Great weekend ahead

Well to start, we went to Shark beach. At first I was disappointed because I think I had been looking and sifting through sand for about an hour and couldn't find anything. The boys had pretty much given up and were swimming and doing other digging. Mom went too and she wasn't having any luck either. Well then finally....I found one!! Wow! I couldn't believe it. I had moved to a different spot down the beach and found a great spot. Once I found a tooth and knew what to look for it seemed a little easier to find them. Bry joined me in looking again. It was now fun and I found quite a few. It became addicting because as soon as I thought I would stop looking I would tell myself just one more batch of sand. There were quite a few people there looking for teeth. So it was a successful trip in the hunt for shark teeth!

A little side note: if you get an offer in the mail make sure you read it and the fine print. We got this nice little gift just for going to the dealer for a test drive. We didn't buy anything!! This will come in handy for our weekend ahead! Yep $75 for just test driving a car! oh yeah baby!

Today is the boys last day of summer camp. Wow...I can't believe it. I am glad that they really enjoy it though. They are always wanting to go earlier than I planned to take them or to pick them up later than I planned. Total evidence to me that they have a great time! yay!

Two weeks till school starts! I will have a 5th and 7th grader! The time sure flies! It has been a wonderful summer with many great memories! Next week I took some days off to spend a little time with the boys before school. I'm not sure quite yet what we are going to get into, but we will enjoy the time for sure.

We have a great soccer weekend ahead in Disney. It's the nationals for the 3v3 soccer. It will be exciting for Bry to get to play at Disney's ESPN complex. Of course we want to win, but I know just the experience itself will be fun for him!! The best part is that we only have 2 games each day and they are early in the morning. We will be able to relax the rest of the day at the resort and likely head to Disney Springs to walk around. I'm excited to see all the new changes that have happened since we were last there.

We have been lucky enough this week to fight with a smoke alarm! Of course they only beep at night, right?! Geez!! The other night  one started to beep in D's room at 1030pm of course...so Mike headed in and had to get D out of bed. The alarm is right above his bed. He changed out the battery and it seemed to be fixed. Then a minute or two later...nope! Stupid thing beeping again! Then he tested them and they all started beeping loudly and saying "fire, fire". Luckily he did some type of reset and it seemed to quit. Keep in mind, B is in the same room and slept through the entire thing! Seriously...the light was on, beeping and then the "fire,fire", kinda scary that he never even woke up just a bit. Anyway, we all went to bed. 3am or so....D comes into our room, the thing has started to beep again!! OMG!..so I told him to just get his pillow and head to the couch for the rest of the night. He did, and B slept through the rest of the night with that thing beeping. Luckily we couldn't hear it in our room. So day/night number 2. The thing didn't beep all day and Mike had messed around with it and figured he had fixed it. Uh....nope! On cue, the thing starts beeping last night around 1030 pm! Ridiculous! So....yep you guessed it he went in the room, took the battery out and disconnected the whole thing from the wall. Ah...no more beeping....except that dumb thing kept beeping even without the battery or wire...wow!! Luckily Mike knew how to discharge it so that it would stop, it was comical! So now we have to figure out what the problem is and get it put back up. Fun!! ha!

Well I hope it's a great weekend for us, good weather, great games, and lots of great memories!

Toodles.

Finishing up the week

Well looky here!! These guys were feeding in our back yard. I was playing with the camera trying to zoom in on his eyeball..haha... I love the 2nd picture where he looks pink! haha..almost like a flock of pink flamingos in our back yard! Not really but fun anyway.

They were probably looking for this little guy hiding in our lanai! 

I'm trying to grow a pineapple! It takes like about a year and a half to grow one I think. This is the top I cut off a pineapple we ate and I planted it. The top has grown huge! I am still looking daily to see if I see any hints of a pineapple emerging. For those of you that don't know...the pineapple will grow up almost like a flower sprout at the top of the plant! I sure hope we get one soon!

