Wednesday, December 28, 2011

We went to Florida to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary in November. We flew into Miami, and spent a night there so that mama could spend the day with her best friend, Dawn. We stayed in a super cool Atrium Marriot where I fed the birds french fries and Finn and I watched the fish. It was such a great time. I kept saying "I love Florida." It was not so cool when I fell and busted my forehead open, but I didn't let it get me down.
On Tuesday we drove down to the Keys. We stopped at World Wide Sportsman, which is like Bass Pro Shop times 100, because Finn was hollering and we all needed to get out of the car.
We all felt better after some strawberry daiquiris, non-alcohol for the kids, of course.
We made it just in time to see them feed the nurse sharks. Super cool.
It was like a flood of sharks.
We walked on the docks to see the wildlife and check out the fast Florida boats. We finished the drive to the resort, and met up with Grandma and Grandpa for dinner. The resort is perfect because it is right on the marina, so each of the adults took turns taking the kiddos for walks to see the boats.
On the way back to our room, I found a coconut. Grandpa helped me to crack it open and get the coconut milk out.
I was pretty jazzed to drink it up, but honestly, it was pretty gross. That didn't stop me from collecting coconuts all week though!
On Wednesday, the guys went on a fishing trip. Everyone caught fish, and Grandpa caught some big...
and some not so big. Everyone had fun, and dada is looking forward to May 2013 for his 40th birthday trip where he IS going to catch a tarpon.
Uncle Billy caught too.
The birds were scouting some fish guts when the guys got back. That night, we took a huge catch of fish to Lazy Days restaurant and they cooked it all up for us. It was so delicious, we could hardly stand it and we ate on it the rest of the week.
Since I'm too small to go out on the boat, dada and I fished behind our condo. We didn't catch anything...
but we definitely had fun.
In usual fashion, no small creature was safe. I caught a bazillion lizards during the week. I'm fast.
On Thanksgiving morning, we went to the resort to swim in the lagoon.
Mama hopes she has inherited Grandma's legs! Hot-tee.
The Hochmuth ladies watched over Finn,
while I swam with Grandpa and Jamie. Look at the water. You can see the fish swimming around your toes.
After naps, we met at Billy and Kristen's condo for Thanksgiving dinner. We got "dinner in a box" - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberries, dessert, plus we had rolls and Kristen made tasty green bean casserole. It was really pretty good. We also ate leftover fish from the guys' catch.
The condo was nice since it had this outside room where Finn and I could play, since neither of us is too keen on sitting still.
Grandpa had fun teasing Finn.
The meal.
What was really great is that after that HUGE meal, we were able to take a nice walk around the resort to look at the water and boats.
We also stopped at the fire pit for a rest.
On Friday, we went to Robbie's where you can feed the tarpon fish. Grandpa held Finn so he didn't get fed to the fish.
I hit up Grandma to buy lots of buckets of fish.
Yikes - exhilarating and terrifying!
There were cool trees to climb at Robbie's too.
Back at the resort, we watched lots of wildlife. This guy was too big to catch.
I fed him banana chunks instead.
Playing at the condo.
On Saturday, mama took me to the Pirate Ship kids pool. It was fun, but I preferred to go to the "deep pool" where I could swim.
Later we met up with Uncle Billy and the gang at the big, big pool. We had a great time playing.
The Hochmuth ladies looking good. We had such a great time in Florida. Happy anniversary to our wonderful grandparents!
My soccer team, the Sidekicks. We are missing two players, because one boy never showed up until half time, and another kid was sick.
Finn watching me run around the field, chasing the ball.
It was a very windy day.
So Finn got on dada's shoulders to get out of the blowing dust.
Kicking the ball.
Family time.
Wearing mama's cool glasses to keep the dust out of my eyes. What a stud.
In early November, we went down to the beach for Papa's birthday weekend. We brought our good friends the Furmans with us. While the guys went fishing on Saturday morning, the mamas and the younger kids went down to the beach.
Melissa and Thalia, looking gorgeous.
I love the beach, especially when it's like this -- not so hot or windy, sunny, and with good buddies.
We all played so well, and we didn't even get too mad at Finn when he kept knocking down our castles.
Of course, Finn kept trying to sneak bites of sand. Gross.
Brothers, getting along at this particular minute.
hahahaha, mama couldn't resist.
Three generations celebrating Papa's birthday. Yay! Many more to come!
Papa got lots of good presents, including this big blue box. There was definitely a "theme" to his gifts.