Wild Animal Safari

So a few weeks ago, mom decided to take a day off from work and do something fun with the boys. We tried to come up with something we had never done before, but since the weather hasn't been so wonderful lately, we were a little limited on what we could do. I had heard several cool things about the Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain and we thought this would be something different to do. As the beginning of the week rolled around, the boys were still sick and I wasn't feeling so well either, but the weather looked like it was actually going to be decent for Monday. We decided we would go ahead with our plans for the day despite not really feeling good.....I am so glad we did!!! We ended up having such a great day and had lots of good laughs. The boys really enjoyed themselves and so did we!! I did learn one really important lesson for this adventure though....don't take your own car!! Rent one of their awesome zebra mobiles!!!

You had the option of taking your own car or renting one...being the thrifty person I am...I thought we would just save some money and take our own car through. I asked the lady if the animals damage the car and she said most of the time not. She said an antler might scrape the car, but that would be the most that would MAYBE happen.....so i felt good about taking my own car. BAD IDEA!!! 5 minutes into the adventure, a billy goat was chasing the tahoe and jumping up on my door!!! I was freaking out!! I was trying to get away from him because I could just hear him scratching the door, but I was surrounded by animals!!! I don't think they accurately warn you about how the animals literally surround your car! It can be real intimidating especially when they are scratching the crap out of your car!!! I got out of there as fast as we could and we rented a zebra van. Needless to say, I spent the hour after we got home, trying to buff out all of the scratches on the car before Joe got home!!

Besides the little mishap with the car, we had so much fun. The boys were so excited to see all of the animals and to feed them. They had all sorts of cool animals and they were all very friendly...well except for that darn billy goat!!!

Cade looks a little nervous here, but it didn't take him 5 minutes to get over that!

the zebras were so funny....they were trying to eat the windows and everything!

this was a "zony"... a mix between and zebra and a pony

this bull was my buddy.....I would show him the food and then he would open his mouth real wide and wait for me to throw the food in!! I could see all the way down his throat. It was so funny!!

ummm yeah, this was a HUGE buffalo standing in front of our van!

did you know buffalo's have pointed tongues???

We are still alive!

I know I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks, so I wanted to let everyone know we are still alive!! It has actually been a good thing that I haven't blogged in a while, because that means for once life has slowed down a little bit and we don't have anything to major going on. YEAH!!! It has been so nice to just sit at home and relax a little bit. We normally stay pretty busy and honestly we...I have had to work on chilling out a little bit. I am the type of person who likes to constantly be on the go and doing something. Joe on the other hand is not...he could just sit at home and do nothing every night. So January has been his month.....I'm sure he would have enjoyed it much better if he wasn't sick though. Over a week ago he got a cold and then it quickly turned into a really bad cough. The doctor gave him some antibiotics last week which have helped....but it has been a slow process. He finally went back to work today, but is still not feeling 100%. Now that he is starting to get better, Luke is getting sick. Of course that is they way things work :( I took Luke to Children's Healthcare last night and they said he had croup. I did not want this to turn into pneumonia like it did a couple of months ago so they went ahead and gave him a dose of steroids to hopefully knock it out early. Fingers crossed, we are on the road to recovery!!

I don't even have any pictures to put with this post....sorry! We just haven't really done anything to take pictures of!!! For the first month ever, I might take under a 100 pics!!! :)

We have some fun stuff coming up in the next couple of weeks so I will be back soon with pictures! :)

Disney

I remember it like it was yesterday....we were watching the ACC Championship game and hoping Tech would pull it out and win.....we were on the edge of our seats and when they finally won the game we literally jumped up from the couch cheering that we were going to Miami!!! We had already decide that if Tech went to the Orange Bowl in Miami we were going to go. The next few days were spent making plans for the trip and wondering should we take the boys or not, should we fly or not, etc.... In the end, we decided to take the boys and drive down stopping in Orlando on the way and taking the boys to Disney World. I was already excited about the trip, but I was even more excited that we were going to get to take the boys to Disney for a day! So a week after Christmas, the beverly hillbillies....I mean the Reardens... loaded up in the car and headed to FL. We made the trip with Joe's parents so we had a full car, but lots of help with the boys! As we were arriving in Orlando, Joe started not feeling good. He wasn't really sure what was going on, but he just wasn't feeling good.....we continued on with the evenings plans of eating at Margaritaville, but by the end of the night, Joe went to bed still not feeling well. The next morning we headed to Magic Kingdom and had a great day planned, but Joe was not really feeling up to a fun filled day and it was VERY cold!!! We spent most of the day at Disney and although Joe wasn't feeling well, we made the best of it. It was so exciting just to see the boys so excited to see everything. No matter how old you are, going to Disney makes you feel like a kid again! Cade was a little timid with the characters (no surprise), but Luke was high fiving them! They were actually tall enough to ride a lot of the rides and we didn't have to wait more than 20 min. for any ride! Overall, we had a really good time and I am so glad we got to take the boys. As the day progressed, Joe was feeling more miserable so we had to leave the park earlier than expected. I definitely want to take them back soon when Joe can enjoy their excitement and we can spend more time at the parks, but I am still thankful we got to go at all. After waking up the next day and Joe not feeling up to another leg of the trip, he decided he wanted to just go home. Although we were really disappointed about not getting to go to the Orange Bowl, it was best that we come home. After getting home, Joe was feeling a little better, but not 100%. Looking back, we are thinking there were a lot of factors involved in him being sick. We had been running non stop since the beginning of December and he was just worn out and tired. We learned a good lesson that we are getting old and can't run crazy like we use to!! Since the trip we have joined a gym, started eating a little healthier and Joe is going to have a full physical done to make sure there isn't anything else going on. All that being said, here are the pics of the trip!

