Special Delivery From Santa!

Now that we are home and settled back in we can FINALLY bring Cooper home. We've been visiting the pups since they were born, but Colin has no idea that he is actually getting a puppy of his very own. If you remember, he got a note from Santa in his stocking on Christmas morning. It told Colin that Santa had a very special present for him, but it was just too big for him to get it back to the island on the plane, so he would have to deliver it to Colin at his home on the island when we returned. So while Colin was outside playing with his friends, Santa sneaked into our house and set up all the puppy supplies.

He left Colin this note inside his stocking, which was laying with the puppy stuff...

Colin was going crazy as he realized HE was getting a dog, to bring home and love forever. He couldn't wait to go get his doggy.

Welcome home sweet Cooper!

Last day in Florida

Last day in FL

Our last day in Florida we had planned to go down to the Stadium and show Colin where the Gators play. We were going to take the boys to an indoor playground place to run off some energy. We thought we might hit a few day after Christmas sales and see what kind of bargains we could snag. And then, well, boys will be boys! LOL

While outside putting stuff in the car we hear Colin crying. I come inside to see blood everywhere on his face and Shauna attempting to wipe it with a wet towel. I get down to get a look at the damage and it was UGLY! Apparently Dawson threw the Captain America shield at Colin and it caught him right in the corner of his mouth and laid it wide open. I can't even believe that shield was capable of such! At this point the only question was do we try an urgent care place for stitches or should we just go to the ER. I called the closest urgent care who said they didn't recommend us bringing him there since it involved his lip and mouth.

So off to Shands we went.

Thankfully the wait was not bad, we were taken right in and the ER doc examined him. He didn't like the placement of the cut since it was so close to the corner of the mouth and it was a tricky area to stitch up. He called in the oral/facial surgeon to come take a look and do the stitches. Thankfully the surgeon was confident he could do a good job and it would be quick and easy. Colin did very well with the stitches, he was a little scared at first, not sure about the doctor coming at his mouth to sew him up. But once that first stitch was in and he realized it wasn't going to hurt he sat there like a champ for the rest. Mom on the other hand...LOL! Seeing him freak out and be so scared was more than I could handle and I had to sit down for a second because I was feeling a little dizzy and woozy. Three stitches later, a little rest for Mom and a handful of stickers for Colin and we were on our way.

We missed the sales and the play zone, but did manage to make the stadium. Of course I didn't quite get the pictures I was hoping for since the poor kiddo had iodine and stitches on his face, but they will be treasured memories anyway. Colin loved seeing the stadium he gets to see on TV and where the Gators play. He was so excited, we'll have to get him to a football game one of these days.

The rest of the evening was spent trying to cram three weeks worth of clothes, shopping trips and Christmas presents into suitcases to bring home. Not my idea of fun, but somebody had to do it!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day 2012

Colin got a special letter from Santa in his stocking.

Florida Fun

Disney Day 8

Once we arrived back in Keystone it was busy leading up to Christmas. Colin did a little relaxing and playing on the playground at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He and Grandma made a gingerbread house together and Colin spent a lot of time loving on a little stray dog that decided to make herself at home and move right on in. Seeing how excited he was about that dog and how well he was trying to take care of it made me so excited to get home and bring home our new puppy Cooper for him.

There was a big family Christmas party at Shauna and Dave's house and Santa Claus even made a guest appearance. This was the first time that Shauna had ever hired a Santa, so there was a bit of a learning curve. Everyone at the party had drawn the name of someone else for a secret santa exchange. All the gifts were left on the front porch waiting for Santa to bag them up and come on in. There were at least 40 presents in poor Santa's sack. As Santa started pulling out gifts and passing them out, some went to kids and some went to grown ups. Poor Colin's gift was way down at the bottom of the bag. He sat there so patiently, but after about half the room and most of the kids all had their stuff already he started looking pretty worried. With each gift Santa pulled from his bag to hand out poor Colin melted just a little more. He hung his head, he put his face in his hands and he fought back tears. I was so proud of him, but my heart just broke for his sweet little self. When Santa finally called his name he practically leaped into his lap and the whole room breathed a sigh of relief. After he had his gift he was back to his happy, carefree self again and he even forgave Santa and sat in his lap and listed off the names of each Transformer he was wishing to find under the tree on Christmas morning. The lesson of the day...make sure the kid presents are in the top of Santa's bag!

