End of November

Baymax started shedding his undercoat, so we pinned him down and tried to quickly brush him as much as he would let us. Look at all the hair we ended up with! He had so much more that needed to be brushed out, but he hates it so we had to quit.

I decided to bring Rett along to my mom and my girl's weekend at Treasure Island near St. Petersburg. I thought it would be nice for Rett to get some 1 on 1 time and for James to have some alone time during fun things with Anthony. The drive out there was terrible with the Friday afternoon Orlando traffic and the rainy weather so we decided to take a break for dinner at Cracker Barrell. One of these days I am going to figure out how to solve the triangle puzzle they have at the tables!

 

Rett's favorite activity during the weekend: chilling with Ipad.

I bought a bonnet attachment for your hairdryer that is supposed to be amazing for curly hair and decided this would be a great opportunity to test it out. It did not work at all!

The weekend happened to be the same weekend as a sand castle and kite festival, so we were able to walk from our hotel right onto the beach and check it out. Rett insisted that these were made from concrete and not sand!

There were also these strange ground kites (?) that looked like crabs walking on the beach:

The cool thing about Treasure Island is that it is so small you can walk everywhere to explore. So Rett and I decided to walk to Publix to grab some breakfast and see if we could find a local bookstore. Before we left our house, Rett said his goal was to eat at restaurants and buy lots of books. Sounds like perfect plan to me!

The local bookstore had mostly adult paperbacks, so we drove 15 minutes away to a local mall and had a blast at Barnes and Noble. So many new books!

We walked around the mall and explored the different stores. Rett insisted I get a picture of this broken pedestrian sign. He thought it was so funny! He kept saying, "You had one job!"

It was pretty chilly and windy, but Rett was brave and tried out the pool anyway. He found a friend to play with and they spent a lot of time swimming and going back and forth to the hot tub.

The kites were so cool!

Every once in a while a man would stop by the pool and blow a bunch of big bubbles. He never said anything and if the kids tried to come up to him, he would shoo them away. He just did the bubbles and walked away. So weird!

More ipad time:

James had fun with Anthony while we were gone. They checked out a new local deli for lunch and James discovered that he likes bagels.

Then they went up to Daytona to try out indoor electric go-karts. They absolutely loved it! The track monitors your speed and puts your times and scores up on a scoreboard at the end.

James made Anthony breakfast in bed:

They went to a BBQ place for dinner and this is the lovely picture Anthony was able to get of James.

Me and Rett sitting at the park eating our breakfast:

Rett and Grandma walking back to the hotel after exploring the festival:

Ice cream on the way home after dinner:

While we were shopping I bought a hot chocolate bomb because I've always wanted to try one. This one was absolutely terrible, it didn't dissolve very well and tasted bland.

Rett got a big stuffed Axolotl at a toy store in the mall and he was so excited about it. How could I resist buying it for him when we actually have a pet axolotl?

The festival had fireworks at night, so I went out to watch it from the pool deck. Rett was not a fan. He stayed in the room with my mom and waited for them to be over.

Strange nighttime kites:

The next morning we walked across the street to try to find some breakfast. The best we could find was a candy store that also sold doughnuts that they made right in front of you!

Opening some 5 Surprise mini brands:

On the way home, we saw two Lamborghinis drive past us. I had to take a picture and send it to Anthony and James.

We finally buckled down and with the help of a friend butchered a good amount of roosters, a few small hens, and 7 turkeys. We decided to try making chicken sausage with the rooster meat and it turned out so good! We are definitely going to do that from now on.

Our friends got a new couch set, so we inherited their old one. It is so much cozier than our old couches and has a lot more seating. It makes snuggling in for movies way more fun!

We spent Thanksgiving this year at my mom's house in Trenton. It was nice not having to host this year and just enjoy spending time with each other.

And of course, snuggle Rosie!! We love this dog to death!

Evening fire in my mom's backyard:

The next day we decided to go into Gainesville to do a little bit of shopping. James wanted to send Anthony this picture of this ATV to try to convince him to buy it. Nice try!

We did end up buying Rosie and Bitsy matching outfits! Sooooo cute!

When we got home we discovered that a hen had hatched a nest of eggs! We ended up with 7 chicks that we gave away to some friends of ours who recently lost all of their chickens to predators.

I convinced Anthony to go with me to buy a new artificial Christmas tree and we were able to put it up before the end of the Thanksgiving break. It is officially Christmas time!

Rett's uniform arrived in the mail in time for his very first pack meeting as an official cub scout. He is so stinkin' cute, I can't stand it!