Pics from Florida

Conley fed this bird the leftover shrimp out of Nate's bait bucket. The birds were loving it.

Yes Shay is wearing her fleece jacket at the beach. The winds were strong and it was cold. Plus she doesn't weigh enough to keep herself warm, :)

Seriously need I say more. He wanted to be right out with Nate fishing. This is at Tigertail beach. It was not good for shelling, but pretty in its own way.

The guys went fishing in their kayak's earlier in the day while the ladies went shopping!

This is our favorite beach so far. Residence Beach. We were there at sunset. We collected a lot of shells and Nate fished off the shore.

Here are the kids looking for shells. They want to bring home a shell for everyone in their class.

More shelling and fishing!

Here is the biking crew, minus our leader. We can bike a lot of places. Conley ROCKED the tag-along hooked on to Nate's bike. Shay rides in the burley and eats or sings to me the whole way. It was hot and sunny this day, love it!

These pics are all from Tom's camera. When I win the lottery, I am going to buy a camera just like it! I probably should buy a ticket, I heard that helps, hehe.

We are having a blast. We love just relaxing, swimming in the hot tub (the pool is still a little too cold), and exploring this island. Nate and I would move here tomorrow if given the chance. It is amazing and beautiful and relaxing and quiet and SO many more things you don't get in Iowa!!!!

Shay is turning 2!

We had a birthday party for family on Saturday afternoon. She was blessed with some great gifts, fun play time and great food!!!! Unfortunately, Shay has not been feeling well and had a fever both Friday and Saturday morning...so she wasn't her "sassy" self. But she still had fun and enjoyed playing with her cousin Kinzie.

My cousin Meagan's daughter Tayva...she is so cute and was rockin' her Valentine's Day outfit for the party!

All the kids helping Shay open presents. We had a great time with family and we can't believe she is 2 already. Her birthday is this Wednesday. My camera battery died, so I will post more pics when I get them from Tom or my mom.

Naughty Conley

We have had a problem with Conley at daycare lately. I picked the kids up yesterday and Conley's teacher informed me that Conley had been in "timeout" 13 times before lunch! He also had to talk to the "principle" (aka owner of the daycare) twice about his behavior. We are not sure where this is coming from and she said he had a better day today.

Here is the conversation today in the car on the way home:

ME- "Con, were you nice to your friends today at Depot?"

CONLEY- "I was a little bit nice and a little bit naughty"

At least he is honest. We will have to work on this! We didn't allow any dessert last night and we didn't allow a few other favorites. We made it clear that he was being punished for being naughty to his friends and not listening to his teacher. We will see how it goes! Open for suggestions!!!!!

My lovely son!

My son is now talking to friends on the internet...man they grow up fast ;) My sister is taking a year off from golf and is a nanny for a couple in Georgia that have a 3 yr old son and are expecting their 2nd this summer. Will and Conley talk a couple times a week via Skype and it is the funniest thing you have ever seen.

• They show off their toys to one another
• Ask to visit each other
• And of course only talk on Skype when they are fully dressed in Batman (Will) and Spiderman (Conley) costumes.
• Once Will was asking Jill to do something and Jill couldn't understand, and Conley yells into the computer to Jill what Will is saying...so they help translate each other to their mom/nanny. HILARIOUS!!!!

Hopefully someday we can get them together in person to play. In the meantime Skype will have to satisfy them. Conley drew a picture for Will and we put it in a care package that my mom sent to Jill. It is so funny!!!!


I'm nervous that my child will never be potty trained after this morning he told me "when I'm 16 I will be potty trained" and that "I have to go on the potty when I'm 16" I reminded him that when he is 16 he can drive and that we have talked about being 16 and driving before. AND that he should be potty trained when he is 3... which Conley you are almost 4!!!!! People say you never see a kindergartner in diapers...I may have the first one!

This morning we were talking about his undies and being able to wear them. He is NOT potty trained 100%, so he wears pullups to daycare in the morning. He decided to carry his undies with him to daycare this morning. While walking up to the front door of daycare (the owner of the daycare in front of us) he loudly informed us that "these undies are dirty"! I quietly told him that the undies were stained, but clean. "What are the brown things"....I decided to be honest and told him they were "skid marks" and it happens to everyone. Magille (owner of daycare) was dying laughing but definitely just kept on walking.

Great Weekend!!!!

Nate loves the Pawn Stars show on the History channel. Unfortunately we no longer have cable and have to watch it online if at all. The pawn shop featured in the show is located in Vegas. We stopped by on Sunday (when we had our rental car) and we were surprised by the crowd. As you can see in the above picture we had to stand in line for about 10min to even get in the door. It was WAY different than on tv, but we enjoyed seeing it in person!


Nate and I had friends get married in Vegas last weekend, so we were able to get 3 days away just the two of us. We had a great time hanging out with friends and sleeping in!!!!


We rented a car on Sunday and visited the Hoover Dam. I had been once when little, but Nate had never been and was really wanting to see it. This is a shot off the observation desk looking down at the water coming out the other side of the dam. Nate took this shot, I am afraid of heights so I stayed inside the visitors center while Nate went outside.

They are building a new bridge going over the Colorado River. I would NEVER drive across this! It is obviously not done, but terrifies me just looking at it. I don't think this picture does it justice. This bridge is one of the highest off the "ground".

This is a picture Nate took of the dam. It is amazing. This area is so beautiful!!!!

Here is Nate as we walked across the bridge to go on the tour. You can see the new bridge in the background. They had many of these little alcoves that you could look out and down to the water FAR BELOW!!!!!!

Here are the guys looking so nice all dressed up! Nate was the best man (he is second in on the right) for Seth.

They got married on a terrace at the Bellagio. The fountains (think Ocean's 11) went off when they kissed at the end of their ceremony. It was dusk and absolutely beautiful!!!! The reception had the best food I've ever had at a wedding!!!!!!!

Lynden wore her grandma's wedding dress, which Lynden's mom also wore at her wedding. It was beautiful!