Colin, Dawson and Brennan took part in the living nativity at Shauna and Dave's church one evening. The boys looked so cute as the three wise men and they did a great job. Colin really had to pee in the middle and you could tell he was looking around nervously and shifting a lot, trying to avoid the pee pee dance. As soon as I was able to I snagged him from the scene and rush him to the bathroom.

Quick hello!

For those that don't know we left the Azores on Friday Dec 6th and arrived in Jacksonville on Dec 7th. Since then it has been go, go, GO! We've been to a Jacksonville Jaguars game, down to south Florida to visit friends, spent 8 days in Orlando doing ALL the parks, wrestled alligators, visited the ER, and shopped til we dropped. We arrived back in Keystone/Gainesville just in time for Christmas parties, family reunions and now here we are on the eve of Christmas eve. I'll try to get caught up in any down time I can manage to find, there are so many pictures and stories to post. Merry Christmas!

Day 8 - Universal Parks

Disney Day 8

Today was our last day in Orlando and we had about half the day or so before we needed to hit the road to head back to Gainesville. Colin wanted to go back and ride the Woody Woodpecker roller coaster again, so we made sure to do that a few times before leaving. On the way out of the park he got to see the cast of Hop again. He really loves this movie, so it was exciting for him to see the characters and he even got to play the drums with E.B., the main character.

Day 7 - Islands of Adventure

Disney Day 7

This morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise with several hot air balloons taking to the skies. Gorgeous! After getting ready we headed over to Islands of Adventure. Colin loved this park for all the super heroes live here and there is a Dr. Seuss area too. He got to ride the Spiderman ride, then meet Spiderman himself! He was in heaven! Our main goal for the day was to recreate a family photo like this one, taken in 2009 the last time we were here.

From Disney Trip - Day 5

We had no idea it would be darn near impossible! In the first attempt we asked an older man that ended up not speaking English, but he got the idea through charades. Would you believe that not one, not two, BUT ALL THREE of us had our eyes closed? Seriously! He snapped a second shot that made me want to close my eyes again, terrible! Attempts number three and four the sun was kind of in our eyes and they turned out awful. Attempt number five was all my fault, I wasn't ready judging by the look on my face. Attempt number six was our magic number apparently, whew...thank goodness that is done!

Another highlight of the day was seeing How the Grinch Stole Christmas live on stage. They had the stage show running for the holidays and it was uh-ma-zing! I loved it! Today was a very relaxed, fun day and I think it was one of Colin's favorite days yet.

Day 6 - Universal Studios

Disney Day 6

Today we hit Universal Studios for a nice relaxing day. We wandered around the pretty much empty park not waiting in any lines to ride. It was great. The first ride we went to was the one Shelby and I were super excited for, the Despicable Me ride. If you have not seen the Despicable Me movie, YOU MUST. Stop reading right now and go to the nearest RedBox or rental shop and get it! Such an adorable movie and one of my all time favorites. The ride was a 3D motion simulator thing that I really hate, but despite that I still loved it. When we exited the ride they had Minions there to take picture with! We saw mostly all we wanted to at Universal by lunch time so we decided to head out to City Walk and have lunch at Margaritaville and then head back to the hotel to relax and hit the pool some.

Day 5 - Sea World

Disney Day 5

After returning from our midnight trip to the ER we finally got some sleep and slept in just a little bit. We still managed to get up and going to be at Sea World close to opening. Colin was already feeling better and we headed straight to the dolphin area to participate in the dolphin feeding. I'm not sure who was more excited about feeding the dolphins, Colin or myself, but we were both stoked! We bought lots of fish trays and listened carefully to the instructions and then fed the dolphins. I got some great pictures, and Colin got to feed and pet the dolphins which was super exciting for him. Colin was thrilled to spend the day with Cousin Charlotte. We fed everything we were allowed to feed multiple times, since feeding the animals was pretty much the highlight of Colin's day. We took in some shows and Colin got a kick out of the whales and dolphins doing tricks. He saw one show and was convinced HE was a dolphin trainer and anytime he passed and underwater viewing area for whales or dolphins he would go nuts giving them made up hand signals to get them to do tricks. It was pretty funny to watch. Later that evening we did a "Dine with Shamu" dinner. Amazing! So worth the money and I'm so glad we did it! It was a buffet style dinner and every table was right up next to the glass in a killer whale tank. The trainers were out doing a laid back training session with the whales and giving lots of good information about them. The trainers walked around and talked to us and let us ask questions and shared some excellent information. Finally to end off the night we watched an ice skating show and fireworks finale. Colin was exhausted by the end of the night and he fell asleep in Shelby's arms during the ice skating show. We figured when the loud fireworks started that he would wake up. Wrong. The kid slept through it ALL and never moved a muscle. When the show was over we carried him, still sleeping all the way out of the park and back to the car, where he slept again. Being a dolphin trainer must be hard work!

