Memorial Day Weekend

 Granddaddy!!!

 Granddaddy and Ryleigh Kate

 My boys with Uncle Bobby

The annual boys' fishing trip

We spent Memorial Day weekend in St. Simons with my parents, my sister and her crew, my granddaddy, my cousin Christy and her crew, and my Uncle Bobby (my dad's brother) and his wife, Jackie.  This was our last weekend to see everyone before moving to Colorado, so it was bittersweet.

Tyson was recruiting in Jacksonville on Friday, so I picked him up on our way and then the party started!  We all stayed in the same complex where my parents' condo is, and we just bounced back and forth between condos all weekend long.  It was so laid back and relaxing.

Saturday morning, the guys went fishing on their annual charter fishing trip.  They didn't catch much on this trip, but they had a good time regardless.  Meanwhile, the rest of us went to the beach and braved the wind and chilly (well, chilly for this Florida girl) water.  Anderson Summers must have run 5 miles running back to where the water started to where the water crashed.  He had a great time! Once the older boys got there, they were all about jumping waves.  The rip current was pretty bad, so this mama was stressed the whole time.  Everyone survived, though, and no one got lost on the beach.  Haha!

We spent Sunday at the pool all day because the rip current was supposed to be worse than Saturday.  After the pool, we all got ready, took some pics, and went out to eat together.  I somehow managed to not get a pic of the whole group, though.

Anyways, in a nut shell, that was our weekend.  It was so hard telling everyone goodbye when we left; my parents are already planning a visit to Colorado next month, but I have no idea when we'll see everyone else.  :(  Boo!  I'm so thankful that we had this weekend together, though.  Next up, I have a few more group pictures to post, so stay tuned!

Staycation

 I love how they lined up by age- the Summers boys + the Braun boys and girl

The view from our room...Anderson was in Heaven with all the lawn mowers that were out on the golf course.

We decided to have a last minute "staycation" this past weekend at the Hilton Bonnet Creek here in Orlando.  A lot of our friends come to this hotel and rave about it, so we decided to give it a whirl before we leave Florida.  Oh, and our best friends, the Brauns, just so happened to be staying at the same hotel for the weekend.  ;)

We left for the hotel shortly after Walker's soccer game Saturday morning and got there before lunch.  We played by the pool ALL day long; it was awesome!  The pool area is huge and has a water slide, lazy river, baby pool, and zero entry.  Our kids had the best time!  We had to literally drag them away that evening so that we could all go to dinner together.

Unfortunately, not much sleep was had by the Summers family that night, so we decided to get up and go home and nap.  Haha.  The Brauns stayed on and played for another day, though.

And that is it for our last weekend in Orlando. :(  I'm glad we could spend it together, not stressing about packing and the move, and with our best friends.  

Our Soccer Superstar

 Walker had just scored a goal here.

 "good game...good game...good game."

 Does anyone else do this with kids' sports or is it an Orlando thing?  This is a tunnel that the parents make that the kiddos run through after the game.

 Walker's biggest fan, besides his oldest brother, of course.

Tyson's mom came for the weekend to see Walker play.

Here is Walker scoring 1 of the 3 goals.

Walker has his last soccer game in two weekends, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to go with all of the moving craziness that'll be going on then.  I definitely wanted to get some more pictures of my soccer superstar on here, though, before the season ends.  

Walker has come a long ways with soccer since he first started last year.  He has been the leading scorer in every game and often comes away with 3 or 4 goals a game.  He is so fun to watch out there!!  Tyson and I are so proud of him.

Stella's Birthday Party

 These two are so cute together.   Anderson calls Stella "Lella" and she calls him "Anson."

 Anderson's buddy, Mason.

 The pretty birthday girl.

These little siblings have been dragged to all of their big brothers' sporting events together, so they've all become buddies.  This is Harper ("Barper"), who is also in Anderson's class at school and whose brother, Grayson, plays on Walker's basketball and soccer teams.  I'm not sure while Harper is giving Anderson the evil eye here she usually loves "the baby."  Hahaha!

