Last Day at the Beach

Today was our last day at the beach. Yesterday and today were absolutely beautiful days, although the wind started to pick up this afternoon and made it a little chilly for swimming on the beach. We've been making an effort to lather on the SPF 50 and everyone seems to be doing better. It's dangerous because it is so beautiful and cool on the beach that you could sit out there all day. It's not until that evening that you realize how sunburned you are. I should be used to it since it's like that in Guatemala but I guess I've spent too many years in the midwest - where you can sit out for DAYS and barely get any sun.

Anyway, Anthony found an authentic little French bakery this morning, complete with old french chef yelling from the back. It was his little slice of heaven today! He brought back coffee, a yummy baguette that tasted like pan frances!, a croissant and chocolate eclairs. Super delicious! We plan to stop there tomorrow morning, too! Then we made an effort to be up and on the beach earlier and the boys had a great time body boarding.

Emmanuel has no fear, like my mom always says.
Pepe's work well to keep the baby from eating the sand. He was issued a new hat to keep the bald head from being sunburned and each boy was issued sunglasses, to be worn at all times. You'll note from the pictures that little boys ALWAYS comply with the rules...

Then we built a family sand castle. Papa made the castle and Mama made the walls and then the boys filled the rest in and tried to make a moat. Still couldn't get the water to stay in the moat. :(

There is no crying in sand castle making!

Another attempt at water for the moat.
This afternoon Anthony wanted to go to the Flagler Intl Food Festival here in New Smyrna Beach. Someone told us that at 4pm every day you could walk down to the end of Flagler and see the dolphins so here we are looking for them. When we got down to the water, they had just lifted the drawbridge so some boats could come through. That was very exciting!

Baby didn't think it was nearly as exciting.

We did see a few dolphins out in the water but could only get a picture of this pelican that landed right by us.

And Anthony enjoying some food at the festival. :)

Tomorrow we're off to Tampa and St. Petersburg to visit with Aunt Wedgo and Uncle Robby. Should be LOTS of fun. They are taking us to some great looking restaurants and an aquarium. The boys are most excited about the salamanders in their backyard though. What can you do- BOYS!

Day 2

Day two of our great adventure opened with thunderstorms and rain. No worries, though. As my sister pointed out, we needed a sunburn break and a thunderstorm is always fun. Still, the boys were chomping at the bit by 10am and could hardly sit still. Jensy was super happy to just sit and eat crackers. Now that he has started getting his top middle teeth, the world is open to so many new things to enjoy! :)

We decided we'd take a trip to the movie theater in Daytona Beach and see Monsters vs. Aliens - in 3D no less! We got lost (yes, I should have at least written down the address) so we had to wait for the next showing but it was fun anyway. Here we are after supper enjoying freezepops on the balcony, watching the sun set.And the boys watching Sharkboy and Lavagirl with their new 3D glasses. Very exciting to finally be able to watch it in 3D! Anthony's lathering on the aloe right now and then they're supposed to be sleeping. Back to the beach in the morning. :)

The Great Beach Adventure

So the owners of the inn that Anthony works for gave us the best gift ever. Ok, I know I already wrote a post about the best gift ever, but this is sort of the best gift ever ever. They gave us a week at their beach condo in Florida. We, after much waffling, made the fabulous decision to take them up on it and left home at about 10pm on Saturday night. I thought it would be so much easier to drive through the night, and since Anthony stays up 1/2 the night most of the time anyway, I thought I'd get some sleep and he'd drive away. Imagine my surprise when he pulled in to a wayside rest at 1am and was done driving. Well, being a Rutt after all, I simply couldn't just sit there when there was road to conquer! So I took over and drove most of the night. I did have to stop a couple of times to rest and he finally took over at about 8. The drive took us about 16 hours and I'm glad we did it that way. The boys were sooo good and it was nice to get here in the afternoon.

The condo is beautiful! It is right on the beach and we can sit on our deck and enjoy the ocean. There is also a pool and lots of sand toys. This is seriously the way to live!

Of course the boys were up bright and early this morning, ready to head for the sand. We finally got our act together around 10ish - afterall, we're on vacation. We lathered everyone up with 50spf sunscreen and headed downstairs. Anthony found some bodyboards in the storage area and some sand toys. Here are some pictures of our first day.

