Florida, Part 2...

This vacation was not a theme park one, but we did decide to take the kids to something we knew they would enjoy, despite the major touristy aspect of it, and hubby and I hadn't been to it in 20 years.

On Wednesday we drove over to Kissimmee to Medieval Times.  They were in a new location just down the road with a bigger castle and a new village.

 Mason really enjoyed it...

 And the food wasn't half bad...

 The show was great.  Here is the night we were cheering for... the blue knight.

 There were 6 knights all together.

 The king..

 Some beautiful horses...

 And a falcon that was trained to circle and fly right over our heads...

 The king's guards...

 Receiving flowers from the princess after demonstrating their horsemanship and ring skills...Each knight would then toss the flowers he earned to to girls in the audience...

 Getting ready to joust...

 Becca caught a flower... she was so happy :)

 Getting our knight's autograph after the show....

 Ya, I got a teeny weeny queen tiara....

It was a fun evening and I think we all really enjoyed it.

Afterwards, we drove over to Orlando to find the Denny's that hubby and I met at. We planned on having dessert there, but unfortunately it no longer exists :(

I'm so glad we didn't do Disney this trip, it would have been miserable in this heat and humidity.  We are all having a fantastic time swimming and relaxing... more to come...


Not wanting to go home yet,

Tiff

Florida, Part 1...

We've been having fun in Florida, but boy did I forget how very HOT and HUMID it is down here!! I will never complain about a summer day in Maine again.

(this is a very picture heavy post)

 We've done a whole lot of this....

 And some of this(looking at my high school town and reminiscing)

 And this... a visit to Homosassa Springs state park....

 The river boat ride in....

 Saw a wild gator on the shore...

 At the visitor center....

 More gators

 These guys were fat!

 And big Old Lu the hippo...(the only non native resident of the park, but he has been there since 1964 and isn't moving any time soon)

  babies...

 An American crocodile...

 Otters....

 Bobcat....

 Lots and Lots of birds....

 Big furry black bear...

 My little manatees(yes, I made them do this :) )

 Some really big fish...

 The underwater observatory in the spring...

 And the manatees... I didn't get any good pics of them unfortunately.  These ones live in the spring for now and can not be released until they are ready.

We have also enjoyed spending lots of time with my sister and her family. The kids say they want to take their aunt Shelly home with us :)

Having lots of fun,

Tiff

Visiting a Blog Friend and Her Family...

On Friday we drove over a few towns from Pigeon Forge to meet with a blog friend and her family. Paris and her family were so kind to invite us all over for lunch despite having just moved into their new home 3 weeks ago.  They were all so welcoming and friendly.  They have 10 children and you have never met a group of kids who were more polite, well behaved, and hardworking. You can see and feel what a close and loving family they are.

Here is a pic of Paris and myself(she's holding my hand down so I don't give her bunny ears!). In the background are two of her lovely daughters.(and Paris, you look great in the picture!)

 This is their new home. They got a wonderful deal on a historic home that they are going to restore. In just the three weeks they have been there, they have already done quite a bit and discovered so much of the history of the home.  If you want to follow along on their journey, she has started a brand new blog about it...
North of Bay's Mountain

  All the children played outside as we chatted inside.  I took pictures of her 3yr old little boy, Asa, and Mason playing together but somehow those pictures and the pictures I took of all the kids together disappeared from my memory card. My camera has really been frustrating me lately, this isn't the first time this has happened. So, unfortunately I don't have many pictures to share.
I did get this one of Mason with a lizard. He thought is was neat how he climbed on his shirt.  Eventually, the lizard's tail came off and Mason was totally amazed by that and had to keep telling everyone about it.  He will probably talk about it for days.

I can't thank Paris and her husband Gill enough for being so gracious and welcoming a bunch of strangers into their home. We had a lovely day.  I wished we lived near each other because it was amazing how similar we are with our feelings and views. I know we would have so much fun together.  I hope one day that they can come visit us in Maine.

Keep blogging everyone, it's great to make new friends,

Tiff