Hunting For Alligators with the Bitter Family

One thing I LOVE about where we live, is that we are right next to a major cruise port.  Therefore we get lots of fun visitors!

Midway through January the Bitter family, from our Bay Area ward, came for a quick visit before leaving on a two week cruise through the Panama canal.  I wish I could put into words how good it was to see them again.  I sure do miss living down the street from them, having our weekly girls Bachelor viewing parties, eating all of Aubrey's yummy treats, snuggling with their crazy kiddos, and simply laughing with them.  A lot of great memories were made with this crazy family throughout our five years in California.  We feel truly blessed to call them our friends!

I picked up Aubrey, Shawn, Greg, and Bryson from the airport and brought them back to our house.  We had a fun pizza party, stayed up super late talking and watching a movie, and then woke them up bright and early for our Florida adventure together.  We wanted to make sure that we made good use of what little time we had together, so the next morning we took off to explore the Everglades.  We knew that it would be a huge success with Greg and Bryson.  What little boy doesn't like alligators!

Getting some early morning snuggles in with my little buddies!

It wouldn't be the Bitter family without crazy facial expressions!

They were so sweet and got me the coolest attachments for my iPhone camera.  Greg and Bryson had fun goofing off while I used some of the different lenses.  The fish eye lens was my favorite.  I love how you can see Daxton in the bottom of the picture watching  Greg and Bryson's antics.

The Everglades Holiday Park is about 15 minutes from our house and opened at 9am, so it was perfect for a quick adventure and then dropping them off at their cruise boat.  While Dallas and Shawn were getting tickets we snapped a few pictures of our new friend.

The Bitter Family

(L to R) Shawn, Aubrey, Bryson, and Greg

Trying to get a crazy toddler to look at the camera can be quite difficult at times!

Looking out at our fan boat...

LOVE these pictures above and below.  

We had so much fun on our air boat ride!

The fan on the air boat can get VERY loud, but Daxton does well if daddy is there.  Dallas has a way of comforting him, that I'm very envious of.  Daxton will snuggle into Dallas's arm and either go to sleep or snack on goldfish, but if it's just me holding him, he tends to freak out a bit more by the sound.  Both Greg and Bryson did awesome on the air boat and weren't bothered by the sound.  All they did was cover their ears and they were fine.  I do love how fast the air boats go, though.

I am constantly in awe of the beauty of the Everglades.  It's crazy to think of how diverse this country is, just thinking about the different beauties of both California and Florida.  They are so beautiful and so unique in their own ways.

The boys had a blast watching all the different birds and looking for alligators.  The teacher in me definitely came out and loved telling them all about the different plants and animals they were seeing.  Which of course Dallas had a fun time teasing me about!

More of the beautiful Everglades...

The air boat ride lasts about an hour, sometimes a little more depending on how long it takes to find the alligators.  It's such a gorgeous tour and our tour guide was great as well.

We were able to see a few alligators before our tour was finished.  It was pretty cool, because one of the gators swam right next to the boat several times.  It must have been showing off for our guests!  The boys got a major kick out of it!

Close enough to touch!!

After the air boat ride, we went to the Alligator wrestling show put on by the Gator Boys from the famous TV show "Gator Boys."  It was super fun to see the people from the show, but even more so, to see them wrestle a gator.  I wish I could have captured the looks of astonishment from Greg and Bryson's face when they did some of the crazy gator tricks!

The show's about ready to start!

Daxton is totally obsessed with gators and loves watching the wrestling shows.

Tommy put on a great show.  The boys loved watching him jump on the gator and especially loved the "Face Off" trick.  I'm sure Aubrey and Shawn were just thankful there are no gators in California, because I could totally see Greg and Bryson wanting to try this at home!

After the show we were able to each hold a baby gator, which is Daxton's favorite part.  Both Greg and Bryson were super brave and had no hesitation about holding one on their own.  It helps that the gators mouth was taped shut!

So fun to see how excited they both were!

Aubrey and Shawn also took turns holding our new buddy...

You can see from Daxton's face below that he LOVES gators.  He always giggles when we hold baby gators.  His favorite are their toes and claws.  Daxton's really good about being soft as well, which I'm sure they appreciate.

One last family shot

It was so good to see the Bitter family.
I so wish we could have spent more time with them, but we will take whatever we can get!  Thanks so much for coming out to visit us!  We sure do love and miss you guys.

