Fun with the In-Laws

I wish I could either a) be in two places at once, or b) have like 2 months in FL instead of 2 weeks...It's great that Justin and I both grew up in FL, and most of our family still lives here. It stinks that they live so spread out among the state! Anyway, Sunday Alana and I went to Maitland to Justin's Aunt Debbie's house. His mom and Marko also drove up there, so we could all visit. It's just about a 45 minute drive instead of 3 hours to Cedar Key. It was lots of fun, I just wish we had more time to spend. We're planning to come back sometime before Justin's deployment, so hopefully we will be able to do more then. Here's the play by play.

Alana and Grandma Judy

Noah being a good uncle and playing dolls
and tea party with Alana :)

Alana and one of Stephanie's dolls.

Alana (I'll explain the dress below).

Aunt Debbie getting a massage from Alana and Noah

Raphael and Stephanie

Judy and Marko

Judy and Noah

Me and Alana
(picture taken by Noah)

Alana, Noah and Grandma Judy

I emailed these pictures to Justin and he said "The pics are real cute, but what's up with the dress Alana is wearing?!" Haha. Ok, so apparently Stephanie had these little dresses that matched with her doll dresses...Aunt Debbie thought it would be cute to put one of them on Alana, the only problem was she didn't want to take it off. She loved this dress so much (try not to laugh) that she asked her if she could keep it. After much deliberation, Alana is now the proud owner of this Amish-looking dress. She asked if she could wear it to the airport today. I refused to allow it :)

We've had an amazing time here in FL, but we are on our way home tonight. I will miss everyone immensely, but I'm also ready to sleep in my own bed...withOUT Alana! I have the rocking-est sis, who also happens to be a massage therapist...let's just say she hooked me up yesterday with the massage of a lifetime! If any of you live in the LC, or you want to drive here to see what I'm talking about...email me. She's the best! (Thanks, Jess).

I still have lots to blog about from my trip...I'm days behind and I can't seem to catch up.

Peace, Love and Laura Ingles

Heaven on Earth

Meet some of my family. Alana and I were lucky enough to get to go have dinner and spend some time with my mom's Aunt Priscilla, Uncle Herschel, her cousin Landon and her husband Mark. Alana thought she was going to burst at the seams with excitement as we drove down the clay road, passing orange groves and ::gasp:: cows! Oh, and one horse :) Growing up, I remember going there and how peaceful it always seemed. Jon used to go fishing there. Honestly, where they live is my picture of heaven. Pictures can only do it so much justice, but I thought I'd share them anyway.

Aunt Priscilla, Mark and Landon
(Uncle Herschel snuck away before I could get his picture!)

Alana and her new buddy standing in the pool

Feeding the fish, including at least one big bass!

I mean, seriously who wouldn't want to live here?

Alana on the mule

Alana driving the mule with a little help.
(funny story about that to come)

We were spoiled with a wonderful home-cooked meal...roast beef, corn souffle, peas. Of course all of this was finished off with a slice of banana cream pie that was not-so-homecooked by me :) Alana was so cute. I think it was like Disney to her or something. When we had come in from our trip around on the mule, Alana was washing her hands and said to me "Mommy, I didn't know I had a driver's license"...being totally serious. I laughed and said "You don't!" And then she asked so curiously, "Then how did I drive?" I love her! She's ready to go back and actually swim in her bathing suit. I didn't even think to bring it with us, because all of our pools closed Labor Day in Virginia. It always seems that time gets away from me and there's not time to pack in everything I want to do before we leave! I am so glad that we got to make this visit, though!

Peace, Love and 4x4s.

Universal is WAY better than Disney World!

And I've got the pictures to prove it :) Alana is the one who said Universal is best. I don't know that she remembers Disney enough to make that comparison. My dad offered to take us to Disney when we came down for a visit...actually he offered to take Alana, I just come along as part of the package deal. Then he came into possession of some free one-day, two-park passes to Universal (thank you, Rock the Universe) so I suggested we try that instead. I wasn't sure how Alana would do, as it's hard knowing from one minute to the next what kind of mood a 4 year old will be in...but I did know that we would try! And I'm so glad we did! We had a blast! The park opened at 9 a.m., and we got there shortly after that...It closed at 6 p.m...and let's just say we were still 'riding' at 6! Talk about a long day! My feet are feeling the pain today...I couldn't take pictures on most of the rides, but here are some of the pictures I did take!