Grandaddy with the boys at Margaritaville

Hey Mickey!!

checking out the show

hangin' at Minnie's house

visiting Mickey's house

waiting on the parade to start

they couldn't take it anymore...

it was a long day!!

still wearing his Mickey ears the next morning

Real World...

It is always hard to get back to the real world after the hoopla of the holidays are over and vacation comes to an end....we are trying to dig ourselves out of that hole and have been very busy doing so!!

We had a very busy Christmas, but it was wonderful. The boys got everything they wanted and more...much more. It took me several days just to clean out their play room and make room for the new toys!! As usual I took way to many pictures over the holidays and there were just too many to choose from to put some on the blog. Most of you who read this blog have already seen the Christmas pics anyways, but for those of you who haven't and are interested...you can watch the slideshow...(I just learned how to do this :) )

After we recovered from Christmas, we got to go out with some good friends for New Year's Eve. We left the boys at home with our wonderful friends Joi and Robbie. I don't know who had more fun...them or us. They brought horns, hats and noise makers and had a big time for New Years Eve. Joe and I got to play "adults" for the evening and went out for a nice dinner at Two Urban Licks. After dinner, we rang in the New Year bowling. By 11:15 we were struggling to keep the momentum going and stay awake until midnight...the only thing that kept me going is I knew we were going to finish the night off with Krispy Kreme doughnuts!! Then we headed home for our little bit of sleep before the boys were up and ready to go!!

Starting to look a little tired in the last picture :)

On Jan. 1st we headed out of town to visit Mickey at Disney World and then head to the Orange Bowl in Miami to cheer on the yellow jackets. That was quite an adventure so I will save that for my next post!!

Santa Clause Is Coming To Town!!

Yeah...only 3 more days till Santa comes!!! I don't know who is more excited me or the boys!! I think this year is going to be so much fun because they are really beginning to understand the whole santa concept. It is also really cool because they are starting to understand the whole Christmas celebration is to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We have really been talking about this a lot so they know that Christmas is not just about santa and presents. They now go around singing "Happy Birthday to Jesus" all the time. I love it!!

Anyway, on Saturday we visited Santa at the Marietta Square. The boys were so excited and told him exactly what they wanted...

"I want a big boy basketball"

"I want a Woody cowboy hat"

After these final santa requests...Joe and I decided we could have a really cheap Christmas this year.....Woody cowboy hat - $5, big boy basketball - $5.....only $10 dollars for Christmas not bad!!! :) Of course they are going to get a few other things too!!

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Dear God, Thank You

As I lay in bed tonight trying to go to sleep, I couldn't help but get emotional again about today's events. All I can continue to repeat is "thank you God for letting Cade be okay." I got a small glimpse today of how quickly life can pass by, and it just made me so thankful for my sweet little boys and the time I have here on earth to share with them....

At about noon today Cade and Daisy (our dog) were playing "chase" around the house. As Daisy was chasing him, he was running and laughing with excitement. He got so caught up in the chase that he was running forward full blast, but had his head turned looking back at Daisy chasing him. I was only a few feet away in the living room, but I all of a sudden heard a loud slam....I waited a couple of seconds to see if screaming followed and sure enough it did. I ran into the kitchen to see Cade laying on the ground screaming. I quickly scooped him up and about that time he was crying so hard that he couldn't catch his breath and stopped breathing. (hindsight...he probably just got the wind knocked out of him when he hit the door frame and fell, but I didn't know this at the time) The next 10 or so seconds seemed like a life time. His lips turned blue, his eyes started rolling back in his head and he just seemed to lose all life...I was blowing in his face and shouting "breath Cade, come on, stay with me, breath Cade!!!" It was the scariest thing I have ever in my life seen. I didn't know if he was having a seizure, if he just got the breath knocked out of him or if he had a concussion. For a split second, I thought my son may never breath again....

As I got to the phone and was calling 911, he started to come out of it and breath again. As he began to come out of it he was very lost and confused for a few seconds then he finally started screaming again. I was soooo happy to hear screaming!!!!! Within about 8 minutes the EMS arrived and checked him out from head to toe. He was able to say his name, his brothers name and his dogs named. They felt like he was okay and just told me some things to watch for in case he had a concussion. After they were done checking him out, I guess they got a good look at me and saw the hives down my neck and how flushed I was. They asked me if I was alright and I finally lost it. My first priority was getting him taken care of...once I knew he was okay, I couldn't hold myself together anymore. Now when you ask Cade about the incident he says "I hit my head and mommy was crying."

Dear God,

Thank you for letting my Cade be alright. He is a part of me and I don't think I could make it without him. Thank you for reminding me to enjoy EVERY moment with my children and family. Thank you, thank you for protecting him.

Love,

Brittany

Off to find a box of tissues and hopefully get some sleep...