Our Italian Holiday!

This week I will start posting about our trip.

Labor Day - FL

For the Labor Day weekend, I am with Josh in Pensacola, FL visiting his sister and her family. Jodi is Josh's sister and her husband Emmanuel have 2 adorable sons Ian and Dominic. The trip started out not awesome when the air conditioning in my car went out on the way to Tulsa. So I drove for about an hour in 100 degrees. I was a gross sweaty mess when I got to Tulsa. But the drive to FL was pretty uneventful. We took the puppies and they were great travelers.

We stopped at the Louisiana boarder to use the restroom, let the puppies out, and of course take pictures. We missed the Alabama rest stop... :( And I figured we would take enough pictures of Florida.This is Dominic the baby. He is about 9 months old. He is soooooo sweet. He almost let me rock him to sleep. He loved the puppies.

This is Ian. He really loves having his Uncle Josh here to play with. And Ian REALLY LOVES Neo. Neo has been really patient with the boys.

We did actually make it to the beach even though it rained most of our first day here. It was super windy so we did not get into the water nor did we stay on the beach long. We shopped on the Boardwalk for awhile, had lunch, then went back to Emmanuel and Jodi's. We all just took it easy the rest of day. It was the perfect rainy day for naps and movies.

We shall try the beach again...

Florida

Last weekend I took mom to Orlando. The last time she and I went on a trip together was about 6 years ago, she went with me to LA for work. But this trip was purely for pleasure. The resort we stayed at was beautiful and the weather was fabulous. We got into FL on Friday and mom realized that she left her ipad on the plane! We realized it before we left the airport but when we went to the ticket counter, the flight attendants could not find it!!! It WAS found. They called us on Sunday to say that they had it. So the trip was not ruined or hindered by that ONE negative occurance!!! Friday evening we went to Downtown Disney and ate some really good crab legs. I have not had crab legs in a long time and they were delicious.
On Saturday, we spent the day at Universal Studios. And the weather was great. It did rain in the afternoon but by that point, we were ready to leave. We had a late lunch/early at Hard Rock Cafe.While at Universal, we did this ride that was like a pretend casting call/movie shoot. Mom got to be one of the "actors" in the movie. They really wanted a little old lady but they asked for a grandma, so I volunteered her. In the little clip she gets hit by lightening while gardening.
Us outside of the Mummy ride.

Sunday we got up and headed to Daytona beach (by way of the airport to pick up the ipad).

When we first got there it was cool but the sun came out and ended up being a great day!!!! Mom got sunburned and I got a little red.

On our way home we stopped by the Space Center. They were preparing for the last shuttle launch that happened on Monday. Monday morning we went back home to a cold 60 degrees!!

Updates

Virginia - To make this short & sweet. We went to Virginia Beach, we stopped by Williamsburg and then our last night there we went up to Baltimore to Inner Harbor. We met up with the Poff family & really enjoyed that time. THERE IS A LOT OF TRAFFIC in that area - ALL OF THE TIME. We did a lot but still have a lot left to do up there. I really appreciated the Spillers' hospitality

Wardrobe - still doing my color weeks. Last week, I did blue week. This week was black week. I think next week will be light pink week or purple, I haven't decided yet. Probably light pink.

School - I found out the bus pick up/schedule and I have accepted the fact that Brayden will be riding the bus. He only has to walk like a block to the bus stop. And Cody will be home before he is so Cody can make sure that he gets home safely. I think I am more anxious about the new school year than they are.

I'm back in classes & should actually graduate with my first bachelor's degree next year!!! My new major is now Communication Sales & Marketing.

St. Louis Trip 2

8 days after going to St. Louis with Holly & boys, I had to go back. So I took that opportunity to take Cody. We went and saw a Cardinals game. The Cards won. And I took him to Six Flags too. It was SUPER hot so I guess not a lot of people want to go to Six Flags in that kind of heat. So we did not have to wait in the lines very long. There were several of the big fun rides that we rode back to back.
I Pricelined the hotel downtown & we got the Hyatt for $50. Right next to the arch & 3 blocks from Busch Stadium. That was super awesome, did not mind walking and not fighting the traffic.
Cody in the stands before it really started to fill up.

During the game, the guys above us were playing Cups - a baseball gambling game, where money is passed around. They kept dropping money, so Cody & I made $7.00.

Then at Six Flags, we went to the water park & I sit down next to this lady in the lazy river & she asks if I'm Kira. As soon as she starts to tell me her name, I realize that it was one of my really good friends from when we lived in Indiana. She was there visiting a friend & we happen to see each other at Six Flags. Very random but happy to see her & catch up a bit.

Meet Me in Saint Louis

The beginning of the month Holly had to take Carter to St. Louis for some doctor's appointments. She was going to be there for a week. So Brayden & I joined her for a couple of days. I believe it had been exactly 4 years earlier we had met our friends from Indiana in St. Louis and we did pretty much the exact same things this trip. A little deja vu ish but Bray is a lot older now and he will remember this trip better. We went to Six Flags, but we ended up getting rained on for most of the time. So we left and had dinner at Apple Bees. But we ended up going back after dinner. It was pretty dead there & we were able to ride a couple more rides. Brayden was even able to ride Batman (which he is technically an inch or so too short for).

We also went to the Arch. Here we are at the top!

This is a cool pic of Brayden & Trevor running up the stairs with the sun & the Arch in the background. A little Rocky-ish.

We went to Union Station & Bray did this trampoline thing where he was strapped in & could jump & do flips. He is so light, but has a lot of muscle control/body control, he was able to go pretty high and he managed 3 back flips in one jump, he loved that.

Here we are at the zoo, obviously. We fed the sting rays. That was pretty fun. We also ate at this place that makes their own Root Beer. That was fun & in a part of St. Louis I had not seen before. A cute little area.

Since we were going with Trevor & Carter, Cody decided that he would rather stay with a friend. So, last week I took Cody to St. Louis, that post to follow...

Saturday Road Trip

Saturday the boys, my mom, Grandpa, Grandma & I all loaded into my mom's mini van & hit the road to Tulsa. It was quite a day. We got a lot in, but it was pretty fun.

After sitting in some traffic before Tulsa we stopped to see some long time friends of my grandparents Tony & Linda. I enjoyed the visit too.

Then we headed to lunch and met my cousins BJ, Larry and my friend Mollie. I really enjoyed my visit with Mollie as the "adults" visited with BJ & Larry.

The boys sat in the very back of the mini van & they enjoyed watching the DVD. I think Grandpa enjoyed it too but he did not listen much because he did not want to miss out on all of our girl talk.

Marvin was doing a job in Tulsa so we stopped by that job before heading to Richie & Sarah's new place.

Here is my mom with her grandsons!

I had a more "normal" picture of my brother & I but I guess this is the "normal" picture of my brother & I, so I chose to post this one.

And Sunday in church adoption was mentioned and I realized that so many people in my life may not even know that I am adopted. I also thought about all of my family picture and how people might question why I do not look like any of the people in the pictures. I guess since I have

been an adult I either was around people that knew I was adopted or people that never saw my family. But now on the WWW people that know me are seeing pictures of people that they do not realize are my family. What was the point in all of that? None really, just a thought that I had in my head that I decided to share. And I guess the realization and reminder that things that are obvious to others are not always to obvious to us.