First stop, the Caro-Seuss-el

This ride got me wet. I'm still bitter :)

At the "zoo" in Seussland.

Pumping Water

Sliding in Camp Jurassic
(I should've got the picture of Papa coming down!)

Curious George's Ball Factory

Collecting balls for the guns :)

Who's that caged monkey?

Alana and Jessica in Bikini Bottom with SpongeBob.

She fell asleep in between rides for about 2 minutes...
and kept right on going!

Chasing pigeons

Jaws!

Me and Jess on the people mover, racing Papa and Alana who had to actually walk :)

Going to bed in her new SpongeBob nightgown!

Alana made me so proud yesterday. She's such a trooper! She rode all of the kid rides, and most of the big ones too! Did I mention there wasn't a wait longer than 10 minutes all day?! Her favorite (she says right now) was Shrek 4-D...her least favorite was Twister haha. She actually rode The Simpsons ride, and while there was a 9-10 year old girl screaming her life away for her dad to hold her during it, Alana was perfectly chill...although she said she was a little bit scared, she asked if we could go on it again. I thought it was ok, but I'm still sad that they replaced Back to the Future. I did see Doc Brown riding around on a tricycle contraption, though! We rode all of the Dr. Seuss rides (the caroSeussel, One fish, Two fish, The cat in the Hat, the Seuss train), ET, Woody Woodpecker's rollercoaster, Jaws, Jimmy Neutron...Jessica and I rode the Mummy, which is by far my favorite part of Universal! I'm probably leaving stuff out, but all in all, it was an amazing day...and I am so glad we chose Universal of Disney...we'll do Disney another time.

Peace, Love and theme park blisters.

This is how we Roll!

After days of bowling Wii-style, we decided to take it a step further and hit the real lanes. Jessica, Alana and I went bowling today...It was Alana's first bowling experience ever! We had a blast. I (of course) captured the whole thing in picture and even a little video. We couldn't let Daddy miss this for the world.

I've never seen fluorescent shoes before?!

I'm ready to go!

I LOVE my Aunt Jess!!!

Bumpers? Who needs them?

This shows Alana's score of her 1st game...An 81!!!
Note the blurred out scores of her Mommy and Aunt :)

Last but not least, here's the video of one of her frames...



Peace, Love and Gutter balls xo

Wii are Addicted

This is my 200th blog post! And in non-related news, we have now become addicted to Wii. I had never seen a Wii, never played a Wii, honestly had little interest in seeing or playing a Wii. And then we met Wii. I have actually been considering getting Alana what I think is the V-Tech version of a Wii for Christmas. Now, I think maybe I'll just get the real thing. She is proving herself to be quite the pro...especially at boxing, but not exclusively. She is also quite good at golf. Have you ever seen a 4 year old knock someone out? It's quite entertaining! Here goes.

Take that!

Jab with the right

Oh, you are so going down.

This picture has nothing to do with the Wii, but it made me laugh. We went to eat at Mt. Dora Pizza (best food in town, by the way...my only "must do" on my 'While in FL' List) and Alana was complaining about how cold she was. So Grandma Nancy took care of her and mummified her with napkins. Too cute! And it worked :)

Peace, Love and Working towards 300...300 blog posts AND bowling score on Wii :)

The Not-So Friendly Skies

It's always sad news when I wake up to hear that my "boyfriend" (ha, Angie) was in a plane crash. Travis Barker and DJ AM were on a learjet that crashed overnight in Columbia, SC. The good news is that Travis and Adam are alive. The bad news is that they are both in critical condition with "extensive burns". The story is still developing, but let's pray for speedy recoveries and for the families of the 4 victims that were not lucky enough to make it out alive.

