Cousin Sleepover

Soon, after we returned from our trip to FL we had to have a sleepover.  The cousins had been away from each other too long. It amazes me how we manage to fit them in our tiny townhouse.  Somehow, they all fit.

The Maya Portrait

It was such a fun sleepover.  Of course the children went to bed late and woke up early.  We also had our traditional donut breakfast, followed by some fun movie time, playing outside, and more (but I don't remember). I think for lunch we met up with Kristen and Troy at Ikea and we went from showroom to showroom trying out all of the fun furniture. 
The following Monday we had FHE at our house and played in the pool.  The water was really great.

Busy Busy

It is my goal during the days Maya is at pre-school to spend time working on several 'better' things, including updating this blog.  Last week and this week I wasn't really able to that.  Last week I spent it preparing tamales or making tamales for our Relief Society activity.  This week...Arden stayed home sick on Tuesday and I wasn't able to work on the blog.  Also, our Internet is being fastidious or rather slow and I get tired of waiting.  Plus, I've got other things to do.  Hopefully, next week...Nope, not next week, it's my turn to teach pre-school.  Sometime soon, may be even tonight, if my Internet connection is cooperative I'll try to update this blog. 
       On the bright side I went to the Draper Temple today and I was able to do some work. Attending the temple is one of the 'better' things I try to do while Maya is at pre-school.

Week 3 Continued

The weekend before we left FL, Mia wanted to have an early birthday party with her cousins.  We met up at Wikki Wachee Springs  to meet the mermaids and see their performances.
It was realistic and magical for those little girls.  Maya now mostly plays "mermaids" whenever she's around her cousins.
They loved watching the show and then they even took pictures with a 'real' mermaid.

We only went to the mermaid side of the park, not the water park side, so there wasn't a ton of stuff to see and do.  However, we made the best of it.  We had a great time.  My dad also came with us and the kids loved having their Lito around...although, playing with cousins is also a lot of fun.
I think we had a great time because we were together.


After the mermaid show we walked around their gardens/walkways and took some funny and silly photos.


We arrived to the Reptile Theater to see the Reptile Show. It was outdoors and we were so hot and sweaty.  I thought we were going to pass out, but luckily the show started promptly...although it was probably less than 15 minutes long and only 4 reptiles were presented. In a way, we (the adults) were glad the show was short, so we could escape the heat.
Once the show ended, our clan stood in line to pet some creatures...who doesn't love petting some creatures?

Next, came the trip down the river.  We waited and waited for the boat to arrive...most of the people in our group gave up and went to see another mermaid show...in the Air Conditioner theater. While some of us, continued to wait and wait.  Finally, it was our turn.

It was worth it.  The water was crystal clear you could see to the bottom...which isn't very deep. There were so many fishes, I thought Arden might want to jump in and try to catch one of them....Luckily, no diving for fish on this trip.
After our shows and boat trips, we were famished.  Off to Chick -fill-A  for a late lunch.

Arden with one of his favorite people

The kids were happy eating and playing.  Arden and Maya gave their cousins lots of hugs and said bye, until  next time.

We had a fabulous day.






The following day, we went to church and later on, we drove to the beach to see the sunset and play.

Again, there's not much to say for the sunset-beach trips, expect that it was a beautiful sunset and I was glad to be there with my parents and my children.

Maya kept asking her Abby and Lito to take her over to the waves and swing her.  What fun!


Our final day in FL, I took the children to the Gamble Plantation. This is a place I've driven by so many times, I couldn't even count them, but I had not visited.  It was an educational experience and I feel like I learned a lot.  I think the children learned a bit and enjoyed the tour.




