Christmas Part One

Yep, these posts are all out of order, but at least I'm getting all the photos on here. So we were in Florida for 3 weeks. 3 COLD weeks. I was so disappointed that I couldn't wear flip flops and tank tops the whole time! But the girls didn't complain. In fact, they did really, really well on the flights both ways. We had lots of snacks and some movies on the computer which got us there and back quite happily. That's not to say I wasn't completely stressed out traveling alone with two 2 1/2 year olds. And we did get to leave Walden for most of what was the second coldest December in the county's history, so I really shouldn't complain.



Settled on the plane for the flight to Tampa. We got to the Denver airport 2 hours and 15 minutes before our flight was to depart, and it took us all of 15 minutes to check in AND get through security, so we had LOTS of time to kill. Luckily, the airport has a bunch of those moving sidewalks which kept the girls entertained for the whole 2 hours. They became experts at getting on and off all by themselves.





Pickin' oranges at Great-grandma's house before going to McDonald's. McDonald's is quite a treat for Elise and Linnaea since the closest one to us is an hour away.





Swingin' at the park.





Elise rides the...um...beaver? Squirrel? Otter?





One of the few days we could wear shorts!











Linnaea decorates the Christmas tree.





Giving Aunt "Calolyn" (Carolyn) a hair do.





Decorating our gingerbread house. I was amazed that most of the candy made it onto the house and not in their little mouths!





Ta da! Man, it looks like a couple of two year olds made it. Oh, wait, it WAS a couple of two year olds! (Notice the chimney stuck flat onto the roof.)





The Kovacs Clan. Top left: Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Liz, Tim, Carolyn, and Jason. Bottom left: Kevin, Linnaea, Great-grandma, Amy, Elise, and Jennifer.





The Kovacs/Blood Clan. Top left: Lisa, Johnny, Carolyn, Tim, Uncle Doug, Kevin, Linnaea, and Grandma. Bottom left: Aunt Kathy, Becky, Naomi, Amy, Elise, and Grandpa.





Grandma reads to the girls.





Elise and Linnaea get cookies and milk ready for Santa.





The Christmas tree and all the loot.

Busch Gardens December 2009

Sigh. Here we are in the middle of winter again. I am definitely suffering from a February funk. It's not the cold that's bothering me as much as the fact that we have to wait four whole months to see any friends or family that will be visiting us. Elise and Linnaea are not bothered by the winter at all. They absolutely love going to the child center, and I have to admit it keeps me quite busy, too. But lately I've been reminiscing about our nice Florida vacation, so I thought I'd put up some photos that I had sorted through. I have already posted most of these on Facebook because I was getting errors when I tried to get them on the blog back in December.

So while we were there we got to go on a trip to Busch Gardens and it was so much fun. The girls loved riding on the train around the park and going on the skyride over all the animals. They also have this area designed specifically for little kids with an airbounce, treehouse, mini carousel, and other mini rides. They do have a few splash parks, but it was so cold when we were there! We were quite disappointed in the weather, but highly recommend Busch Gardens for any families with young children. Of course, they also have the monster roller coasters for adults. Thanks to grandma and grandpa's babysitting service, Kevin and I were able to go a day by ourselves. We went on all the scary ones, most notably the Sheikra. Wow, talk about a thrill ride. It's the one that takes you up like 10 stories then dangles you over the edge of the drop for about 5 seconds before you plummet straight down. That was the last time I'll go on that one! On this trip I decided that I am not a roller coaster person any more. Which is fine by me. We were very fortunate that the park was nearly empty the day we went, so Kevin got to go on the coasters over and over again while I sat and watched the entertainment.





Linnaea admires the alligator's mouth. She's got an obsession with knowing what things bite. Every book we read or photo of something we look at, she always has to ask,"Does it bite?" Not in a scared way, just in a I-just-want-to-know way.





Elise looks for hippos.





Linnaea crawls on the lion.





Elise sits on a gorilla, the infamous one near the entrance of the park.





We all go on the big carousel.





Linnaea bonds with an orangutan.





Elise inspects the orangutan's fingernails.





Elise cuddles the hippos.





"Ah, help me!"





We meet the stilt walkers in Jungala.





Elise was a bit terrified at first but then had a great time.





We go across one of the treehouse bridges.





Elise and grandma ride in a dragon.





On the train going around the park.





Daddy and the girls ride in the dinosaur egg.