Florida Jan 12

We all flew down to Florida for a little vacation/time-in-the-sun this past January. Our trip there turned out to be a bit of an adventure (read: stomach bug, Seattle blizzard of 2012, 19 hours of travel, feverish child, missed flights, stand-by travel, rental car, and husband and wife tension) but we made it there in one piece and only six hours later than we were actually scheduled to arrive. There were moments when we thought we would make it much later than we did but with optimism (I was determined to be happy), persistence and a bit of luck, everything turned out just fine... and we are still happily married.

In total we spent a 6 days in Florida. Three days were with Babe and Pops, Chris' parents, (and we even had a nice pool-side lunch with his grandparents one day) and during our last couple days we spent time with CiCi, my step-mom, my friend Shannon (and her little boy- Camden), and Chris' college room-mate, Ryan.



We swam, flew kites, played cards, went on boat rides, ate way too much, took long runs on the beach, toured the Miami Seaquarium, and  had a date night (thanks to CiCi). It was a good trip.

(Camden is a CUTIE! Just look at those eyes.)

 They play really well together. I just love it! 

 Big time... Driving CiCi's boat. :) 

 That girl was a stinker... Finally she feel asleep. 

 Fearless.

 Sorry for the eating picture. 

Filling in some gaps...

So I have some serious gaps on here... I could bore you with the usual excuse. "We've been busy." but I've decided to stop saying that (odds are I will return to saying it, but for now I veto the words "we've been busy.") .

After all, isn't being busy a given of life? Everyone is busy. (Not just people with small kids, people with high power careers, people with older kids, or etc.)

In some ways, I think that being busy is one of the hidden truths to living a full life. It is like the secret ingredient to your grandma's green bean recipe. You need to add just the right amount to make life sweeter. But if you add too much it will make it taste just plan awful and if you add too little... Well, then it has no flavor.

So why don't we embrace the busy and stop using it as a blanket excuse as to why we ... ?

I'm not going to do it. Not today. Nope. I will just say that I haven't made updating this blog (and especially my other one) a top priority. I have made the choice to allow other things to trump it (cough Facebook cough).

I am sure I will have periods of time when I permit myself to put this on the back burner, but I am going to really try to keep up with our life story on here. I love it too much.

I love reading the fun things that my kids have said or done, seeing how big they really were at six months (boy, was Wilson really big?!) and documenting what they wore for Halloween every year.

I love reflecting on my favorite moments and even my not so favorite moments. Chronicling my family's life  is one of the best things I could have ever done for me (and the kids).

At least this way when my hippocampus starts to malfunction I'll always have something to correct me. Right?

So. Here I am. Choosing to blog and successfully avoiding folding two loads of laundry and NOT Facebook stalking anyone. I'm blogging... about June... in October.

June 20-28, 2011-

The kids and I flew from Seattle to Ft. Lauderdale. We were able to see CiCi and one of my best friend's Melissa and her kids. Lissa, Charlie, and Clara flew down from Ohio. Lissa, the kids and I have vacationed the past two summers together and we hope to continue to meet in Lauderdale (or somewhere. anywhere.) every year.

We have the best time together and so do our kids. Our kids are the same ages and play fantastically together. It is really amazing. No fighting over toys or arguing because the other won't play each other's games or listen to each other's music.

They just enjoy each other's company, even after one week of sharing space and toys (and listening to Katy Perry and Justin Bieber for the 100th time). I hope I'm not jinxing us...

Charlie's face cracks me up here.

These two are just too cute.

While we were there we celebrated Melissa's birthday with a much needed girls night (our great friend Natalie even drove down from Orlando to join us), we ate at our favorite spot (the Rustic Crab Inn), soaked up the sun, enjoyed the intercoastal on Carol's boat, stayed up WAYYY past our bedtimes (oh yeah- we're talking big. time. like, 1 a.m. BIG time.) talking, laughing, and crying every night. It was one of the best times/vacations of my life.

Aren't they beautiful?

One other thing that we (or rather Wilson) did was take swimming lessons.

He had three lessons with Betsy (and one lesson with coach Jesse Vassallo, her husband, who is a World Champion Swimmer) at the Pompano Aquatic Center. It was a fantastic experience (for both Wilson and me) and I hope to see them every time we are back in town.

Caught kissing on the boat.

Wonderful memories were made. I kick myself for just now posting this... It doesn't do it justice.