After lunch you get another glimpse of the matchy boys. They are singing and dancing to some Kidz Gig songs. Koen is so into it. He isn't watching TV, he's watching his reflection in the TV. Priceless. Check out Tavin's moves...he gets a little dizzy!
Koen and Tavin loved it! At first it was kind of a thing to fight over, but eventually the big boys got into some other projects and Tavin got it all to himself. 
Check out the video footage!
Thanks so much, Allison. You are a lovely hostess and your boys are fabulous at sharing all their fun toys!
Naptime was safe and sound and our dear friends Sean and Jen brought us dinner which was a wonderful show of support and greatly appreciated that I didn't have to plan a meal in my off-kilter state. I feel a lot better tonight and I'm looking forward to another new day tomorrow. Thanks to all our friends and family near and far who have sent emails, texts, left voicemails and said prayers for our family. It is so comforting.
Koen was pretty high-strung yesterday and was super excited about us coming home, so he never settled down to nap. Thankfully he was quiet much of the afternoon and then played happily not knowing we were actually home busily getting unpacked, etc. Tavin, on the other hand, fell asleep hard and took a long nap despite his cat nap on the plane. I'm so happy he is naturally catching up (little does he know that he and I are off to Florida again next weekend to see my brother Phil, his wife Leah and their new daughter, Eleanor!). After naptime Doug took Koen on a bike ride and they ended up finding Delia on her bike. Doug offered to take her around with Koen and so the two little friends had a blast riding their bikes and playing at the playground. Here's the hilarious show they came up with for Doug... 
The friends had a nice dinner (not to mention the brothers were pretty happy to be together again.
We took the kids out to the backyard to spin off the last of the energy they had before bedtime. It was cute to see them all together. They got along great (and of course got a little silly which was entertaining).
Tavin let me push him around for awhile, but as you can see he soon wanted to get down and check it out for himself.
Here's a picture of my handsome little man.
And here's the best picture I got of the two of us trying to take it myself while also trying to keep him sitting there.
He did pretty well at the wedding although we spent most of it listening from an adjoining room. I didn't mind though. He's had to deal with so much out of the ordinary, I was just thankful he wasn't losing it and we could still hear most of it (not to mention he got hilariously slap happy and I think my kid is so cute I just enjoy watching him!).
Kylie's boyfriend Daniel joined them for the bike ride excursion to the coffee shop, apparently Koen and Daniel get along well too.
Koen found a fun little friend there to peek in on...
And oops! is that a kiss Koen Douglas! Gotta say it's pretty cute!
I'm not sure what else they've done today, but I'm sure it's been fun for Koen he loves the special attention and one-on-one time with these special people who care for him. Thanks so much, Kylie!
Tavin was at first super excited about his eggs, but he quickly hit a momentary rock bottom. It was the tiredness finally showing itself. He pulled it together by the end of the meal though and we took him back to the hotel for some down time and so that we could pack up for the beach. Here's what I found my boys up to after I got done packing up and changing into my suit. Adorable!
Tavin loved, loved, loved the beach again. He was more at ease there today and we managed him better between keeping him busy with little sand projects and taking him for dips in the ocean to cool off. He was actually willing to stay longer and play when we decided to pack it up and leave. We didn't want to push it though knowing that we still had to grab some lunch and get back to the hotel before naptime. Eating out gets old to me when you have to rely on it for practically every meal on trips like this, and I'm sure Tavin feels that way as well. He did awesome at lunch though. It was another outdoor patio with fans and shade, so we took in some more sea air and lovely beach views during our light lunch. Here's Tavin organizing the sugar packets and playing with the rental car keys. You know, keeping busy!
Here's a glimpse of the view. I love being at the ocean. Even just the few hours we've spent on the beach and in view of it have made all the craziness of quick trip with a baby totally worth it!
After keeping Tavin in the banquet hall for about 20 minutes (and he was getting pretty loud and slap happy) and no food was served and not even all the guests had arrived, I decided to take Tavin on a walk. Turns out we took a walk for over an hour. He was very chill on the walk and looked like he would just fall asleep at any minute. Doug texted us around 8:20pm that the food was ready and we ate at 8:30pm. Tavin was the talk of the table making friends with the pretty girls and making the guys laugh. He didn't eat a bite, poor guy. So tired and turns out the poor kid was sitting in a very large mess that I had no idea he had worked on during our long walk. He sat there in it all through dinner and then through Doug's little schpeel that he and the couple getting married did for about 15 minutes. What a good boy! I picked him up as we were packing up to go and I thought I smelled something. When I readjusted him to get him in his car seat I not only smelled something, but felt something all over my hand. It was a complete mess up his back. We stripped him in the parking lot (yeah, real classy, I know, but I wasn't about to take him back into the hall dripping with that stuff!), cleaned him up, diapered him and he rode home in his skivvies. Super cute actually. He didn't get to bed until about 9:30pm and fell asleep right away. Thankfully he again slept all night until normal wake up time. What a good boy!
