Florida Summer 2011, Part IX
For lunch we went to a nice place with some shade but had a weird rat-like creature that some nearby-folk freaked out about even though pigeons didn’t set off those same alarm bells. I guess because a pigeon doesn’t run up your pantleg? It was actually a pretty cute little bugger and it didn’t actually bother anybody… anyway… uh… where was I. Oh, here’s the many facial expressions of Ian. (And one with Kaylee!) I set the camera on the table, tipped it up, and turned the flip display around so that Ian could see the pictures as I was taking them. Enjoy! See this image larger.
Someday I’ll make an animated GIF out of all of these, just for fun. Please feel free to view on, mostly without caption interruption! See this image larger.
(My favorite shot of the bunch!) See this image larger.
Still in the Sesame Street area, the kids cooled off in the water park. (cousin Connor, Grampa Ray and Uncle Ben went on their own to do more Connor-appropriate things. That worked out well!) 
I told him not to run. There were no casualties reported. 
Somebody red and fuzzy walked by, here. 
Ian and Kaylee had a lot of fun in the water, but it was time to move on. 
This was a special show with the tall Sesame Street characters… the audience was feeling a bit hot. I can’t even imagine how hot it was in the Elmo suit. 
Nina explains the identity of the red fuzzy gentleman currently dancing on the stage. 
I asked Ian to smile as this was his first official train ride. Later when I asked him about his first train ride, he had no idea what I was talking about. A good daddy would have dragged him to the front of the train so he could see the engine. Alas, we moved on before I had thought about it, so he’ll probably tell you he’s never been on a train. 
Ian and I had our own row thanks to the people that were sitting behind us, who moved for Ian’s sake. Those were some good people! 
All the ladies on this side of the family in one row! (Grandma Barb’s taking the picture, and that’s Aunt Mel’s chin!) 
Hi Puddin’! (Or Sweet Pea, or Punkin’… she’s got a lot of nicknames.) 
Hi Mommy! (Or Melisasa, or Dissy, or Sweetie!) 
Now some “mood” shots of the ride… 
There’s three giraffes in this picture. Look at it large and see if you can spot them! 
Z is for… 
Rhinos are Daddy’s favorite animal. True story. 
They had some big sleepy kitties on display as well. 
This white one was gorgeous, but looked a little thin and unhappy. (Although I guess all cats look unhappy and thin when wet, right?) 
July 21st continues for the next couple of entries, we have a lot of pictures. Granted some of them are “mood” shots (like the next one, below) just to give you an idea of what the kids were seeing to make faces like this. (Keep in mind that the blog is for you and I for now… but someday this is for the kids. They’ll probably want to see things in context.) 
We happened to be in time for a show with a bunch of trained wild critters. 
Ian loved it! Kaylee loved it! 
Nina loved it! 
The weird lady in charge loved it! (This kangaroo-like animal, called a wallaby, was not nearly as in love with it.) 
It was honestly enjoyable, even for adults – mostly because of the array of trained animals that they had there. 
We left the show happy and perhaps a little cooler than before. Mommy posed with this happy boy! 
It was around here that Nina noticed a familiar face on a nearby banner. 
“ELMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” 
Yup, Busch Gardens has a whole chunk of the park dedicated to Sesame Street! Of course, as a toddler, meeting the six foot tall version of your heroes is different than the one on TV, that appears to be about your size. Tears were involved. Ian wouldn’t even stay in the picture! 
From that previous ride, Ian graduated immediately to the Air Grover. 
If you squint, that’s us there in the background. 
The Air Grover goes up, steeply down and to the left in a tight circle, then right in a tight circle, and is done. It is, for all intents and purposes, a very real roller coaster. So this counts as Ian’s first roller coaster ride! 
Did he like it? You tell me! Wait, don’t tell me, I’ll tell you: He loved it. A second, and much later third ride on the Air Grover was in high demand by our little man. 
Kaylee and her Aunt Dissy were right behind us on that first ride! 
Of the millions of ways I adore Ian, this is one of them. This was a mini-log ride. It was an extremely flat track, except for one bump, that Ian had apparently overlooked as he was standing in line. He went from looking a little concerned… to what you see here… flat out terror… *WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!!* 
…to understanding… 
…to relief… 
…and finally hysterical enjoyment! 
July 21st, we were treated to an amazing day at Busch Gardens. Let’s open up with a big thank you for a whole lot of fun. Thank you! 
This is us arriving in the parking tram, Grampa Ray pretended it was like a roller coaster! 
Welcome to Busch Gardens! 
Welcome to Busch Gardens! 
Grandma Barb gets a grin out of Nina regarding her zooey. Guy in background: *Pfft, babies and their pacifiers… mmm bucket of cotton candy!!!* 
Mommy talks Ian through being safe and brave on his first real ride. 
