Marlee 14!!! Party and gender reveal

Marlee turned 14 last week!!!! Unfortunately, it was the only day we could have a big party that we have wanted for so long so Marlee was nice enough to compromise with us and let us have the party on his birthday. People estimated that 200 people came!!! We are grateful the weather was perfect!

💙 HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARLEE!! 💙

💙 Our independent, brave and relentless firstborn beloved son. 💙

Marlee was of course celebrated in the morning but preferred to do it by the dining room tables instead of his bunk bed. The cousins from Miami were here, too, to celebrate him :-)

During our big party we had had a friend making us a cake with the color of the baby gender. Alex knew already but I didn’t. It was quite a shock to realize that it is a GIRL coming in July!!!!! When I finally felt like I was kind of knowing what I was doing I get a new challenge 😃

My very sweet friend Brook made this video of the party 💖

NOTA - Night of the Arts

 Our yearly Night of the Arts were a couple of weeks ago with our coop Blue Oak. Rafael, Gabriel and Marlee participated and they all did a great job! Marlee's rubiks cube had a corner turned which made it extra complicated to solve it and made his performance a little longer than planned. Still a great show!

Getaway and Go cart

Last year Alex and I managed to get away to Utah for a weekend and get some time without the kids. Alex gets invited every year to speak at a conference there and they pay for me to as well as hotel etc so I went with him this year, to :-) It was a great weekend and farmor, who took care of the boys, did a wonderful job!

David did very well while we were gone :-)

Unfoetusntley, I am having trouble getting the pictures in order so Marlee and Noah went go carting with some friends when we got back and thaws pictures ended up before our Idaho pictures… They had so much fun!

Lizzy, who most people never even see when they visit our house. She is so shy. 

Back to our Idaho trip. Layover in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of four states I have never been to and being at her airport does not count. 

Pedicure at the hotel in Ceour d’Alene, Idaho. :-)

Boat road at the lake by the hotel. Beautiful day. Last year it was snowing the whole first day, which was great, too, since I don’t get to see snow so often in Florida :-)

Breakfast at a famous restaurant, “Jimmy down the street”.

Flying back home, mountains in Idaho. 

Navarre Beach and Pensacola

Straight from monster jam we headed to Navarre beach. It was quite a long drive at such a late hour but me and the kids slept while Alex drove. :-) A sweet family had lent us their vacation house (mansion) where we stayed. It was on the river and walking distance to the ocean side beach. The weather was pretty chili so we did not go swimming but it is a beautiful place we would not mind going back to.

Vacation breakfast!

The national park right next to the house. 

The beach on the river side here is quite a bit nicer than what we are used to in ormond!!

They found a friend, and lots of legos!!!

On the dock by the house.

The peer in Navarre. 

Navarre beach!

A sea turtle they we saw from the peer. 

Back in the park. 

Monster jam!!

Such an adventure!!! For Christmas we face our kids and the cousins to go see the Monster Jam in Jacksonville, FL, and today was the day. We left ormond beach and with warm sunny weather and it didn't even cross my mind that the weather would be bad…

While driving up to Jax we hit one storm and while we were there visiting with Aunt Jackie the storm kept going and it rained A LOT! While driving to the stadium there was lightning as well and once inside the stadium we realized the event was postponed while waiting for the weather to improve. All the people was waiting in the areas behind the … and let me say it was crowded. It made me think of a refugee camp or when disaster hits and people escape to the near by stadium. The monster jam started two hours late, at 9pm. It was still raining quite a bit but no thunder or lightning.

Getting info that we would soon get to go in and find out seats :-) (Rafael did not get into the picture unfortunately)

I took pictures during breaks in the rain. 

Yes, we were all soaking wet!

We ended up having a great time and it was a fun adventure despite the rain and cold (cold for Florida).