Shamu's Happy Harbor

At the end of our first day at Sea World we hit up Shamu's Happy Harbor (the kids play area). At mentioned previously we went on a ride and climbed the cargo net, but true to form Lily's favorite part was the little water park area! What can I say, the girl loves water!! She may have played here all afternoon if we let her. And okay, I may have overdone it on the pictures, but I just couldn't resisit- she was too happy and full of life for me not to capture on film!

Sea World!

Waiting for the sea lion and otter show to begin

Checking out the birds at the Sea Lion Preserve

Lily and I and some sea lion friends

Our friends, the Litchfields, waiting for the Shamu show to begin

Pretty Amazing!

Lily watching the Shamu show- and loving it!

After the show- it's a little dark, but oh well.

Climbing the cargo net

Swinging over the cargo net (2 stories up)!

The Jazzy Jellies ride

We spent our 4th day in Florida at Sea World (we had the day off)! It was a really wonderful day! We were joined by two other families, the Litchfields (who were in Florida with us for the Lifelines meetings) and the Kimballs (who are friends of ours that are on staff with Campus Crusade in Florida)! I think it's safe to say that Lily loved the entire day at Sea World- and thus we did too! We started off with the sea lion and otter show and then also visited the sea lion and seal exhibit for quite a while. After that we hit up exhibits on penguins, puffins, and sharks. I think we enjoyed the puffins the most (maybe because they are native to Maine)- but they are really interesting to watch swim. But our favorite part of Sea World this day was the Shamu show- Lily was just in awe the whole time! I have to say that it is pretty amazing to see a creature that large jump out of the water! We ended the day at Shamu's Happy Harbor (the kids area)- where Lily went on her first ride (the Jazzy Jellies), played in the largest cargo net ever (multiple stories high), and had a blast in the water playground (I'll make another post of these pictures because I got a ton)! We love Sea World!

Rainforest Cafe and LegoLand!

Lily checking out the tropical fish tank right next to our table and the stars in the "sky" above.

Here's the Litchfields, Dave, and Emily

Lily and I with the giraffe outside the resteraunt

LegoLand!

We celebrated our big meeting at Campus Crusade headquarters by spending that evening at Downtown Disney (it's not actually in the park and it's free)! First our team had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe- which Lily just LOVED! It is set up just like a rainforest with tropical fish, birds, and animated elephants and gorillas. And every half hour there is a thunder storm complete with rain showers down the walls, thunder, and lightning in the "sky"- so cool! Most of all Lily loved the elephants and talked about them for days! After dinner we headed over to LegoLand. It was really too dark to get good pictures of the huge, larger than life sized lego creations- but they were very fun. And the kids got to spend a little time playing at the store!

Sidenote: I didn't get good pictures of any of these events- it was too dark both inside the resteraunt and outside once we were finished- but this gives you an idea!

Bubbles!

On the third day we were in Florida our Lifelines team had a big meeting at Campus Crusade headquarters with a few members of the National Team. Since we couldn't leave 5 of the children all day with just Emily I volunteered to stay back with the kids. I was a little disappointed to miss the meeting, but I did get to have a wonderful afternoon with the little ones blowing bubbles! There is just something about warm weather, little kids, and bubbles that works perfectly together. They had a blast blowing bubbles, chasing them, and then chasing each other. Perfect.

First Days in Florida

Emma

Micah

Story time with Emily

Lily testing out the freezing "hot-tub"- this was just moments before I fell in!

Aliza- the newest member of our Lifelines team!

Splashing in the "hot-tub"- still waiting for it to heat up!

This time it's stories with Kelly!

Everyday the kids would run around the patio (this was an early morning run)!

My little Lily on a beautiful Florida morning

We are back from Florida and we have lots to share! It was a great trip!

Our travel down there started a little rough when our ride was late and we almost (but not quite) missed our flight! Thankfully Lily did wonderful on the plane and even had her own seat (in between us) for over half of the flight. Hard to believe, but we had a direct flight from Bangor to Orlando (this was absolutly amazing)!

Our first couple of days in Florida were pretty busy. Our Lifelines leadership team all stayed in one house (which was wonderful)- so there were 8 adults and 6 children! The first couple of days we were pretty much in meetings all day and the kids were getting adjusted to "childcare" (which was our Lifelines intern, Emily, from UVA and rotating parents).

