Of Spring,Real life net friends, Tourism, Zombies,and New paint

--Noobie does not approve of standing swinging---

HEY people!!

Spring has made me a busy busy bumble bee...
Do not worry though,
I still maintain my superhuman ability to procrastinate ..
I say, as I blog instead of doing another load of dishes or using the wiifit.

Besides, I have a load of pics. Mind if I just throw them up explain a little and avoid as many big long rants as possible?








Thursday - I got to meet up with some not so imaginary net friends! No AprilFoolin'!!
Turns out. some people I chat with on the internets are real people.
Amber is actually local- and Ri went to school with her hubby! It is a small world when you meet someone on a huge message board who lives right down the road in your place in the middle of no where.
And Tiffers-and fam- came all the way down here to spend spring break with Amber in the Florida sun . (again- she did yr before last as well)
We have all met before , on top of the years of net friendship - they are superswell so we were excited to get to go out with our whole fam.
Ri was off work so we all headed out to St.Auggy for a day of touristy fun.
The restaurant we planned to go for lunch was closed -bummer- so we headed to Nalus- hoping not to ruin Ri's boss' day too much.With 12 people ...


Ri at least tried to make it easy ordering it all together and not holding up the line :).. hopefully we weren't too big of a pain.
The food was awesome as always .. I think everyone liked it.




Amber's girls seemed to love it :)

Tiff took those two pics- I love the bunny ears lol.
Just assume that all the really good pictures of Thursday were taken by Tiff not me.thanks.



Then we even got to see Rockell.

Nalu's is right up against the state park- so she is pretty much protected..
they have tried relocating her and she always comes back.
The food is that good
Ri got Rory a sno-cone. I tried to talk him out of it. He had promised her some last time we went, but with all the other kids I feared the ramifications.. it turned out perfect- because that huge heaping sno-cone was too much for her , we got extra spoons,and she happily sweetly shared with all the girls.
On to downtown- they just reopened the newly restored old bridge of lions(that is a rant for another time)
I am glad Tif thinks to get a scenery pic when I fail to think of such.

The girls were sooo cute holding hands and chatting up a storm
This is Tif's baby girl Elise with Rory





On to the old Fort!

Spring break meant the crowd was MUCH bigger than normal -plus it was a spectacularly beautiful day

Nathan (Tif's hubby) & Ri chatting on top of the fort


The girls walked all over like this:


it did get in the way a little-but it also helped keep track of them

Rory is like a mini tour guide


watch out- the girls are gonna shoot the cannon!




Amber's boy Sonny- wondering why there are blowpop wrappers in there



Don't shoot! I'm not actually a pirate


Evie, Rae, Elise and Rory
I have not mastered this ability to take pictures of more than one child looking at my camera... thank goodness someone can.


Ri has an idea
....

He said it looked like a potty.


The girls thought watching the pro model shoot was awesome..






Note my failed attempt at the multichild shot


The boys- Sonny and Dev











We made our way back to the lower part of the fort..
Listening to the girls chat about a million things at once,
and Dev ponder how well the Fort would fair against Zombies.



I love that they looks so behaved and angelic in this picture.


Inside the chapel



I admit being a little surprised this entertained them all so much




Who knew they would all be so fascinated by history lessons?


...well. the tv zombie status wasn't totally shocking





Amber & Joe


The writing on the wall in this room was so odd and interesting..

This part was sort of spooky. We were talking about how the Ghost Hunters show had even visited the fort.
..and zombies.


No wonder the girls look so spooked








..suddenly the repair work on our house seems not so bad:

The little girls were just entertained by jumping around on the old floors



I did watch some of this speech while the girls jumped around- this guy was pretty entertaining





This room creeped Rory out- but I think she just heard people on the outside walking by-
Tif even picked up some cool things at the gift shop.
Rory was eager to show everyone around the outside of the fort.

I love that Elise looks like she owns the place











The hot-shot cannon thingy is Rory's fav- I got some good pics of Sonny looking through it


We were talking about how coquina absorbs shots - it was neat to see on the outside






Rory got blisters from not wearing socks(I told her soo!) - we headed to the cars -



and on to the beach!!
We stopped to get surf boards from the surf station.
Dev had mentioned he wanted to try so Ri was eager to show him a little






Eve is an expert kite flier! She told me( in a very grown up way-esspecialy for a 6yr old)- that it is a tradition to fly kites when she goes to the beach :)

Reagan followed Rory everywhere it was adorable


She looks just like little mini Amber



Elise was too cute splashing us from this little tide pool






That water is cold .yo.
I didn't go in it.




I love how well they played together. Amber mentioned something about how much they fight- but I didn't see it. I guess that is the way it is with siblings though.

The waves were pretty small- but I think Ri caught at least a few if only for a second.


I love love love this picture.yes.I took it and I am bragging. but it is cool. Eve is a great model

I was watching the kids for a bit with Tif- while Amber and Joe rode their awesome new beach cruiser bikes around getting good and exhausted.

So anyway.
We had parked on Crescent Beach park- and just walked over to the beach..
I am standing there watching the kids when this person I know just appears next to me.

