The rest of the week

Well...we are at the close of our week. We'll be getting on a plane to head home tonight. It's been a fun and busy week.

Uncle Doug is doing somersaults with the girls. I think we have video of him actually doing somersaults, but it takes so long to upload the video.

Grampy and his girls

On Thursday, we went to Mote Marine Aquarium. I hadn't been there since I was in elementary school. It has changed quite a bit!

On Friday we went to Sarasota Jungle Gardens. I've still been having bad faint episodes, so I required a lot of sitting. As the group moved along the path to look at the birds and animals, I would move to the next bench. Grampy took pictures of me on each bench so that we could document my tour of benches (not pictured here).

We had lunch afterward and Vivien quite enjoyed her chocolate mousse...

The rest of the time was pretty laid back. I was feeling pretty awful yesterday, so we mainly stayed home. Jim went to a big truck show with Doug, Becky, and Casey. Mom and Amy took the girls to a playground for a bit. But mainly we rested. We'll head to Tampa later this afternoon and then fly home. I'm sure the dogs will be glad to see us.

More From Florida

We are still here and having a wonderful time. Today we went to Mote Marine Aquarium (and thanks to our Dallas Zoo membership, we got in free!), but I don't have those pics uploaded yet. So here are pics from Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Aunt Becky, Aunt Amy, and Grammy played a game of Scrabble while the girls gladly helped. There were no secrets in this game thanks to the girls. They would help pick the letters for whoever needed them, and would make comments like, "Hey that letter spells my name!" Ha ha. Then when something good would happen, there would be a lot of high fives. In fact, Gillian kept telling Vivien, "Give my mom a high five!"

Yesterday we went to the park outside of Marina Jack. When we pulled up, there were a ton of school buses and we were afraid that the park would be overrun. Apparently they had a big exhibit for diversity there and so the kids were all there to view the giant posters of art depicting diversity. Luckily, they were not in the water fountains, and only a few were allowed at a time to play on the playground. Vivien was only interested in playing in the fountains a short time, but the view was much more beautiful than any spraygrounds in the metroplex!

Aunt Becky met us there and Vivien was very excited to see her!

I guess I was the only one that noticed this sign. I took a picture of it and showed my family and it took a bit for everyone to see what I thought was peculiar. Can you see it?

Right next to the playground is a little open air restaurant called O'Leary's. We sat outside under the tiki hut. The food wasn't great, but it was nice out and there was a guy playing live music. Vivien was having fun dancing around to it.

Grampy and Grammy took Vivien home to nap while Dad, Aunt Becky, and I wandered around downtown. We planned for dinner at the beach, so while Grammy was getting sandwiches for dinner Vivien joined Grampy in the backyard. He told her all kinds of stories about princesses named Vivien.

We got to the beach and ate our dinner. It was so incredibly windy in the picnic/playground area so we hurried out to the actual beach. It was still very windy, and somewhat chilly. We skipped going in the water since it was cold and opted to fly kites. It started out with Uncle Doug and Daddy helping the girls get the kites up and ended up as a competition between Uncle Doug and Daddy. They were very funny acting like they were doing tricks with the kites. Doug was flying a butterfly and Jim was flying some kind of girly bird. We made fun of them for the rest of the night, but it sure was fun to watch them with those kites.

Here is Grampy in the foreground and Uncle Doug, Daddy, and Uncle Casey getting the kites up.

Siesta Key

We went to the beach this morning. It was pretty tough on me physically because I was already feeling pretty faint this morning. It's a long walk from the parking lot to the water. We wanted to put our stuff down as close to the water as we could. Aunt Amy had to work today, so we kept Gillian out of school and took her with us. The water was 77 degrees, which is pretty cold to me. Gillian ran right in, as this is old hat for her. Vivien was a little timid at first, but she eventually waded in and started having fun jumping the waves. In fact, she was very upset when it was time to go.

Loading up to head to the beach

Flying a kite with Dad

Sandy bum

Taking a break for a sandwich

Aunt Becky and Dad

Didn't take long for these two to pass out...

Here are a couple of videos of Vivien and Jim in the water and flying a kite.

Greetings from Florida!

We are in Florida right now visiting my family. We got here on Sunday and will be here a week. So far we have been hanging out around the house. The girls are having fun playing dress up and Barbies. Today we are heading to the beach.

Vivien doing a puzzle with Gillian and Grammy

Giving Uncle Doug a kiss

Working on a puzzle with Aunt Becky

Gillian and Aunt Amy

Princesses

Before we left Texas, I had my hair touched up and the pink bled into the blond because we were washing it in my kitchen sink instead of at the salon. My sister, Amy, is an experienced colorist, so she helped me wash the blond with baking soda and a harsh shampoo to get out some of the pink. We put a lawn chair in my mom's shower, then I hung over the side of it while she washed. It was pretty comical.

Today's Perinatalogist Visit

We know that since our first unsettling perinatalogist visit that many, many people have been praying for our boy. I have even had people contact me from my mom's church that I don't know who let me know he was in their prayers. Between family, friends, and the church prayer chains, let it be known that God heard you all and He responded. Our son's echogenic bowel is GONE!!!!!!!!!! He is perfect. Everything measured perfect. His brain looks great, heart and aorta looks great, bones and organs look great! The perinatalogist fired us!

He's about 1 lb. 10 oz. right now. He had the hiccups during the visit. I had to stay in the parking lot for a bit before I could drive because I was sobbing. I don't know how to explain the relief we are feeling right now. We do know from previous experience to not let our guards down, but this has been a HUGE weight lifted.

Here's a picture of our beautiful boy! Oh and he doesn't seem to have his sister's (and my) nose.

Swimming Lessons and Bon Jovi

Vivien has been taking swimming lessons for a few weeks, and I failed to bring my camera until today. She's doing great despite her refusal to get into the pool on the first day.....which resulted in me breaking down and crying in the middle of the aquatic center (long story but it had been a rough morning and that was the straw that broke the camel's back). The last lesson is on Thursday, but I'm hoping the Plano catalog comes out soon so that I can get her on for another round through the city.

Our son attended his first concert last night.... I surprised Jim with tickets to Bon Jovi and Daughtry last night for his 33rd Birthday. He's such an amazing husband and father (he puts up with a lot between the two females in our house....one being pregnant and the other being 3...), and I wanted to do something really special for him this year. I was able to keep it secret until we pulled into the parking lot!! He was very excited. Our seats were pretty good and the show was excellent. The vibrations freaked out DGBB a little bit at first. I wadded up my jacket and covered my stomach with it. Then he went to sleep. He woke back up and began doing somersaults during "Wanted Dead or Alive". I felt like such a dork lugging in my little backpack filled with snacks, water, and ear plugs. But as a 24-week pregnant woman, I was glad I had all of it!!

Not the greatest pic of Bon Jovi, but hey, we were there at least!