And here he is after breakfast. Even happier!
Hanging out with Pastor Daddy (preparing for the wedding) , on the couch. It looks like Tavin is deep in thought or even kneeling and folding his hands to pray, but really what happened is that he dropped his truck between the couch and the desk.
After our slow wake up and lame continental breakfast, our dear friend Alyssa came over to come to the beach with us. Alyssa is a Pittsburgh friend who's been living in Florida for 3 years. It was so wonderful to introduce her to Tavin, catch up on life for all of us and be at the beautiful beach together. I love those friendships where you can just pick up where you left off. Ours with Alyssa is definitely one of those!
Then we had a totally beach bum lunch where Tavin made it through despite now being very tired, quite warm and the drippy nose had returned. Doug and I definitely enjoyed sitting outside, chatting with Lys and devouring some super fresh and tasty mahi mahi fish tacos with mango salsa and guacamole. Yum!
Thanks for driving up to visit us, Lys. We had a great morning with you. Gotta run now, Tavin is up from his nap. Thankfully he slept for almost 3 hours. He really, really needed it!
People sitting near us on the plane couldn't say enough about how wonderful of a traveler Tavin is. I could only agree.
Well, we are here at the hotel now. Our room has quite an odd setup, so we made it even weirder with encapsulating Tavin's pack and play with some sheets to make it a little more private for him (i.e. so he doesn't wake up in the morning if I have to get up to go to the bathroom). Hopefully we all sleep long and hard. Tavin definitely deserves it!
but mostly bike-riding and wagon-pulling...
These pictures of Koen below are hilarious. I said, "Say Cheese" and this is what he does! What on earth?
And back to Tavin hard at work (so hard at work that construction workers even stopped to comment on how impressive it was that he could pull the wagon up a hill!).
Koen and Tavin found a ramp that was quite fun. Yep, that's right, just up and down and up and down and up and down. As you can see, Koen took a little spill, but no big deal...
He was back up and going in seconds...
We had a surprise drive by from Daddy. He was in the neighborhood between meetings and literally was driving by and spotted us (or perhaps heard me screaming Koen's name when he biked out of eyesight?). The boys were thrilled!
Well, that is "all" the pictures from the playground. I like that simple life is that much fun that I can snap a bunch of pics of my cute boys, hopefully you do too.
And here he is proud of his project and Tavin, his sidekick.
The best is that after I took the pictures he said, "Hey Mommy, can you put those pictures on your blog so Daddy and Gramma and Grampa can see it?" Since when did he figure out I have a blog?
Koen was pretty excited about riding in the vehicle. He actually didn't get to go very far in it due to some mechanical difficulty, but he didn't care. It was fun enough to hear the loud motor, wear a helmet, be strapped in and move a little bit.
So, we headed down the steep hill to the fish pond. The boys setting up...
Kyra holding a worm! Tavin looks like he's pointing at it, but he's actually "talking" a mile a minute about the water.
Tav was very interested in the boat even before it got into the water...
Koen and Doug are fishing and do you see the little guy trying to get involved?
We put Koen in a life jacket as the boat was being prepared to get into the water. Tavin freaked out because he wanted to go too. So, we strapped a jacket on him as well. I think at this point he was already thinking the experience looked better than it would be to participate in.
When the boat pushed off he just started crying, "ma ma ma ma." I went over to the shore to pick him up so the other guys could enjoy their ride without Tav whining. Poor little guy.
After the time down at the fish pond, we hiked back up the hill to the horses! Tavin loves animals and he was calmed by them and interested in petting them which was sweet to see.
Koen, of course, was just ready to ride!
Koen was a lot more brave than when we visited the farm last year. He was anxious to ride and sat firm in the saddle right away. When the horse shifted its weight the first time though he go a little nervous so he wanted me to walk alongside of him as the horse was walked in circles.
In between rides, Koen got to groom the horses. Our friends own 4 horses, all girls. They are all so sweet and patient with these little kids.
Koen let me ride with him when he went on the larger horse. I loved, loved, loved it! I was one of those girls growing up who wanted horses so badly. I imagined I owned them, I read books about them, my sister and I would even pretend our bikes were our horses (am I revealing too much here?).
After seeing Big Brother on a horse with Mommy, we thought Tavin might be willing to give it a try. And amazingly enough, he did! I was so excited!
After all these fun outdoor activities we all headed inside for a delicious meal provided by our gracious hosts. Tavin laid down right around dinner time, but Koen got to stay up and eat dinner with the adults (and "the grills" of course), play some more and watch a movie. We adults got to chat for awhile since the kids were busy. It was such an enjoyable evening. We were so blessed by the amazing hospitality of these lovely friends.