 
The following day was time to come home.  We arrived to the airport on time only to find out, once we boarded the plane and waited for two hours that it had broken down and there was another plane on the way. By the time the second plane arrive, we boarded, and landed in Arizona it was going to be 2AM and then, we were expected to catch a plane at 6AM.  We changed airlines, got a hotel room at the airport and spent the night.  It was a nice hotel and I liked walking out of my room and being at the airport...no parking hassle!  After we got our tickets, we boarded the plane...and guess who we found?  Mia and Karen...they were on their way to visit a friend.  We promised we would chat, but we waited in the tarmac for about an hour and once the plane took off, Mia fell asleep.  So no cousin time.
We only had a short layover in Atlanta.  We were next to last out of the plane and we had to walk, literally, across the entire airport to catch the next flight.  When we got there, the doors had closed. They had been closed for perhaps a minute before we arrived, but they wouldn't let us in.  I was tired and disappointed at that moment, and boy did I want to curse at someone! I was told I could wait until the next plane at 12:30PM, but it was full, so they couldn't guarantee us any spots.  We might have to wait until 7PM.  I was livid, but I knew there was nothing they or I could do.  That sucks.  After a somewhat relaxing voucher breakfast, we headed back to our gate and waited some more.  By this time, my children were spent and I don't blame them.  We got lucky and were three of the few people on standby that got to head home. 
After that ordeal, it was so nice to be home.

Florida Week 3

Kennedy Space Center
After we dropped Newel off at the airport, we headed to Orlando and spent the night at the Romeros.
I think it's so funny that my children get so excited to see their cousins, even when they saw them the previous day.
The following morning, we got up early and headed to Cape Canaveral to the Kennedy Space Center.
Now that my children are older, going to amusement parks and other places is so more fun and easy.
This was such a fun place...not only fun, but educational. We learned how it feels to be inside the space capsules.
Arden and I went inside a simulator and it was so realistic, as the ceiling opened in our 'space ship,' Arden asked me if we were really in space.  Maya, who couldn't ride in the simulator, stayed back with my mom, and she also thought we had gone into space.
We also met a real astronaut and had a chance to ask him questions.

Captain Karen?

We saw a Star Trek live show...I didn't know my mom really liked Star Trek.
What a Trekkie!
We learned about lots of other space things, too.  
Our day flew by and the kids were so amazingly good!  I really liked spending that time with my mom, too.

Meeting a real astronaut

Suit up

We were so busy at that park, we didn't even get to go to the Astronauts' Hall of Fame.  We ended up getting season passes, just in case we decide to visit FL this winter or even next summer.



Ringling Museum
I knew our time was coming to an end soon. So, I wanted to take advantage of the time we had left, but I found it kind of challenging finding places for our kids to go that aren't too expensive or that we haven't visited already.  The following morning the children and I went to the John Ringling Museum.  It's been years since I've visited the museum, and they've totally leveled up!  I thought it was pretty good then, but now, wow, it's even better.
We checked out some outdoor sculptures, but we mainly tried to stay indoors, since it was so stinking hot!
I had forgotten how much nudity there are in old paintings.  Arden noticed some of the nudity, too and made him feel kind of uncomfortable, so we rushed past some of the galleries.
I've always loved the museum's grounds, and this time they have steroided golf carts that took us around. 
We checked out the Ca'd Zan and out of all the furniture and rooms there, my favorite was the kitchen.  So pretty.
We enjoyed some of the bay breeze, but there wasn't much of it.
After Ringling's house, we had a delicious cold lunch and walked to the circus museums.  There are actually two of them now.  One of them is the miniature version of the circus.  I remember when I went to see it, years ago...like when I was 13 years old, and it wasn't as cool as they have it now.  I even remember it being kind of dusty. This time I was actually interested in all of it. They made it so nice with miniature trains and all kinds of cool stuff.

Arden's lizard

Miniature circus

The kids also did a picture find and once they found all of the items in their booklet, the got a clown nose.  Arden really liked his nose...Maya refused to wear it...she probably wanted it to be pink. After the miniature circus, we went to the life size circus.  That was pretty cool, too.  We checked out more of the museum's gardens. I thought this was going to be a short trip to the museum, but I think we ended up spending about 4 or 5 hours there. 
Afterward, I drove the kids to my old USF campus...I guess this is a sign that I'm getting older when I start showing my children places of my youth.  I remember my parents doing that when I was a kid. 

