Pickin' up Daddy :)

Answered Prayers for sure... we had beautiful weather last Saturday when we picked up Dallas. Joel and I had no problem getting the boat to Barretarre, launched and all the way up the cays to Dallas and his crew. Joss and Emit were wonderful in the boat on the way up. It takes about 2 hours (more or less), so we try to play little games like looking for shapes in the clouds or keeping our eyes out for the jumping fish... things like that :) Instead of typical Road Trip games we play Boat Trip games :) Same principals though!!

Joss was asleep on me for a few minutes and as we turned the point and headed toward the beach they were on he heard me tell Joel, "There's Dallas!" and his little head popped up quicker than ever. He was very excited to see his Daddy! He didn't even want to take time to put his swimsuit on, so he just jumped over and the next thing I knew... he was NAKED :)

I was trying to get a shot of the guys after their triumphant week of paddling (without a naked bum--but this one was for me). They paddled 67 Miles in 6 Days! Go here if you want to read about their trip on our O.I.E. blog. Needless to say, I was very impressed with these guys. They really had the best weather for their trip. It's always a real bummer when folks come and the weather just does not cooperate like we know it could. It can be such a factor on our trips. These guys were very much pleased with their trip :) Which makes us very "happy campers". Oh yeah, don't think for a second Emit was going to miss out on some naked beach time...

We did our usual run to the pigs before we dropped the guys off on Staniel Cay. Joss was having fun with these pigs because they stayed around snorting and swimming for a really long time. We almost snagged one on our tow line that had the kayaks tied to the boat... it was freaking out because it couldn't figure out how to go around. It had us laughing pretty hard once it was loose! Emit didn't care for them coming too close the spot on the boat he was on... he started crying one time when they got close (not close enough to touch him.. just close enough for him to really hear them well). It was sad, but he wasn't stressed for too long.

Joss is such a little island boy already. Chillin' on the boat with his blue chips= One Happy Little Man!

Remember the stunt Joss can now do off the "big blue boat"? Well.. I got it on video...

We were hanging out in this cool cave that we have the boat anchored in to get a break from the sun. It was really cool in here too. We almost never get a chance for a family picture. I'm sure most of you can relate to this... it's not like we all have a personal photographer walking around just taking pictures of the whole family. Boy.. that would be nice though :)

Cool Man, Joss is happy to have his Daddy back!

"Scuffy, the Tugboat" was our friend for the journey this day. And his Little People pals, Michael & Farmer Jed :) He always has one of his toys he takes along anywhere we go. Scuffy, Michael & Jed have been hanging around a lot lately. They are nice and waterproof and float (for the most part). He's always wanting to bring Hippo too, but we try to keep Hippo in a little more controlled environment and out of the ocean and sand. He would take Hippo with him EVERYWHERE if we weren't afraid he'd get destroyed.

Emit was having a fun day in the boat as well. Considering these guys weren't going to miss out on anything and didn't sleep longer than 30 minutes the whole day they did really well staying happy for mommy. These pictures were when we were about 15 minutes away from getting off the boat... so they had made it past the hard part. GOOD JOB BOYS!!! Momma's so proud of you!

I just love Emit's little tanned hands and feet. He's got such a cute farmers tan. We keep the sunscreen on them both, but it's next to impossible to keep them from getting dark. Such sweet little hands!

Here's how we handled the long car ride home once we got to the mainland with sleepy boys that were ready for food, baths and bed...

The boys and I decided to help Daddy out in the yard with his cleanup. They didn't want to get too far away from Daddy, and I hate it when he has to cleanup all by himself (it can be a lot of work).

Again, you'll see Scuffy along with Michael & Farmer Jed playing with the boys on this day too :)

And look who finally decided the BIG SLIDE wasn't quite the scary monster he's making it out to be...he still doesn't want to try to slide down it. I think it's mostly because the slide is very old and leaks a lot of air... so it won't stay very firm, and it scares him when he starts to sink in. But we had a fun little make-shift pool for the boys to play in while the cleanup was going on.

I just want to take a moment to say how lucky I am to be married to this man. He truly is the best husband and father I could have hoped for. He is so good to help with the "housework" stuff and always cooking for me and taking care of me and the boys. The boys LOVE their Daddy... no doubt about that! I see how some other people's husbands are to them and to their kids... and I'm so thankful for him over and over again. So Dallas, I know you hardly ever read this blog...but whenever you happen to come across this one... just know I love you babe, and always will!!