Friday, December 29, 2006

Christmas eve in Tampa - and we're all wearing our new tie-dye shirts that the kids and I made everyone for Christmas.
The kids enjoyed picking up the air plants that had fallen to the ground.

Myakka State Park


Quincy caught the very first fish of the day on his $12 rod. After the pic grandad let him go (as was true for all the fish we caught - probably close to a dozen all told).



Can you believe this fish wasn't large enough to keep?!




Quincy is very seriously driving the boat - while grandad chats on his cell...





my martha stewart attempt - gingerbread 3D cookies. not decorated as attractively as the williams sonoma catalogue but the kids liked them
OK I'm having trouble getting the photos to go where I want them - but here are some of the swimming crew enjoying the heated pool on the lanai.




Aidan catches his first fish!!









The family gets their first ride on grandad's fishing boat.

3 cousins about to board the "Polar Express" to Santa's Workshop.

















We've been in Florida a week and a half so far. Been out on the boat 3x. Kids swim in the pool on the parents' lanai daily - or more frequently. Their favorite pool activity seems to be jumping in - again and again and again... We've all caught fish (and granddad let them go for us). We took a "Polar Express" train ride to "santa's workshop". We've wandered through some Floridian landscape. The kids have been loudly active around the house (altho more so when cousin Audrey was still here). We opened oh so many presents over several days. We met 3 month old cousin Claire up with our cousins in Tampa (and had a very yummy dinner). Grandma has served us up many yummy meals (we are all going home a few #s heavier). We still haven't played with all our new toys. We haven't yet worked on the train - hope to today! Have worked on many less puzzles this year compared to last - but I ordered a few custom puzzles for Mom and Rob (and Norma) and we've worked on those (and a 1000 pc one Mom had) - have to say that the custom puzzles are annoying in that the pieces can fit where they don't belong. And stupidly I chose somewhat hard pictures for the puzzles... The adults are all catching up on sleep while the kids get more and more sleepy eyed. Brother Rob & Sarah worked on adoption of baby Jack while here and returned home to spend time with him in the hospital - we love modern technology that let us enjoy photos of him (he is very cute) right away. Here are some pics of our trip so far.