Sunsets at the beach

Since my parents are busy working during the day and they don't like going to the beach during the hot hours of the day, we would go with them to the beach at sunset.
These photos are from one of the late afternoons we went to the beach.  A lot of these are my favorites from that day.
I love going to the beach at this time of the day.  The natural light is beautiful and it's so nice to be there.

Photographer Maya

Maya trying out the camera.

Florida Week 2

We weren't quite at the 2nd week of our FL adventure, but it was more convenient to separate the posts in weeks.
What a wonderful week we had with the Carters.  They arrived on Sunday afternoon and of course Arden was so excited to see his dear friend Ellie. This week went by fast and it's kind of a blur. But this is more or less how our days were like: 
Most of the children slept in the same room, with the exception of baby Matthew...who was so adorable I wanted to bring him home with me.

Anyways, these guys would take turns sleeping on the beds.  They would go to bed kind of late...9:30 or 10PM and would wake up pretty early.  There were a couple of mornings they woke up around 6:45. 
They would play for a while, eat breakfast, change into their swimming suits and then we'd walk to the beach.
They'd play for a few hours...sometimes we would have lunch at the beach, other days, we'd just eat snacks and head back home. Once we were back home, they would swim in the pool for a few hours.  After the pool, they would get showered and dressed, relax for a little while...sometimes, the older kids would go outside to catch lizards and other types of critters and then we'd eat dinner or go out to dinner.
After dinner, on most days we ate by the beach, so we'd go play in the sand or go for a swim.  Finally, they'd wash up and eventually go to bed.

On one of the first days the Carters were in town...Karen and her sister Vilma, went out to dinner with us at the Pier.  The food was okay, but the views were great.  The kids had a wonderful time watching an Asian couple catch some fishes. Vilma also brought a couple of their nephews and we were out numbered.  There were 10 children and 5 adults. 
The children were so good, for being hungry and having so many of them.  No one got lost or went overboard...well, over the pier.
Another day...I think it was that Tuesday...JP McDonald took us out on his sailboat.  I invited my dad to come along, since I knew Arden would want to go fishing with him and this seemed like a great opportunity to go fishing. 
Our kids had a great time on the sailboat.  I've known JP for many years...and this was the first time I had gone sailing with him.  I had a lot of fun.

We didn't go very far since there wasn't a constant breeze and with so many little ones, they wouldn't have the attention span to travel that far. So, JP took us to a bird island...only birds are allowed there, but we tried fishing and using some nets to catch sea critters.  Arden was in HEAVEN!  Kevin is such a cool dude, he was in the water with no fear swimming alone with his life jacket.  Maya had the biggest tantrum, refusing to wear shoes...we tried to explain there could be sting rays or other creatures that could pinch her feet and it was a safety precaution.  She wouldn't hear it.  This idea of a creature pinching you and with the sea floor being rocky, a bit slimy, and with sea grass, also freaked Ellie out.  So, for a while we had a bit of girl drama...with Maya and Ellie taking turns.  Looking back it was kind of funny.
Even with all of the drama, we had fun.
In some of these photos we let Kevin be our photographer...not bad, eh. After, our sailing trip, JP took us to the spring by his house to see the manatees.  There were several of them...so cute.

Arden and Ellie were in insect/critter heaven. They got really good at catching all kinds of creatures, especially the lizards.  There are all kinds of photos on these posts of the many creatures they caught. Some were released back into the wild (our backyard or the beach) unharmed...Others weren't as lucky...they were held in captivity and stunk up the garage. Thank goodness they were kept  in the garage and not inside the house.

Looking for 'poquinas' after dinner.

We loved going to the beach after dinner.  That was probably our favorite time to go.  We didn't have to wear sunblock and the weather was just perfect...most evenings.  I also think the kids acted more relaxed in the evenings.

After playing hard all day, these kids would sleep like logs...although I still wonder, why couldn't they sleep in until later?

