florida vacation - part 4 - the rest

i think this will be my last post about florida. it is going to be a long one, but i just want to be done so here we go...

annabell thought she was pretty funny wearing my flip-flops as we were leaving the pool. i just thought that this shot of her was cute.

madelyn and i playing together. that was one of my favorite parts of our trip - playing with madelyn (and mason). it is so rare that i can just hang out with my kids because i seem to always have something else that i am doing at the same time. i loved being able to give her my complete attention.

my parents brought this shovel that was cleaned up and painted by my grandpa to the beach. seeing it here at sunset reminded us of him and i had to take some pictures.

my grandma z. and aunts su and claire came out to visit us on friday. it was so nice to see them and i wish that my kids didn't nap so long so that they could have visited too. at least grandma got to hold mason and hear him laugh. i think they both enjoyed their brief time together.

all of the big 'kids' played the new beatles guitar hero (thanks, brad). the picture shows matt and i jamming out on guitar and bass; josh and abby took turns on the drums while brad provided the vocals.

madelyn's blogger buddy, lorelai, and her family came out to visit us on friday evening. the girls had fun burying matt in the sand. when they were done with matt, lorelai had a turn getting buried.

madelyn got to fly a kite too. the best part was when lorelai's mom knocked one of the kites free and ran down the beach to catch it - poor kellie! at least is wasn't too windy.

after the beach we all hit the pool before dinner. and when i say "all", i mean all - even mason! i was a little nervous to have him in the pool since it had just been treated that morning and we never took madelyn in so young, but mason loved it. i should have known that he would with as much as he loves bath time. he was laughing, kicking, and putting his head back. i had originally just brought him in the shallow part of the pool for a few pictures but lorelai's dad (an old friend of mine) was giving me a hard time about not letting him spend some time in the pool so i brought him back in to 'swim' and i am so glad that i did! thanks for pressuring me, jon!

we had some time on saturday after leaving the beach so matt took madelyn out on grandma and big pop's jet ski. she must have liked it because she fell asleep on the way back! poor kid was just so worn out that the engine idling back in put her to sleep.

madelyn passed the time we had to wait at the airport during the delay by having a picnic with the dolls grandma gave her before we left. she is sharing one of her banana cookies in the picture. i have mentioned madelyn's affection for picnics several times and she was really happy to have some "picnic dolls" to share with on the floor.

when we were parking the car to unload and fly home madelyn pointed out that there were birds painted on the parking garage. when we confirmed that, yes, they were painted on she told us that me-ma (great-grandma) had painted them! i guess when she was looking at a bird book with grandma she mentioned that me-ma had painted one of the birds they were talking about. even though i know that madelyn soaks up everything like a sponge, it always surprises me when she remembers some small detail and applies it later.

and that concludes are florida vacation. we had a great time and madelyn is still asking to go back to "grandma's beach house". she talks about it every day and likes to see all the pictures and watch the videos from the trip. we are very blessed to get to spend that time together. love.