Happy Halloween!

 Best Daddy ever ready to take the kiddos out on a fun night.

 I love these sweet kids. Hannah, Lauren, and Carson.

 I just love the homes on Signal Mountain. They are all so different and pretty.

 My sweet Connor totally got the hang of trick or treating after 1 house. He was the most precious little boy I've ever seen. He demanded on holding his bag solo. After getting candy, he would say thank you in his sweet little voice.

 We made a big loop around the historic houses on the mountain. They have these neat plaques by the doors telling you the year the homes were built.

We had such a fun Halloween night tonight. We have fallen in love with the Signal Mountain area and all of our friends there. We trick or treated with some dear friends and enjoyed the streets filled with families. It's hard to describe Signal Mountain if you aren't from around here but it's just so quaint. When we moved to the area 6 years ago, I was always told it was a "snobby" area. Then I looked at who really called it that and I believe those roles were reversed. It's such a great area with a vast array of home prices but yet it's so nice. There are side walks, a beautiful country club, wonderful town pool, tons of streets with houses that are all so different from each other, etc. I feel like we've practically moved into our church there. I'm there Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, some Fridays, and Sundays. Crazy.

We are so so thankful we've met such good friends. I moved all the time as a child and I can say that Chattanooga has by far been the hardest place to find that good group of friends. For years, I always felt like the one that always asked people to meet at Chick Fil A, go trick or treating together, hang out, etc. A while ago, I stopped asking those people to do things and what do ya know, I haven't seen them since.  It's been so refreshing to have true friends. Sometimes dear friends just take longer to find :) If we ever try moving again, these dear friends will be very hard to leave.

Sweet Belle ready to go

 

I'm pretty sure I love Halloween trick or treating as much as these two. 

 

Little Connor kept up with the big kids. He would slowly run out in the road so I was on his heels, ha! 

 

He was so so excited about "candeeee." 

 

There's nothing like some Sprite and candy. 

 

Even before putting wild man down for bed, he was still searching for some good treats. 

Disney AGAIN

We just got back from a quick trip to Disneyworld with the kiddos. I saw that they were offering free dining so we jumped at it and went. I have lots of fun stories about the sassy fits, excitement at the parades, trick or treating at the park, the insane amount of food on the dining plan, and riding such fun rides.

Hodgepodge Fall Festival On Signal Mountain

 

I took the kids up to Signal Mountain for a little fall festival today. They had tons of booths with items for sale and a ton of kids activities. We stayed for a little over an hour. Once a feisty attitude from an almost 5 year old started, we bolted. We didn't head back to get that painting she painted either. They are open again tomorrow so maybe it'll be there. It was one of those sassy times where you are embarrassed and you just want to get the heck out of there. 

 

The face painting was super fun. It ended up getting on her shirt and it will not come out. Any tips/tricks? 

 

Connor loved the bounce house. He couldn't quite stand up without falling but he loved being bounced.

Our good friends started a Barnbed company. Check it out. It's called Barnbeds of Chattanooga and you can find them on facebook. They had one on display. Talk about a cool bed for your kiddo.  

Beach Photos From The Glorious Phone

We met friends at the beach! Our new friends are from West Virginia but we hope to see them in November again.

We didn't get to the condo until around 8pm on our first day.  You better believe we hit up the lazy river on our first night. I loved that thing. It was heated and felt so so good.

Sometimes my wild dude had to be contained in the stroller by the pool. It was the safest place for him to eat snacks. If not, his snacks would have been thrown in the lazy river :)

I still can't believe that is beach water....

I'm saying lots of thank you Jesuses for hiring a photographer to take photos one evening. I was sweating like a man who just ran a marathon at the end of the session. The kids were WILD, beyond wild. I'm not sure if I've seen them be so wild. It must have been the sand. They were rolling in it so our poor photographer probably has lots of editing to do on her end. I snapped this on my cell. Love that sweet girl and that outfit. See the water on the bottom of the dress? Oh yes, that's a good indication of how the session went. 

A good stranger snapped a family photo on my cell for me.

My little pool girl. She was dressed and ready to go most mornings.

This was a fun experience as I tried to make dinner some nights. He's a monkey at home so at least he was in his element.

Gosh I love this boy. I still can't believe he didn't like going down the water slide. The steps were as far as he wanted to get.

We like fruity fancy drinks....

See...

Cheers to vacay...

and again....

Don't you try to take that fancy drink from this boy. I would know :) I tried to share with his Sissy and he was not happy and let us know.

The fancy drink pictures are funny to me. We really only got them 2-3 times in 8 days but they were a favorite!

I can't wait to head back to the beach. It's my happy place!

Last Beach Pictures

We finished up our fun week with more beach and pool time.

 

Connor was not a fan of going down the kids slide. He is a little more cautious that his big sister. I find that to be so funny because he will climb anything and everything and give me a heart attack. Going down a big water slide is just not his thing. He had so much fun playing with the water toys in the zero entry part of the pool.

 

This is my tough girl just before she goes flying down the pirate slide.

 

And this is how she slides. I gave up the first day asking her to slide on her rear end. It's padded at the bottom and she had the most fun.

 

We drove over to Seaside, FL at the end of our trip. What a cute little town. The houses had quaint white fences and it looked to be straight out of a magazine. We spotted an ice cream shop so we just had to stop. 

Talk like a Pirate day was during this fun week. Who knew such a day existed? If you dressed like a pirate, you could get a dozen doughnuts at Krispy Kreme for free!! Also, a place in Destin really got into the pirate theme. They had a free pirate concert, face painting, and other fun activities.

 

Connor is not a fan of anyone dressed up. He cracks me up in this picture. He turned his sweet face as far away from the pirate as he could.

 

Since we were staying in a condo this trip, we tried to stay away from going out to eat a lot. I don't enjoy going out all the time with kids. It's just a lot of work. Lunch dates seem to work best for us and at 11am :) We like to go right when somewhere opens. Both kids seems happy at that timeframe. We headed over to the Back Porch in Destin for some yummy seafood. 

 

You can't beat the view at this restaurant. It's right on the beach and so beautiful. People were walking up from the beach to eat too. I love a place where you can eat barefoot! 

 

We ordered Chinese delivery one night. Living out in the boonies, I miss having any type of delivery so this was fun! I think Lauren was confused that someone knocked on our door with food.

And finally, this is how my cute little man finished every day.

We hope to make another trip to the beautiful beaches down there. We all had so much fun!