Pinwheels for Liam

January 3rd marked the one year anniversary of little Liam's birth.

Last year I wrote a blog post dedicated to our sweet angel which you can read about here.  For his anniversary, my younger brother, Richard, and his wife, Leisha, asked us to take pictures with pinwheels (our symbol for Liam.)  Whenever I see a pinwheel, I love that I think of little Liam and the fun things he is probably doing in heaven.  I've tried to introduce Daxton to pinwheels as much as possible as well.  I know he and Liam will be great little buddies someday.  I love watching the joy on Daxton's face when the pinwheels start turning and imagine that same smile while playing with little Liam.

I couldn't think of a better place to remember Liam than the beach.  So Dallas, Daxton, and I brought our favorite pinwheel and headed  for Pompano Beach.  It was kind of gray and rainy when we left, but by the time we arrived the clouds had cleared.  Daxton LOVED playing with the pinwheel in the car.  The smile on his face below says it all!

Liam was definitely with us!

There was a nice breeze as we explored the pier and played in the sand.  

I love watching these two interact!

There is always lots of giggling and goofing off when daddy is around!  I also loved how quickly the pinwheel was spinning.  It turned out beautiful in the pictures.

Such a smiley, handsome, little man!

After exploring the pier, watching the fisherman, and chasing birds, we made our way down to the sand.  We had a blast building sand castles and running in the waves.

I absolutely LOVE the picture below.

Dallas was such a sweetheart and came up with this idea.  I love how he used the pinwheel for the "i".  It was a little difficult trying to get Daxton to not jump in the letters til after we snapped a picture!  

Daxton's using some serious strength in the picture below!

I loved Richard and Leisha's idea of spending a day as a family simply remembering sweet Liam.  Obviously he is always in our thoughts, but it was fun to create family memories exclusively for our perfect angel Liam.  

Over the past year, I have been truly humbled by the examples of both my brothers and their wives.  They have found such strength in the gospel and the knowledge that we are sealed for eternity as a family.  Both Richard and Leisha have continually found ways to remember and include Liam in their daily lives.  Their strength and faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, is truly inspiring.

It was an honor to help remember Liam's perfect spirit and his addition to our eternal family.  We will forever think of little Liam when we see pinwheels!

Buddies and Birthdays

At the beginning of January Daxton's best buddy, Julian, turned 2.  It is pretty funny to watch toddlers play together.  They don't interact much, unless one is playing with a cool toy and the other wants it as well.  But they do parallel play with each other and love to be in each other's company.  Julian's party was at a fun neighborhood park, so there was lots for kids of all ages to do.  When we arrived, Julian's family was unloading their car, so Daxton gave Julian his present a little early.  Then they both got a wagon ride to the party.  I love watching them play!

Everyone brought lots of fun bikes and wagons to the park to share, so Daxton was in heaven.  The bottom right picture made him look so grown up!  We were super excited that the party fell on a Saturday so daddy could join us as well.  We love all the time we can get with daddy!

I was glad Dallas was there to help with the playground.  I tend to be the obnoxious worried mom hovering at Daxton's ankles, always nervous he's going to fall and brake his arm.  So it was nice to have daddy in charge of watching him.  He's much more normal and less high strung!  It was fun to watch Daxton explore and try new things and I just kept thinking how grown up he looked.

(Not to mention he was wearing my favorite shirt)

Danny brought a rope for the kids to play tug-o-war.  It was so funny to watch Julian and Daxton try to join in with the bigger kids.  They all had so much fun and there were lots of squeals and giggling that took place throughout the morning.

Can you find Julian and Daxton in the pile of kids!?

Alex is super creative and made the cutest cakes for Julian.  They have a lot of family in the area and had a couple sheet cakes for everyone as well.  I loved watching Daxton's face light up as Alex placed the car cakes on the table.  

Julian's such a sweetheart and I'm so glad that Daxton has such a great friend.  We loved being able to celebrate with everyone!

Happy birthday, Julian!

Before and after chocolate cake...

Bringing in a New Year...

I literally can not believe that it is already May!

Where have the last few months gone?

For the one or two constant readers of our family blog...namely my parents...I have been terrible at keeping up on the craziness of our lives.  As our adventures kept piling up, the idea of blogging about all of them became more and more daunting.  I am now sitting down, with a cold Diet Coke Lime in hand, to tackle these last few months of life here for our posterities sake.  Moving here has been such an incredible adventure and I would hate to miss any of these amazing experiences!

