Merry Christmas

The Hasting family is wishing you a Very Merry Christmas from Pensacola, FL!
We'll see y'all soon.

Fun at the Beach

Friday was a beautiful day, so we spent part of our day Johnson Beach. There weren't many people there, but there were a few other kids. It sure is fun watching kids play at the beach in December!

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Happy Bithday Dalton!

We are wishing you a Happy Florida Birthday!

Sailing Buddies

Nolan had a fun time sailing last week with Dale. I wanted to post this photo since it turned out really well!

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Art Festival

Nolan and Amelia had a piece of artwork in an art festival in Orange Beach this weekend. Nick had more fun tasting and playing with the paint than he did actually painting.

Nolan and Amelia had fun painting on the wall covered with paper.

Nolan and Nick showing off their beads with Dale.

Nolan and Amelia are standing in front of their featured artwork. Nolan painted a turkey on a fence and Amelia painted a "dream".

It's a tradition.

Yep, time for the day after Thanksgiving cutting of the Christmas Tree. We talked about taking hats, gloves and our old winter gear along for a photo opp. But dang it was warm out there today! OK.....that'll be the last time. Maybe ;)

We thought this video was pretty funny. Nolan was having fun keeping an eye on the tree as we drove back to the parking area. So no, I'm not trying to run him down here. And on the radio, a Christmas song I've never heard before. It may be a new classic. Pretty funny....something about if you ain't got a turkey leg then God bless you?????

What a Thanksgiving

Today was a gorgeous Thanksgiving day. We got out early for a bike ride around Gulf Shores.

Dale's Aunt Ricky and Uncle Bob were staying at their condos in Gulf Shores this week, so we got to see them along with Grandpa Schulz who came to help with a few condo projects. We stopped by their condo, and they were all able to take a break with us for lunch at the Shrimp Basket.

This is for Grandma Garner....we saw this on our bike ride, and we instantly thought of you!

Looks like we wore out a couple of kids during our day long bike trip. And to imagine they weren't even pedaling.

I think it was just a few minutes after this sign that we got a flat tire on the bike trailer. Crikey!

I couldn't pass up posting this one. This is the Orange Beach path that took us back to our car. We finished our fun bike ride and went home to enjoy our turkey dinner. I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.

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Nolan's Art Gallery

Nolan wanted to have his own art sale today, so he opened his art store.

He originally was going to have his store only open for a couple of hours, but he sat outside painting from 10:30 until about 4:00 today.

Amazing what you can accomplish with a small set of watercolors.

These are some of the paintings in his gallery. Besides the ones on the wall, he sold a total of 6 paintings for 10 cents a piece. His hottest items were the sailing cruise ship and the barn scene. They sold as fast as they were put on the wall. He said he is pretty tired from all of his work as an artist, and he plans on being open tomorrow----but to his original hours only.

~Brooke

Dauphin Island

Here are a few pics from our trip over to Dauphin Island, AL. This is one of those things we've been saving for cold weather. It was a perfect day for the trip, here's Nolan to tell you a bit more......

We decided to get out early and try to catch the first ferry of the day. We were running a bit late, and had only seen the ferry back in the summer when it was packed and there were long lines to get on board. So we were speeding up Fort Morgan Rd......and end up being the second car. Anyway, we were glad we made it aboard.

We've been doing quite a bit of biking the last few weeks, now that it's a bit too cool for the beach. That is another civil war fort, Fort Gaines, in the background.

Shoes. And socks. :( It was a bit cool in the morning, but all week long we were sort of dreading that on Saturday it was only going to get up to 60. But, 60.....is really not too bad ;)

There is a cool Estuarium on the Island, that we got to check out. Amelia found here favorite fish pretty quick. There was a bunch of other cool stuff....things...fish, but most of our pictures turned out pretty bad. I even used the aquarium setting on the camera, I mean.....

She's got skills

Amelia doesn't like to be left behind. Nolan decided he would take his training wheels off last week, and Amelia, of course, wanted hers off as well. So this was her weekend to prove she could do it.

With a few instructions from Dad, she took right off and figured it out in a day.

Not bad for a three year old.

Nice Day for a Bike Ride

Today was a beautiful day, so we went for a good bike ride. We eventually made our way to the pavillion in Gulf Shores to eat our lunch.

Nolan is the one who gets to ride on the co-pilot, and Nick and Amelia get to ride comfortably in the trailer behind Dale's bike.

Trick or Treat

Everyone had lots of fun trick or treating on Friday night. Nick was the cutest puppy ever!

Amelia had fun in her princess dress, and Nolan was pretty good at being loud on his whistle as a lifeguard.

Chris' Blog

Ya'll gotta go check out Chris' Blog:

http://christoefurjames.blogspot.com/

He put up some great photos from last weekend.

Visitors

Chris Gadgett came for a visit this weekend. We didn't take many pictures....I just got the impression that Chris was trying to hog all of the shots, so I just backed off and put our camera away. I think we squeezed in every possible fun place there is here. We made it to Johnson Beach, Pensacola Beach, and the Wharf...quite an accomplishment for two days.

Everyone who knows Chris, knows how much kids love him! You can tell by how Nick is letting Chris hold him. Nick usually runs and cries from anyone "new" who tries to pick him up. Thanks for coming,Chris...we all had tons of fun! (Oh, yeah, and next time bring some shorts. Come on....it's Florida.)

We also got a weeks visit with my parents a couple of weeks ago. Nolan was so excited to do lots of fishing with my Dad. They had good luck with catching the little guys...if you want the big fish you have to go where the sharks are!!!!!! The kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa.

~Brooke

Birthday Flowers

These beautiful flowers were sent to me for my birthday by my mother-in-law. Now, Marilynda, you can see the boquet you picked. Lillies are, of course, my favorite, and it is also full of brightly covered roses and carnations. So thank you very much!

In the background, you can see Nolan and Amelia reading the newspaper. Just kidding....they are actually tracing the people in the pictures of the newspaper.

~Brooke

Dinner at Johnson Beach

We've decided that Johnson Beach is our favorite place to have dinner, so most nights we pack up our dinner and eat at the pavillion.
You can sort of see an ATV in the background in this picture. We have seen this ATV several nights in a row at the same time each night. We finally stopped to ask the couple what they were doing there. They said they volunteer at Johnson Beach to keep it cleaned up and to enforce rules, so, they get to stay in their RV free at the beach. They stop at this spot checking on baby Sea Turtle eggs. They had about 70 hatch earlier and they were all over the beach. They rescued them and placed them in the water and now have a screen over the remaining eggs to prevent the same occurence.

~Brooke

Back at the Beach

It has cooled off to the perfect beach-going temperature. We spent most of last weekend at the beach building and playing.
Dale is teaching Nolan how to create a tunnel, and Amelia is waiting for it to come through on the other side.

Juicy, Sweet and Sticky Nectarine

Nick couldn't resist this nectarine on our counter.
I usually slice it for him, but he beat me to it.
Must have tasted a tart bite!

~Brooke

Full Moon

Bedtime Story

Every night Dale reads to the kids before bed. Every night Nick crawls on to Dale's head and sits on his face for a front row seat!

Stinks for Texas......

But for us, lots of fun in the water. Normally the Bay in front of our house is REALLY shallow. You can walk for about a quarter mile before the water hits your waist. Today though, it's been pounding against the sea wall and it's gotten a bunch of people out there jumping in and splashing around. Riding the waves up against the sea wall in the kayak has been the biggest draw today, but I just had to try a little sailing :)