Day 4 Magic Kingdom

Disney Day 4

Today we finished off our Disney park pass with a final day at Magic Kingdom. Shelby's family all had to head back home tonight, so it was the boys last day together for a while. Colin still wasn't feeling that well but was hanging in there and didn't seem to slow down any. About midnight he woke us up crying that he didn't feel well and was coughing and congested so I put him in a hot steam bath with the Vicks Vapor bath to calm him some. While in the bath he just sobbed to me "Mommy I don't want to be sick anymore, I don't like being sick." That was my clue that he was feeling really miserable and I started asking him what hurt and where and he told me his ears hurt. That was all I needed to know, my kid doesn't complain he hurts and he doesn't slow down until he's seriously hurting. I called the front desk of the hotel and got the number to the closest ER and off we went. How many kids get to say they visited the Disney hospital? LOL He turned out to have an upper respiratory infection and a double ear infection. Chest x-ray was clear though, so thankfully he didn't have the pneumonia they were concerned about. That was the fastest ER trip I think we've ever had too! We got his meds and went back home to rest. Of course in true Colin fashion he woke up the next morning ready to go.

Day 3 - Hollywood Studios

Disney Day 3

First stop at Hollywood Studios was to get the boys signed up for Jedi training. It was kind of a surprise and the boys had to wait until the afternoon to get to put on their show. It was AWESOME! Highly recommend it for any Star Wars fan. Colin and Dawson were on cloud nine and talked the rest of the day about meeting Darth Vader, challenging him and learning to be a Jedi. It was pretty much the coolest thing to ever happen to a four year old! Jedi Training... Osbourne Lights...

Day 2 Animal Kingdom

We were up bright and early to open the Animal Kingdom park. Our fabulous bus driver from the day before had told us get there when the park opens and go straight to the safari trail ride because they put the food out along the trail just before opening. We did as instructed and scored! All the animals were out and we got great views of everything, including baby elephants and rhinos! We spent the day touring the park, Colin still sick but hanging in there, until the boys all got soaked on the river rapids ride and were freezing. We had to call it quits after that and head back to the hotel to dry out and change. Later that night we went over to Downtown Disney to meet up with my family that had arrived that day. We had a great dinner catching up and seeing my family that I haven't seen in years. Colin was super excited to see his cousin Charlotte now that he is old enough to remember her.

Day 2 Animal Kingdom

Day 1-Magic Kingdom

Disney Day 1

First day at Disney! The gang is all here, Grandma & Grandpa, Aunt Shauna & Uncle Dave along with Dawson and Brennan all arrived and we set out for Magic Kingdom together. The boys were ready in their personalized Mickey shirts Shauna made. The park opened early for us since we were staying at a Disney resort hotel and we got to see the opening ceremonies, which I had never seen before. We went in and went straight to the new Fantasyland, which had just opened up that week! Since we were in Disney OF COURSE Colin got sick. It never fails, the kid cannot make a trip to Disney and stay healthy. He was very congested and stuffy with a cold. This is pretty much the first time he'd been truly sick since he had his tonsils taken out back in October of 2011. I guess we shouldn't complain when you look at it like that! We had a great day at Disney, playing the role of the Beast at Beauty and the Beast's show, going to pirate school with Captain Jack Sparrow and riding all the big kid rides. We ended the night at the T-Rex Cafe at Downtown Disney, the boys loved it! Video of Colin as The Beast Colin taking the pirate oath...

Gatorland Zoo

Gatorland Zoo

This morning we got up bright and early and set off for Orlando. First stop was Gatorland Zoo and Colin was very excited to see all the alligators. We wandered around and taught Colin the difference between a crocodile and an alligator. He got pretty good at being able to tell the difference all by himself. We sat for a picture with a big snake around our necks and holding a baby alligator, Colin didn't want the snake near him but he was all about holding the gator. We watched a couple animal shows and then went to see the gator wrestling show. At the end the kids could come up and pay to get their picture taken sitting on the back of a 6 footer and Colin could barely stand to wait in line. We figured he'd be scared once he got up there and it was his turn but that was definitely not the case, he hopped right on and knew just what to do! We had a great afternoon, snapped some beautiful pictures and then headed off to the hotel. It was so exciting to drive through the Disney property gates with Colin, such fun. We got checked into our room at Shades of Green, unpacked some and checked out the pool.

