



I got some rather sad/happy news.  We learned our Compassion child had officially moved out of her program!  I was expecting her to stay in until she turned 18, but I was wrong!  It was sad for me to write her a final letter & say goodbye.  We had been in this sponsorship since she was 4 years old, & I was in college as a single girl.  I shed some tears unexpectedly & felt a little weird about being sad.  But I arrived at the place where I realized I was grieving the loss of what little connection I had ending.  And that's ok.  I'm so thankful to have been a small part of her story!


The boys wanted to make banana pudding, so I set them up!  Ironically, they didn't really like it.  Especially the whip cream! I had a good laugh.



The Cummings boys got to throw out the first pitch of the last baseball game of the season for Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp!  So we jumped in the car & made it to the game to watch.  It was an absolute blast, and set us up for an exciting baseball season.




David wants to do EVERYTHING the other boys do!


We jumped at the chance to go float down the Ichetucknee River! We've never done it before, and got to go with our dear friends the Wests.  What a blast it was! Great way to end our summer break.




Here we go!  Back to School!  James started 2nd Grade in Mrs. Gullet's class; Hayden started 1st Grade in Mrs. Pounds' class (round two)!  Who gets to keep their teacher from K to 1st grade?  Hayden Prose! What a lucky guy.


There they go!


Daddy got to come walk the boys into their first day with us.  Magical light & Daddy made it sweeter.


These boys have my heart.


Trying to catch a river monster!


Right after school began, we had the solar eclipse roll just north of us!  Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of it because of cloud cover, but we caught some glimpses!  What a treat, no matter what!


And the solar eclipse donut was a treat too!  Not what I expected a 'chocolate glaze' donut to be, but nevertheless: awesome.  Matt disagreed. Haha!


Time for VPK!  Calvin's last year of preschool; I cannot believe it!




David Scott hit 18 months old! I've started calling him my baby, just for the sake of soaking it in.  I've decided to call all my boys 'baby' for a little while.  My momma heart just loves these little men of mine.


Throwing out the old use up bibs from when David was littler was harder than you would think.  So I immortalized them in the frame instead.  We have sang him the song 'baby beluga' since he was tiny because James learned that song for his Kindergarten show.  And we adapted it to 'davey beluga' for fun of course.  I'll always love the memory of singing to him & these little white whales remind me.





Our neighbors' tree fell across the street onto our suburban.  Thus began the months of repair shop & break downs.  What terrible luck, but so thankful to have all we need!



Tball, here we go!  Calvin is coming for ya!!


Matt&I went away for the YL volunteer leader retreat, and it was a wonderful time of setting our focus on something outside of our family & our home.  We are so excited to be involved in leading our local YL club for Orange Park, and we cannot wait to see how God uses this ministry to impact the lives of teens in our city.  We love the vision & we love the local staff & we couldn't be happier to find a calling to come join ourselves!!  Here we go...!





Thank you Lord for vacation, for new beginnings, for renewal in time away.  Thank you for ours boys, for all they get to see & do in their life.  Thank you for your provision & safety for us in our everyday life.  Thank you for the beauty in the sunlight & all you transform before my eyes.  Thank you for refreshing these memories so that I can capture them for my boys to enjoy years from now.  Thank you for all you do Lord; there is so much I don't see.


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