I'm sure like many of you parents with young children, we got to a birthday party almost every weekend.  I don't always document the birthday parties; I thought this one was important- not only because it is our sweet Stella's birthday, but because this was a party that "just" Anderson was invited to.  Yep, this party had nothing to do with his big brothers; well, other than the fact that we originally met Stella through Jake's flag football. ;)

Mother's Day Weekend

 Pool time with my girls!  (Holly, Katie, Shelly, Michelle).  How cute and skinny and stylish are my friends?  Yep, I still out like a sore thumb!

It wouldn't have been Mother's Day without me having to pull a snake out of the pool.  And it may be small but this snake was FIESTY!

I woke up Sunday to see this taped to the window by the door. :)

One of the two edible arrangements that Tyson sent.  I think he felt bad for me and sent me this one because the kids destroyed the edible arrangement the day before.

 Walker's questionnaire about me. :)

Heading to church with the boys.

This Mother's Day weekend was a little out of the ordinary for me.  For the past 3 years, Tyson has had to travel on Mother's Day for recruiting, so I'm used to not having him here, but this year just felt different for some reason.

Tyson's mom was supposed to come in town for the weekend, but she was sick so it was just me and the boys.  Tyson, who usually doesn't make a big deal out of holidays and birthdays, felt really bad for me and started sending me goodies on Thursday.  I got something almost everyday until Sunday- edible arrangements x 2, balloons, and a manicure/pedicure gift card.  It was so sweet!

My friends told their hubbies that they wanted a pool day with just the girls for Mother's Day, so I got a babysitter on Saturday and went with the girls.  We went to the Ritz and ate, drank, and got sunburned; it was the perfect day!  Ha!  I hated leaving my boys with a sitter all day like that, but sometimes, this Mama needs a break!

As for actual Mother's Day, my big boys were amazing and spoiled me rotten.  Jake gave me a coupon book for Mother's Day, and he was bound and determined for me to use every coupon that day.  Haha!  They made my bed, cleaned the house, folded the laundry, gave me a few hours of "peace and quiet" coupon so I could nap, got each other ready for church, and only got into one little spat!  Jake offered to make me breakfast in bed, but that was after I was already up making pancakes and dealing with Anderson.  Hahaha!  The boys were so, so sweet.  We spent the rest of the day out by the pool just the four of us.  It was an awesome day!

Walker's Hit and Run

I've been wanting to document this for a while, but our lawyer didn't want me putting too much out there.  I think we're getting close to wrapping this thing up, so hopefully this is okay.  I might just keep it vague just in case.

It was Sunday afternoon on March 15th.  Anderson and I were inside taking a nap and Tyson, Jake, and Walker were outside playing baseball in the big grassy field across the street from our house. From the evidence, it appears that Walker had already crossed the road to get a ball that had rolled between two parked cars.  It seems that he was leaning over and the car hit him on the left side of his head; the impact knocked him out of his left shoe and threw him on his right side.  Tyson heard the loud hit and went running; Walker was laying in the road screaming and crying.  Tyson looked up and saw a gold SUV, but he was too panicked to get a license plate.  Tyson said that he could tell that the driver was looking back in his rear view mirror but sped off when he (or she) saw Tyson look up.  Tyson scooped Walker up as Jake ran inside to get me.

I was in a fog.  I immediately ran outside to check on Walker and then I grabbed my stuff and threw Walker in the car and left for the hospital.  I obviously wasn't thinking very clearly and had panicked.  I didn't get far down the road when I realized that I wasn't in a position to drive, so I pulled over at our neighborhood fire station.  They said that they had just gotten the call about a hit and run and were actually about to leave for our house.  They loaded Walker up in the ambulance and we took off; about 5 minutes into the drive, Walker started getting drowsy and slurring his words.  Oh my gosh, talk about panic.  The next thing I knew, the EMT threw on the siren and moved me out of the way while they worked on him.  So, so, so scary.