Yup, this is the life. And yes, all of that skin that you see is now bright red.

Decorating the sand castle with seashells, 'teeth', 'bones' and anything else they can find.
Sweet baby FINALLY taking a nap. Even after sunscreen, an umbrella and a towel, that cheek and arm are still sunburned! Actually, all of the boys ended up sunburned. Obviously, we'll have to lather it a bit thicker tomorrow.
The sand just kept soaking up the water for their moat. :(

Jensy's first time in the ocean. He didn't even cry when the wave almost swept him away. He did shake a bit though. And finally, a wine glass the size of which even my mother could appreciate. :) And yes, there's white in there, Mom!
Be back with more tomorrow. :)

Soccer

Well soccer season has started again. It is so much fun to watch them play but so stressful to make it through the weeks. It's worth it though. Christian played soccer with our YMCA, which mostly consisted of him running in circles around the gym, talking or making other sounds the entire time. Pretty hilarious. Now Wyatt and Emmanuel are playing with the city parks and rec. Wyatt is in the under 8 group which means they are still not keeping score (technically) and basically playing without a goalie, but they are starting to learn positions, passing, etc. It is way fun. His coach is a dad of one of his teammates and seems really cool but does make them work. Anthony is coaching Emmanuel's team, along with the dad of Emmanuel's best friend. It is their first time at coaching and it's going to be FUN. I can tell already! :) In the under 6 group the kids mostly just run around and try to kick the ball, with a few that still insist on trying to use their hands on occasion. Here are a couple of pictures from Saturday's practice. It was freezing outside and I was a total sissy and sat in the car. Then there's a picture of Emmanuel 'running'. He thought I needed to take a picture of him and kept running back and forth until I got one he liked. I'll post some real soccer pictures soon.

My New Handbag

So I have to brag a little about how awesome my sister is! Actually, all of my sisters are pretty awesome, but this post is about Sarah. I will first say that she just had a baby. Like a month ago! Her second son - a super cute guy! So even with a 2 year old and a new baby she STILL managed to whip up this beautiful little bag for me. I can't believe it. Isn't it the cutest EVER?!Please note the cool lining and the beautiful buttons. I love it!

Question of the Day

So I've been wondering for, I guess at least the last nine months, what this is? Any guesses would be appreciated. Someone from Anthony's work gave it to us along with a laundry basket full of other new and used baby items at a baby shower. I just can't figure out what it is for. Oh, and here are a few pictures of Anthony planting some flowers on the side of our garage. I don't think they'll grow high enough to cover the ugly boxes on the wall but at least it might look a little prettier. :) Jens was a big help!
Fangs! The child has fangs! I think one of his middle teeth is growing in now but he's just had the bottom teeth and fangs for a while now.

It's SPRING! Yay!!

Wow, it's been a super long time since I've posted anything. That certainly is not for a lack of things to write about, but more a lack of ambition, initiative, time - things like that.

This month Wyatt turned 7 (I still can't believe it!) and we decided that, in lieu of having a party for his friends and all the insanity that entails, we would all get out of work/school and go to the zoo. Good choice!! It was so fun! I had forgotten how much fun it was to spend time with the animals and how much the boys (and their father!) enjoyed it. It was such a nice day but still early in the year so some of the exhibits were closed and there weren't really any petting opportunities or anything like that. It was mostly just stay-home moms walking around together, their perfect luxury strollers in tow. Then us with 4 wily boys, an old orange (if you could see through the dirt) stroller and a buggy board. The Columbus Zoo is a fairly nice zoo, although I didn't think it was that much greater than the Fort Wayne Zoo, a place where the boys and I spent quite a bit of time in the past! There is a large water park called Zoombezi Bay connected to the zoo, which Anthony got very excited about, but I really don't see us visiting that anytime soon. Oh well, like I said, it was FUN! Here are a few of my favorite pictures - yes, though I am notorious for forgetting to take pictures, I DID make an effort this time.

At the very beginning. Did you know flamingo's slept like that??!
Love in the air!
Aquarium was definitely a favorite!
I think this is the extinction bell? Pretty cool.All my sweet boys :)