I will start where I left off...

At New Years!

I was really nervous when we chose to move so far from family and friends.  I had made some of the most incredible relationships in the Bay area that I knew could never be replicated.  As with any type of change it can be intimidating and scary at first, but it forces you to grow on an entirely new level.  In the process of the past few months of living in South Florida, we have been blessed with meeting incredible people; two families in particular have blessed our lives immeasurably already: The Bradford family and the Solano family.

For New Years we all thought it would be fun to get together and celebrate, plus anyone who knows me knows my love for throwing parties!  Dallas was a sweetheart and helped by blowing up a ton of balloons, tied them together, and then pinned them throughout the downstairs of our home.  The leftover balloons we threw into Daxton's playroom which turned into a massive balloon soccer-squealing game during the party.  We of course had lots of yummy treats which were spread throughout our home as well.  I am so in love with our kitchen table!  It fits so many people around it and is absolutely beautiful.    

(Shows you how long ago this took place, just by looking at Daxton's hair length!)

I had a blast coming up with several games for us all to play.  I used some ideas from the TV show "Hollywood Game Night", but most were the classics like charades, name that tune, and Murder (which the older kids got a kick out of.)

Around 10pm Daxton "lost it" and basically begged for us to put him to bed.  He went right to sleep and even slept through all the fireworks and screaming when it turned midnight.  That kid values his sleep!

Little Julian was in the best mood all night and even stayed up til after the ball dropped!  Unlike James (above picture) who crashed around 11pm and slept through the screaming and all his siblings jumping on him.  Adam had to carry him out to the car after the festivities because he was still sleeping!

I can't say enough about the Bradford family!

They are so much fun to be around and have been such a blessing in our lives here.  Their oldest son, Noah, is our go-to babysitter and is hilarious.  When the Solanos didn't know what twerking was, he jumped up to lead a demonstration! 

Above picture:  The Bradford Family

(L to R) sleeping James, Adam, Isaac (yes Isaac is sitting on top of James and he still didn't wake up!) Tiffany, Noah, and Lucy.

Below top left picture: Solano Family

(L to R) Tatiana, Alex, Julian, Danny, and Aiden.

The Solano family is also amazing!

Alex is probably the most welcoming person I have ever met.  My first week attending our ward at church, she came up to me, got my phone number, and planned a play date for Julian and Daxton.  She has been such a blessing in my life and has helped make the transition to South Florida so much easier.

After all the yummy food and hours of fun games, we watched the ball drop.  We heard fireworks going on outside so we ran out to watch them for a bit as well.  The kids got a kick out of all the noise makers I had gotten.  It was such a fun night and a perfect indicator that our lives were going to be full of wonderful memories, great people, and fun adventures throughout our time here in South Florida!

The whole gang (except for a sleeping Daxton.)

Photo of the Week 63

This picture was taken at the Miami Seaquarium as Daxton and his buddy Brooke watched the dolphins play.

It's been a very busy few weeks and with Dallas in the thick of busy season, I find myself a "single parent" most days.  We are so grateful for Dallas' job and the security it allows so that I can stay at home with our little guy.  We miss daddy, of course, but are so grateful for his amazing work ethic and dedication.  We are very proud of daddy!

In the meantime, Daxton is very much a toddler and with this new stage brings a lot of excitement and added patience.  His personality is constantly shining through and his eagerness for more independence is extremely prominent.  It is tiring working through the emotional breakdowns and frustration while he is learning how to communicate, but I live for our daily snuggles.  He's such a loving and tender-hearted little guy.  We enjoy our many adventures throughout the week exploring this new area we call home.  I love my little buddy and feel so deeply grateful to be his mother.

On a side note, I'm a couple months behind on the blog, but am planning to post updates soon... we shall see if that happens!

Photo of the Week 62

There are many things that I am loving about living in south Florida, but one in particular sticks out in mind...close proximity to so many gorgeous beaches.

I love that my little man loves the sand and water just as much, if not more, than I do.  And to top it off...the water is warm!  Coming from the frigid temps of the Pacific Ocean, we are loving the warm Atlantic and year long summers.

We obviously are still missing family and friends (that probably won't ever change) but that pain is softened by the beauty that surrounds us daily.  So come and visit anytime!

Our home is always open!