Trip to Florida

My apologies for being entirely slack about getting my blog updated since we've been back from Florida. To say we've been busy would be an understatement. We had a wonderful trip as you'll see from the pictures but it's been non-stop ever since we returned. We picked up Heidi (not Sydney as we originally planned) on our way home from Florida. She's a dear, sweet little dog, but had never been in a house until she arrived here last week. I'm AMAZED at how well she's made out. I had visions of a wild dog on the loose in our house but she's been quite the contrary. She's settling in surprisingly well. She certainly has a ways to go with obedience training but for a dog whose had her entire life turned upside down, she's doing awesome. Mark has taught her to sit and he's working on "heel" with her. She comes and knows "no." That's pretty good for 1 weeks worth of work. Don't get me wrong, we're exhausted but it's so rewarding and absolutely worth it, especially when you see the smile on Reese's face as soon as she sees Heidi. She giggles and laughs at her and they seem to be getting along great! As for the name, we felt that we'd stressed her out enough and that changing her name might just be a little too much. And frankly, Heidi has grown on me. Whew! Pictures will follow when I get a chance! So for now, here are photos from the trip.

Reese playing happily under the cabana:


David and Reese got along famously. Here he is trying to steal her hat as Mark takes the picture:


Reese's big cousin Pete loving every minute of the pool:


She's awfully close to crawling!


She loved to hang out in the water in her blow-up crab:



We discovered how much Reese likes an audience. Here she is sneaking into a picture with Auntie Shan and her buddy David:

David may have just woken up, but he's still so darn gorgeous!

And Reese isn't too bad herself:

We took a trip into Tampa with all the kiddies. Although these two were a bit young to appreciate it, I think Peter had a blast.



Here's a great shot of Paul and Peter on the beach flying Pete's new kite. This picture was taken from the balcony of my parent's condo.....not a bad view!

And here's Pete looking happy as can be......explaining the ins and outs of the Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Turtles if I remember correctly. Thank God for Splinter, eh Shan?!!

Anyway, the trip was great. It was so much fun to see the cousins all together. In a few years they'll be doing some serious damage I'm sure. My parents were there too as well as Mark's mother. Not sure how, but they seemed to escape a lot of the picture taking. Oh wait, they were on the patio enjoying bloody Mary's and wine whilst we were running after the rug rats....something about having "already put their time in??!!?" Just kidding! A good time was had by all!!

So now the madness continues at our house as we move in less than a month. So on top of trying to train Heidi, we're packing our entire house up. Exhausting, but I'm sure it'll all be well worth it. So forgive me in advance if the postings are few and far between!