Sunday, August 11, 2013

Fun times with the cousins!

We had family visit us last weekend!!!  Eric's sister, Chelsey, and her husband, Jerrod, and their four kiddos all drove down here from Iowa and spent a few days in the "sunshine state."  I put that in quotes because it rained on them every. single. day.  :-)  Ava could hardly wait for her cousins to get here, and I think she asked me when they were coming almost every single day since we came back from our visit to Iowa.  They arrived on Friday, August 2nd, and the kids had a great time swimming in the pool, catching little brown anoles (lizards) and we grilled cheeseburgers.  It was a great Friday night with family!!








Ava had cousin Aili spend the night on Friday night too, so we blew up the big air mattress and the girls watched a movie and slept out in the living room.  Silas enjoyed it perhaps as much as the girls.  :-)



On Saturday, we woke up early and headed to Cocoa Beach.  This is the beach that Ava has been wanting to go to for awhile (mostly because there are signs everywhere for it), and is also happens to be the closest.  Unfortunately, we were caught in a torrential downpour that lasted for about 30 minutes.  We were all soaked, but it cleared up so we headed back out to the beach.  It wasn't the greatest weather as it was super windy and it kept sprinkling after the heavy rain, but it finally cleared up and was really nice for the last hour or so we were there.  Besides....the kids didn't seem to mind at all, and they all had lots of fun!
This little guys LOVES playing in the sand at the beach.


Silas and Daddy. :-)

Silas and Mommy!

Ava was jumping the waves


She did so much better than the last few times we have visited the ocean, and wasn't nearly as scared.

Mommy with her kiddos. :-)



Ava and Kade playing in the sand, and Aili and Silas.  Although Silas's main goal was just to knock down whatever Aili was building.  He is definitely a 2 year-old boy!


COVERED in sand!!

Kade dug a little hole in the sand, and Silas crawled in to it.  He was so still for so long, that I had to check and see if he had fallen asleep.  He was pretty close!

Kids had a great day at the beach!
 
 
The next day we got up early (again) and headed to Sea World!  Ava was exhausted from spending all day at Cocoa Beach the day before, and she was a little difficult to wake up. :-)  But we got going and meet Chelsey, Jerrod, and the kids at Sea World.  It was unbelievably hot (as it normally is this time of the year), but we still had fun!


The boys getting ready to ride Antartica.

The girls strikin' a pose.

Watching the penguins swimming.......it was COLD in there!



Cora, Aili, and Chelsey getting ready to ride Atlantis.

Kade and Leighton looking thrilled to go on the water ride. :-)

Mommy and Ava ready to ride it.  Ava was really nervous but of course she loved it afterwards!

 

"The Boys" waiting for the Dolphin show to begin.

Ava and Daddy

Silas telling Uncle Jerrod a story.


This guy is "riding" on the noses of two dolphins in the water.


We love the dolphin show!

Underwater diver posing with Ava for a quick picture.

I thought this was so cool!  Blowing rings underwater!

The fun roller coaster we all went on....The Kraken!

Sea Lions

Kade and Aili feeding the sea lions


This little guy was right below us.

Kade, Aili, and Ava

The cousins were just awesome helpers with Silas!  It was great!!!

Aili inside a shark's jaw!

Kade's turn......

Now Ava's.....

And Leighton!  We couldn't talk Cora into it though....haha!  :-)

Aili and Leighton inside the Shark Encounters exhibit.

Walrus in the Clyde and Seamore Sea Lion show

Silas giving his "thumbs up" while riding the "choo-choo" train.  His favorite ride!

We ended the day with a little time in the splash pad to cool off.
 
 
We had SO MUCH fun that weekend with the Tanke clan.  We were exhausted and not ready to go back to work on Monday, but it was definitely worth it!  On Monday evening we drove over to their hotel in Kissimmee and the kids with swimming with Aili.  Unfortunately, both Leighton and Kade weren't feeling the best that night.  The next day, Tuesday, was supposed to be their big trip to Discovery Cove to swim with the dolphins, but both Kade and Leighton took a turn for the worse and ended up going to quick care instead of Discovery Cove.  By Tuesday night, Aili had it too.  So we didn't get to see them again before they left Wednesday morning, which was a huge bummer!  The good news is that we had a blast for those two days, and now they have to come back to Florida within a year to use their Discovery Cove tickets.  :-)

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