Life in Jax

Ahhh, life in Jax.  I couldn't ever imagine that I would live somewhere so pretty and SO relaxing.  I think we needed to live somewhere crazy and intense to appreciate the beauty of this area.  And it's beautiful and just keeps getting prettier and prettier.  The huge old trees covered with spanish moss, the wild palms and palm like plants, it's just. so. pretty.  

So, I decided to blog right now.  You know why?  It's quiet.  Yep, and it's not because it's 9pm or because someone is napping.  It's because they are at school and I have some moments to get some things done without guilt.  A beautiful thing:)  School has started...Skyler was super nervous to begin, which I had expected.  But I'm proud of him because despite being so nervous about everything, he was incredibly brave.  He made himself get on that big bus knowing absolutely no one.  The wonderful bus driver put him at ease.  But he was brave getting to school, getting to his room, and then coming home.  These are such huge steps for him.  This morning he said he couldn't wait to get on the bus.  A huge sigh of relief that I'm not pushing him through a difficult situation, but that he was ready.

Now Sadie couldn't WAIT to go to school.  I am not a fan of two year old programs for lots of reasons, but she's turning three soon and wanted it so badly.  Unfortunately, her class is full of young 2s.  She has spent the past two times crying about going to school for whatever reasons.  I don't want to push her.   She'll be going Tuesdays and Thursdays to become independent from me and hopefully have a little fun!

A rainy day art project....an attempt at creating a volcano.  I was hoping it would take a while, but the whole thing lasted maybe 15 minutes....

 Our work of art:)

 And our lame volcano.  "That's it?!"  ah, well, we tried:)

 Tons of places to explore around here.  Decided to take a field trip to St. Augustine.  It's a lot of fun, totally 'old' Florida, some history, and just plain touristy.  The kids saw the tram tour rides and begged us to go on one.  So, off we went!

They each got a free whistle...

 Love touristy stuff like this.

 Waiting to get tickets for the fort.  This monument was a little bit disappointing.  Not the most exciting part of our day:)

 Top of the fort...

 Some dude in costume told us he was getting ready to shoot a cannon in 20 minutes.  Skyler, not a fan of loud sudden sounds, covered his ears from then on.  Can't say I blamed him.  We were out of the fort when they lit the canon and it scared the crap out of me because I had forgotten about it!

 My view from the office.  Such an improvement over seeing into other people's windows!

 First day of school!

 Skyler wasn't starting for a few days so he helped me bring her to school.  He was even nervous for her and practically in tears.  Such a sensitive boy.  I wish I had more pictures of him on his first day, but he didn't let me snap many.  I snuck some on my phone and will upload them soon.

 I.love. them.

Jacksonville

Jacksonville.  The place where they put happy pills in the water.  Seriously, almost everyone I have met here is SO nice.  And I haven't met one person who is actually from this area yet.  So obviously, it's something about this place that MAKES you happy.  

The move went fairly smooth.  Didn't take us long to unpack and get settled.  The hard part was having our house loaded with workers forever.  We replaced all the carpets with laminate floors, which look nice on first sight and are much more durable for the kids than hard wood floors.  And it really made a huge difference to get that shoddy carpet outta here.  We replaced the carpet on the stairs.  HAD to paint the entire house.  They had some nasty colors in some rooms, and the others were loaded with awful patch jobs and holes.  Pics to come.  We had air conditioner guys, grout guys, exterminator guys, alarm guys, washer/dryer guys, a locksmith, our handyman.  And every time we think it's getting quiet, something else comes about:)  So, despite the traffic coming through here, the pool initially full of green algae, the air conditioner that broke for a week during mid-summer in Florida, and the dryer vent that was completely clogged, everything is great:)  It really is good though.  It's awesome having our own pool, we have super nice neighbors with kids around Skyler's age, I met some new friends with kiddos the same age, and it feels like vacation.  Palm trees, the beach so close, the waterways.  Awesome.   

Our house!  I went out to take some pics of it, but the kids were sidetracked to our neighbors house and were playing outside.  So here is a pic from their driveway!

 Sadie's new friend.

 Happy girl to finally have a play date!  The kids were starting to get lonely for friends.

First picnic! No air meant it was cooler outside than inside.  That should say something about our house temp considering it was the end of July!  We swam A LOT that week.

 Michael woke up on this day and wanted to take the kids for a ride.  I was shocked he was letting them near his car!  They liked it:)

 Skyler during his ride.

 Sadie during hers.

 And after. :)

 We checked out a little airplane museum Michael's base has. 

And of course, our pool.  We LOVE our pool!  Skyler has turned into a little fish:O)

 And she's working on it!

 We went a little north to go to the beach at a state park.  Great beach.  The kids had a blast.   This is Sadie afterwards....enough said.

 I liked the light outside so I told Skyler to pose for me.  This is his version of posing!  My lens had fogged up on these, but these were too cute for me to pass up.

 Florida is a little scary when it comes to bugs and snakes.  We have encountered an abundance of both!  These guys are crazy.  They are giant grasshoppers and some of them are bigger than my hand!  This one was getting mad at me...making all these crazy noises and hopping towards me.  I braved it out for the pics....

 And....just a part of the haircut Skyler gave Sadie while I was dealing with the dryer guy.  I laughed, than cried when I pulled chunks of her hair off her head...her beautiful curls!  She's kind of sporting a curly mullet at the moment...thankfully, she's super cute and her hair is crazy to begin with, so it's not toooooo obvious.....maybe it's time for a little haircut to even things out a bit!

 Mr. Stylist here..."What mom, hair grows."  " I just took two pieces from each side".  It was kind of hard to be mad when he made it seem like no big deal:)

Stop 2: Hobe Sound

On July 3rd, the kids, Nana and Papa, the dogs, and myself flew down to Florida.  Getting closer!  It was the perfect time to start moving us closer to our final location.  While we were down there, we took the kids up to Jax for our closing so that they could finally SEE where we were going to live.  We stayed in a hotel for the first time as a family.  Needless to say, the kids LOVED it.  Thought of it as an awesome adventure.  Loved sleeping all together in one room, staying up late watching TV, and eating a special breakfast downstairs.   They were really good...as patient as they could be while we lined up contractors for flooring, painting, exterminating, etc, etc, etc.....

The rest of the florida trip was spent swimming and hanging out.  The perfect rest before the chaos of the move!

These pics are kind of out of order.  My cousin told us to head to Playmobile Land, or something like that, where they have every Playmobile toy imaginable for the kids to play with.  "It's only $1"  she told us.  Well, maybe the admission, but the 'gift shop' on the way out?  Landed us $60 more:)  But it was a great way to spend a hot morning.

This was Sadie's loot...

 And part of Skylers...

 Pups in vacation mode.

 Sadie's first pony tail!

 Michael finally went out and treated himself to a fancy new car.  He deserves it after all the hard work he puts in supporting this family.  Think he looks happy here?!

 Stopped into the Hobe Sound nature center.  Great place that has made so many improvements.  Skyler was proud of his tornado here.

 More playmobile pics...