Suzie's visit

We haven't seen Suzie in over 4 years, so we were very excited to have her visit.  She got here in time to see the Ducotes and then we spent the week sightseeing and relaxing.  Unfortunately, my morning sickness (scratch that...my all day sickness) got in the way a bit, but Makaela gladly picked up the slack and occupied Suzie with games of Zingo. She spent one day making us  Lady Locks- cream cookies that we LOVE (and she must love us because it is a pretty long tedious process).  We went out shopping and caught some major sales in the outlets.  We spent time at the beach and many days at the pool.  Discovered some fun new restaurants (flaming cheese!!), watched some movies (I am now a fan of Channing Tatum), tormented Matt and rehashed old memories.  Great times!

Zoo time with Suzie

We haven't been to the Jacksonville Zoo yet and when guests are in town, it's a great excuse to get out and do something touristy, so we all piled into the car for our first expedition to the zoo.  I was pleasantly surprised at what the zoo had to offer.  Definitely not the San Diego Zoo, but only a fourth of the price too. We decided to get a season pass since we couldn't finish it all in one day- the kids (and adults) got too tired in the heat.  

The baby leopards that were just born - so cute, but had to be separated from their daddy.

Stingray Bay- the girls loved petting and feeding the stingrays. 

The savannah exhibit

We got to feed the giraffes

Mia in the Temple of the Jaguar- she kept saying "roar" at every wild cat

Learning about the many poisonous snakes...yuck

feeding lorikeets

The Ducote's visit

Lisa, Rich and Joseph came for a short visit on their way to visit some of Rich's family.  They were only here for a short visit, but wow, we packed as much as we possibly could into those days.  We had a big family style dinner when they arrived, hit St. Augustine beach, and the toddler splash pad, went out to St. Augustine, sampled "gator" (thanks for that experience Rich!) and got to spend some quality time with our friends.  It was so great seeing Joseph- he is such a sweetheart.  I think Mia has her first crush.  Glad Matt wasn't around to see his daughter's first kiss.

Maybe a little too much

Makaela loved Joseph

Trying to get a picture of all the kids...wasn't working too well

Love those cheeks!

Running around down at the fort in St. Augustine.  Mia was mid fall in this picture

in front of the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine

The moon was amazing that night

Community July 4th party

Our community hosted a July 4th celebration on June 30th (yeah, the date messed me up too). While we didn't bring the kids down to the main party at the amenity center (it was crowded and most of us have toddlers we need to keep eyes on), we did a block party -pot luck party of sorts and then decided to watch the fireworks display from a neighbors yard.

Lots of food and Matt set up the mist-ers to keep us cool

Preston enjoying the mist

little miss patriotic

Matt and Chuck up to no-good

Our own mini fireworks display entralled the younger ones...and even the older ones too

Daddy helping Mia on the scooter

So stinkin cute!

You couldn't pull Makaela and Ian away from the fireworks or the sparklers (or each other- we caught Ian trying to put his arm around Makaela at one point. His mom and I had a good chuckle over that one)

By nightfall, the community shot off a 19 minute firework display- it was awesome.  Unfortunately, it was way past Mia's bedtime so she and I headed home for bath and bed, but caught half the show and watched it out of the playroom windows.  The fireworks continued for the next week.  Matt, myself and Suzie got a few great night shows- these southerners sure love their fireworks.  Of course, it doesn't hurt when there is a firework stand on every corner!

Matt's Vegas Trip

Matt headed to Vegas again to play in another poker championship.  He lasted one day (boo) but did decently well in a few satellite tournaments.  Not only did Daddy get a vacation by himself, but he got to meet up with some friends and some famous people whie he was there.

Matt andhis friend Brent, who was one of the groomsmen at our wedding

Matt and James Woods, actor

Matt and Mike Tyson...wonder where his tiger is :-)

Lock-in

As we were getting ready to leave the timeshare condo in Orlando, Mia decided to lock herself in one of the bedrooms.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a push lock, but a lock that you had to turn the tab, so opening the door from the outside was impossible.  We put a call into housekeeping and while we were waiting for someone to spring her, Makaela was feeding her Reeses pieces to keep her calm.  She did really well though- we were the ones who were stressing. 

Our view of Mia during the ordeal

Grammy trying to explain to Mia how to open the door

Makaela feeding her sister Reeses

Legoland

Grammy and Papa came to visit us while Matt was on leave.  The first few days of their visit was a wash, literally, because tropical storm Debby rolled right through Florida with a lot of rain and flooding. We had plans to visit Legoland later in the week and when we left the house Wednesday morning, it was still raining.  Still, we ventured south to tackle yet another theme park.  Legoland was AMAZING! 

Grammy and Makaela

Grammy and Mia

Mia loves the carousel

It was totally geared to the toddlers and young children.  While we love Disney, Makaela doesn't meet all the height requirements, but she met all of them at Legoland and there were little toddler parks and lego stations all of the park for Mia to chill out while her bigger sister went on all the rollercoasters. 

Grammy and Makaela on a ride- love the screaming faces!

And, because of the rain, the park was virtually empty.  Makaela went on one rollercoaster 6 times in a row, because she would get off, duck under the handrails and board the coaster again.  She went on a mini free fall ride and the people were watching her saying to their kids, "look how brave that little girl is".  Then we headed through Lego USA and there were replicas of the different US towns all made out of legos- amazing. The girls had a blast, but we really had a tough time pulling Matt out of the lego stations.  At one point I caught him racing a lego car he built against a few 8 year olds.  He complained he had lost twice so he needed to "revamp" his car...Oh, my competitive husband!!

Makaela outside the dragon rollercoaster

Showing off the house we all made at a Lego station

Matt and Makaela in front of Albert Einstein's head that was totally made of Legos

Makaela on the jousting ride- motorized horses that went around a track.She was waving at everyone like she was a beauty queen in a parade!