Part 2

The reason we chose Hilton Head was because I was reading a Parenting magazine article that listed the 10 most family friendly beaches (can't remember if it was US or worldwide) and a beach on Hilton Head came in at #2. I checked our timeshare book and told Jon to check into booking a resort that was just a couple miles away. The first 3 days there were gorgeous weather- mid to upper 70's. So we hit the beach on those days. And the article was definitely right. It was an awesome beach for the kids. You can see in the pictures where the waves are breaking way off the shore--that was a sand bar. So they could walk all the way out to that point and at low tide it wasn't even ankle deep on the sand bar. The ocean was cool at this point in the year but still tolerable.

Also, you can see in these next two pics that at low tide, there was a little river of ocean water that was left way up on the shore. So we set up our chairs near that because I knew Dawson would love playing in that shallow water. It was so fun. Plus the sand there was like powdered sugar. We've been to tons of beaches in the Caribbean that weren't nearly that nice.

The live sand dollar we found and Bennett's awesome ocean do:

We also spotted a few jelly fish, found a live star fish that was missing a few limbs and Jon saw a sting ray.
The other fun part about the island is that its very marshy with tons of little ponds everywhere. We had 3 alligator sightings that week! (and yes, I was just as excited as the boys. Ok...more excited). The first one was about 3 feet long. We watched it for a long time swim under a little bridge we were on and were all excited when it came and snapped up a dragon fly. Then the next day during a timeshare presentation (yes...a vacation with my husband is not complete without a couple of those! But we got $150 in cash at each one so we couldn't pass it up) we saw this guy!!! :

On the video, when you hear me scream, he chomped a big turtle down in one gulp:

He was literally 10 feet long. It was the coolest animal encounter we've experienced in the wild. The rest of the week, anytime we passed a pond, Dawson would say, "A-gator in there? Maybe!"

And then we found this little guy whom we named, "Big Eyes" for obvious reasons. We took him back to our hotel and got a bug cage for him but after a couple days he was near death so we released him.

More to come...

Part 1

Just so you don't give up on my blog altogether, I'll probably post our vacation in bits and pieces as I have time. We got back this past Saturday morning after 2 nights with my parents in TN and a week on Hilton Head Island, SC. So here's the first little bit--the full day we spent with my parents. It was such a strange feeling arriving at their house and piling out of the car, knowing we were there for a visit. We've lived in the same city my whole married life so this is taking some getting used to for all of us! I was most looking forward to my mom's cooking and she didn't disappoint :) Pumpkin pancakes and all the bacon I could eat for Breakfast 1 and then homemade biscuits with honey, scrambled eggs and fried ham for Breakfast 2. A couple days later at our hotel, Bennett says out of the blue, "That was a great breakfast". I was thinking, you mean that lumpy microwave oatmeal we all ate this morning?? And then I said, "oh, you mean at Nonny's house?" "Yeah. That was a lot of things."

We crammed in as much as we could. First, a nice long hike through the woods, then to their (current) favorite BBQ place for lunch. Naptime for Dawson and a brief shopping browsing trip for me & my mom while Bennett and Jon braved the chilly pool for a quick dip. Then we all went to the cool park near their house and back home for dinner.

It was so great to spend time with them again and Dawson did not want to leave my dad out of his sight! He says his name, Grandad, with the funniest inflection, I wish you could hear it on here. Whenever he wasn't around, he'd walk through their house calling for him.

Its hard thinking that we probably won't see them again until Christmas (we were considering meeting up with them in Georgia for Thanksgiving but the prospect of another 15 hr trip so soon does not sound appealing). Unless my mom can't stand another minute away and drives up here before then ;)

Baby Update

Big news this week, on the baby front, in case you're not on Facebook. Apparently my plans were not God's plans because we found out #3 is indeed another boy. Shocking to take in but I'm slowly adjusting to the idea. I just never (ever ever ever) in a million years pictured myself as a mom of all boys (as this is going to be the last one). Honestly, I still can't believe it. But of course I'm thankful for a healthy baby and its nice to have the complete family picture in our heads. And to be very honest, I'm thankful for a time where I'm having to trust God completely with our future, like never before. I literally had to make a decision in my head and then say it out loud, "I trust you, God." It might sound dramatic, but for the last 20 or so years, when I imagined being a mom, I pictured a baby girl. So I had to grieve for that idea. Jon's probably thanking God for saving our bank account, because I guarantee Baby Gap would have known me on a first name basis, had it been a girl ;)

I'm still feeling great and have been blessed with very easy pregnancies. (My poor sister-in-law, Bria, who's pregnant with her first and due 4 or 5 weeks after me is still throwing up multiple times a day. So I'm always shocked and grateful I don't have to go through any of that!)

Really, the hardest part of this one is lugging 30lb Dawson around. It wipes me out if I have to hold him for very long.

Its flying by and I'm looking forward to holding a new baby in my arms again. I enjoyed that phase SO much with Dawson and I'm just trying to soak in every bit of this precious pregnancy (as I've been reminded so much lately by my friends' losses that a healthy pregnancy is not to be taken for granted!)