My sister!!
Are you stalking me?
LMAO! I hadn't even told her we were going to the beach! Nor had she mentioned it to me- How she found me on the beach miles from our home town is amazing.
well. to me. It is true that Crescent Beach is pretty much THE beach you go to from Putnam County. She said she was extra confused because she saw all these kids and wasn't sure it was me.

Nico was soo excited to see me - he literally bounced in my arms and pointed to the water!

I love these pics

Dev got his first taste of icky board rash. ouch

BTW. I can't fly a kite.

Lissy gave us space for awhile playing in the sand with Boo and Nico while we hung out with our crew- When Dev decided he was done surfing Ri took Boo out for a bit, and Lissy came and chatted.

Nico took to Amber right away- in between wanting to nurse the whole time.

Hey at least someone can fly a kite


It was too cold for baby Boo so they didn't stay long



I took some pics for Tif-last time they got a family picture on the dune and hoped for another
-seriously cute family



As we headed out to head home- they asked if we wanted to come over to Amber&Joe's after dinner, play some cards and have some drinks. Sounded like an awesome plan.
We headed there after a long story trip to two publixs dropping off the boards- and a stop home for a shower. It was already pretty late so the kids were all relaxed in their Pjs


We drank and played cards for a bit.
I suck at poker.badly.
Sorry Daddy.

Amber had stopped to pick up her oldest daughter from her dads
- She ended up being an awesome help watching the little ones as we acted equally childish outside with a huge fire, the dogs, and too much to drink.and popcorn,lol.
Would you like some popcorn?

It was like a mini vacation we stayed really late and almost ended up staying the night.

-but.
Ri had to work the next day. and I had to prep the house for painting.
ugh.
The work on the house.
oh yeah. responsibility.

My main plan was escaping it all this time. the wallpaper removal was enough for me to stomach.
So I packed an overnight bag to stay at moms Saturday.

Saturday- We got sort of a late start. Ri's Dad, stepbrother and his son came over-Thank goodness for all their help! and JJ comes to pick up Me& Rory so we can celebrate Zombie Jesus!

Lissy and Boo came over too-
bringing the ball pit /tent Nico got for his birthday, that Rory has been dying to see-
We brought to Wii to show off-... well almost I had to send JJ back to get the cord I forgot. boo played it a little at least.

We dyed eggs. Mostly me and Libby. I LOVE dyeing eggs. I think I may start doing so regularly just for funsies. We also grubbed on Easter candy. oooo jelly beans!

We ended up making all sorts of denominational eggs- star of David, Flying Spaghetti monster, a cross and Ankh , and of course a Zombie Jesus egg.
Mom was working at her new job as a waitress at Porky's .. so we waited on her to do an egg hunt and went on a walk 1st...

..no. Rory doesn't wear this shirt ALL the time. She just takes it as soon as it gets out of the dryer...



Nico called the eggs balls - crushable balls.frickin awesome



That is the egg that says her name



I love these pictures.


YAY! Eggs!!










Here is where I confess my next project for my other blog was close to completion ..until I took these pictures of Nico and now I must find a way to use them..



He is far too cute.


Yay! Mom is home time for the egg hunt!

Nico had a part of hiding the egg- so it gave them a perfect match for finding them

I think Nico liked the egg better IN the tree

...hunting eggs is hard work!


I wish I had thought to get pictures of all the eggs right after we dyed them- I was too busy having fun
Rory played outside with JJ and Boo- they played frisbee and tennis and golf/ which was pretty much field hockey for Rory.

Mom LOVED the Zombie egg she even showed it off to Dad when he came home.


Ri said things went well-but the house reeked of paint still. So Rory and I stayed the night. She stayed up way crazy late watching the giant tv- until I dragged her to to crazy comfy bed in the guest room.
We had to leave pretty early after waking up just to open the house back up for poor Noobs.
but Rory was determined to get in some more golf with JJ and some time in the hammock 1st


I almost had a panic attack when I saw the mess. Yeah the walls look amazing,but, I had no idea where to even begin to put things back- I didn't expect for soo much to be stuffed into our bedrooms, and to make matters worse the carpet is trashed(they covered it- but not well partially since Ri's plan is to take it up anyway)..ugh.



When I called Ri who should have been on his way to the mandatory holiday shift at cowboys, he was on his way home after getting irritated with texts all day at his other job. I am still not sure if he will work there tonight or if he is fired/quits. It has gotten to be too much crap from them for too little. While Nalu's has been stark contrast being an awesome experience with great people.

Oh. the walls









I did finally get around to putting things back and cleaning.. but it still isn't quite right, and there is still much to do.

Who wants a house?


sigh.
I'd rather just watch tv. and play outside in the beautiful weather that Rory spend her stuffy pollen filled entire day out in.


Also.
Congratulate me for doing this post AND the dishes and an hour on the wiifit.
Woohoo. and it is only 6am.lol


Well. I am going to go get a nap in before I get tooo chatty. The pic should suffice instead of my ranting for this one.
PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE