Florida Trip

September already.

I noticed as I was posting this blog that my blog history for the last couple of months has been a little shabby. There is a perfectly good explanation, Matt and I are expecting again! We will be welcoming a baby sometime around the middle of March. We could not be more thrilled! With that said, I have been feeling lousy the past couple of months and haven't done anything extra...at all. Luckily we are entering our second trimester and things are starting to improve! So hopefully blogging will become less sporadic.

Now for our trip to Florida!

Many of you know, my parents have decided to make FL their full time home. It is nice for us to have a great and fun place to visit, even though it is far away.

We left Sunday afternoon (after a small drama of Cami getting an ear infection and getting no sleep the night before. Locating an urgent care that is actually open on Sunday morning...phew). Luckily the flight wasn't full and Cami and I had an entire row to ourselves. We even arrived about 45 minutes early. Nana met us at the airport and we headed for Port Orange.

The next day we awoke bright and early and headed back to Orlando to go to Sea World. My half-sister Crista (who is also currently residing in FL) went with us and we met my Uncle Dan and his wife Kelly there. We had a blast!

Right at the gate was Shamu! the line was short so we decided to take the opportunity to meet and have our picture made!
Next up was the Dolphin area. They were in the huge pool and we were able to get very close. Great first stop at Sea World!
More dolphin watching.

Next up, the Shamu Show! It was great. We even got splashed by one of the whales after the show! IT definitely left an impression on Cam and hopefully a slew of great memories!
There she is anxious for it to start!

Whales!

After the Shamu show we went to lunch at this underwater shark cafe. It was literally like eating inside a giant aquarium! Very Fun!
Next was penguins
At the Pirate / Seal / Walrus show .....we were pretty tired by this point in the afternoon.

Overall we had a great time at Sea World. It wasn't terribly hot, lots of walking and way more than we could see on a single day! Did I mention that Cam decided that she no longer wants to wear diapers...even at sea world, not a single accident! Way to go big girl!

Tuesday, we were all still pretty wiped out from the big time on Monday. We decided to stay close to home. In the neighborhood where my parents live there is a great community area with a pool and playground. As you can imagine this was a big hit for my fish of a daughter!
Baking with Pop was very high on the priority list! They made delicious yellow cupcakes

with chocolate frosting
Always spoiling this girl, my parents bought her a spray attachment for the hose.
Cami wasn't the only one who loved it! The dog thought it was awesome!

Towards the end of the week we decided to stay around the Port Orange / Daytona Beach area. We went to the beach! It was a hit....so much so that we went 2 days in a row! Cami loved playing in the sand and loved getting tossed around by the waves! Searching for seashells was a huge hit too!
Venturing out towards the water. She couldn't really play in the water by herself because the tide was coming in and was very very very strong....not to mention there have been a lot of shark sightings and bites recently. Needless to say we stay very shallow.
We sat in water where are tushies were covered and just let the waves pound us. Believe it or not the waves were strong enough to fully turn me around.

More splashing!
Digging and searching for shells. While Nana, Cami and I were playing in the water, Pop was searching for shells, hence Cami's large collection!
taking a break to 'Cheese" for the camera!
After the first day at the beach, Cami noticed a lot of people fishing on the near by pier. She then asked Pop if we could come back tomorrow and fish. You can probably guess how that went over....Pop smiled from ear to ear.
We enjoyed the fishing...not any catching though.

We had a great time! It was so nice to spend quality time with my parents and visit with a lot of the other family in the area. We missed Matt terribly, but enjoyed our trip. We even snuck in a trip to the outlet mall and Ikea! Thanks again Nana and Pop for treating us like Princesses ....WE LOVE YOU!

My new Obsession!

My new Obsession.

So some friends of mine have been trying to convince me to check out this website called Pinterest. Well, I am glad that I did, because now I am totally addicted (in a good way). Its kind of hard to explain what this website is all about. But you basically are able to 'pin' items from various websites that you love. Then your followers/friends are able to look at what you've pinned! It is really fun and I have gotten some great ideas. I have already made a delicious crock pot recipe that I found on Pinterest.

The main thing that I look for is fun artsy type projects to do with Cami. Creative and fun things to do inside with her. She loves art and coloring so she has really been enjoying these projects.

This is just store bought finger paint inside a large ziploc bag and Cami is 'drawing' on it with a qtip. This is a perfect non-messy painting solution. The paint is still going strong and its been near a week.
Next, we made an octopus family. This project was out of things we had here at the house. literally hours of fun from creation and coloring to lots of playing. 1 paper towel roll and a couple sheets of construction paper and a little imagination!

