jax

last  weekend we made a delightful trip down to jacksonville, fl to visit my brother and his family for a few days. i prepared for the worst when it came to the actual car trip with three small boys. and i am pleased to say they were excellent. excellent. all three of them. they are good travelers and very flexible but that tuck man does not liked to be strapped in a car seat for long. 

they made themselves busy busy with all sort of things. grey couldn't wait to get to garrett's house and i was afraid he was going to pull the ol' "are we there yet?" every 2 minutes until we got there but thankfully he was more interested in the bajillion activities i had packed.

we hit quite the storm on the way down but finally arrived a little after 11 pm. 

friday was filled full with lots of fun! we hit the jacksonville zoo that morning. what an awesome zoo! matthew and i loved it. the weather was absolutely perfect. 

we looked at the map, rode the train, played on the best playground i've ever been to, had a picnic, oh yeah and we saw some animals! 

my favorite were the penguins. garrett and grey tried their hand at the camera. grey got to use my camera and got a stellar shot of a penguin swimming by. 

and the boys played on REALLY big elephants.

we reluctantly made our way back to the house and hit the beach later that evening for some family pictures. i was so glad to capture some images of life right now for them. what a stunning little family!

my boys just played in the ocean in their clothes. and had a blast!

the adults got to finally relax together friday night and have a little conversation.

saturday morning we got to go watch garrett play t-ball and uncle nathan coach! we got to see garrett hit a ball that was pitched to him, run the bases, and be the catcher. grey thought it was awesome.

unfortunately we had to leave after lunch on saturday to make it home for church sunday morning. 

as we stopped for a short bathroom, nursing, stretching break, we told the boys to hop out of the van and stretch their legs. so they did.

we did get the pleasure of stopping in columbia to see papa and gigi and eat a delicious dinner. what a treat! 

we had a blast and are so thankful for nathan, allison, garrett and sweet wyatt. we are so glad we got to come down to your stompin' grounds and spend some time together. sorry we broke a plate, disrupted your sleep, and took over your house. good thing we know you love us too!