173/192

Dinner, in between swim practices.

170/195

I have one sister and she has three boys.  
Her middle boy, Peyton reminds me so much of my Matthew.  Tough,  100% boy, funny, and super sensitive all rolled up into one.

169/196

Nana, (my mom) with her youngest grandchild, Parker.

165/200

164/201

110/255

109/256

We had wicked storms all around us last night but we scraped through with just marble sized hail.  The kids thought it would be fun to try and catch the hail but quickly learned it would be a bit painful, which upped the ante even more.

108/257

I can still see a slice of baby when I look at him in this picture, even though he will be turning 9 this weekend.  *sniff*

107/258

The setting sun while we drove away from the Florida beach.

100/265

The sun setting over the Polynesian Resort at Disney World.

99/276

98/267

This is my favorite tree in our yard, it's a Kwanzan Cherry tree.  Soon the buds will open into flowers with hundreds (at least it looks like that many) little petals each.  This is the tree that inspired the flower war last year.

97/268

96/269

95/270

Matthew (aka Mr. Personality) was the only child who wanted the mouse ears hat when we were at Disney World.  This is him "fluffing" his ears.

94/271

Today is Toby's 3rd birthday!

93/272

92/273

This was inside one of the buildings in the China area of Epcot.

91/274

90/275

89/276

88/277

My two girls.
One born in the U.S., one born in China, but daughters and sisters all the same.

87/278

The crab.
We found this crab on the beach and everyone crowded around, being careful of our toes in case the crab went crazy.  We watched and watched and the crab did nothing.  Then we figured out it was dead; oh my, we had quite the laugh.  Of course, Matthew needed to give him a proper burial so he was covered with sand and the rest of the time Claire freaked out because she knew she was stepping where the crab was.

86/279

While looking out my kitchen window this morning I saw this cardinal, perched just perfectly for me.  He was such a good bird that he sat right there while I ran through the house to grab the camera.

85/280

Somewhere along the note passing chain between Mother Nature and myself, an error occurred.  This is the end of March, budding trees, tulip leaves erupting through the dirt and all things pretty and springy.  Although the 5 inches was pretty, it completely obliterated our early lettuce plantings.

84/281

The boardwalk over the dunes to reach the beach.

83/282

We took a short walk with the kids last night and I was able to get one picture before it was dark.  This is one of the many blooming Bradford Pear trees in our neighborhood.

I haven't quit...

Yet, anyway.

We've been on vacation the last nine days, plus I have a few days before that to make up for as well.  I plan to edit the photos soon (maybe after the rest of the house is put back where it belongs) and then post a photo that I took each day of vacation.

**I have started adding photos but I'm not editing them in order. So, keep scrolling down to March 6th each time you check because new ones might pop in between photos you've already seen.**

82/283

I must give credit where it is due; my husband took this great photo.  We went on a safari ride while at the Animal Kingdom and I thought he would have a more steady hand than I would.  It was so incredibly bumpy that I was surprised that so many photos were in focus.
He took the photo, I did the editing.  :)

81/284

We found this Macaw pair on a hidden path within the Animal Kingdom.

80/285

After we toured Kennedy Space Center we hopped over to the Canaveral National Seashore.  We drove all the way to Florida so we had to place our feet into warm sand at least once.  Plus, I wanted to show Claire the ocean and beach for the first time.  While there I got this gorgeous shot of her; she is so photogenic!

79/286

Maybe we're in the wilderness of Arizona or New Mexico... or maybe Disney does a fantastic job recreating such areas and making them into roller coasters.  This the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster at Disney's Magic Kingdom.

78/287

We were driving back towards home today so here is a photo taken in the Japan section of the Epcot World Showcase.

77/288

Our last day in Florida was spent at the Kennedy Space Center.  Our oldest son, Jacob, is obsessed with all things space and set his career dream several years ago; he wants to work for NASA.  I knew we had to take him to the space center while we were in Florida.

This is the space shuttle, Endeavour, on launch pad 39A ready for a scheduled launch on April 19th. This will be Endeavor's last flight before it is officially retired.  The amount of awe we all experienced made the last, tiring day very well worth it.

76/289

On Thursday we toured Hollywood Studios and I didn't take any pictures.  I'm kicking myself now; how could I not take any pictures?!  I know how, I was so dog tired that I didn't even want to take the camera out of my bag.
But, Thursday evening we went back to the Magic Kingdom to watch the night parade and fireworks so we got to see the castle all lit up in different colors.  That night was fun; we stayed until 1 am!

75/290

We spent today touring the Magic Kingdom and of course, there is really only one prized photo from the Magic Kingdom.  Cinderella's castle.

74/291

Tuesday was spent touring the very wooded Animal Kingdom.  This pond and waterfall was near the spot we enjoyed our lunch.

73/292

Our first day of vacation was spent in Epcot and while there marveling at the glorious weather we look up and see this in the sky.

72/293

Just before reaching our vacation home we found a U-pick citrus farm.  We were able to stroll the orange grove and pick all the oranges we wanted.  While there I found this picturesque spot on their pond.
I'd like to tell you the oranges were the best I've ever eaten, but that would be a lie.  They really weren't good, at all.  We came home and made half a gallon of freshly squeezed orange/tangerine juice which proved to be a much better use for the seedy oranges and tangerines we picked.

71/294

This was one of many waterfalls we saw while crossing over the mountain ridge just before Chattanooga, TN.

70/295

This was Matthew's way of keeping out the sun.

69/296

65/300

Emily peeled her Clementine carefully tonight to reveal this.  I thought it looked like a flower, she said it looked like the sun.

64/301

The current state of our master bathroom.  We're trying to keep the bathroom somewhat usable for as long as possible while remodeling.  Quite the oxymoron, don't you think?

63/302

We are taking a trip to Disney World and since I'm not busy enough I decided to let the kids pick out fabric and I'm sewing them each a travel pillow.  Clean the house or sew?  Sewing won.

62/303

61/304

This is part of the glass that is on either side of our front door.

60/305

59/306

We took a trip to the camera store to try out a new lens.  They didn't have what we came for so we played with this lens instead.

58/307

Looking out the window on a rainy day.

57/308

My Sienna flipped 100,000 miles today. I felt an immediate rip in the security blanket with the flip of a few numbers because it meant my extended warranty is now expired. Thankfully it has been a really good van so I'm not too worried about a lot of future repairs.