New picture of Anah Belle

Just a cute picture I took of my AB a couple of days ago.  She was having a nap in her little dog bed.

The storm moves out as the sun sets

On the lake behind our house. It was a beautiful evening.

You can still see the rain drops on the water.

Bowling

Sean went to the mall to "hang out" with a couple of his friends today, so the four of us went bowling. We go every couple of months, and always have a great time.

Erin actually beat Brendan in the third game! She got two strikes and was so excited both times.

Swimming

More swimming at the Y tonight. Sean and I did our daily workout while Brian, Erin and Bren swam. It's nice because we can see them in the pools from the fitness center so the entire time I'm working out I can watch them. Afterwards we went out to join them.

Erin's favorite thing to do these days is play frisbee

When she got tired her big brother came to the rescue!

Brendan doing front flips off of the diving board

Stealing a shot

I've mentioned before how hard it is to get pictures of Sean. He isn't a fan of the camera. Well, this past weekend he got his new iPhone 3G, and he's been really excited about it. He worked hard to earn the money to get it. Tonight we spent a lot of time down by the lake behind the house just playing frisbee, watching the alligator, chatting with neighbors, and hanging out. Sean was sitting down by the water texting his friends, and without him knowing I was able to get a shot of him. It isn't the greatest picture, but it is indicative of him and his "state of mind" these days.

He's such a good kid. Unlike so many of the kids his age he didn't spend all of the evening doing this. After about 10 minutes of texting he put the phone in his pocket, and he spent the rest of the time hanging out with us. At one point he had Erin sitting on his lap down by the lake, and the two of them were just snuggling together, looking out at the lake, and enjoying one another. Sweet, sweet kids. (No, no picture because I'm learning to put my camera down and actually enjoy DOING with them instead of just taking pictures of them. I've found out recently that it's more fun that way! A few pictures is way better than a bunch of pictures and standing on the sidelines.)

Just playing around

Brian and Bren went to see the Tampa Bay Rays game today (against Toronto), so I took Sean and Erin out for the day. We spent the afternoon at the pier in St. Petersburg playing. I took very few pictures, because I spent most of my time playing with them rather than taking pictures. We threw the frisbee, played tag, and just goofed off in the park. It was so nice. Afterwards we stopped at Ritas for a treat to cool us off.

Sean chased Erin down and started tickling her

These are the flowers that Erin picked for me

A friend in our yard

We have a family of rabbits that live in the yard, and today the "mama" rabbit came to visit us by the front door. Just after it stopped raining she came out to get the water that was dripping from the robellini palm tree so that she could clean herself. She was not at all bothered by us being there-only 2-3 feet away from her all of the time. She's just so cute.

Howard Park for sunset

The four of us (Sean wasn't feeling well so he stayed home) went to Howard Park Island for sunset tonight. It's one of our favorite beaches, and it's only about ten minutes from our house. It was a beautiful sunset, and Bren and Erin had a great time playing frisbee for about an hour before it got dark. Erin's favorite thing to do at the beach now is to look for shells, and she always leaves with a huge collection.

This is the view of the island as you approach. It's about a one mile drive to get out to the island, and it's just beautiful.

Just after the sun set the dolphins came to shore. This is very common, and we always see them. They aren't afraid of people, and will come within just a few feet of you if you are in the water. They were about 15 feet away from a group of people that were swimming in the water when I started taking pictures. There was a pod of about six of them swimming around.

This sandhill crane was standing up on a hill overlooking the beach. He was small compared to many that we have around us, but in the picture with Erin you can see how big even this one was. He was about 3.5 feet tall. He was just so pretty.

Coming home

My boys are coming home tonight!  Woo hoo!  Their flight was scheduled to arrive just before 10:00pm, but it is already delayed because of the weather, and as of now it is already not scheduled to arrive until after 10:30. Hopefully it doesn't get delayed any later.  I cannot wait to see my Sweet Pea (Sean), and my Booboo (Bren).

Swimming at the Y

Brian and the kids go swimming at the pool at our YMCA several times a week (usually while I'm at school). We've been members there since we bought our house four years ago, and it has a great pool area. The main pool has a beach area, fountains, huge curly slide for the kids, and lots of water spouts. There is a second pool for those that just want to dive and swim laps. The three of us went today, and as you can see Erin had a blast.  Can you tell she likes to have her picture taken?

A seagull trying to steal snacks (not ours)

Silly face

Erin got these at Chuck E Cheese a couple of weeks ago, and she loves to wear them. Even in public. As soon as she got out of the shower this morning she put them on to show Zaye and Uncle Tony.  She is such a silly girl.  Always trying to make someone smile, and this definitely does the trick.

July 5th

My brother, Tony and my nephew, Zaye followed us back from Deltona on Friday night and stayed the weekend with us.

After we came back to our house we did the rest of the fireworks that Tony had. The kids loved the extras!

Total poser-"Mommy, take my picture!"

I switched to manual on my camera for these, too. I love being able to see the shapes, or writing that someone does with sparklers. In the last picture you can see that Brian wrote E-R-I-N (I kept the shutter open for about six seconds in that one).

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July in Orlando/Deltona with my family like we do every year. There are usually about 40 people, lots of kids, food, fun, and fireworks. Uncle Steve and other family members buy an enormous amount of fireworks, and we also have the benefit of being able to see the city fireworks from their back yard.

My nephew Zaye

Youngest nephew Maddox (Zaye's brother)

My cousin, Liz, and her daughter Sidney

4 generations (l-r) Chance, Mike, Aunt Diana, Nana, Sidney, Liz

My Aunt Diana and her son, Mike

Liz, Aunt Diana, and Mike (two of my cousins and one of my Aunts)

Aunt Diana and her family (Sidney, Liz, Aunt Diana, Mike, Chance)

Sidney-believe it or not her hair is as curly as Erin's!

Daughter and mother (Sidney and Liz)

Sidney, Aunt Diana, Liz, and her husband Lee

Miss Liberty, Erin

Slip 'N Slide fun

Rod and Mike (Rod is the husband of my cousin Maggie)

Mr. Patriotic and Mrs. Liberty (Lee and Liz)

When it came time for the fireworks I switched to the manual settings on my camera so that I could keep the shutter open.  I know that the pictures turn out so much better this way.  Here are a few of them.

Daddy and Erin at the end of the night-getting pretty tired