Summer Bucket List Days 22-28

*The captions are taken directly from my original Instagram posts.

Day 22: We went to Eli's school so he could test on some books he read. He's working hard towards his summer reading goal. Then it was off to the doctor for a well visit. He survived the finger stick and had a great checkup!

Day 23: Eli had a dentist appointment and what says "Yay, no cavities!" like getting cupcakes to eat after supper and snowballs to eat immediately. YOLO! Hope his dentist doesn't see this 😳

Day 24: Board games, swimming, and a front porch picnic lunch were on our agenda today. Even Barkley joined in the fun!

Day 25: Coffee and Battleship this morning followed by swimming later this afternoon. It was a lazy Saturday, with the exception of the hour we worked in the garden, but we all enjoyed the downtime!

Day 26: Today we celebrated my hubby! He does so much for me and for our family and I am incredibly grateful! He takes care of us, provides for us, leads us, and makes us laugh every single day. Watching him father Eli has brought so much joy to my life! We appreciate him every day but especially today! Happy Father's Day!! We love you!!

Day 27: Excited about spending the week with family :) We stopped at the mall before leaving town and finally found Eli a hat he liked...he's such a cutie! When we made it to Tinsley and Jameson's house, Eli couldn't wait to teach them how to play UNO Moo. He's too old for it now so he decided to pass it down to them :) These three are precious together and I'm glad they are going to get some cousin time this week!

Day 28: Today was a busy but very fun day! Golf, swimming, playing with Tinsley and Jameson, watching Finding Dory, and we ended the night with ice cream! We ❤️ summer!!

Fun Spot America

Monday was our last day with our friends but our flight didn't leave until late that afternoon so we spent the morning at a fun little amusement park called Fun Spot America. It had all the old school carnival rides that I grew up with as a kid and more! Plus, they were celebrating their anniversary so we got tickets for me and Eli really cheap :) 

I think Eli loved the car rides because he got to watch movies. We haven't had a DVD system in the car for several years now so Eli LOVED the one in Nicki's van.

We arrived at Fun Spot and the first thing we did was head to the Freedom Flyer, a roller coaster where you sit and your legs dangle. Eli is a little thrill seeker so he loved the ride. I loved that there were absolutely no lines so we were able to ride it twice within 10 minutes of arriving at the the park!

After a couple of rides on the Freedom Flyer, we headed to White Lightning, a wooden rollercoaster. Micah was thrilled because he was finally tall enough to be able to ride it! 

We rode White Lightning twice and then ventured into the rest of the park so the boys could ride more rides. They did several spinning rides and I opted out on those. I'm not as young as I used to be and I learned the hard way that I get motion sickness really easily now! Jonah, Eli, and Micah did Rip Curl, the Screamer (it takes you up and drops you), and all the old school fair rides-Scrambler, Paratroopers, Tilt-a-Whirl-and then all the boys came to us looking very sick. All that spinning had gotten to them, too. We decided to take a break and head to the mall for some air conditioning and lunch and then head back to the park afterwards. 

Once the boys rested, drank some water, and ate some food, they started to feel much better. We all got an ice cream treat and then headed back to the park. The plan was to stay away from any rides that went around and around! 

First up, were the bumper cars. I rode with Micah and Eli and Jonah drove their own cars. Eli LOVED being in control of his own vehicle. Micah and I had a lot of fun smashing and bumping into everybody else. 

Then we headed to the go carts and raced each other. I don't remember who won but we all had lots of fun!

Our last ride of the day was the big Ferris Wheel. We all grabbed a cart together and enjoyed resting and looking out over the amusement park. 

It was such a great way to spend our last day in Orlando with our friends. We loaded up in Nicki's car one last time and headed to the airport where we said our teary good-byes. I love this family like they're my blood and I'm sad every time we have to part ways. I'm so thankful we got to spend a week with them and I can't wait until we get to do it again!

The Three Amigos

Love this sweet boy!

Micah's hand, Eli's face...It all makes me laugh :)

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We had a little snack, rested a bit, and then it was time to board our plane. We were headed home!

Our flight got in to New Orleans late and while we were taxiing down the runway to our terminal this dude crashed. He got about a 10 minute cat nap and then it was time for us to leave. We'd had a great week in Florida and it was a great way to start off our summer vacation!!

Sunday in Sunny Florida

Sunday morning we went to the church where Dan and Nicki serve, Stetson Baptist Church. It really felt like old times when he was the lead pastor of our church back home. I loved being able to be there Sunday and enjoyed getting to worship with their church family. I'm happy for the great things God is doing through Dan and Nicki at Stetson Baptist. After church, we took  a few pictures of the boys and of us all dressed up in our Sunday finest. I love these people like they're my family and I'm so thankful that our paths crossed so many years ago. 

Dan had to leave immediately after church to catch a plane for a church convention out of town, so Nicki and I took the boys back to their house to change clothes for our Sunday afternoon fun. We were headed to the beach!! We grabbed some lunch at a pizza place and drove to the beach. I feel like I need to document that during the ride to the beach Nicki was listening to podcasts (Jamie Ivey and the Popcast) in the car and this was the moment that she convinced me to give podcasts a try. One year later and I'm addicted to podcasts...

We made it to the beach, covered the boys in sunscreen, set up our chairs, and watched them play in the sand and water. We all had such a fun time!  How fun that they are within driving distance of several beaches (just a little jealous of that!). I don't know if you would be able to measure my happiness if I lived within driving distance of a beach...It's my happy place!

We all had such a fun time enjoying our Sunday afternoon at the beach. After a few hours, we loaded up the boys and headed back to their house. We had one more day of fun planned before Eli and I had to go back home to Louisiana.