Florida Trip Homecoming

we arrived home from our long drive about 5pm tonight.. i half expected to find my family waiting anxiously at the door.. instead i was able to sneak up on them as they were all downstairs totally oblivious to our arrival.. after a little bit of quiet time.. we all converged on Aunt Dawn and Uncle Paul's house for a glorious reunion of cousins ! needless to say.. they were all very happy to see eachother :)

we also celebrated Malachi's birthday.. as it was yesterday ! we had a wonderful time of laughing.. sharing stories.. laughing some more.. eating.. laughing.. and yeah.. we did a lot of laughing.. all of my family seem to be wonderful story tellers and even though i lived through most of the stories told.. it was wonderful to relive them and laugh about them again..

Florida Trip end of days 14-15

on Thursday we left Orlando and traveled east to fulfill the last leg of our vacation: visiting with Aunt Evie and family.. we got into Vero Beach Thursday night.. then woke up Friday intending to go to Kennedy Space Center.. THEN we looked up the price and realized it was going to cost a small fortune for all 8 of us to go.. so instead we went and toured a small.. family owned and operated grove.. the guy who gave us a small tour was extremely nice and very happy to answer any and all of our questions.. he was also very generous in letting us try his produce..

these are honeybells.. they are a cross between a tangerine and grapefruit.. we had never heard of them before and the gentleman explained you could only get them in January and they are kind of rare.. they are REALLY good tho'..

grapefruits.. yuck.. lol .. not my personal favorite..

so then from there we drove over to Aunt Evie's house and dropped in for a surprise visit.. my cousin Eric was there and wheeled out his race car to show the kids.. it was a HUGE hit..

and yes.. they forced me into this little thing.. told me i couldn't leave until i got in and they took a picture.. :)

my cousin eric and i'm inside the car.. can you see how tiny it is? he loves to race it tho'.. despite the injuries.. and being knocked out cold once.. he loves that thrill..

our crew and Aunt Evie..

Aunt Evie and Eric..

okay so i love this picture because.. you can see the speed limit sign says 35mph right? and that is eric racing down the road.. he explained to us that the breaks DO NOT work unless the car is going AT LEAST 80mph.. AND the car only turns left.. so basically in order for him to get it back in the garage correctly he had to race it down the road to turn it around.. hehe.. he's amazing at driving that thing tho'.. he told us that he actually was asked to be a stunt driver in the Extreme Stunt show at MGM that i posted about? he turned them down because of the small pay and the amount of work they expected him to do.. but he's gotta be VERY good if they asked him to do that !!

then we went to.. the beach..

as you can see.. the conditions made it impossible to even imagine swimming.. there were red flags up warning everyone of the high risk of fast rip tides and huge waves..

it was sure pretty tho'..

so then that night we met up again with Aunt Evie.. and the rest of my cousins: Betsy and Dave & their kids Nicole and Ellyn.. Eugene and his girlfriend Tayna with her two kids and Eugene's daughter Layne (Eric didn't come to dinner?) we had a really nice time.. all 18 of us :)

Dave, Betsy, and Uncle Paul


Aunt Evie and Ellyn.. she is the CUTEST little girl ever !! so sweet..

Ellyn and Nate

Malachi, Taylor, Ellyn, Nicole, Lydia, and Nate

we left saturday morning and stopping at a rest stop in SC we saw this sign o.O i didn't want to get out of the van..

Florida Trip end of day13

we went back to Magic Kingdom today for half a day before leaving the area..

here daddy.. here's a picture IN the buzz lightyear ride.. i sacrificed my score for this picture :)

uncle paul and nate getting off the indy speedway..

ANOTHER photographer !! they're everywhere! RUN !!

today was really gorgeous..

OMIGOSH look who we saw !!! lol he did a whole show for us.. very cool..

if this would have been a men's t-shirt i would have bought this for daddy.. but it was only in a ladies style.. hehe

a last view of the castle..

Florida Trip end of day12

how have i been on vacation for 12 days already? and how in the WORLD is it possible that the date is January 23, 2008?! gah.. time moves too fast when you're having fun..

today was just a relaxing.. laid back sort of day.. generously made part by uncle paul being down with a severe cold and sinus headache.. we went to downtown disney this morning and did some shopping.. then came home and swam the rest of the afternoon.. it was a gorgeous 83 degrees outside--perfect weather for relaxing in the pool.. then tonight we packed and we are ready to begin the first leg of our journey home tomorrow morning..

these lollypops are HUGE that they bought this morning.. hehe

after a long (2 1/2 hour) day of shopping you just gotta take it easy..

HEY the sign said NO DIVING !! *gasp*

zeb is a clown :)

then again.. so is malachi.. :)

lol meet: tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum..

hehe.. tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum again..

look at that form ! lol

oh no ! belly flop ! lol

zeb's headstand.. very impressive.. lol i guess this is a good place to note: the pool was 3 ft. deep at the shallow end.. and only 5 ft. deep at the deep end.. that doesn't sound that deep.. but for all these little people it was perfect.. and uhh.. i'm included in the little people.. b/c even tho' i stand 5'2".. those last 2 inches don't do too much when you are trying to stand in 5 ft. deep water.. lol

you have to realize.. that i took all of the pictures in the pool over the space of about an hour.. from the first pictures of zeb jumping in to this one of him falling in backward.. notice that in the first pictures the sun was out.. it was gorgeous.. but see how dark it is in this picture? a huge storm was brewing.. and the boys got out right after i took this shot.. pretty scary lookin' huh? actually it was all smoke and no fire b/c it never did rain.. but it looked really bad..