George and Laura: July 2009

Friday night, Jeff and Amy and the kids, and George and I met Craig and Cassie at the Swamp. Never mind that there wasn't a real game going on--just the excitement of being in the actual Swamp on a muggy Florida summer evening, hearing music that could have broken your eardrums, and watching highlights of last year's games on jumbo screens on either end of the stadium--all made the evening well worth going for. Oh, yes, and did I say, there were some of the best athletes around in attendance?

Actually, the best part was all being together having fun. The little boys got so excited--as well as the big boys!

They little ones are learning young and can already do the Gator chomp. Lola loves to be with everyone and just hangs out with the fam.

Afterwards, we had to go have ice cream before we headed home. We all can't wait for when football starts again and we'll see some real action in the Swamp!

It is always so fun--and busy--when the grandkids come to visit! Oh, how we love it! We were so excited when we found out Alison and the boys were coming from Shanghai and bringing Connor (Kevin and Angie's son) with them from Utah. They would be coming for about 12 days, so we tried to plan fun things to keep everyone busy. Here are some of the adventures we had:

Catch & Release.

One of the funnest things the kids always love to do is to find Florida critters, take a look at them, and then release them. We saw plenty of critters!

The boys actually rescued this turtle out of the road. Parker let him go by a pond and he was back in the water in a flash. Nothing poky about that turtle!

No catching this tortoise--just looking. There must be an animal crossing on the way to Amy's house. We see some sort of animal crossing the street almost every time we go there!

Connor with a little frog.

Dinners Together and Going to Church Together

What a great time we had when we all sat down to eat together! We filled up the whole table just like old times when all the kids were home! We surely miss those days!

At church, we filled up the whole middle bench--just like we used to. (Picture taken on our bench swing right after church.)

Going Swimming

The floating basketball hoop was a real hit!

Please ignore the "Keep Off" sign. Parker and Connor did! But then, they were catching a lightning speed lizard which ran into the bushes there, so it made it alright!

When we came home, Grandpa had to try his hand styling Lola's hair. He put styling gel on it and had it sticking straight up. Next time, little Lola, don't let him do it! (I was going to say, "Run, Lola, Run!" but I remembered she can't walk yet!)

Going to Spring Park is always a must--especially for the younger boys.

An Afternoon at the Mall

Grandpa gave a few instructions, and then we had a little tournament. Actually, the boys went several times to real golf courses around here and had a great time after the initial shock of the heat when they thought they could do 36 holes and barely made it through 9!

Fourth of July Fun

First, we had a barbecue at our house, then we went to Jeff and Amy's for some fireworks fun.

Jeff was the "Master of the Fireworks."

Everyone got settled on their cozy chairs to watch the big event.

Garrett & Isaac preferred the curb.

Rebeca and her daughter, Kaylie, who John and Alison knew in Virginia, came for the evening. They now live in St. Augustine. Rebeca's son, Brandon, went to Especially for Youth with Bracken for a week down in Tampa. They had such a great time!

We had a few guests, also, join in the fun. These were relatives of the lady next door.

Chuck-e-Cheese

A place enjoyed by all was Chuck-e-Cheese--we went there for Family Home Evening. Jeff and Amy and Craig and Cassie came. Cassie was the big winner of the night on "Deal or No Deal."

Suddenly, George looked down at his feet, and to his surprise--he was wearing two different shoes and no one had even noticed as he had worn them all day long at work! (At least, everyone was too kind to say anything!) We all had a great laugh about this one!

We couldn't get Parker and Connor off the basketball challenge even when we had to leave to go home. They really wore themselves out on that!

I think Craig and Jeff liked this game, too!

Going to Orlando.

Staying in a condo in Orlando was such fun. We stayed for two nights. Tyson and Garrett said they were never leaving there and wanted to live there!

The view from our condo window.

While the little kids hung out at the condo with Alison and Amy, I took Connor and Parker to Islands of Adventure & Universal. We were having the greatest of times!

We ate lunch by the beautiful little lagoon. Then we headed over to Jurassic Park.

The boys went down the waterway in a raft and got pretty wet. (Do you see Parker right in the middle facing forward? Connor is next to him, leaning over, wiping the water off his face.) Little did we know, this ride was nothing compared to what was to come.

Suddenly, the rains came in torrents! Lightning and thunder and so much water, you could hardly see through it. Luckily, we had just gone into the little Jurassic Park gift shop. There we stayed for over two hours to let the weather calm down. The boys were great and just entertained themselves as best as they could--which included:

Playing with the precious stones (rocks?) they had in a display.

Connor trying to talk Parker into trying on the dinosaur hat--It wasn't easy, but he finally got him to do it!

When the weather calmed down a little, I bought rain coats for all of us, and we trudged through the water ponds to the other side of Islands of Adventure and found George on the other side who had been waiting in a little cafe for us. We gave him his rain coat and were determined to finish the day by having fun.

And we certainly did have fun!

Pirate's Cove Miniature Golf Course

The next day, we just had to stop off at the Pirate's Cove Miniature Golf Course. When we first went in, there were two ducks by an old beat-up boat. Tyson was sure that one of them was Floppy or Doodle who use to be a regular in their garden yard in Paris.

Connor, after making a hole-in-one!

Tyson was so patiently trying to show Preston how to hold the golf club--

but Preston had his own way of doing it!

In between golf swings, Tyson was still catching little critters.

Upon arriving home, Connor and Parker just had to go golfing one more time while we were getting ready for a birthday dinner and play at the Alhambra for Amy whose birthday was the next day. We took Garrett and Tyson with us to see "Annie." We all loved it!

Amy's Birthday Dinner and Party

We were very fortunate to know one of the actresses in the play--Rebeccah--who got us half price tickets. She was so great in the play! We took a picture after the play when she got out of her costume.

Visit Over Too Soon!

The next morning, we packed all the bags and left for the airport. The time had gone much too quickly. Bye, everyone. We hope you all come back again real soon--and bring more of the grandkids next time!