Vacation Day 6~ One Last Swim!

We just hung at my parents house on Friday since we had to start packing up to head back home. Of course, we did find some time to get back in the pool, and as you can see from the video Emily LOVES the water!!! The running and jumping was going on for awhile, but of course once I started recording, she didn't cooperate fully!!!

Vacation Day 5~ Rays Game!

On Thursday the "boys" (Brady, Alan, my dad and my brother) went to the Rays game while Emily and I visited some friends. Brady had a good time and the Rays won!

It's nice that the stadium is a "dome" and has A/C!!

Uncle Michael, Brady and Pop Pop

Brady checking out the rays in the ray tank!

Uncle Michael, Alan and Pop Pop (I'm guessing Brady took this one!)

Sharing peanuts with Pop Pop

Fun at the game!!

Vacation Day 4~ Bu$ch G@rden$

On Wednesday we headed to Tampa to go to Bu$ch G@rden$ (BG)....we had 4 "free" tickets we won at an auction last summer. OMG, it was SO hot that we were all dripping with sweat within about 5 minutes. I quickly remembered why we stayed away from all the theme parks in the middle of summer when we lived there!!! BG had recently opened a new kiddie area with all the characters from Se$ame $treet so we headed in that direction first. It was really nice and had a good amount of rides for the little kids. They had a cool climbing thing with really long rope bridges that Brady braved with a little help from me (which was not my brightest move since I had very recently torn my ACL!). After we were done with the kiddie area we got some lunch and then tried to ride some regular rides, but that never happened. Brady, my parents and I were in line for the jungle safari ride and we're pretty close to the front when Brady said he had to go to the bathroom, and of course there wasn't one very convenient so we had to bail. Just after that my parents had to head home b/c my dad had a meeting to get to. The 4 of us then decided we'd ride the train and wouldn't you know it, we were boarding the train and then the inclement weather announcement came!!!! UGH, can you say bad luck!!! At this point we decided maybe we should just head home so we started heading in the direction of the exit but had to make a detour in a shop to wait out the rain...it was a doozy, so we were just happy we were all dry. It also gave Emily some time to nap in her stroller!!! Once the rain stopped we officially went home! All in all it was a fun day!!!

Brady at the entrance

touching some lizard type animal in a little Australian outpost

Brady and Alan on the Grover rollercoaster. (my memory card was full just after this shot so I didn't get a picture of them going by....grrrrr!)

Brady on the car ride....he really like this one!!!

I guess I should teach him to keep both hands on the wheel!!!

all of the characters paraded in before a show

all of the gang dancing

Emily and Daddy having fun

Emily REALLY liked the show!

the carousel on the other hand, she's not so sure of!

but Brady LOVES it!

Brady asked to have his picture take on these hippos

Emily sleeping during the storm!!!! (btw, her hair is wet from sweat!!! That's how hot it was!!)

Vacation Day 3~ Boc@ Gr@nde

On Tuesday we made the decision to drive about 2 hours south to go to a beach to do some shelling. My parents had been to this beach a few weeks prior and my mom found some of the coolest shells and Brady was SO excited to look for some of his own. The beach was really nice and not very crowded at all. The kids LOVED the water and the sand and looking for shells, even though we didn't have the luck my mom did. We packed a picnic lunch, which thrilled Brady...he had been wanting to have a "picmic" lunch for quite some time....and then we got milkshakes for the drive home!! :-) I guess we spent about 4 hours there so we felt like the drive wasn't too bad and I think we'd consider going again the next time we go "home".

Emily dug right in....literally!!

"what mom?".....Brady and Alan in the background heading into the water.

digging, digging, digging

"who me?"

time for mom and Emily to cool off with Brady!!

I SO LOVE this picture!! I happen to have a very similar one of Brady in my parents pool from last year!

Mom and Emily

"Hi Mommy!"

