Oliver's Nursery

For a teacher planning day in October, we got together with some friends and took the kids to Oliver's Nursery in Holt. They had a gorgeous set up with tons of pumpkins, mums, and lots of activities for the kids. I'm not who enjoyed it more, the kids or the moms.

Sailor's favorite, the petting zoo.

My favorite, the baby donkey!

 

  Check out those faces, that's some serious competition!

 

  

 

Although we packed a picnic lunch for everyone, we couldn't resist a little sweet treat.

 

Northwest Florida Caverns

Back in October we decided to take a little day trip. The kids weren't originally too excited about this trip, but Hank and I were both looking forward to it. A couple of hours from here are the Northwest Florida Caverns and this was our first visit since moving here. We figured it was something exciting and different for the kids but educational for them at the same time.

We could not have asked for a more beautiful day!

 

Down we go!

 

 Once we got inside, the kids were pretty amazed.

I loved that the ceilings had different designs and shells you could see.

 

 

 

 

 

 How cool is this, a sharks tooth in the ceiling?!

 

After our tour of the caverns, the kids wanted to hit some of the nature trails. 

I was blown away when Tucker spotted a deer in the woods!

 

We walked through one of the smaller caves and I made the mistake of looking up, this is seriously what was above me. Yes, I did completely freak out. I made Hank go back and take a picture of them. I was too afraid they would come after me. All I could picture was the beginning of Scooby Doo cartoons with the bats chasing me down.

Cici's Pizza

Cutter was excited when he found out he got to go on his first field trip, he was even more thrilled when he found out they were going to Cici's Pizza. I honestly could not imagine what they could possibly learn educational by going to a pizza place, but the kids got to learn first hand what is involved in making a pizza. And even if they didn't pay attention, they had a great time so I guess that is all that matters. This had to be by far one of the messiest field trips I've been on, kindergarteners and pizza sauce just don't equal cleanliness. 

I think we had a total of four kindergarten classes on this particular day. That poor place couldn't have handled it if they had brought all the classes on the same day!

They got to practice stretching the dough and shaping the pizza.

  Thankfully, they already had some dough all ready for the kids to use. Just add sauce.

  He put a lot of effort into that pizza.

Finally getting to eat their finished product!

20 years of Air Force service

After 20 years, Hank is officially a civilian again. Okay, so not exactly. He is still on terminal leave for about another week, but as of December 1, it's all official. His retirement ceremony was held in October right before he started his leave, and we were very blessed to have both our families attend. I'm sorry I didn't take as many pictures as I had planned on. Between having to participate in the ceremony and the tears, my camera was the last thing on my mind. Hank originally planned his ceremony to take place outside, but Mother Nature decided we needed a monsoon that morning so at the last minute everything had to be changed. Red Horse did a great job of managing to still having everything go as planned even with the last minute changes. It was a very busy day and somehow in the chaos I didn't get a single picture of my parents with Hank. :(

Retired Capt. Tim Leno performed Hanks ceremony.

He looks thrilled huh?!

Hank had a little gift for each of the kids for all their years of service and dedication as well.

Notice Sailor's face, she looked like this through most of the ceremony. She seriously cried almost the entire time.

Presentation of his shadow box.

Of course we had to have picture proof that Sonny actually made the trip to Florida, otherwise no one would believe it!

Hank was so proud that his grandmother was able to make the trip and be here for his special day.