There’s a sweet smile or two! Hold on you guys! 
Ian tries to determine if this is fun. 
At some point, sheer terror starts to go away, and one learns to enjoy oneself and kick back and have a good time. You can see that moment here, but I’m not sure if we’re talking about Ian on the ride, or me letting him spread his little wings a bit. 
And there it is, the smile that will break 1,000 hearts once he gets to high school. 
Good smile, Kaylee! 
King and queen of the jungle! 
Nina may not look all that happy in this picture, but just you wait… because this day has just begun, and Busch Gardens has a secret… 
…a red, fuzzy secret. 
July 20th, there’s a properly exposed beach shot. Hi family! 
Consider this a mood-shot. 
These guys played together pretty nice most of the time. Good sharing, etc. 
*Seriously? Ok look, if you don’t stop taking my picture I’m going to pretend I’m sleeping.* 
Zzzzz. 
Many of the rest of our band of merry adventurers! 
Someday I’ll photoshop this picture of Ian smiling… 
…with this picture of Nina smiling. 
I should probably tell you where we are! This day we went from the beach to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, mostly to see Winter, the dolphin with a prosthetic tail. Apparently there’s a movie about Winter called “Dolphin Tale” that will hit theaters in September. 
Good smile on Connor. So hard to believe how big he is. 
The kids took a necessary break from the heat of the sun to do a little drawing. 
*I need a wipe.* 
A different dolphin says hello to Melissa 
Iandiana Jones found the secret door but could not translate the ancient markings… “S… T… O… P?” 
Kaylee does her best spokesmodel pose. “Shells.” 
Nina checks out the otters 
I dunno, Mr. Shark… I’ve seen that kid eat pizza. You don’t have a chance. 
Awaiting the dolphin show. 
Nina loved the applause more than the dolphins! 
At dinner, that night… *Hey, Mr., does your dog bite?* (I believe the classic answer to this is “No. (chomp) but that’s not my dog.”) 
*Good doggie!* 
July 19th, and we’re back on the beach! Sand-covered zooey in 3…2…1… 
Family lunch! 
The day went by quickly… Ian and I joined the ladies while the rest of the fellas went to a baseball game. (I had joined the expedition too late to get tickets with them.) 
We went to a nearby park after dinner, and the kids had fun! 
*The floor is made of waffles!* 
A couple weeks after this shot was taken, I bought her a toy stroller… she was having way too much fun with this one! 
Off for more fun! 
After that we went on the beach one more time before the sun went down… 
…to watch the sun go down! 
The kids had fun in the sand, and had a treasure hunt. 
And then it was time to go in. 
Grandma Barb read the kids a bed-time story! 
Nina moved back to her own room… 
Here Kaylee poses like a princess! 
I think Kaylee and I are the night-owls on this side of the family. She watched Scooby in her fort; I’d sit on the balcony and check out how everything was doing on the internet with my iPad, (Particularly checking the contest video, lol…) enjoying the cooler night. 
July 18th, and Nina decides all this warmth is good for a nap! (Must have been sudden… she couldn’t quite get that last goldfish cracker to her mouth, either!) 
Connor was a real pro with his boogie board! (And nice shot, Aunt Mel!) 
Here’s Aunt Mel, Kaylee and Connor making some sand castles! 
My beach shots that day turned out pretty sad, due to some erroneous camera settings, and being unable to see the LCD screen in the Florida sun. :-\ 
We had dinner at Crabby Bill’s that night. 
The manly men! 
I liked the smiles from the previous image, but I had to include this one, Ian’s sippy-in-a-mug is the icing on the cake!
The girly women! 
Off to the playground at a cool pier in the area! 
There are shades of Laugh-In with this picture, but I’m going to pretend I didn’t notice. (Actually James Bond, too!) 
Woohoooooo! 
Safe! 
July 17th. I want to say this now, but you’ll hear it more than once. Connor is, frankly, an amazing young man. He was always really cool, and a hilarious kid… but throughout this vacation he responsibly looked after his sister and cousins, particularly Nina. And that’s on top of, in general, just being good. Here he stopped Nina from trying to tame a lion with her chair, for example. 
*I’m glad you two asked; a dual-core A5 chip, robust iOS5, and front and rear facing cameras aside, there are still a host of features that set Apple’s latest gadget apart from the other so-called tablets. With WiFi or 3G networking, you get access to a host of applications and programming that bring a new level of productivity to the iPad2. Like Sesame Street.* 
*Torn between two Elmo’s…* 
Fully recharged and ready for action! 
Lifeguard Nina rescues some red and fuzzy guy, he’s a john doe until he regains consciousness. 
The kids go to play bocci ball! I spelled that right on the first try. 
Finally taller than Ian. 
Hey little cutie! 
Cousins galore! 