We are also growing our lemons again. This is a potted plant made to stay on your patio. Last year I think we got about 8 lemons or so. This year I almost let it die by accident, but it recovered a little. I think we have about 4 or 5 lemons growing on it right now. Next I think I want to get a lime tree. That way I can have fresh limes for my margaritas!!!! YUM!

I got out early today and had a nice breakfast with a great friend before I headed to watch the soccer games. It is always nice to get out and have some girl talk and food! 

Soccer was very hot today. Another day of 3v3 soccer. Bry usually has 6 on his team but 2 are on vacation so they were short handed today. They played 6 games!! Yes...6! The boys all did great. They even played in an older age bracket. They pulled out a 2nd place win! It was so hot and I know the boys were tired but they hung in there and finished strong! I love the look on B's face in this action shot...I think he was really thinking about the ball heading towards his face. Luckily it did miss his face, but cool facial expression!

I tried to add a video here of Bry scoring a goal but it didn't work. I might have to upload to youtube first. I will check on how to do that......

More animal sightings this week! An armadillo in a neighbors yard! He was just snooping around and looking for food I guess. I only had my phone and not my camera so I couldn't zoom up any closer on him, but I did manage to snap a few pics! It's never dull around here I tell ya....wildlife everywhere! Almost like we moved to a zoo!!

Now it's time for a relaxing evening in our nice cool house. I think I'll have a glass of wine and chill.

Tomorrow morning we are heading up to Venice to a beach that is known for it's shark teeth. We went to Venice beach one other time, but we didn't know where to go. I got an exact location from a friend where they go to look for teeth and find them. So I'm hoping we are lucky and find some teeth. But...I guess we shouldn't do much swimming there since shark teeth are everywhere..uh...yeah obviously that means there are sharks! Right??!!??!! ha!

Oh yeah, and incase you're wondering the boys did catch fish last week at camp. They were happy that this time around they finally caught fish. They only have 3 days of camp next week then we are off to Disney for soccer nationals...whoo hoo!!

I spoke too soon!!!

Well as you are about to see, I spoke to soon about the harmless wildlife!! OMG....seriously?!  So Bry was taking out the trash and when he moved the trash can...holy snake!!! Luckily Mike was outside with him and he obviously screamed and ran in the house. As we went back out to investigate (me with my camera in hand, of course) we noticed a good thing. When he moved the trash can he actually rolled the wheel right on top of the snakes tail!! The snake could not get away. The bad news...I think it was poisonous! It sure looks like a diamond shaped head to us!  I hate snakes!!! Mike ran inside and got his pellet gun and returned to kill it. He did kill it thank goodness and then he even chopped the head off to make sure! Ha!! It was a little comical that me and the boys were trying to see while he was shooting at it! I guess we might have to move the cans into the garage after all.

On a happier note, here is a picture of the bird that keeps flying into the nest in the tree in our front yard.

Today was pirate dress up today at camp. As you can see the boys wanted minimal attire to dress up with. Dev insisted I take the picture of him with two eye patches!! Crazy boy! haha There are also going fishing again. The last time they went fishing at camp they didn't catch anything. So they are both hoping that today will be a lucky day and that they will catch some fish!! 

 So it's apparently a thing that boys give each other nicknames. I know during the school year Dev had a nickname (Yoda) and he told me names of his friends. Well now at camp they have given Dev the nickname of Noodles. I think it's funny. He said they gave it to him because of his hair. I have to admit, it does kinda look like curly noodles. He has such tight ringlet type curls up on top now that he's let it grow out longer. I really like how it looks. Oh, and Bry told me that his nickname is Noodles Jr.

How about this little treat? It's a bacon doughnut!! I haven't tried it yet. I brought it home from work to give to the boys as a treat. I have heard of them but never tasted one, so I'll let you know.

So....the last three days we watched all three of the back to the future movies.  A little known fact: I have never seen ANY of them!! I know....a little crazy, but now I have!  They were actually funny and it was neat to see all the "future" things in the movies of what they predicted would be in the future. Some of the things now actually exist! The boys really enjoyed all the movies.

Well that's all for now. Time to get the boys and see if they caught any fish!