Florida Fun, 1st Edition

We're here, and of course having fun! Yesterday we spent the day with my dad (Papa)...We went to Orlando for the moving sale of a huge christian bookstore where everything was supposedly 75-80% off. When we got there, it was already closed. Alana already had "bookstore" on the brain, so we went to Borders instead, followed by...wait for it...The Cheesecake Factory! Mmm...Baja Chicken Tacos...Oh sorry, where was I? Ah yes, so when we returned to the L.C. we headed over to play on the new playground at Papa's church while he ran off bulletins. Once the were printing (as the pictures prove), Alana got Papa on the playground with her :)

Searching for Pirate Treasures

In case you're wondering...
Papa did go down this slide after Alana :)

Swing me HIGHER, Papa!

Showing off her new "Fairy Land" book that Papa got her yesterday.

Alana's "poster child"

Aunt Jessica brought this craft to Alana...She cut and glued the hair and eyes...colored the clothes...And ta-dah! Now we have Alana on the refrigerator :) Grandma Nancy is a kindergarten teacher, so fun things like this are to be expected. Alana's attention span still needs a little work, so this literally took us all day to finish on Wednesday...ok, it seemed like all day :)

While I'm having a great time here, I miss Justin terribly...AND I got a completely depressing phone call last night from Melissa saying that they are moving back to Seattle on the 1st. This pains me. We won't be back until like 9 p.m. on the 30th...they leave at 6 a.m. on the 1st. Do the math. This means we will not see them again. Remember my post from Jonah's birthday? Yeah, Virginia will not be the same without the Knausses. So goes the military life. But I know they will be a part of our lives forever...

Peace, Love and Frequent Flyer Miles xo

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Update! I got 2 emails from Justin, so it appears our communication is back in tact :)

Happy Birthday, Justin. 31 years ago you were born. Even before that God knew that you would be blessed with me :) I am sad that you are not here to celebrate your special day with Alana and me, but I am happy to know that you are out there doing your job and working to protect our country. I hate even more that the email is down, especially if it for the reasons I'm hearing at home...Just know that you are in our hearts, our thoughts, and our prayers. And we love you more than anything!

Happy Birthday...and many, many more!

Peace, Love and eating cake alone.

Today is a Gift

Yesterday is history...Tomorrow is a mystery...But today is a gift. That is why it's called the "present".

We saw Kung Fu Panda again tonight. It's a fantastic movie, and I'm sure we'll be buying it when it comes out on dvd! Justin took us out for dinner and a movie when he got off work. He has to be back on the ship in a bit, and it will be a while before we see him again...almost a month. I guess I need to learn from Oogway and understand that today has been a gift :) Yes, I know what you're thinking...I'm posting a blog instead of spending these last moments with him. Actually, he and Alana are busy having their own Kung Fu fight in our living room. I'm just trying to protect myself haha.

Even though Justin is leaving for a while it won't be completely sad! Alana and I are hopping on a flight to FL in the morning! It's been almost a year since we've been down there so I'm pretty excited to see everyone. And any of you who read this that are in FL...Maybe I'll see you soon!

We Knowz How to Party.

I am sad to see this weekend come to an end. I can honestly say that the past few days have been some of my favorite ones ever! What made them so special, you ask? Time. Time spent together with my family. Time that will soon be put on hold for lots of moments apart.

The McKinneys invited us over for dinner tonight...There's a couple of things I can say about that...#1, YUMMY! I told Angie that she always makes my hamburger helper look even worse :) #2, I don't think I need to eat again for about a month (but we all know I will). Justin's birthday is on Wednesday, and since he will be out to sea Alana and I baked him a cake that we had for dessert tonight. It turned into an all-out party, lemme tell ya. The pictures show just how big we can do it up! (Sense the sarcasm)

Justin's cake...And he is turning 31, not 11.
Alana loves SpongeBob what can I say?

Proud of her Decorating Skillz

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

Really...He's not singing to himself. (Scrappy's there, haha)

Make a wish!

Birthday Love!

Mmm. Cake.

I love my family. I love my friends. I am a blessed, blessed soul.

Peace, Love and many more.