Wednesday night Mr. Chris arrived.  The following morning we drove through the barrier islands and headed to Siesta Key...voted one of the best beaches in the country.  And it's so true...the sand was so nice.  That being said...because it is so nice, it was very populated.  I liked our beach on the Anna Maria island...we practically had the beach to ourselves. 
Newel, being such a lover of eating out, couldn't help himself and went to the Salty Dog to get the most heart attack causing hot dog I've ever seen.  I won't lie...it tasted pretty good, but I was happy with my spicy wings.
Chris didn't seem too sure about his meal, but he was a good sport and ate it.
I think it's so funny that after being at the beach a big part of the day, the children still went to the pool to play.
That evening, we left our kids and the Carter kids with my mom and Tia Dina, who were so nice to watch our children. Then, we met up with HB, Karen, and Craig at Berns's Steakhouse.   We needed to show our Texan friends that FL has good steak restaurants.  They really liked the food. The company was great, too.  We laughed so much and was just a wonderful evening.  At the time we were going to the dessert room, Newel called PGI and he met up with us.  He's such a great story teller, he had a captive audience. We got home pretty late and we were pretty tired, but it was so worth it.

Okay, it's time to make a confession.  The night we went to Bern's was Arden's birthday, but we didn't tell him, since we were busy. I know, it's kind of naughty, but he didn't have a calendar in front of him telling him the date and that he missed his birthday. BUT, the following morning, we told him that it was his birthday, and asked him if he wanted to celebrate it with Kevin whose birthday was the following day. Arden decided he wanted his own party, so, we had a pool party at the beach house.  Karen came over with the girls for a swim.
We bought some cupcakes, sang him his birthday song, and he opened presents that would remind him of his trip to FL.  He seemed pleased with all of it.  Also, this was the first time in years he only had one party. Usually, there are a couple of parties involved.

That evening, we went to the Sandbar for dinner.  That was our favorite place since the beach is so pretty and the food is pretty good too. Vilma met us there with Joseluis...but there was a mishap with their seats and she got mad and went to the beach instead.  We met up with her later.

So hot, no, really that's sweat on HB!

Giving Arden b-day wishes

We kept on celebrating Arden's birthday.  He picked out a yummy dessert and had a blast sharing it with Ellie and Mr. Chris.  It was really funny how the other children piled on their ice cream dessert on top of Arden's to make it bigger. That was pretty funny.  We also had a couple of dirty children. But when you have the beach nearby, just dump them in the water and problem solved.

My mom, dad, and abuelita met us at the beach after they had their dinner...did I mention they arrived late?  That's not a surprise, though. I has happy they were there.

The sunset was gorgeous and we took advantage of the sun to take some photos.

What a happy boy. Happy 7th Birthday!

The Carters

My mommy

The following morning was time to leave the beach house.  So we cleaned up, packed our bags and headed to a boat rental place. We rented a plantoon boat.  We loaded it with children, snacks, and water and headed to Egmont Key. It would have been a really great hit, if it wouldn't have been so hot.  The only relief after walking around the fort was swimming.  The water cooled us off. There were so many pretty shells on the shore, I couldn't get over how nice they were.  I wish I could have spent more time collecting shells, but it was also fun being in the water with Mayita and Arden. When we headed back to the mainland, some of the kiddies fell asleep as they sat on their seats.  They were finally getting tired, after so many days of playing hard. I was glad we also had a chance to see some dolphins.  I hope the Carters liked seeing a bit of FL's natural habitats.
After our boat adventure, we headed over to JP and Jan's house, who were so nice to let us stay there while they were out of town.  I hope we didn't trash their house too much.  We took it easy that afternoon. Some of the kids went fishing at the canal in the McDonald's backyard, we ordered some pizza and celebrated Kevin's birthday.  We had cake and let the kids play. No pool that day. The guys (HB, Chris, and Newel) had one last late night with JJ and Chris Rosenboom joining them, too.  The following morning, the Carters headed back home to TX.  We went to church, and hung out at my parents' house and then we dropped Newel off at the Sarasota airport.  Then, my mom, the kids and I drove to Orlando to spend the night at Karen's house and there we started another adventure.