Harmless wildlife

     It's been a fairly relaxing Sunday. That wasn't quite the plan, but yet I'm glad it worked out that way. We have a tree in our front yard that needs to be cut down, it's a new rule of the subdivision....long story and not that interesting, haha! Anyway, we had finally decided that today was the day to cut the tree down. We get all of our supplies ready and get the ladder in place and guess what......a birds nest! Really....that seriously puts a damper on the whole tree removal idea. Geez.....so we checked for eggs and yes there were three! Go figure....I have to admit at first I was a little selfish and not sympathetic to the birds that I wanted the tree gone, but we decided not to cut it down just yet.  I don't know how long it will take for the eggs to hatch and the birds to leave the nest so we will just play the waiting game until time to cut down the tree. We see all kinds of crazy wildlife around here all the time, so I have to say it was refreshing to see some wildlife that wasn't harmful or scary...lol...

So then I tackled my bike. It's had a flat tire for quite awhile. Mike helped me and instructed me on how to change the tire. It didn't take long and wasn't that hard. Now if I get a flat when I'm out riding I'll have a spare with me and know how to change it. Yes, I got a flat tire when out riding one day. Mike was out of town for the day and I was probably about 1 1/2 miles away from the house. It was not fun walking my bike back. So now I'll be prepared and probably not get a flat but I'm ok with that :-)

The rest of the day has been nice and relaxing. It has rained on and off and I've been mostly on the couch, sometimes looking at the back of my eyelids..heehee. We haven't had too many days like this for the last several months with either soccer, vacations or work obligations. I have picked up some extra hours at the hospital along with some call hours so sometimes I'm working on the weekends now also. Today was a nice little break with not a lot to do. Of course, I need to make a grocery run but I think I will just postpone it to tomorrow.

I can't believe there are only 3 more weeks left of summer. It's been a great summer and very busy but I don't want it to end. The boys are enjoying their summer camp. They get to swim, go fishing, go kayaking and lots of other fun stuff. Bry got camper of the week last week! yay...they only have two more weeks of camp left. There isn't any camp the week before school so we will just do some fun things on our own and enjoy the last week before school. 

The end of July Bry has a National 3v3 soccer tournament in Disney. It will be very hot, but we've heard it's a fun tournament, and of course it's at ESPN Disney so that will be fun!! I don't think we will do any parks while we are there, just resort relaxing in between soccer. I do hope we make it to Downtown Disney or as it known now as Disney Springs. There is a statue there of Tigger and Pooh that we've been getting pictures taken there since we first went in 2008. It's fun to watch how much the boys have grown over the years. You can see the picture here

So if you are new to my blog this is an example of what you can expect. It's sort of a diary of our life. I do post some things that I also post on FB but I tend to post more personal things here, silly stories, recipes, and other odds and ends things that happen in our everyday life. This started as a way for me to share with our long distance family and friends what we are up to. I had this blog before FB became popular. Now, most people that I would share this with are on FB too, but again, this is much more personal. It also archives my posts for me (there's a list on the sidebar) and I can always go back and see things we've done years ago, fun!

So I leave you today with a great picture from this summer!! Toodles..

It's been a long time ...I know it.

Well hello there,

     It's been a long time since I've blogged. But lately I find myself returning to my blog to find old pictures or posts. I have realized something....it is so fun to read back over things that have happened and to see pictures that I probably would not share on facebook.  This blog was originally started as a fun way to share our life with our family that did not live close to us. Over time as we moved around from place to place, it then became a way for not only family but also our close friends to keep up with the traveling Carters! ha!
     Obviously we have moved yet again and are now pretty far away. I have enjoyed reading over past posts from this blog as sort of a diary of our life. I have decided that I want to continue it. I also believe there are companies that can put my blog into a book format...which would be very cool to have a hard copy of this blog in the future.
      Anyhoo....alot has happened since my last post so I am not going to even try to recap. But, I will just start with where we are now and continue on.

For now I'll just start with this picture of us in Hawaii at Hanauma Bay for snorkeling this past June. Wow...totally amazing is all I can say!!!

I'll be back soon....for now Toodles.

