Water Time, First Day of School and more water!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post, but nothing too exciting has been going on. And then when I did have something to post, my hard drive went bad and Chris had to order parts and take time to fix it. So, it's now fixed and I can once again post to the blog. However, most of my pictures (including Florida and Pennsylvania pics) are lost forever. Besides what I uploaded here and to FB, they're gone. =( I've posted a couple pics here of Sydney playing out in our yard with a sprinkler thing my friend got her a couple years ago for her birthday. She's really been playing with it a lot here lately.

She was taking the bowl you see in the background, filling it with water, dumping it in a low spot in the yard, making mud and then dancing around in it. Oh, to be a kid again!

First Day of First Grade! Who is that rockstar?

We were planning on taking our nieces and Sydney to Kings Island this past weekend. But when we awoke at 6 am to severe storms and lots of rain, I checked the weather for OH and it was just as stormy. So, we decided it would be best not to drive 2.5 hours to take our chances, and we went to a nearby indoor water park instead. Turned out to be a good decision. They all loved it!

Outside the entrance.

Getting dumped on by the giant bucket of water above. You can see the roof in this picture. If it's nice weather, they open it, but then if it rains, they can close it again. They do have an outdoor area that we did get to hang out in a little bit. And they have an adult only hot tub area. Very nice!

Little Mac (aka Addison). She is so precious!

Cali and Sydney on the lazy river. Sydney didn't really need the life jacket, I think she just wanted to wear one because Addison was wearing one.

Chris, just chillin'

I have no idea what possessed him to go down the kiddie slide, but he did. And the girls enjoyed it! They went down this slide hundreds of times that day!

Cali convinced me to go down a slide with her in a double tube and it was the one that shoots you out into the bowl that you go around and around in it and eventually go down another slide. Let me tell you, I only did it once. We ended up going down the second slide with me facing backwards and I did not like not being able to see where I was going. But it was an experience for sure. And we all had a great time!

Pennsylvania trip

A couple of weeks ago, Sydney and I took a serious road trip to visit my friend and her kids, who live in Pennsylvania. I was so nervous about the trip, but it turned out just fine. We were busy too! There were lots of things I wanted to see. First, we went to the Jersey Shore and hung out on the beach and did the boardwalk.

If you click on this picture, you can probably get a better look at Syd's face. PURE TERROR! And this was a kiddie roller coaster. By the end of the trip, she was riding a much larger roller coaster with no worries.

Aaliyah and Sydney riding bumper cars.

The slide!

The next day we went to NYC baby! Here's a pic of the New Years ball in Times Square.

The lego statue of liberty is as close as we got to the real thing. Maybe next time. This was inside a 3 story Toys R Us!

The huge Toys R Us also had ferris wheel with all different cars. The girls got stuck with the lamest one, but they had fun, nonetheless.

Radio City Music Hall

Sydney eating a hot dog

The girls with an alien at Mars 2112, the martian themed restaurant we ate at in NYC. It was pretty neat!

Rockefeller Center

In Times Square

The next day was Philly. This is the Betsy Ross House.

A bust of Benjamin Franklin made entirely of pennies and keys.

A replica of the inside of Al Capone's cell at Eastern State Penitentiary. Obviously, he was treated a little differently than most inmates.

The prison is in a state of ruin.

The courtyard of the prison, with the Philly skyline in the back.

Me and Syd at the top of the Rocky steps! Adrienne!!!

Inside the Franklin Institute

The girls found a fountain to cool off in.

The second to last day we were there, we went to Hershey Park and played in the water and rode some rides, but no pics there, I was too busy having fun. We spent the night there and did Chocolate World the next morning. We left from there. We're glad to be home, but will definitely go back soon!

Ear piercings and a questionnaire

To reward Sydney for something pretty big she just accomplished, we took her to get her ears pierced, which she's been asking for on and off for about a year now.

Before, no earrings...

After, with pretty multi colored daisies in her ear. She was a real trooper. I was so proud of her because they couldn't do both ears at once, since there was only one employee there. The girl who did it was awesome and so good with Sydney, very patient.

And this is the questionnaire I stole from Jennie's blog. I was curious, after reading her son's answers, what Sydney would say. I'm not sure it's as cute, since she's a little older, but here it is, at 6 years and 2 months of age.