Visiting Mel & Alex

Visiting Mel & Alex

No rest for the weary! Monday morning we headed for south Florida to visit my BFF Melissa and her family. We spent two nights with them before traveling back up to Disney. We had a great time catching up, I hadn't seen Mel in far too long. Colin and Kaden had so much fun together. The kids went swimming together, we did a lot of eating, wine drinking and catching up. One day we visited a place called Gumbo Limbo that was awesome. It was free and had all kinds of great sea life to check out. They do sea turtle rehab and rescue, so we were able to see several sea turtles being nursed back to health before being set free. It was such a super neat place. I wish we'd have had more time to spend with Mel & Alex but they had a cruise to take and we had Disney to visit.

Jags Game

Jags Game

We took Colin to his first football game today. He had a ball, he was so excited to get his Jaguars gear and go watch the game. Gator football season was over so we had to settle for a Jags game. It worked out that they were playing the Jets that Sunday so we were at least able to show Colin who Tim Tebow is. We had great seats, which was very nice until Shelby ruined it for me and told me how much he paid for the tickets. I just assumed the tickets cost about $100 or so for the three of us, I mean it IS the Jags after all, what was their record last season?? Once I found out the tickets were almost $300 I had a hard time enjoying the game from that point on. For $300 I should have been sitting on Tebow's lap! Oh well...Colin had a great time and still talks about going to the game 2 months later(YES I KNOW it has taken me that long to finally get around to updating this blog!).

Travel to the US

Colin and I have not been back to the US since we left to move to Germany back in 2009. We were excited to take in a lot of sights and visit with family who we hadn't seen in a while. To get to Florida from this little island is a two day event. We left Terceira about 9 AM on a Friday and flew to the larger island of São Miguel. From there we had a long layover of several hours before our flight for the US left. Our next door neighbor, Rosanne, has a very close family friend that is Portuguese and lives on our island. Odilia and her family spent Thanksgiving with us if you remember. Odilia's daughter happens to live on the island of São Miguel and when Odilia heard we had a layover there she asked if we would mind carrying on some things to take to her. Of course we didn't mind, so Catarina met us at the airport to get her stuff and offered to drive us around and show us some of the island. So nice of her! The weather was not cooperating very much at all and it was typical island winter weather of rain and wind. We saw some of the downtown area, some of the port area and then spent a good deal of time in the mall that is there to stay dry. Later that afternoon it was time to board our long flight to Boston. We arrived in Boston and as we expected it was COLD! No snow, but pretty cold for us island dwellers. Since we were spending our whole vacation in Florida we didn't really have any cold weather clothes, so we just had to suck it up for the night there until we could board our plane for Jacksonville the next day. Colin was THRILLED to finally arrive at Grandma & Grandpa's house after two days of travel anticipation. He and his cousins were so cute and funny together. Colin and Dawson met when they were infants, and have Skyped now that they are older, but this was the first time they have met now that they are old enough to understand. It was our first time meeting Brennan too. The first night we were in Keystone we took the kids to the Keystone Christmas parade and grilled oysters out on the grill. Colin tried oysters for the first time and loved them! The kids had a blast and Colin was WIPED OUT by the end of the night, as were Shelby and I. The album has all our pictures from takeoff to the end of our first night in Keystone.

Travel to the States

Wordless Wednesday

Elf Mischief

Tinsel has been doing a little binge eating today.

Puppy Fix

Cooper 4 wk old visit

I cannot believe how much Cooper and the puppies have grown since we saw them last! The vet can't believe how big they are for their age either. Cooper is one of the biggest of the litter weighing in at over 6.5 pounds at just 4 weeks old. Their poor mama is skin and bones trying to keep up with feeding these monsters. They have her on expensive special food and extra vitamins and she's still skinny and losing hair. The vet said to start them on puppy food to supplement before they run momma totally into the ground. I can't wait to get back to the island and bring this little guy home!

Wordless Wednesday

He's baaaaaack!

I think Mommy and Daddy were far more excited to see the return of Tinsel, our elf, than Colin was. After Colin went to bed on Sunday Tinsel appeared in the bathroom, knowing it would be the first place Colin went after waking up and coming out of his room. A fancy letter from Santa all wrapped up with a silver bow was ready and waiting. Here is Colin's letter from Santa...

