Our Annual Trip to Florida

Thanks Alex (a 2nd grader from church) who had a
school project to send "Flat Stanley" to as many places
as possible. His Stanley got to go with us to Florida.
We took Abby's Flat Stanley with us when she
had the same school project several years ago.

Up, Up, and Away!!

The Great Floating Abby

The goggles act like sunglasses for this blue-eyed babe.

Whoever invented swimming noodles is brilliant!

Do you think we swam long enough?
Abby's wrinkled hand test is proof!

And you thought raisins had wrinkles...
Molly's hand after it was a little water-logged.

Golf anyone?

Still perfecting the golf swing.

Time out for a photo on the mini golf course.

Molly all curled up in a shell at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

Abby is a little taller than Molly and
doesn't quite fit in the same shell...

We had a fun afternoon at the Florida Aquarium.

The three girls...

Paul driving the "Vette."
Paul's mom's hubby's new "grown up boy toy."

We love Grandma Rita!

Another Florida vacation comes to an end...

One more picture with the Florida palm trees!

At the airport before heading back home.

Since Paul's mom/Grandma Rita and her Paul live in Florida, it seems we make an annual trek to visit. This year my Paul managed to get an incredible deal for our flights, so we ended up taking the girls out of school for three days to go for this year's visit. The weather there was great (we did have one afternoon of rain, but we had already had our share of swimming for the day, so it didn't matter to us). We didn't go to Disney this time, but we did have an afternoon at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, which was fun. We do like to take these little vacations to Florida.

Mulan Jr.

The Stage Crew Gang (or at least most of them)Even stage crew members deserve
flowers at the end of the show...

Abby and Her Mulan Buddies
(L to R) Alex, Cece, Sarah,
Katelynn, Robin, Megan, Abby

Abby and Sarah (AKA Mulan)

Abby's extra-curricular activity this spring was being a part of the stage crew for the musical "Mulan Jr." at school. She stayed nearly every day after school as her position of runner, making sure the right cast members were on stage at the right time. There were days she wasn't sure that staying after school every day was fun, but when it was time that the play came and went, she missed hanging out with her friends. The kids did a SPECTACULAR job, thanks to the guidance of the adults in charge and because of their God-given talent!

AWANA Grand Prix

Some of the Grand Prix Race Cars

The Grand Prix Winners

Molly and Her 2nd Place Trophy

Molly and Fellow Grand Prix Winner Dominic

Our AWANA club had a fun day at the races... In other words, the kids in our AWANA club had the opportunity to participate in the AWANA Grand Prix. This is comparable to the Boy Scouts' Pinewood Derby race, in which you start with a piece of wood, some nails, and 4 wheels and create a race car keeping in mind how well it will race and how it looks. Molly and I did some creating after finding a banana car with two monkeys riding on the back. We modified it to just one monkey, which Molly made out of modeling clay that hardens when you cook it in the oven. I did the creating of the banana, using a Dremel Tool. We both helped paint the banana and she did the racing. After seeing it race, we realized we focused more on what her car looked like rather than how well it raced... Let's just say it's a good thing it was awfully cute! Molly's car took 2nd in design, and she was awfully proud of our efforts. It really was a great day at the races!

The Many Sides of Molly

Molly from the Orient

Scotish Molly

Rapper "Mo"

"Meet you at the luau" Molly

Basketball Jock Molly

Not Feeling Well Molly

Molly has a fascination of every now and again to try on different clothes and come up with an entire fashion show worth of outfits. Here is one such display.

Bread Baking

The girls had a day off from school in honor of Presidents' Day. To do a little something different, we made homemade bread, a first for Abby and Molly. Here are a couple of shots of the process and the final result. There's nothing quite like a piece of warm homemade bread!

Just the Four of Us

We went to my parents' church (the church I grew up at) so I could give a presentation about my trip to Ukraine. After we went to dinner at my parents' house and this picture was taken just because we were all dressed up and were all at one place at one time.

Four Dads Sledding

Last weekend we went with the majority of our college "gang" to New York for a little winter fun. Here is a video that will make you laugh and giggle! You've probably heard of the four man bobsled during the winter Olympics, but that's nothing compared to this feat! What form, what athletic ability, what a moment in time that will never be duplicated, but it sure is funny!