Silver Dollar City

So spring is upon us and we needed to have our first trip of the year to Silver Dollar City. Even better, we got to go during Young Christians Weekend. We went on a Sunday morning and we got to do worship with two really great christian bands, Kutless and Leeland! It was suppose to be sold out, but we were still able to get in. Yay! The worship was great and Valerie even fell asleep during it. Wow! It was sweet because she was in the sling on her daddy and even later in the day we would run into people who had noticed that and thought it was so cute!

Also the bands did an offering for children in foreign countries to get food. I explained to Lily how these kids need food and so we were giving money to help them. Lily was so proud to help and has been talking to a lot of people about how sad she is for the kids without food. She was sad that the offering was just to get them beans and rice because she wanted to get the kids ice cream!

Lily had a blast on the rides this year. She even went on this rollercoaster. I thought she would get scared on it, but she really wanted to go on it. She laughed the whole time and loved it so much. She wanted to go on it over and over again. She is a pretty brave girl!
Another ride that she enjoyed was the Dumbo ride. She loved that we could fly high into the air. It was so much fun for me to get to go on these rides with her and to see the joy in her little face!

So there was one ride that Lily did not enjoy. I took Lily on Fire in the Hole. She just barely reached the height requirement and I tried to explain the ride to her, but she still wanted to go and I was hoping that she would like it. Well the ride started and right away it went into a dark tunnel and she told me she was worried. I told her it was okay and then the character's started talking in there and that is what really scared her. She kept asking who they were and I told her it was just like her tape recorder. I then prepared her for the three drops and after the first one she did pretty well, but by the second one she said that she wanted to be done. We went down the last drop and it came to a stop. Everyone told her good job as we were hopping off and she wasn't crying or acting to scared, but as soon as we were walking out she said, "Mommy, that scared me. I don't want to do that again." I told her that she did a good job and we would wait until she is older. It was cute though to talk to her. The funny thing is that she keeps telling everyone about the scary ride and has forgotten about the ones that she loved. lol. I guess she has a great story to tell!

On another note...At Lily's daycare, a lil boy went home sick today and we barely talked about it. Then when we were doing our bedtime prayers, Lily prayed for her lil friend to get better. It made me really proud of what a sweet heart she has.

Florida Vacation-The end

So here is my last post about Florida. Here is one last picture from Fudpuckers. Lily loved holding the aligator and you can even see that Val wanted to hold it. They are brave girls! I wanted to show off a few more beach pictures. It was so great being in such a beautiful area and having the sun, sand and ocean. I miss it already!

I had such a good time with my girls. I think the best times are when you are just playing with your kids.

Look at my goofy girl. Valerie loved crawling all over in the sand. She kept getting it on her face and licking it off. She was also licking sand off of me. She is a nut.

Here she is working on her tan!

My pretty little Lily on our deck outside our room.

Here I am enjoying the deck.

Jason trying to lure Val into the water. It didn't work. :)

Oh, no! Time to go home. 13 more hours in the car. I must say that I was blessed with the two best little girls in the car. They did not complain at all. They just listened to the radio, ate, played together, and slept. What good girls!

Valerie was so happy. I can't believe she did so well. Here she is with one of Lily's juice drinks. Even though she never figured out how to use it, she loved just holding the drink and pretending.

Our vacation was so blessed. I thank God that we had fun and had safe driving. It was a great trip!

Florida Vacation-part 3 Attractions

One of the fun parts about vacation is going to fun place to eat and have fun. We would never go to Destin, Florida without going to Fudpuckers. It is such a neat place. Lily thought the van sticking out belonged to Scooby Doo, but we couldn't find him there. After we ordered our food, we went to look at all of the alligators. Lily was in awe of them. She wanted to look from every angle.

Lily loved watching the girl catch one for her to hold. The girl explained how she was taping its mouth shut so Lily was not at all afraid to hold the alligator. This picture shows Lily and Daddy holding the alligator, but we also have a family picture with Lily fully holding it.

We also went to the Tracks to do several of the kiddy rides. Lily loved riding the water boats and squirting people. It was so much fun!

Lily was lonely on the rides that Mommy wasn't allowed to go on. I can't wait until Valerie is big enough to do the rides with Lily.

We also took Lily to eat at Johnny Rockets. She thought it was really cool!

She loved the milkshakes and the music.

We ate at Joe's crab shack. We loved ordering and then going outside to play on the playground. It felt like the food was done in two seconds.

We had a blast!

Florida Vacation-part 2 The beach

I think that I may have a lot of beach pictures. This may take up two blogs. lol. So we totally enjoyed the beach. We went three times every single day and would stay for as long as Val would let us. She really did enjoy the beach. She was my biggest worry. She isn't a big fan of water, but is starting to do better with it. Mommy did have to hold her a bunch though. Otherwise she might have eaten all of the sand from the beach. She loved her shovel and used that the whole time.

Lily was like a little dolphin. She was jumping in and out of the water and having so much fun splashing and letting the waves knock her over. She was a pure joy to watch!

I think that family vacations connect us in the best way. I just feel like this was everything I had ever wished for. It is just such a special time to play and enjoy each other and make wonderful memories.

