Brooke Goes Zipping!

Another fun activity from this summer was the zip lining course for kids at the zoo. This is the same place I took dad for Father's Day but they have a smaller course for the little ones. We went with the Moloneys and Brooke, Sarah and Michael all loved it!


Brooke had her moments when she was a little insecure about her safety, but with some cheering from mommy and her little sister, Ali, she powered through the scary parts and did great! I was really proud of her.

There were moments when I thought she'd never want to try something like this again, but when it was all over she said, "I want to do it again!" Ali was perfectly content keeping both feet on the ground with mommy.

Getting ready to swing across the finish line!

She did it!!

Our Favorite Swimming Hole

The Wekiva River has become the fifth member of our family. We spend pleanty of time together!

Sarah and Brooke enjoy the cool water.

Sarasota: Food, Family and Drums

On Father's Day we headed south to Sarasota to meet up with family and visit with Steve's Aunt Mary Therese. She is a nun and lives in Bolivia serving in a girls home. It was nice to catch up and she showed us a video of the work they do in Central America.



At about sunset we headed to the beach for the drum circle. It's a weekly event where people show up with their drums and just start playing and dancing. There were a fair amount of "eccentric people" there so it made for some great people watching.

Ali helps Aunt Weezie with the drumming.

We also made it to Mote Marine for a visit. Our zoo passes are reciprocal so we got in for free (yay for free!). I love this picture of Brooke going nose to nose with this sea turtle. They stared at each other for quite a while and then met back up at the window later for another visit.

Getting up close in the touch tank..

Another highlight of this trip was the food. One of our favorite shows is Man V Food on the Travel Network. The host travels to major cities and tries out crazy food concoctions or takes on food challenges which are usually very large or very spicy or very bizarre in one way or another (and also usually very unhealthy). Sarasota was featured in one of their episodes and we made it to two of those restaurants. The first, The Salty Dog, features a battered and deep fried hot dog. Steve and I split it and while it was very unusual, I think I refer my dogs the regular way.

Then for a late dinner we went to Munchies for the crazy sandwich in the picture below. It's a hoagie roll stuffed with chicken tenders, cheese sticks, hamburgers, onion rings and macaroni and cheese. It was quite ridiculous.

But the main reason we were drawn to this place was their wing challenge. They have some ridiculously spicy wings and if you can eat ten of them you get a free t-shirt and your picture on the wall of fame. Steve has a fascination with spice so he was very intrigued with this wing challenge and tempted to try it out. The host in the TV show only ate 1 1/2 before giving up so he knew it wouldn't be easy. Unfortunately they only allow the challenge before 10 pm and we were there after that. Steve asked if he could try the sauce and after signing a waiver, they gave him one tiny drop. It was enough to to make him cry, sweat, down a couple glasses of water, and excuse himself from the table "just in case". I skipped the hot wings and got these fried Twinkies instead.

Father's Day Ziplining

For Father's day this year I took dad to Zoom Air at the Central Florida Zoo. I thought it would be a fun and adventurous activity for us to share together. We got harnessed into our equipment and then moved through the trees on zip lines, tight ropes, and other obstacles like swinging logs and hanging planks. It was challenging and fun at the same time. The best part was having some one-on-one time with dad!

Here comes dad on the zip line!

Mom and Dad's 40th Anniversary

To celebrate mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary, we joined them on their boat near New Smyrna. We rode out to disappearing island and swam and played in the beautiful water. We had great weather and the kids had a blast playing in the surf, making drip castles, and pretending to be puppies.

Brooke shows Papa how to drive the boat..

Ali looks very confident in this picture. Papa are you watching?

After a fun day of boating we got some pizza for dinner and gave Grammy and Papa a book of 40 things we love about them.

In the search for ice cream..

Tanner Matthew DeMoor

Tanner Matthew DeMoor was born on June 7, 2010 to Jill and Matt. We were so excited about his arrival, especially the fact that Tanner and Ali now share a birthday. They will be birthday buddies for life!

Proud grandma

Congrats Matt and Jill!! (Carson could not be bothered for a family picture while we were visiting in the hospital. I actually have about five blurry pictures of him. He is such an on-the-go little boy!)

Ali's Fourth Birthday Party

After a fun day at Disney, we headed back to our hotel for Ali's birthday party. Our family and friends joined us there to see Ali's big makeover! We had pizza and cake by the pool. Mom made this amazing doll cake for Ali. It's always fun for me to see my girls get doll cakes since I loved them so much when I was a little girl (and still do).

Ali decided to switch it up and go with the chocolate cupcake!

Ali opened her presents and had to try on the new princess dresses right away!

Time to check out and head back to the real world. What a fun weekend though! Ali got the full princess treatment.

On Ali's actual birthday we celebrated with a birthday pan"cake". If Ali's face looks a little funny in the this picture, it's because she gave herself her very own makeover early in the morning. She pulled out her left over makeup kit from the bibbity boppity boutique and went a little crazy. She thought she did quite a good job.

Ali and the Princesses

After the girls were transformed into princesses, Ali and I went to get in line to meet the "real" princesses!

Cinderella

Aurora (aka. Sleeping Beauty)

Jasmine

We were really hoping to find Snow White that day. In fact that was my first order of business when we got the Magic Kingdom. I asked a cast member to call the character hotline and find out where we would find Snow White in the park. They told me that she was only available at Hollywood Studios. I was bummed for Ali since Snow White is her favorite, but she took the news well. When we were in line to meet the princesses, Aurora saw Ali's Snow White dress and told her that Snow White was right outside. I didn't know if I should get excited for Ali or shoot Aurora a glare for getting my little girl's hopes up. But sure enough, we finished meeting the princesses and there was Snow White, right outside!

Snow White thought Ali was pretty darn cute and gave her a big red kiss on the forehead.

I showed Ali the red lips on her forehead and she immediately went to tears and rubbed the red lipstick all over her forehead saying, "I'm not pretty anymore!" After mommy worked some magic on that red lipstick we got her forehead back to normal and I took this picture to show Ali she was "pretty" again. Notice the puffy red eyes from crying.

It was a great day at Disney!

Bibbity Boppity Boutique

Then it was time for our little princesses in the making to get their royal makeovers!

The "Before" Shots..

I took a gazillion pictures, but here are the highlights. Ali gets in the chair and the pampering begins. She was so very serious and not smiling much. i think she was a little unsure of what she had gotten herself into. I have to be ready with the camera to catch those moments of pure joy on her face. Here she has one fairy godmother working on her hair while the other paints her nails.

Brooke gets pampered as well. It's tough being a 6 year old!

They kept the girls with their backs to the mirror the whole time. Then after a little pixie dust sprinkling, they turned them around to see their beautiful selves! Ta da!