Here is Tinsel all ready for Colin...

Colin was quite surprised when looked up from the bathtub and saw our Elf there. He was very excited to see a letter from Santa Claus and grinned and giggled the whole time I read it to him. So sweet!

Let the decorating begin!

I thought maybe I could avoid decorating our house for Christmas this year. It seemed sort of silly being that we leave the first week of December and don't return until after Christmas. Colin,however, had other plans. He saw other people starting to decorate and did not want to hear any of this not decorating business. He all but demanded we decorate and so we did some lights outside and a little bit inside. Here is my living room and our little mini tree.

Colin was very concerned about the size of our tree and wanted me to get our big tree out. He kept telling me that tree was too small and Santa couldn't put big presents for him under it. Then I reminded him that we would be in Florida for Christmas and then he wanted to know all about Grandma's tree. LOL I told him he would have to call and take that up with his Grandma!

Shelby and Colin got started on Friday night putting up the lights.

Right after this picture when I told him to stop messing with those bulbs he cut his finger. Ugh!

Then the next day Dan and Shelby got out there to finish it up. Rosanne and I had our chairs on the sidewalk so we could drink our coffee and provide design tips and inspiration to the guys. They listened very well and did an excellent job! LOL

The finished product...

Happy Thanksgiving

The last two or three days we have had unusually beautiful weather. Sunshine, temps in the sixties, blue skies and light winds. Then, we woke up on Thanksgiving to yet another island tempest. Wild winds, crazy sideways rain and just general nastiness.

This is the view out the back, trees are blowing sideways and video probably would have been more telling than a picture.

Poor Shelby had to get up at 5:30 to go out in the weather to get the smoker going and the turkey on. Then he had to go out about every 20 minutes or so to check on the smoker and make sure the winds and the rain were not bothering the temperature inside the smoker. Not fun!

The weather was still not cooperating midday when it was time to fry the other turkeys and so that had to be done inside the garage. Talk about SMELL. Fried turkey tastes delicious but oh my does it smell terrible when it is cooking. I had every Scentsy warmer in the house on as well as all my candles lit trying to banish the smell from the house before the guests arrived.

I had done some of the baking and prep Wednesday night, and only had a few things left to do Thursday morning, which was very nice. Then the housekeeper came and cleaned it all up and made it sparkling before people came over, so thankful for that! Here is my pretty dining room table ready to eat on...

Here is the makeshift table in the living room so that we all had enough space to eat.

The spread of food!

We had two fried turkeys, one with jalapeño butter injections and one that we did in a brine recipe found here, plus a smoked turkey on the smoker that was soaked in a brine also. We had all the sides and fixins including some delicious Portuguese type stuffing brought over by the neighbor's Portuguese family.

I was quite pleased with my pecan pie this year, isn't it pretty?

We had about 15 people between the four families together for dinner. Our neighbors Dan & Rosanne and their girls, and their Portuguese family came too. We also had a family that is new to the island that we have made friends with over. Their household goods were just delivered Wednesday, so their house is a sea of boxes right now. I love having lots of people but I don't think our little house could hold any more than we had. Base housing is just not made for entertaining!

Boxer babies!

It took us less than 6 months of living here to cave. Since we moved here and I've been staying at home, Shelby has a lot more off/free time, and we don't travel nearly as much, we've been saying how we have time now for a dog. I also have a housekeeper which means I do not have to clean up after a dog. We had continuously said no because we would like to go back to Germany after this if possible and we already know that life didn't afford us much time for pets. Then we met a gorgeous boxer boy named Razor on Halloween, and his Mommy told us he would be a daddy any day. From then on I could not get boxer puppies out of my brain. On November 1st the pups were born and it was all over once I saw their sweet little faces. How could you possibly not get one of these fat little balls of cuteness?

Choosing was the hard part. We originally loved the brindle babies based off the pictures, but the brindle male was 90% spoken for and we really did not want a female. When we went to meet the pups and saw the daddy again, we knew this little guy would be just like him.

Today we went to visit the babies again, they are two and a half weeks old now and have opened their eyes. They are trying to walk around and belly crawl a lot. Their skin mama says their little personalities are starting to show and her favorite is the one we are taking. He is the biggest of the bunch, not too needy, barks and growls some, and loves his fawn sister. Colin still doesn't know we are getting one, we just keep telling him we are going to see the puppies and play with them. He doesn't know any better, he's going to flip when we get to bring it home.

Sweet, baby Cooper!