Gainesville pics :)

Landis and came up to Gainesville for the weekend. We had a blast today at a state park with Paul, Josh, Caleb and Scruffy!

We climbed the largest oak tree in Florida, took turns running around with Scruff and relaxed in a hammock.

It was a very fun day!

All Dressed Up

... and ready to go shopping at Sam's Club?? Landis has the weirdest uncles!

We are in Gainesville for the weekend! We just watched the game (Go Gators!!) and arrived back at my parents' house.

Landis wanted to play with Caleb's toys. Josh reminded him that he should ask before he played with them. Landis walked over to Caleb and said, "Caleb, your toys are nice. I like to play with them. I am going to play with them now."

Umm, Landis, that was not quite what we meant by "ask Caleb." Silly boy!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season with family, friends, food and fun!  We are in Gainesville spending some time with my parents and brothers.  It has been a fun visit, filled with music and presents and the pitter patter of tiny little feet in giant combat boots.  

Landis just took his evening bath with Uncle Caleb.  It was a very loud, splashy and fun bath.  Uncle Josh is practicing his piano.  He is getting to be a very talented pianist.  Caleb wants to make sure that everyone knows that he is both a talented pianist AND drum player.  The 2 big uncles are out and about.  John has seamlessly rejoined Paul's busy social life.  Goat is, unfortunately, working on his truck.  The ball bearings went out as we were driving up.  We were able to make it under our own steam, but Goat has had to spend most of the day replacing the bearings.  All 4 of his brothers-in-law have helped him throughout the day.  They were kind of cute, all crowded underneath the truck.  Awww, male bonding!  

The Benton uncles are using this visit to make sure we are raising their nephew right - as a Gator fan!  Paul dressed Landis up in his Gator Gear, and Landis has learned good Gator Chomp technique.  Maybe one day he will be able to attend a game with his uncles.  

We will be heading home later today or early tomorrow.  I don't know what Landis is going to do in our boring house after spending so much fun time in Gainesville!  We are looking forward to spending some time with Aaron Scott while he is still on his school break and seeing Goat's parents, (who are in Arizona visiting his Grandmother) his siblings, and all of our friends.   

Face Paint + Attempted Mohawk =

Ridiculousness.











What am I going to do with those crazy uncles?

We're in Gainesville..

And just look what those crazy Benton uncles have done. Poor Landis! He is covered in temporary tattoos. He ran to the back of the house to play with Aaron Scott and the uncles, and ran out a few minutes later looking like this.

Foolishly, I let him go play again, thinking they had done their worst. Now his face is painted in a greenish brown color! I guess he is ready for some recon missions now. I'll have to watch him like a hawk or he will be crawling on his belly through some high grass. If I lose sight of him, I may not be able to find him.


We are headed to the Ichetucknee River for some tubing in a few minutes. Landis will stay behind to have some quality Nonnie time, but Aaron Scott and the uncles and I will have a great time tubing in the cold, cold water.

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

John is back from Iraq! Hurrah! Hurrah!!

We drove up to NC on Wednesday and joined my parents and brothers at a beautiful old farmhouse near Camp Lejeune. We headed to the base on Thursday to see John and his fellow Marines as they returned. It was so exciting! First, giant trucks drove by and unloaded their gear. We waited for another 1/2 hour or so until the Marines pulled up in 3 huge buses. We were trying to see which bus John was on when he snuck up behind us. We were all so excited to see him! We helped him get his gear back to his room, he took a quick shower and we went out to Texas Steakhouse for dinner.

Friday, John had to be on base for most of the day, so we went to Hammocks Beach State Park, where we took a ferry out to beautiful Bear Island. After a short (for most of us - Landis wanted to walk so it was a slow trip for us) walk to the other side of the island, we reached the beach. It was so beautiful. The whole island is a state park so there are no high rise condos and hotels, only a small visitor's center with bathrooms and picnic tables and a few primitive camping sites. Everyone had a great time splashing and playing in the water, especially Landis. We ate a picnic lunch, swam for a little while longer, then headed back on the ferry. We picked John up around dinner time and ate dinner with Commander and Mrs. O'Byrne, old family friends. (Commander O'Byrne's grandparents lived next door to my dad's grandparents, and his grandmother was my godmother.) John was a little apprehensive about eating in the Officer's Club, but he made it through all right.

Saturday, we met up with some other old friends, the Bidgoods. They lived in Gainesville when John, Paul and I were younger and then moved to NC. We had a great time with them. Their youngest daughter, Grace, who is a few years younger than Paul, and her boyfriend Luke were there. Grace is a competitive juggler, and she is amazing! Landis was mesmerised by the sight of her juggling 4, then 5, then 6 clubs. We hung out at the beach and pool for most of the day, had yet another picnic lunch (yum!) and ate dinner with them at a local Italian restaurant.

Sunday it was time to head home. After hugs all around (John managed to give me a hug without touching me. It was heartwarming.) we piled into the car and headed home. We managed to be driving through the states where gas prices were most affected by Hurricane Ike, and as we drove further and further, gas prices climbed higher and higher. In the course of about 8 hours, we saw prices go up about $1 and the lines at gas stations get longer and longer. When we got to Florida, which had not been affected as much as Georgia and the Carolinas, I was actually glad to see gas being sold for $3.60/gallon.

It was really great to see John after so long, and we are looking forward to seeing him again towards the end of the month when he has some leave and is planning to head down to Florida.

Cedar Key Pics

They day before the fun week with Caleb in Melbourne, my Mom, Dad, brothers, Landis and I went out to Cedar key to visit my Grandpa.

Landis with Nonny and Great-Grandpa. We had 4 generations together!


Swinging with Uncle Caleb.


Back from a nice walk with Grandpa.


Landis is not so sure about riding on Nonny's shoulders.

Caleb is vising for the week. We are having LOTS of fun. My mom drove us down on Tuesday and we ate dinner together (Goat makes an amazing lasagna!), took a walk, got ice cream, and then she drove back. :( We tried to convince her to stay overnight, but since Josh decided to stay home rather than enduring the long car ride, she wanted to get back. Wednesday Caleb helped me make bread, we took another walk, did some gardening and had a Dr. Mario tournament. Fun! Thursday we took the bike and trailer, which carries both Landis and Caleb without a problem, to the park. Caleb had to use the gross park bathrooms. He was really upset that someone had written "women's bathroom" on the inside of the door in the men's bathroom. Caleb and I played Risk II and he beat me. Nooooooooo! Today, we are picking Aaron Scott up from school at 1 pm and we will have lots of fun with him. I will probably take all 3 boys to the park if the weather is nice to run off some energy. I do not want 3 overly energetic boys bouncing around my house! Caleb is attacking me with a glowing spoon from his cereal box, so I had better go...

Dinner with Dad

My Dad had a meeting in Cocoa Beach yesterday, and we were able to meet him, as well as Aunt Jane, Uncle Larry and Ben, for dinner. It was great to see him! Landis was so excited to see his Grandpa. He had a great time pulling the cell phone and pen out of my Dad's pocket and replacing them, and looking at the boats going by outside the window. Earlier in the day, I told Landis that we would be seeing Grandpa later that day, and he said "Am-Pa!" We looked at some pictures from a trip to Gainesville and he had fun identifying Grandpa, Nonny, Josh and "Kway." He hasn't quite gotten John and Paul's names down, but he has some time before they return from their overseas adventures in Iraq and Tanzania. Hopefully he will be able to greet them by name when they return!