Life with the Shirley Family

Life with the Shirley Family

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Happy Birthday Nathan!


My firstborn turned 11 this past Saturday, October 15. I think 11 sounds so much older than 10! He is still my sensitive, caring and giving son, but he is also the boy that is beginning to get embarrassed when I hug him in public! He is also the boy who is very excited that some restaurants will no longer let him order off the kids' menu!

For his birthday this year we took a trip to Florida. In order to have some snacks on the trip, we of course had to get some cookies. I just want to say a big thanks to Stephanie at Cookie Capers. She outdid herself with the creativity in making these one of a kind cookies. They are as tasty as they are beautiful. And Nathan absolutely loved his baseball jersey cookie! I enjoyed the hamburger and fries myself. I am not good at links, but check Cookie Capers out on Facebook if you want some awesome cookies!!




For our vacation, we didn't go to Disney, but it certainly felt like it, sort of. We stayed at a Disney hotel and went to a Disney waterpark and went to Downtown Disney a lot. His actual present was the waterpark day and breakfast with Donald.

But on his actual birthday, we were not in Orlando. We started out the day with pancakes at the hotel in Silver Springs.

Amy and Camden sharing an orange juice moment!

I told Nathan I would make him pancakes for his birthday...all I did was push a button on the pancake machine and they came out!

Nathan opening his card...who's that silly boy in the spotlight!


From there we began our adventure into the natural springs at Juniper Springs state park. We took the nature hike (instead of the 3-5 hr. canoe ride with a 4 and 11 yr old)...


Pictures do not do justice to how clear this water was! The brownish spots is where the springs were bubbling up.






...and then took a dip in the natural pool that is 72 degrees year round. Chilly!! We all jumped in though, although some stayed longer than others!! Even though it was very cold, it was refreshing!


If you look close, you can see them shivering!



Not the clearest picture, but a good shot of Dave diving!


Nathan about to dive in !


After drying off, we got on our way to our final stop...Orlando! After checking in, we ventured Downtown Disney for a birthday dinner at The Rainforest Cafe! Nathan said it was the best thing ever to eat there!










Nathan getting his birthday ice cream and having the staff sing Happy Birthday to him!

He had an awesome actual birthday, and a great trip to Florida. More stories to follow!

Monday, October 10, 2011

The dunking booth

I had the chance to do something I have always wanted to do this past weekend. I got to sit in a dunking booth! I had volunteered to work at a fair for Lowcountry Orphan Relief. This is an organization that collects goods to give out to orphans and children in foster care. At the fair, I signed up for various booths like the jumpcastle, bobbing for apples and popcorn. But the dunking booth looked too enticing. As I was walking by, I commented that I wanted to sit in the booth. The cold guy sitting in the booth took me up on my offer! I climbed into the booth hot due to the pounding sun, but once I came out of the water the first time, I really felt the cool breeze!

It was a lot of fun, although a little scary not knowing when you might fall. I also was concerned about my contacts which are semi-hard and not meant for wearing in the water. But I and my contacts survived. I even was able to meet a really nice teenage girl. I was taunting her that she couldn't hit the target and I was wrong! She dunked me several times! And had a lot of fun doing it. When I worked the apple bobbing booth afterwards, she came over to tease me. She was very nice and even showed me the proper way to bob for an apple! But what really impressed me was how she helped her little brother also get an apple.

It was a very fun day and I was glad I was able to volunteer. A great way to spend a Saturday.