February Fun!

Let's see....

Well February has been a great month. We actually spent Valentine's Day in Disney! That was a lot of fun! It was a little more crowded than I had expected. However, is was Valentine's Day and President's day weekend so I think that contributed to some higher crowd volume. Luckily we are getting really good at working our fast passes for the rides we really want to ride. Our annual pass is really working out well and we are definitely getting our use out of it!! So here's a recap of our Disney weekend.

We met up with some friends from Pensacola that were in Disney also. We haven't seen them for about 5 years so it was great to catch up with them and in a fun place!!

Then later in the afternoon we headed over to Epcot to ride a few rides and check out a few attractions that we haven't experienced yet. I loved the heart photo op that they had set up.

 Of course we had to do it! The photographer was funny, because once we were done and handing off the heart to the next in line the guy says, "Next victim!!" Ha! I thought that was great because I'm sure the only reason those guys were in line was because their Valentine drug them into that line!!  Sunday we got up early and headed to Magic Kingdom. We spent most of the morning there and then headed to check into our resort. We took a little break and then headed towards the Polynesian resort where we had dinner reservations at Ohana. Yum...we love that place!! In fact, the boys do too and Bry even almost ate himself sick..he totally almost ate too much..poor thing! ha! But he was OK. Our dinner reservation was 8pm so after waiting to be seated and then eating and catching the bus back to the resort, it was pretty late once we got back to the room.

Monday we planned to check out the indoor arcade downtown called Disney quest. It was amazing! Wow, it was 5 floors of video, arcade and interactive games. A gamer's heaven for sure!!

Boys having fun!!

Even the big boy!!! Of course!

They had some pretty cool 3D interactive games that were a lot of fun.


 Later we headed over to Hollywood Studios for our dinner at the drive in. It was fun and the boys enjoyed it. Of course, we didn't get the car style that I wanted for us, (you weren't allowed to pick the car) but that's OK. It was still a great experience!

Gotta love that Disney is adding Starbucks locations throughout the parks! Love the Disney Starbucks cup!

So Dev decided he was going to ride Rockin Roller coaster this time. It would pretty much be his first time riding a coaster that goes upside down. Technically he rode one only one other time when we went to Busch Gardens, but in his defense none of us knew it was going to go upside and he was not happy at all when we got off the ride. That was probably 2 years ago. He is now ready to go for it again! He loved it!! He wanted to ride again but we only had 1 fast pass for it and the line was way too long to wait, so I know what's on the agenda for our next trip! I love that in the pic Mike, me and some other girl are screaming and Dev's face is almost one of shock...lol..

This picture was before he rode the ride, but he was ready!! Cool pre-teen pose...I guess...eekk!

We met up with cousin Len and we watched Fantasmic.

As many times as we've been to Disney we've never stayed to watch Fantasmic. It was Fantastic for sure!! Wow...it was worth it!! Len took us back to our resort which was nice that we didn't have to catch the bus back. Our last day we spent another 1/2 day back at Disney Quest. The boys loved it!
Our next trip isn't far off! We are headed back in May before the summer rush! I'm hoping the weather is good because we want to get back to the water parks. We only spent a 1/2 day at Blizzard beach awhile back because we got stormed out of the park by bad weather. So I'm hoping we can get back to blizzard beach and spend more time there, or even visit Typhoon lagoon. It will also be the end of the Epcot flower and Garden festival so we can check that out also.

It was hard for me to get Dev to pose for many pictures on this trip. Of course he wanted to pose for this one and stick out his tongue...lovely!! ha ha

We got a chance to watch a new parade that we've never seen at Magic Kingdom.  The fire breathing dragon was awesome!

They have some new food trucks at downtown Disney! Unfortunately we weren't there when they opened. They didn't open until 3pm and by that time both days we were other places. Too bad, because the menus looked really good. I guess that's on the list for next time too!

We also saw this cute little guy swimming in the small lake at the resort...wow..who knew that otters were in there??

