Alligator Ally

On Saturday we decided to take the boys over to Alabama to see the alligators. It's only about 30 miles from our house and such a fun drive! Ryker absolutely loved all of the alligators! He prays for Pickles (the one he was able to pet) and the big alligators every single prayer. Right when we got there we had 5 minutes before they were going to do the scheduled live feeding. We rushed over to the bleachers since they wouldn't be doing another feeding for 3 more hours! It was awesome! I've never seen so many alligators in one place in my life! And not to mention I've never seen alligators that big before!!! But they would  tap on their ice chest to let the gators know that it was feeding time and you would just see them swim towards the bank, get out of the water, and wait to be fed. After the feeding we went over and met Pickles, Ryker knew it was a "baby alligator" so he would say in his high pitched voice (when something is baby and sweet related) "awwww baby alligator awww" and wasn't one bit afraid to pet him! The lady told us his name was  Pickles, and now that's all Ryker talks about. We then followed the path to the swamp to see all of the larger alligators. It's a wooden bridge path above the swamp that has gates up so you can fall into the water. We also bought this food to feed the alligators with which was so fun. Ryker loved picking an alligator out and throwing the food at him and watching it go for it immediately. It really was so fun at the alligator farm! 

This picture doesn't even do this alligator justice, he was HUGE

Pickles 

I love this picture because this is Landons "shy face". Ryker has and never was shy but Landon does get shy and I love this cute little thing he does when he is being shy

The path above the swamp 

Destin

While my mom was here we took a trip down to Destin to visit my aunt jewel and uncle bill at the hotel they were staying at!! It's only about an hour and a half drive from us.. But it's all surface streets/highway! We love Destin and can't wait to go back to shop the outlets.. Forever 21 and the huge home goods.. Oh the things I miss and took for granted! 

My little sand digger he loves the sand 

And I can't keep this little fishy out of the water! 

And he is turning into my second lite fishy.. He used to bawl if I put his feet in the water.. Now he bawls if I don't! 

So blessed they are mine 

The big 3!

I can't believe my little baby is three! That happened so fast!! We are so blessed to have him in our family! I love the little things to me.. Like when we are in the car and his favorite song comes on and he says "ready mamma?" When it's time to sing the chorus! Or how he says in a high pitched voice "hi baby! Sleep good?" When Landon wakes up from a nap! And the first thing he tells me when he wakes up in the morning is that he slept good! He also renamed Lily "bolt" after the movie.. So he always says "hi bolt" whenever he sees her.. I love watching him grow and learn new things every day! He is completely potty trained.. And he did it so smoothly and easily! We are so proud of him! My mom came into town for his birthday and he had a blast! My aunt jewel and uncle bill just happened to be passing through town as well on rykers birthday and were able to come over and celebrate with us! He woke up to streamers and balloons at his door.. We had a few early presents to give him when he woke up before his party that evening waiting for him downstairs. After presents we got ready and took him out to breakfast to have a "circle square pancake" aka waffle! When Jeff got off of work we had a little pool party and BBQ in the backyard with his friends and our family! His birthday party was a mix of all of his favorite things since he couldn't pick one.. A little bit of ninja turtles.. A little avengers and a little big her 6! This was the first year he understood what it was to have a birthday party.. Cake.. Presents ect! He couldn't wait for us to sing happy birthday to him!! 

Out at breakfast 

Beachin'

These two... Ryker is so sweet to her most of the time.. He gets so excited when we are going to play with "rora" as he calls her! 

I love going on evening walks! 

The boys of my life 💙

Playing at the naval aviation museum.. Trying to get Ryker to come around to the idea that the "blue planes" aka blue Angels are actually cool... He likes seeing them he's just terrified of how loud they are! Landon on the other hand doesn't mind the noise! Speaking of "blue planes" they practice pretty much infornt of our house twice a week.. And we face timed my mom the other day and she told ryker she was coming on an airplane for his birthday and he kept insisting she would be coming on the "blue plane" which had us cracking up! 

Ryker always asks if we can go play soccer.. He loves it! 

On Sunday we officially had an 8 month old! Where has the time gone?! 

Watching the sunset with my little family and enjoying the world around us 

He's starting to tolerate the sand and found that it's something that can be played with! 

Ryker tried out toddler tumbling and really enjoyed it! When we left he kept saying "more time! More time!" So I think this will be a weekly activity! 

And now we have a stander... He pulls himself up onto anything these days!! 

We really are enjoying Pensacola and feel blessed to have this as our home for the next few years! However I am terrified because the talk of the town is that there hasn't been a hurricane in 7-8 years (or somewhere around that) and we are due for one.. Awesome! Just what I wanted to here! And I have to talk about the fact that we have crazy squirrels here.. Not kidding! They are everywhere.. And they fly! I walked ryker to the park and watched these squirrels chasing each other up a tree and one literally flew from the branch of one tree to the branch of another tree.. They really are crazy! Still waiting to spot an alligator just hanging around.. We will see if that ever happens!!