Chillin’ in the grass. 
Mommy looks pretty with Nina in front of the duck and alligator pond. Saaaay… weren’t there nine ducks a second ago? 
Even if she’s probably filling her diaper, this is a cute shot! 
And when it got a little later in the day, we made our way west from The Villages to Treasure Island! The Johnsons were very generous to have us along on this trip, and we can’t thank them enough! This is a view from our hotel room! 
This is what the hotel looked like! Free breakfast every morning was a nice bonus! 
Kaylee quickly established a favorite bed, and began some light reading… (of the local white pages!) 
My what a cute little boy that is there! He was all smiles until he thought it would be hilarious to slowly fall off the bed headfirst — discovering he was MUCH higher off the ground than he had anticipated. 
Nina attempts to use her business-face to get out on the balcony. 
Everybody unpack! What did you find there Nina? Oh right, we brought Elmo. Good. 
Let’s check out the beach! 
It was beautiful and nice… and this is coming from a guy that doesn’t like sand. 
This little guy, on the other hand… loves it! 
A storm started blowing in, so it was time to get going after just a few more pics… 
This type of shot will probably go better in another year… but it didn’t go too bad! 
Surprised Nina kept her hat on with that wind! 
A couple of beach bums! 
Unless you see money, please look at the camera, Ian. 
Yup, that was quite a storm! 
Like this one? Sorry about the lack of kid smiles, they were hungry and this was right before dinner! 
Like I said, Connor was a good boy, always had one eye on Nina! 
The kids set up a fort under the table, and some of them actually slept there! 
July 16th, and we’re on the plane! Ian doesn’t seem to remember his earlier plane rides, but I think he’ll remember this one for awhile. “Are we ready for blast off?” asked Ian, on the runway. “They call it ‘take off’ on a plane instead of ‘blast off,'” I replied. “Why?” Ian asked. “Because hopefully there’s no fire or explosions.” 
Ian said the classic line “Here we go look at all the little people! They look like bugs!” 
Ian made me take this shot, I think. 
Nina spent a whole lot of time like this. Standing around, wiggling, laying on the floor. She likes to fidget. 
Ian mostly did this. 
Nina did sleep for a little bit, though! 
Grampa Ray and Gramma Barb picked us up at the airport, and here’s two kids happy to be in a min-van! 
Although apparently Nina did like the idea of flying… “MMMNNNNNNRRRRRRRR…..” 
If Nina looks exceedingly happy, it might be because this is her first time facing forward in a vehicle! 
Ok, we made it to Gramma and Grampa’s! *ZZZZzzzzz* (To be honest, I’m not sure if this is where this picture fits into our story.) 
Kaylee and Ian wrap up the evening with a nice cup of water and some scooby! 
Grampa Ray and Grandma Barb got Nina this awesome chair! 
Nina did not seem to want to let it go! 
*Hey guys, have you seen my chair?* 
Nina tries to figure out what a laptop is… 
Alright you two, enough Scooby, time for bed! 
June 3rd, and Ian’s class ended up at our local zoo; they have a playground, apparently! I did not know that! 
Ian checks out a sculpture that used to be in the Grand River for Artprize, a competition for artists in the area. 
Posed specifically for Grandma Sue… see? Monkey shirt in front of the monkey exhibit! 
I was not on the zoo trip, unfortunately. Or maybe fortunately… right after this shot was taken some of the larger kids here hurt Ian. I probably would have embarrassed myself screaming at them. 
June 14th, in our own backyard. 
A moment of peace! 
A pathway near the river in downtown Rockford… nicely railed in. A great place to let the kids run free for a few moments. 
Go lil’ girl! 
*This is a support column.* 
June 16th, 2011, Ian’s first real dental cleaning. 
Those are some sweet shades! 
How did he do? Ridiculously awesome. 
He got so relaxed he even crossed his legs when he kicked back, like he was on a beach chair! 
Bonus prize! 
June 18th, 2011. Our sleeping beauty! 
June 24th, 2011. This was the last day of Nina’s first classroom. 
Kelly, Nina’s primary care-giver at daycare says good-bye… We also got a nice note, blanket and book from Michelle, another care-giver who grew close to Nina during her stay. 
June 30th, Nina takes her meal quietly at the corner table on her first day in the new classroom. She looks a little lonely to me. :-/ 
July 8th, 2011. If you’re a pretty good kid in Ian’s class, you get your name on the green apple instead of the yellow or red. If you go above and beyond the call of duty, you get on the purple star. That’s Ian’s name there on the purple star! 
July 11th, Mommy takes Ian to Tumble Time! 
Nina escapes from Tumble Time! 
July 12th, Daddy naps. 
July 14th, Ian attends Isaac’s birthday party! 
They played fun games like this one, where they built lego toys in an assembly line! 