1. What's your favorite food?

Answer: Strawberries

2. What food is yucky?

Answer: Coconut Creme Pie (which she tried for the first time the other night and did not like!)

3. What is your favorite color?

Answer: purple and pink (no surprise there)

4. What do you want to do when you grow up?

Answer: Be a ballerina teacher (she's never even taken a ballet class, so this is kind of funny)

5. What is your favorite book?

Answer: "What Is A Princess?" (a beginner reader book that she can read)

6. What animal would you like to be?

Answer: a deer

Florida 2010

Sydney, Chris and I headed down to Orlando for a 1 day visit to Disney before heading farther south to my grandparents condo near Ft. Myers Beach. This was Sydney's first visit, just like the button says. Chris and I had been once before, when we had first started dating.

Each building of our hotel was themed after different Disney movies. Ours was Mighty Ducks, but we sought out the Toy Story one and it was sooo cool! Especially since I love those movies and we were going to see #3 while on vacation!

Such a classic picture. Syd on Main St, USA in front of the castle. She loved it! When we got there, they were doing a show so all the princesses were up there singing and dancing.

She loved the magical teacup ride. And I love this picture. Chris had the thing spinning so fast I had to close my eyes to keep from puking, so I didn't get to see much after this.

She wanted this hat so bad and it was $18, which I refused to pay for something I knew would end up forgotten on the play room floor in a couple days. So she had to settle for just a picture.

While we were there, a storm started brewing, as it did all but 1 day we were in Florida. You had to plan all your outdoor activities for the mornings and any indoor activities for the afternoons. It did postpone the parade, which I was bummed about, but it made for a neat picture. By the time we went to load the bus, it was pouring and we were soaked!

We saw a real life armadillo outside our hotel! We were super excited, never having seen one in the wild.

Sydney, dancing in front of the fountain in Downtown Disney, waiting for Chris so we could eat. Shortly after, she fell in. No kidding. Fortunately it was just her feet and we were already kind of wet from the rain anyway.

Then, we headed on down to stay at my grandparent's. They weren't there, so we had the place to ourselves, which was really nice. Sydney went to the pool several times while we were there. She made friends from Chicago the first day and played with them.

Mid-air Sydney!

These pics are from Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, which I go to every time I'm down there. It's soooo neat! It's a little over 2 miles (I think) of boardwalk through the swamp and people (not me) have seen bears, panthers and other stuff. I have seen gators, but we didn't see any this time. We did see butterflies, a nasty spider, lots of lizards, and 3 woodpeckers.

And of course, the standard afternoon storm. Chris and I thought it really made for a neat experience, to hear the rolling thunder and know there was an impending storm. We had to take the short .7 mile route through due to the weather, but I think it was just enough for Sydney, who was a little afraid of being that close to the ground where bears or gators could be.

She stood as far from the railing as she could for this picture.

We hit up 3 beaches while we were there. Sanibel and Captiva (islands) and Ft. Myers Beach. Captiva was beautiful and Ft. Myers was so dirty and nasty! Here we are on Sanibel. Sydney was so excited to collect shells!

Wednesday, after we hit up the free kids movie at the local theater (Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel), we played putt putt. It cost an unbelievable amount of money and it was unbelievably HOT! So we kind of hurried through, which to me felt like a waste of our money, but we were melting! Sydney got two holes in one!

I think this was on Ft. Myers Beach. We decided to hit that one up after putt putt. I love this picture!

We went back to Sanibel and Captiva on Thursday and did a driving tour of a wildlife sanctuary. We saw this cool horseshoe crab and some other little crabs, some birds and fish jumping out of the water, but that was about it.

Sydney, watching the fish and birds.

On our way to the beach, we saw this turtle on the side of the road and if you know Chris, he loves turtles. He rescues them from our road all the time, so we had to stop and get a look. He was a big fella!

Captiva Beach, where starfish and sand dollars abound. Some people were digging up 5 and 6 sand dollars and taking them home, but they were still alive and I couldn't do that. Besides, it's illegal. So, we just held them and put them back. We got lots of cool shells from there too.

On Friday, we drove about an hour to the Everglades and took an airboat ride and a swamp buggy ride. We also held some gators, but those pics are on Chris's camera, so if I ever get to see those, I'll post them later. We headed home about midnight Friday and I was pooped! But we had such a great time and I love that Sydney got to experience all that.