Jace's Surprise Birthday Party

 Cousins holding hands

 Surprise!!

 

 Amy says Jace stays in character about 90% of the time

 Sweet Gracie bug slept through the party

 My Ironmen

 

While we were all together for Memorial Day, we threw my nephew, Jace, a surprise 4th birthday party.  His birthday isn't until June 13th, but since my parents couldn't be with him to celebrate his actual birthday, we decided to celebrate it early.  It was awesome because he totally wasn't expecting it at all; he even said, "But it's not my birthday!"  Hahaha!  Happy birthday, Ironman!!! 

Memorial Day Weekend: The Story of the Lost Boy

 Jace, Jake, and Walker

 My parents and their grands

 My sis, Amy, Jace, Gracie, and Courtney

 My family :)

 The Lifeguards who assisted us in our search

 Jake was saying, "Come to Papa, waves!" Hahaha!

 Cheers!

This beach trip will be one that I never forget.  I wish I could forget it, but I can't.  You see, it all started on our first day on the beach.  We got there around 10:30 and the beach was already crowded.  We found a spot for our tent and set it up; unfortunately, we had to set up the tent a little ways back from the water.  There were about 6 chairs of people blocking our view, but the water was pretty chilly, so the kids mainly hung back with us and played in the sand.  Once the kids had a castle built, they were trying to fill the holes with water, so they each took turns running back and forth to the water to fill up their buckets.  We're not parents who don't watch their kids, I promise, but Tyson asked my sister a question and I turned to look at her to see what her answer was.  In the meantime, I lost site of Walker.  It was literally a few seconds...and he was gone.

I asked "where's Walker?" and Tyson and Amy jumped up to look for him.  I was thinking he probably got a little side tracked and forgot his way to our tent, but I thought he'd be close enough we could call him back.  He was no where in site.  I immediately jumped up and went left while Amy went right and Tyson ran for the water. 

The part of the beach where we were isn't a lifeguard protected area, so I found the closest thing I could for getting help- an umbrella/sailboat rental station.  I gave the description of what Walker was wearing and they radioed it in to the police and a few minutes later, a policeman arrived via 4 wheeler to start the search.  Meanwhile, I wasn't waiting around and kept going down the beach screaming Walker's name.  I was relatively calm for the first 3 minutes or so, but then panic mode set in.  I'm sure I looked a crazy pregnant mess bawling my eyes out and screaming my kid's name, but I obviously didn't care.  It definitely got the attention of several beach-goers when they realized the seriousness of it and jumped in to help me search.  One lady stopped me and told that she had seen a little boy matching Walker's description running down the beach, so I just kept going.

About 10 minutes or so had passed, and out of no where, Amy and Tyson appeared behind me saying a lifeguard had radioed in that she had Walker.  He was almost a quarter of a mile down the beach from our tent.  A grandmother had seen Walker running and crying and recognized that he was lost and took him to the lifeguard...thank the Lord!  I can't tell y'all how good it felt to have him back in my arms.  It was by far the scariest moment in my life and I hope I never go through it again.

I obviously don't like re-hashing this story since it gives me the chills every time and makes me feel like the worst mother ever, but I hope other people will learn a lesson from this.  Walker knows my cell phone number if he ever got lost, but clearly he wasn't thinking and I didn't have my phone on me on the beach.  All I've ever told him was "if you get lost, find a police man...yada yada yada"...so what if you're on the beach and there are no policemen in sight?  Tell your children to find a mother with children and tell them you're lost.  Also, at the beach, draw lines in the sand as boundaries for your children (per the lifeguard) or for Walker's case, draw a line back to your chairs so your children can find their way. Create a buddy system at the beach- Tyson was assigned to one child while I was assigned to the other.  And it truly only takes a second when you look away.  :( Anyways, those are some important lessons I learned and I hope they can help others.  We were very, very lucky.

Memorial Day Weekend

 Jace, Jake, and Walker

 My dad with Gracie and Jake

 Walker joins in :)

 And now all four blowing bubbles

 Day 1 at the beach!

 Courtney and Tyson on their "bro weekend"

 My little runaway

Tyson, the boys, and I just got from an action packed weekend in St. Simons with my family.  Memorial Day isn't normally a holiday we all get together, but we all wanted to be with my mom before she begins her radiation treatment.  I don't think I've mentioned it on here before, but mom was diagnosed with a benign tumor on her pituitary gland when I was a sophomore in college.  She's had it operated on twice, however, it could not be completely removed since it was wrapped around her optic nerve.  She has to have an MRI twice a year to check on the growth of the tumor as it has a high rate of recurrence.  Well, she has been plagued with severe headaches for as long as I can remember, but in the last few months, her headaches have been worse...along with a slew of other problems.  A recent MRI revealed that the tumor had grown significantly in size and is growing towards her carotid artery, which makes it now inoperable and very risky.  All that being said, the only thing left for mom to do is radiation.  Her treatments will be 5 times a week for about 6 weeks at Emory in Atlanta, and mom and dad are having to relocate to Atlanta for those 6 weeks.

This will be the longest that I'm away from my mom and I am so upset about it.  It may even be as long as D day (delivery day...as in when I have the baby in September) before I see my mom. :(  My family would covet any prayers during this time that you could throw our way. 

With all that serious stuff out of the way, I've got more pictures and stories from our weekend coming up.  Happy Memorial Day!

Walker's End of the Year Program

 

 Our little cowboy

 Tyson didn't know if he'd be able to come, so we didn't say anything to Walker about him coming.  Well, Walker's class was first to be on stage, and Walker looked up, spotted Tyson, and yelled "DADDY!" as loudly as he could.  Everyone in the audience (most of whom know Tyson's crazy hours) started going "awww!"  :)

 

 

 

Walker's end of the year program for school...all I can say is "wow."  Several of the teachers told me that I should come watch Walker practice because he is such a hoot up there on stage, but I just didn't believe them.  Walker is definitely our child who has to be the center of attention and loves to show out, but I just never expected him to get on the stage and be "that kid."  Well, he was "that kid"...you know, the obnoxiously cute one that screams at the top of his lungs and does all the silly dances.  Yep, that was our Walker!  Tyson kept asking me during the performance (as I'm crying from laughing so hard), "Does everyone else think it's cute or is it just us?"  Hahaha!  All I know is that Tyson and I were standing up in a back aisle filming the whole thing and I kept seeing everyone turn their heads at us laughing.  How could that not be cute?  Hahaha!  I'm so proud of Walker, though.  I think he stole the show!