79 months

We continued to cheer on Brasil during the World Cup until they lost in the quarterfinal. J would have rather watched the games at G&G's house so that she could play with the vuvuzela when they won than at our house. When the winning streak finally ended we had some not so happy campers, lets see if in four more years she is as excited to watch, maybe we can get her playing by that time too! She does however at least love to swim so she gets some exercise! She is definitely a mermaid and will be ready to dive for lobsters in no time! She is working hard on her side breathing and is able to swim further each time, we've tried a few longer laps at the community pool and she has done great. We are also working on backstroke with arms and she is doing pretty well swimming in a straight line. Next summer a junior swim team will be calling her name! We swam with some friends one day and got a few under water pictures of J, mommy needs a new toy for next summer (and someone needs goggles that fit her and don't leak)!

We took off for a few days of fun and spent 4th of July in Orlando at the Marriott Resort across from Sea World. We got upgraded to a Sea World view room and the girls got to watch the roller coaster out of the window which they thought was so cool. The weather was pretty decent the first day and we spent time at the resort pool swimming and sliding, the girls got their first taste of a water slide and were hooked (after some convincing from us and making us ride with them)! Once they got tired of the slide (they must have slid 30 times each) we enjoyed the bigger pool, lawn games, the magician, balloon artist eating (and watching soccer) and just hanging out enjoying each others undivided company. Later that night we got to watch the fireworks from our room, they weren't Disney quality but they required no driving to see them and we could watch in our PJs!
  

The morning of the 4th we hit the water slide early, I think they were the first ones on it! By 11am (and after they rode it another 20+ times) they were clearing the pool for lightening and the storm that was rolling in (too bad because the resort had a whole party planned for the day), we decided to call it a wash, shower and head out to find something dry to keep us occupied. We ate some lunch and then headed to Dave and Busters (along with everyone else in Orlando) for some afternoon fun. The girls are always wanting to play video games when we see them so they were in seventh heaven when we walked into D&B, they were like a deer in headlights taking it all in! We played games for two hours and collected lots of tickets, the line was too long to cash them in so we promised to take them back another time for some more fun. We had dinner at Bahama Breeze (not very patriotic but they had not wait) and then headed back to the hotel for some ice cream and to wait and see if they fireworks would go off, it was still raining/lightening on and off. They were late but finally went off, we watched them on our balcony until J said she got bit by a mosquito and then watched the rest from inside the room. It was just enough to make us happy, especially since we didn't have to drive or deal with crowds (or rain)! Thursday morning we hit pool for one last time and within 20 minutes they decided they were slided out. We played some lawn games (while we dried off) and taught them how to play Jenga, J did pretty good playing and poor daddy knocked the tower over! We had a nice little escape, it was just what we needed to recharge for the rest of the month.

The hot and stormy summer days kept us mostly indoors when we weren't swimming. We enjoyed the Thursday morning activities at the mall, J especially loved magic day and just like last year we sat on the floor for over an hour watching the magician. We have a small magic kit at home I tried to learn but man is it hard to hide a sponge ball between your fingers! Luckily she is still young enough that I can make her close her eyes, turn away and believes I can do magic! We dressed up as cows for Chick-fil-A day, J decided we all needed rainbow cow ears and colored them all for us, CFA icedream on a hot day is refreshing! We went bowling a few times, we convinced J to try without the ramp and she is learning to chuck the ball down the lane, she has gotten better each time, but is not happy that she hasn't gotten a strike or a spare, patience my dear! We took Nana one night out to the beach for the sunset to see it one last time before she moved to Georgia for her new adventures. We had a nice dinner on the water and then walked the beach looking for shells as the sunset. The girls loved finding shells (we don't get to the beach often because mommy hates sand) and watched in awe as the sun set into the ocean, it was a picture perfect night and a great memory made.

 

We all gathered in Miami for a much needed weekend of family time to celebrate  Dad/Pop Pop. With all that had gone on since he went to heaven it was time to close this chapter in a way he would have wanted it, at sea and with his favorite drink. And that's what we did, we piled onto two boats out of Key Biscayne, headed for the deep blue sea and Fowey Lighthouse, said a few prayers and sent the "magic pillow" on its way. The kids enjoyed the boat ride, seeing the old Stiltsville houses and looking for dolphins. Questions were asked but not as many as I thought, I'm glad they are still little and don't fully understand. Afterwards we gathered for an afternoon of swimming and eating, incorporating his favorites into the day as much as we could. Lots of memories were shared and new memories made with all seven cousins being together for the first time. It was a day he would have loved to be a part of and know he was watching from the blue skies above (and he did his job and kept the rain away). 

We took a little impromptu detour on our way back from Key Biscayne, can't drive by the "U" and not stop to take a picture! It was the girls first time to see it (sorry daddy, he was in another car), next time I need to plan so I have appropriate attire!

The month ended with traveling home (and singing or watching the Greatest Showman the entire car ride) with three extra bodies from Miami, our Georgia cousins came to spend the week with us! The kids had so much fun together and get along very well, it's a shame we live so far away and only get to get them together a few times a year, if we were in the same city I could see them glued to each other and always wanting to spend time together, especially the girls. We went to the $1 movies one day, the girls saw a movie with me while the boys went with Nana to a different theater. We went bowling and K got her first spare, of course J was mad she didn't get one! We swam in both ours and the community pool, we were lucky we had pretty good weather the week they were here. We saw Cinderella, Elsa, Anna and Ariel at the mall (the boys weren't happy but glad I found them an Xbox to play instead) followed by lunch and playtime at CFA. I think their best day was the day the girls got to go to art camp (with Nana) and paint flamingos while the boys and played putt putt and had ice cream. We had a full filled week and everyone pretty much went to bed with no complaints each night, they were tired from having so much fun! Oh and the girls got to have a special sleep over night with Grandma and Grandpa, dinner at McDonalds followed by Menchies and a shopping trip for Barbies to Walmart, they aren't spoiled at all (the boys got a Hibachi dinner and a trip to Walmart so they made out too!).

Here are the pictures from the month and from Miami/cousins visit.