The story of Emily's hat: I ABSOLUTELY fell in love with this hat on the rack at @ld N@vy a few months ago and really, really wanted to buy it, but it was $10.50 and that seemed a bit pricey for a hat I wasn't even sure she'd wear, but I bought it anyway...in the only size they had, 3-6 months. I told myself it looked big and Emily's head wasn't that big!! LOL. ( remember, I said I really, really wanted it). So I brought it home and tried it on and of course it didn't fit!! I was proud of myself for not forcing it to fit on her head!!! A few days later I returned the hat and then went back and looked in the baby section and lo and behold they another one in 6-12 months!!!! YIPPPPEEEEEE, I was SO SO excited!!! And this time it fit!!!! I'm pretty sure the first time she wore it was 4th of July weekend and wouldn't you know, she LOVES it!! It is THE ONLY hat she will keep on her head....seriously!!! I have gotten SO many compliments when she wears it too, so now that $10.50 seems like the best $10.50 I've ever spent!!!!

Vacation Day 2~Cleaning!

Monday was spent going to the dentist and eye doctor for me and Alan. I know, I know, it's weird we still go these doctors when we go to Florida, but some habits are hard to break. However, since we are not going home as often, I'm going to have to break down and go to the dentist here in VA!!! UGH!

My mom didn't tell us she hired a new maid!!!! LOL

I think someone needs to tell her that you use a lawnmower OUTSIDE and a vacuum inside!!! LOL

Florida Vacation~ Day 2~ Beach!

Today was a very busy for us! We started the morning off by meeting our friends Donna, Kevin, and their daughter Shae at the beach. We had a great time playing in the sand and water and catching up with our friends. After some fun at the beach we headed out for lunch and had THE BEST grouper sandwich!! (next time I will take a picture!!)

Next, it was off to visit our friends, the Ponatoski's (Kathy, Jeff and Drew) and Giroux's(Shana, Kevin, Haley, Mia and Kyan) at the beach. We all know each other because we have all adopted from Taiwan with the same agency we used for Brady's adoption. Kathy's family has a timeshare on Treasure Island that they visit each summer and Shana's family lives in Orlando so this is our second annual meet up!! It's SO nice to see them and catch up in person and watch all the kids play together. The kids do really well considering they only see each other once a year (2x if we're lucky)!! Sadly, this year, we ALL forgot to take pictures because we were so wrapped up in visiting with each other. BAD, BAD parents!!!! LOL

The pictures are all from our morning beach outing:

Little Miss Emily acting like she owns the beach!! LOL

taking it all in

my handsome guy!!

Donna with Shae and Emily

time for some digging

Florida Vacation~Day 1~ Love Connection

We were in Florida from July 23-31 to visit my parents and of course, our friends. Since we are not getting home as often as we used to, it's getting harder and harder to see everyone that we'd like to see, so this year I decided to email ALL of our friends and tell them we'd be at a certain beach bar on Saturday night and we'd love to see whoever could make it. LOTS of our friends came out to see us and it was SO nice to see SO many of our friends!! We will definitely be doing the same thing next year!!

Our good friends, Kevin and Donna, who have a daughter, Shae, who is about 2 months younger than Emily, came out to see us. We were so excited to get the girls together, but apparently Shae and Brady had something else in mind!!! See for yourself.....

this was Brady's greeting to Shae

Just look at him, being all "bashful" LOL

you can see his grin even though he's not looking at the camera!!

Um, I'm pretty sure he's liking the fact that she's got her hands on him!! LOL

Shae, going for a "behind the back hug"

She got it!!! :-)

Now, I think Emily is getting a bit jealous!

Look, he's TOTALLY dissing his sister for a potential girlfriend!! LOL

Emily decided the grouper nuggets were better than her brother!!! LOL

Random Home Pics

Just a few pics of the kids from around the house.

Emily LOVES to sit IN the book bin and throw all of the books out...TONS of fun for her, not so much for mom and dad and Brady who usually pick up after her!! LOL

Brady asleep in our bed with his pirate pillow and several of his "friends". For several weeks he was "sneaking" (we ALWAYS heard him) into our room after we put him to bed in his room. It wasn't a big deal because we were able to carry him back to his room and he'd go right back to sleep.