Happy Pinning!

Kansas Trip Part 3

One of the things that Matt and I were dying to do when we went home to KS was to try out the new (ish) water park in the Kansas City area. Schlitterbahn! Well it didn't take much convincing to get the rest of the family on board. We went during the week, and on a day that had some rain and was overcast....which was brilliant! The park was not crowded at all and we pretty much walked onto most rides without waiting in line. There were 2 great toddler areas for the little kids and 4 super fun BIG water slides and a couple of other rides too! Needless to say a good time was had by all from 1 1/2 to almost 70...the place was a hit!

One of the great things about it is we were allowed to bring out own food. We brought 2 ice chests full of drinks, snacks and sandwich fixings. After 6 hours of water, fun and sun we were all beat...especially Cam who managed to make it through the whole day with no nap! About half way through the day I realized that I hadn't taken a single photo... oops. I tried to get a few to show what fun we had!

Look at these 2 good looking guys! Having Fun
Eric and Josh hanging out on the toddler area

Rick and Jill getting ready to do the roller coaster type ride... I think Jill has the better end of this deal!

Parker and Grandma getting ready to ride the rapid river
Cami, Papa and Daddy
Cami and Daddy getting off of the Wave River.
Josh wore himself out and ended up taking a good 2 hour nap on top of our picnic table

Josh and Auntie Jill

Joshie living the life of relaxation
End of our day at Schlitterbahn. Phew were we all tired, but we all had so much fun!
Cheese! She loved the jeep cause she could pretty much do it on her own!
Cami driving the Jeep.

The second week Cami and I were there, Grandma decided that she would take us to the new Kansas Children's Discovery Center. Paige and Parker got to come along too! We had so much fun. It was very similar to the Phoenix Children's Mueseum that Matt, Cami and I had been to earlier this year. We had a great time!

Walking into the discovery center. We picked a great day to do something inside....cause it was HOT!!!

the little artist. Not sure how I feel about painting on windows???
Cami painting part 1.
Cami in the grocery / restaurant play area
At the discovery center, they had a wood working area that was designed for bigger kids. Paige and Parker loved it. They had to use hand tools and could build things with scraps of wood and other trinkets. To go in this area they had to have Grandma with them.....Although I think Grandma ended up doing some of the work!

Parker and Grandma.

Cami worked in the mechanic shop....or as she called it the car doctor!
Paige showing off her artwork
Here is Parker painting
Cami and Paige playing Doctor. In one area of the discovery center they had a doctors office, grocery store, vet clinic and Mechanic shop all set up for dress up and theme play.

Here is Parker playing the grain area. He found a group of boys around his same age and they played and played in this spot. There were a series of elevators, pulleys and conveyor belts. They sure knew what they were doing.

Cami and grandma painting. This was Cami's second time painting that day....she loved it. She even helped the volunteers and her big cousin clean up afterwards.

Cami and Papa....Cami even got to steer a little this time
Taking a ride on the tractor with Papa. It is one of Cami's favorite things to do, every time we see anything that resembles a tractor she talks about riding with Papa!
Cooking with Grandma
The day we were leaving. Had to get a picture of Cami next to her tree. Matt's parents have a wonderful tradition, they plant a tree when a grandchild is born. It is so special for Cami to take a picture next to her tree each time we visit. I will have to do a few comparison shots in a future blog. Notice Cami's fancy Nike outfit....thanks Grandma and Papa!

More Kansas Trip (better late than never)

Our trip to KS was so much fun. A wonderful time spent with family and for Cami she really enjoyed her cousins this trip. She is just old enough to be able to do almost everything the big cousins do and keep up with them. Grandma and Papa's house is paradise for her.... the jeep (hotwheels), golf cart, tractor, feeding cows and fish and her cousins... I wasn't sure she was ever going to be ready to go home!

Aunt Jill, Paige and Parker tackling the tire swing
twirly whirl with cousin Paige! Cami adores Paige!
Playing the musical instruments at the Park
Playing at Linscott Park. Its so fun to get all of the cousins together for photo opportunity.

Peyton and Joshie riding the golf cart

Helping set up the new tent.
Running Girl
Ring around the rosy with Cami, Josh, Grandma and Aunt Jill in the sprinklers
Carter and Parker hanging out in the tent. All of the big kids slept out their with Aunt Jill one night.
feeding the cows. Parker, Carter and Cami.

I'll have at least one more port of our KS pictures....eventually!