While the weather was pretty warm the first couple of days (mid to high 70's) the pool at our house was not! Until we got it heated (on about day 3) there wasn't much swimming- except for when I was trying to take a picture, bumped into the wall, and fell into the hot-tub (which was not hot, but freezing cold)! Thankfully I had enough common sense as I was falling to hold my camera up high and saved it from an early death in the hot tub!

Despite the cold pool we absolutly loved the warm weather. I forgot how wonderful it was to be able to walk outside (or even around the house) barefoot!

Here are some random pictures of the kids the first couple of days. Enjoy!

Florida Here We Come!

We leave for Florida tomorrow morning!!!

No, it's not a vacation really. It's a work trip. And I have no doubt that we'll be working hard- with meetings planned everyday that we are there (except one). But, we will be living in a house with some of our favorite people in the world (and their adorable kids). And we have a pool! So even though we have meetings scheduled every day (mornings, afternoons, and even nights) I can't wait to get there! I'm ready to soak up some sun, swim with my little girl, spend time with some great friends, eat a lot, visit Sea World (on our day off), and work too!

Now if we can just get there! Please pray for smooth, safe travel. And pray that I would get over this nasty cold that I have.

Probably won't be able to post until we get back, but I promise to have lots of fun pictures!

Valentine's Day Picnic!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day!

We celebrated in the evening (since Joe had to work in the morning/afternoon) with a little Valentines Day picnic inside by the fireplace! For years now Joe and I have ordered take out chinese food for Valentines Day-and we did the same this year for our picnic. Lily helped me set it all up and it was so cute. We realized, however, why having a picnic with real food with a toddler is a bit difficult. As soon as we sat down to eat Lily got right back up, wandered over to me, stood right in front of me, and as cute as could be said, "hello." Then she moved on and did the exact same thing to Joe. She is adorable, but she didn't get much actual eating done at our picnic. Oh well, it was a good try. We topped off our picnic with some yummy treats from Gov's (a huge homemade peanut butter cup for Joe and an even larger homemade cream puff for Lily and I). Thanks to Grammy and G-Pa for the sweets and Nonnie and Grampy for the adorable valentines day outfit Lily had on!

Modern Country

I've been holding onto this picture for months now. It's from the cover of the West Elm fall catalog. And the reason that I've been holding onto it is that I LOVE the style. They call it Modern Country/Rustic Style and I think it fits me perfectly! I thought I would share it will all of you and then someday when you see this design in my dining/living room you'll know where I got it from!

More Cookies!

Yesterday a few moms from my Adventure Moms group came over with their little ones to decorate valentines day cookies! You might think that 7 kids and frosting and sprinkles would big a huge mess, but the kids were amazingly good (and clean)! Those of you who follow my blog know that Lily is no stranger to decorating cookies and yesterday she was in fine form decorating to her heart's content- until she decided that she didn't even really need the cookie anymore and just started eating the sprinkles straight up (the little pastel flowers were her favorite)!

Side Note: One thing I've been learning about myself in general and through photography is that I am NOT a good multi-tasker. I believe that I can take good pictures, but when I am distracted (like when I am entertaining a group of moms/kids, having a conversation, and trying to keep my daughter from eating all the sprinkles) it's hard for me to concentrate and get good pictures. Maybe I'm going to be better at doing portraits than candids. Or maybe the longer I'm a mother (and the longer I practice taking pictures) I'll become a better multi-tasker. We'll see...

First Time Bowling!

Doing a little victory dance? And check out the adorable toddler bowling shoes!

This is when she decided to chase her ball down the lane!

Waiting very patiently

There it goes!

The other day we took Lily candlepin bowling for the first time!

And... she really had fun (for at least the first half of the game)! M&M's entertained her for the rest of the time! Actually I think she thought the whole thing was fun- picking up the bowling balls, rolling them, running down the lanes, climbing on the chairs, and of course the snacks!

She loved trying to throw or roll the ball on her own. We did have bumpers and watching her ball go down the lane was really, really slow, but to see the look on her face when it knocked a few pins over was really fun. Sometimes she would even get so excited that she would jump up and down and dance. And to be honest going into the 6th frame she was beating me. But... I'll have you know that I came back strong to tie Joe and then BEAT him the 2nd game! He claims I cheated in the first game by using the bumper to get a spare- but it doesn't matter- I still BEAT him the next game!! Good times!