Book Reviews

I've read a few books lately that didn't make it on to my official blog list but I thought they were worth sharing with those of you who read as much as I do. So if you've exhausted the list to the right and can afford a few "good" ones amidst the "great" ones, here are a few I give 3.5 or 4 out of 5.
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus. Its a fictional story set in the late 1800's about a group of white women who come to live with a tribe of Native Americans. I learned a lot about their culture. There's a lot of humor in it and the characters are very endearing. I was just disappointed in the ending. I would give it 4 out of 5.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. Historical fiction about the deportation of a Lithuanian family during WWII, sent to labor camps in Siberia, similar to the Nazi concentration camps. Its a heart-breaking story written in the point-of-view of a teenage girl. For some reason the writing style just left a little to be desired, but still, a great book. I would give it 3.5 out of 5.
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. This is a modern day, fictional novel that chronicles the lives of two women who are best friends from their teens through adulthood. I would give much of the book a 3 out of 5 and found some of it to be a bit cliche but the ending was so emotional, I think I cried through the last 20 or 30 pages. I love a book that makes me "emote out loud" as I like to think of it, so I recommend this one because of that.
Please share any that I should add to my list!

Party post coming soon...just waiting on pics from my sister.

Boys and their guns

From up on the cannon at Camp Dodge, Bennett asks me, "Mom, does Jesus live in the sun?" "Uh...no", I responded, wondering if I was going to have to explain where he does live.

"Good, then I can shoot it."

Terrific Two's

I'm learning to speak positivity in my life, rather than negativity, so I'm going to focus on all the things that are wonderful about Dawson Graham Colyer, my tornado of a two-year-old. :) It's just mind-boggling that they go from this:

to this...in just two short years.

My absolutely favorite thing about this age is listening to their vocabulary grow every day and hearing their adorable little voices. He repeats everything anyone says and is speaking quite well and in full sentences (well...half sentences, I suppose :) He can count to about 15 (with a couple prompts) and still loves to be read to. And every time we all sit down at the table he holds his hands out and says, "Amen?". Boy loves to pray!

Its amazing how different two brothers can be. Its really fun going through it all again with such a different child than Bennett was because its still full of surprises and utter astonishment at the things he does. This one is ALL boy and is obsessed with sports and trucks of any kind. Bennett didn't care one iota for either of those things (and still doesn't). I'm continually in awe of how these things are ingrained in them from the start. He loves to sit with Jon and watch "bay-ball" or football and shouts out what sports field he sees as we drive past (he now knows the difference between a soccer field, baseball diamond and a golf course).

I'm so thankful that God is teaching me right now (through a great book) to prophesy blessings for our lives, rather than speak negativity, because Lord knows it is a CHALLENGE with this one! Kind of like the words sweet Aibileen spoke over Mae Mobley in The Help- I'm speaking over Dawson: "You are kind and sweet and gentle!" :)

But, despite that, he is his dad through and through and I know he'll inherit Jon's unbelievable work ethic and drive and not to mention his jack-of-all-trades, "there's nothing I suck at in this life" talents!! :) This boy is going to be an athlete, that's for sure. And how wonderful for him to be the younger brother of such a kind, gentle and sensitive boy. Surely some of that will rub off...eventually.

I guess most families have a strong-willed child and he is absolutely it. I'm being stretched much further as a mother but every challenge only makes us stronger, and more reliant on God. And for that I'm thankful for every moment with this adorable brown-eyed boy that brings so much joy and energy to our home!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Little D!

Bennett highlights

Just a few pics of some highlights from Bennett's life lately:

This boy looooves to climb so we decided to give rock climbing a try at our local place, Climb Iowa. Its pretty expensive so we just paid for him to go up. He actually didn't like it as much as we thought he would. He went up a few times, but at about 8 feet he would get pretty scared and wouldn't go any higher. So we'll wait a while to try again and next time, one of us will climb up alongside him. It was fun to try though!

Bennett loves Disney's Cars now, so thanks to my friend Emily's post, we found Tow Mater downtown Des Moines (she explains where its located, if any of you locals want to check it out):

And the latest and greatest news in Bennett's life, he started preschool yesterday!! He's going 4 days a week in the afternoons. His new teachers are wonderful and I'm really excited for the year. He was already in the class with my good friend, Libby's, little boy, and then we showed up on the first day and another one of my very good friends, Julie V.'s, little boy is in his class too! I miss that girl so now we'll see each other almost every day :)

I used to absolutely dread fall because its just a precursor to our horrid winters, a foreshadowing of what's to come. But honestly the start of a school year makes it such an exciting time and so much easier to take! So I'm thankful that we have school now to look forward to and get us through the worst seasons in Iowa.

Dawson getting in on the picture action:

Finding his hook:

And the highlight of my life, I finished my very last day of work at America's Family Coaches last Friday and am officially a stay at home mom again. The best part about that--my wonderful mother-in-law will still be able to take the boys most Fridays so I'll have a day to get stuff done around the house! (So far I've spent my first afternoon in a quiet house blogging so this may be a regular occurrence as well :). But I've assured my husband that I will actually get some cleaning done so I better go make that happen!! ;)