Seven dwarfs mine train, the new coaster is fun! It takes your picture and you don't even know it until you get home and they send you an email. They even include a small video clip of you on the coaster. Very cool. Of course I kinda snapped a copy of this pic off the computer...ah hem...maybe...lol..

Oh yeah...so we were headed to ride space mountain and the ride was temporarily closed. So we rode one of Bry's favorite rides the people mover. Well it goes through an inside area where you can see the inside of space mountain. Normally all you see is darkness, an occasional coaster zoom by and you hear lots of screams. Well this time....THE LIGHTS WERE ON!! Wow! Since the ride was down the lights were on and we got to see all the winding track inside...very cool!

Both boys begged for one of these giant doughnuts at Epcot! I should of took a picture while they were holding it because this picture doesn't do it justice! They were huge!! Almost the size of his head and I'm not joking!! I did give in....a Valentine's treat!  :-)

We love Disney and we are lucky to now live so close that we can just hop in the car and go almost any time. The thing I love the most is that we can enjoy our favorite things when we go and  enjoy brand new experiences almost every time also!

So soccer for Dev has been on a small break. He is still having practice but the games took a break over Dec./Jan. His games start back up this weekend. His team won the championship for the fall season! He was excited!


Bry will start back to soccer in a few weeks. We signed him back up for the recreational league and he will also be practicing with the pre-academy team that he spent 7 weeks practicing with over the winter break. We are about to get very soccer busy!

This past Sunday we went on a great trip to a place called Lion Country Safari. Our neighborhood organized a group event so we could get group pricing. It SAVED us around $24 per person!! yes...$24 per person!! wow!! So I'm really glad we could go as the group. It was a great place. The first part is a drive through safari that you drive in your own car. They also give you a CD that narrates as you drive through the park telling you about the animals that you are seeing. I really enjoyed that. The animals were very close to the road and our car! There was a pretty strong minded Ostrich that just walked all in between the cars. It was neat to see them up close. The rhinos were very close too and the CD warned you not to get too close because they weren't responsible for any damage possibly done to your car by the Rhino! yikes...ha ha... Then when the drive through was over there was a very nice park with many more animals, rides for small kids, mini golf, paddle boats, house boat ride, camel rides, and feeding the giraffes. Many more things too but you get the idea. It was a very nice place to visit and we all really enjoyed it. Mom went with us and Mike had to stay home to catch up on some work, he really missed out!!

As you can see Bry was enjoying himself as Granny and Dev were controlling the paddle boat!

Feeding the giraffes! Bry wasn't to sure..in fact I'm not sure if he actually did it or not. Maybe once??
I can't remember now...ha ha

Check out the Rhino crossing the road!

Rhino!!

I loved this Ostrich!!

I was trying to get Mom to lean forward into the picture but she was fighting the seat belt and I was driving trying not to run off the road. So here is the result...ha ha ha

So I joined a new Bunco group that started in our neighborhood. I figured I would check it out and see if I could meet some new peeps in the neighborhood. I kinda FB stalked the people that were RSVP'ing to make sure that they weren't all over 65! LOL...seriously, our neighborhood has many events that are well attended....by the older crowd. Nothing is wrong with the older crowd, don't get me wrong, but I was looking for a younger group to get to know. There were 16 of us that showed up and it was pretty fun. I had quite a few good laughs and met some nice people overall. I even met one girl that had lived in STL and even worked as a RN at some of the same hospitals that I did when I lived in STL. Small world!! The two girls hosting had Mexican theme snacks and even had Sangrias...yum!! I won some $$!! It cost me $10 to play for the night, and I won $20!! So that was a great bonus! We will play once a month until summer and then take a small break and pick back up in the fall. I enjoyed it and plan to go back next month so that's a good sign!! :-)

So this weekend our neighborhood is having a movie night in the large field behind the clubhouse and then an overnight camp out! They tried to have one last year but it was more in the rainy season and kept getting rained out so they are trying it again this weekend. The boys are saying that they do want to camp out. So we have two tents and will see what happens. They are skittish to any noises or animals so this should be interesting...LOL...at least I think the weather will be cooperating so that's a good thing.


Well that's about all for now.....Toodles!