Cousins

I spent a weekend in Kansas City to visit family.  While I was there I spent an afternoon with Bryan, Denata and their two kids.  We have had several additions to our family lately, the latest one being Laura's new baby girl, Ashley.  Erin loves to have her pictures taken with her cousins.

Vacation

This past summer I went on a really fun vacation to Siesta Key, Florida.  It was a genuine beach vacation.  My favorite thing was to walk on the beach every night and sun myself silly during the day.  I spent a lot of time in the water, and after watching Soul Surfer this past weekend, makes me look back on my vacation and think that I was incredibly stupid for going out as far as I did.  But I had a good time.  Katie went with us, and I really really missed Julie and Joe.  I hope they can go with us sometime.  I think they would have fun, too.  We went to the Everglades and got chewed by mosquitoes, ate lots of good food and had yummy ice cream every night.  I played shuffleboard with everyone and generally had a fun time.  I definitely was not ready to come back.
Here are some pictures:

Driving through the Smokies on our way there.

At the Florida border enjoying freshly squeezed oj

Our bedroom in our condo

The kitchen

Living room

Katie and Erin's room

The porch

 Our condo was really nice, but the only thing was the guy upstairs decided he needed a new floor that week so proceeded to bang on our ceiling early in the morning.  Oh well who needs sleep, its just vacation and then you have that beautiful beach.

Katie and Erin on the beach

Pretty Flowers at the Botanical Gardens in Sarasota

Katie listening to herself in a Chinese echo chamber

Sarasota Bay

Katie and Brad at Big Olaf's

Erin at Big Olafs

So that is just a small glimpse of vacation.  See you next year !!!

Babies and more Babies

I am a great-aunt.  No seriously I don't mean I'm GREAT,  I have nieces and nephews who are having their first and second children.  We have Lina, Violet, Cody and Miss Baby Simon will be here very very soon.  These little ones are such a joy to me.  They look like the moms and dads when they were little and it brings back many good memories.  My niece Laura will be having her baby, as I said, very shortly.  She has gone through a lot of heartache to have this little one so this will be a special one for her.  Laura's sister-in-laws threw her a really nice shower, and now all she has to do is wait... and wait....

Mama

The aunts

Grandma

Some of the Cousins