Summer Lovin'

Summer time collages.

1. My fun purple sparkle sunglasses. 2. Staying with my mom.  3. Plastic flamingos.  4. Blue skies and sunshine.  5. Sidewalk chalk fun.  6. Relaxation at the pool.  7. Silly swimmers.

1. Fun beach towels.  2. Shopping for shoes.  3. Random heart leaf.  4. Sushi!  5. Beach boil.  6. Mom and daughter cocktails.

1. Training wheels.  2. Pampering pedicures.  3. Pool days.  4. Frozen yogurt  5. Arriving at the airport.  6. With my sister.

1. Flowering bushes.  2. Ariana's coloring.  3. Sharing my crab legs with Ariana. 4. Eating with Daddy. 5. Shrimp nachos.  

1. Beach toys.  2. My Birthday dinner.  3. Picking up the Winning Family at the airport.  4. Tropical flowers.  5. Aunt Jen and Ariana.  6. Day on the boat.  7. Stormy palm trees. 

Enjoying my trip so far. Two more weeks left! Georgia and South Carolina soon!

Ariana's First Build-a-Bear

I have never set foot in a Build-a-Bear store until just the other day. Ariana has been sick with pink eye and is still has a cold. She's been coughing and stuffed up for the past few days. Daddy and I took her to get her very own special bear the other day to help cheer her up.

There were so many choices of characters: bears, cats, bunnies, alligator, seahorse, hello kitty, she liked them all. She finally choose a blue bear with white stars and took her to get stuffed with a little heartbeat inside. 

She had so much fun looking at all the outfits and accessories but decided on a leotard and shoes that were special for the Olympics. Our bear became a gymnast!

 Then she named her bear and we got her dressed to take home with us. 

Meet Cleverbelle (named by Ariana all by herself)! She's the newest member of our family. We all had such fun that day helping her make her bear. I will definitely be doing that again with Ariana.

Now I just wish she could shake this cold and start feeling a little better so she can enjoy the rest of our trip!

Alligators in the Everglades

We went to the Everglades and took an air boat ride out to see the alligators and other wild life. Check that off our summer bucket list! We had such a great time with my mom and sister and Rich's brother and his wife. We saw 3 alligators which was pretty good. It was so awesome to see them in their natural habitat and a little scary. They were so chill though so it wasn't bad. James, my brother in law is not a fan of alligators but he overcame his fear and had so much fun.

The airboat out into the everglades was so awesome and we went surprisingly fast over the lily pad type plants. I took this picture of James looking out over the side of the boat so you could see how close we actually got to the alligators. Remember these are WILD ANIMALS!

Even the birds and plants and bugs out there were so interesting. I loved the purple gallinules and their babies walking on the lily pads. And the huge dragon flies flying around and hovering above the water was just beautiful. 

I loved the heart on this lily pad.

If you ever watch Gator Boys on Animal Planet you might recognize this guy. We went to Everglades Holiday Park which is the home of the Gator Boys. We saw Chris from the show but the other guys were out on a call I'm sure. He gave us some information about alligators in a little show and did tricks like sticking his hand in the alligators mouth and showing us how fast they close their jaws. He even held his mouth open with his chin WITH NO HANDS! Then Ariana and Rich and James held the baby alligator named Cricket. She was 3 years old and still so little.

Afterwards we all had to try Gator Bites which were mostly like chicken nuggets but it was alligator tail deep fried. The general consensus: not too bad.

From left to right: Jen my sister in law, James my brother in law, Richard, Ariana, Me, Anne my mom, Sarah my sister.