Lily loved playing with her daddy. He is such a fun daddy. He was taking her way out in the water and they were laughing so much. They also tried building sand castles.

Lily and Valerie are sitting here in their matching swimsuits. Aren't they too cute!!!

They really had fun playing together. It makes me excited to watch them grow up as close sisters.

Here is the crab that Daddy found for Lily. She was so excited and has talked non-stop about her lil crab, but she was a little concerned that we couldn't find his mommy and daddy.

Here was when we wrote Lily's name in the sand. She thought that was pretty neat.

Well if we do something for the big sister, we have to do it for the little sister too. Here is Valerie's name in the sand. Maybe we should have just written Val in the sand. :)

Here is Lily by the palm trees. The weather was so beautiful. I will have to post some more pics later. This is time consuming. lol.

Florida Vacation Part 1

Wow! Florida was so much fun. I think I have way too many pictures to just do one post. lol. So here is my first post of probably three that will be about Florida. We left Saturday night right after Jason got off work. Here is a picture of Valerie trying to help me pack. She is such a little trouble maker. :) We prayed before we drove the 13 hrs that we would have no car troubles and the girls would do great. God totally answered our prayers. The girls slept almost the entire drive and were so happy when they were awake. Lily was too funny. She would periodically wake up just to say, "Mommy, I so love you." Isn't that sweet? However, there was also the time when she woke up to say, "Mommy, I want to hold some bread. " By the time I said, "What???", she was back asleep.

Our first Florida stop was to see Jason's Aunt Melba.

The girls both enjoyed playing at Melba's house. She even gave them cute stuffed animals that they played with the whole trip, especially in the car.

Lily absolutely loved Melba's bird. She kept putting her fingers in the cage so the bird would peck at her fingers. She thought that was so funny!

Melba's dog..I keep thinking her name was Buffy, but I'm not sure. Lily and Valerie both loved her, but she was much more of an adult's dog. She growled and snapped at the girls several times, but she was a sweetie to Jason and me.

Melba and Valerie really hit it off well together. Valerie loved being in Melba's arms.

From Aunt Melba's house in Pensecola we had an hour drive to Destin Beach. Lily was so excited because the whole drive you go over bridges and you are constantly looking at the ocean. Lily saw the very white sand and thought it was snow. lol.

Here is Lily in front of our condominium that we stayed at for three days.

The living room was so comfy and we turned the couch into a bed.

The hotel had free movies so Lily was in heaven. Everytime Valerie napped, Lily got to watch a new movie. We all loved The Water Horse.

Here is another pic of the living room. I forgot to get a pic. of the kitchen. This place was so like a home away from home. The girls slept so well and it was so comfortable and nice for relaxing.

Here is Lily in the bedroom talking on the phone.

Lily loved her bunk beds in the hall way. I thought she might have a hard time going to sleep with being so close to the living room, but she went right to sleep everytime. She did not want to ever leave this place.

I will be posting more later today so keep checking in for our beach photos next. :)

Funny Valerie and getting ready for our vacation

I loved these two pics of Valerie because she is such a funny lil thing. She found her shoes and put them on her hands to crawl around. I guess this is what you do if you don't want to learn to walk. lol. If the shoes fell off her hands, she was always quick to put them back on her hands.

Valerie has had two teeth on the bottom for a long time now and for the last month she has just had one tooth on the top. She looks so silly, but this week, she had two more teeth on top come through so she now has 5 teeth. They still need to come down a lil more though. Probably another week and it will look so cute!!!

So we leave for Florida today. We are very excited. Pray for us as we drive through the night. Valerie has been so cute as I pack. She kept climbing into the suitcase and throwing the clothes out. lol. I wish that I didn't already have my camera packed because I have some cute pics of this, but oh well!

Valerie is normally a good lil cleaner though. She has a basket of toys and she will throw every toy out and then crawl around collecting them and putting them back in her basket. She is such a cutie!

Well I am sure I will have a bunch of beach pictures to share next week!!!

Val's day at JRKids and Exotic Animal Paradise

Wow! It is only 2:00 and we have already had such a fun day. Today we went to church at James River (we love our church!) and they were having a birthday celebration for Valerie's group. Look they even gave her a first birthday shirt and picture!

After church, we headed to Exotic Animal Paradise. It was free today!!!! Normally it is pretty expensive so this was great. We just had to pay for the food.

I really was surprised by how much my girls loved it. In the next picture, you can see that Valerie wanted to touch the animals and cooed at them.

Next comes the funny moment of our drive. This donkey really wanted some food and I think it startled Jason. lol.

Lily's favorite was the zebra's. Her Grandma Peters got her Madagascar 2 this week so Lily had been watching the zebra's in the movie and this was just too exciting to her. The only bummer was that they wouldn't eat right from Lily's hand.

The next picture shows how much fun Lily had feeding the animals. Deer, Goats, Llamas, and more ate out of her hand. She loved it!

More feeding!

Valerie really loved the petting zoo and she got to feed them, but she also wanted to try the animal food. :)

It has been such a great day and we still have our bible study tonight! Sundays are my favorite and I love having family days!