Thanksgiving in Florida - Part 1 of 3

We were blessed to get to go to Florida for the week of Thanksgiving and see family! What a fun family vacation it was. Were so thankful to our family for making it happen and it was A LOT of fun. We spent the first part in Orlando at a fun resort my Dad found. It had some swimming pools that Ava was really excited about and even some tennis courts so my Dad and I could go head to head. Fun! While there we got to visit SeaWorld, where we found out that you can get your pass stamped and go a second day for free. Ava had SOOO much fun there. I think her cheeks are sore from doing the fishy sound so much.

We then spent some time with my (Tony) grandparents and great grandmother. (Ava's great great grammie) She is turning 96 years old in a month and she is such a gem! We then got to even visit the beach for a day before returning home. It was a fun vacation. I'll post photos of Grammie's and the beach soon)

Heres a fun photo of Ava eating spaghetti before we left. She was a hungry little Italian that night. She may have even eaten more than I did...

This is Ava's Robot Costume that I made a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing what you can do with a box. She put this on and walked around all night. But the real gem is watching her get out of this thing. You'll laugh so hard, you might hurt yourself.

Excited about the fishies

Watching sharks.

Ava thought it was hilarious that her Grandma Beth would put her hair bow in her hair

My niece Morgan is a ninja with pushing a stroller.
And of course, Ava loved to give her Granddad a good high-five. If anyone initiates a high-five or "pounds it", then Ava wants to do that with everyone near and far.

This is my nephew Adam. Literally one of the happiest kids alive.

I miss you Morgan!

The "before rollercoaster" photo

My sister Danielle and her husband Matt. 2 beautiful kiddos and one on the way. Did I mention that they just got a brand new minivan?
That's for you Danielle.
Miss you guys ;-)

T.L.O.M.L.
(the love of my life)

Clapping for Shamu.
She REALLY got into the show once those whales started jumping out of the water!

Father-Daughter teaching time

Ok... let me explain.
I know that generally any type of photo in the bathroom is always off-limits.
But lil Adam was making some crazy faces so I threw caution to the wind and whipped my camera out. This photo cracks me up. And yes, it was worth the weird looks that were given to me by the kid in the background.

Question: How do you know if your Act, including dolphins, birds, acrobats and performers is entertaining?
Answer: An 18 month old is picking her teeth when she freezes for 10 minutes because the show has mesmerized her.

Granddad and Grandson

My little angel.
I have never seen her fall asleep in such a tiny stroller before. She just needed a break before more SeaWorld fun.

Thank you Shamu. This is Dad and Morgan sitting deep in the "splash zone!"

This was one of my favorite parts! Ava got to touch and feed the dolphins. It was so much fun and she really got into it.

She gave me this cute look while we were watching dolphins from an underwater tank.

We got these puppet dinosaurs for lil Adam for Christmas. You can see here that it didn't take long before his parents teamed up on him.

"God created the great sea creatures and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed" Gen.1:21 Thank you for all that you have created Lord. We sure enjoyed seeing these animals up close!