We got to the hospital pretty quickly after that, and they had the trauma team waiting on us.  Y'all, it was like nothing you've ever seen.  No amount of nursing experience or ER shows can prepare you for that moment.  You walk in and are immediately swarmed by 20 people while another 10 look on.  One doctor is assessing his upper body while another checks his lower body; one nurse is starting an IV while another holds his neck stable; a nurse is putting leads on him from the monitor while another puts a blood pressure cuff on him.  And then here comes child life, the chaplain, the police.  Oh my gosh, it was CRAZY!!  There were so many other people- I just couldn't even process the rest.  I was surprisingly calm but I had to be because Walker was going NUTS!  They ended up having to sedate him so they could assess him.

Long story short, Walker was surprisingly able to walk away from this- he was pretty banged up, though.  His head CT came back clear but he had a concussion.  They did an ultrasound of his belly and that came back clear too.  The biggest concern was his neck- the CT showed some swelling between the 2nd and 3rd vertebrae.  Neurosurgery checked him out and felt okay sending him home with strict instructions to watch for any changes.

I'll write more once I'm able to.  Just please pray for Walker; this was all so traumatizing to him.  :(

Playing Catch Up

 Tyson has gotten to come home the past two weekends thanks to him recruiting Georgia and Florida for the month.  Woo hoo!  He'll get to come home the last 3 weekends in May, too, but not Mother's Day weekend, of course. ;)  Hahahaha! He was able to come to Anderson's last swim lesson to learn how to work with him in the pool, so we tested his skills this past weekend.  He passed.

 The boys have LOVED having their Daddy home!  Daddy has loved nap time!

 Who is this toddler?  No longer my baby...sniff, sniff.

 Walker wrestling his best girl friend, Emilia.

 Walker pinned her.  He was so proud.

 Anderson was just excited that he was allowed in the Lego/Wii/play room while I photographed the wrestling match.

 This has been going on in my house CONSTANTLY and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse as they get older...and as Anderson gets old enough to wrestle, too.

 Here's a sweet story here about my big boy.  I had some minor surgery last week and I can't get into the pool for another week or so; well, Anderson has to get in the pool every 3 days to keep his skills up.  Tyson is gone, so I had no idea how in the world I was going to manage.  Do y'all know that my Jake volunteered to help?  He carried Anderson to the deep end while I stood on the step, and Anderson was able to swim to me and work on his swim sequence!  He is the best big brother! 

 Anderson and Jake have a sweet relationship- Anderson definitely sees Jake as a fatherly figure and goes to him for comfort and help.

 Walker and Anderson also have a cute relationship.  Anderson definitely sees Walker as more of a big brother and wrestles and plays with him.  Walker is the first person Anderson always wants to give a hug to and tell him "night night."  Walker always says that Anderson is a "Walker's boy."

The end.

I apologize ahead of time, but my blogging is going to be pretty spotty for the next month or so. Holding down the fort all by myself with three active, crazy, busy boys is enough in and of itself, but add on buying a house, trying to prepare for a cross-country move, getting my emotions in check for this move, handling this dang mess with Walker's hit and run, and dealing with all of our sports, activities, end of the year festivities, etc. has got my head spinning!  Ha!  Hang in there, folks.  I'll get back into a routine soon enough. ;)

Anderson's Swim Test and Lost Legoland Pic

So, Tyson and I caved and bought the cheesy Legoland pic above.  I mean, how often are we ever in pictures together?  Ha!

The video is from Anderson's swim test.  He usually has lessons in a swim diaper and a bathing suit, but for the test, he had to wear real clothes and a normal diaper.  Oh my goodness, that diaper must've weighed 2 lbs by the end of the lesson/test.  Haha.  He had a hard time flipping over because of it, however, he proved he knows his skills, so he passed!  10 minutes a day for 4 days a week for 7 weeks and we're DONE!!  Woo hoo!!  I'm so proud of Anderson!