More Daytona

We're still in Florida. Our original plan was to leave this morning and get home tomorrow night. But we had the condo for another night and all decided that we could use another day to relax and enjoy the pool and beach, so here we are. Hopefully one day between arriving home and going back to work will be enough for me.

So the past few days have been spent visiting with my family, playing in the pools and brief trips to the beach.

Here are some pictures, with some quick commentary.

Here are Taipan and Taisim in the kids' pool at our condo. We visited this just about every day of our trip, except for one or two days that were a bit overcast and rainy. They love this pool, and it's my all-time favorite for the kids too, and the main reason we choose to stay at the Oceanwalk:

On Sunday my sister was kind enough to host my mom, dad, stepmom, brother and us for dinner. My nephew, Jason, is a month shy of 8, and he and Taipan have a common interest of weapons. Taipan was excited to see Jason's swords, guns and other battle gear. Here they are standing still for a quick picture:

And here they are executing an attack:

Elyse, my niece, and Taisim got along famously. Among other things, they ran a makeover shop (I got nails, hair, and makeup done!), pretended to be horses, hosted a carnival, and had a dance recital. In this picture they are doing a puppet show - Elyse drew characters on their hands, though they're not visible in this picture. Taisim *loves* her cousin!

Monday was an overcast day, and we spent most of the afternoon in the condo, though Taipan and I spent some time on the beach and at the pool (it was drizzling and windy). When the rain was gone, we took a walk and visited some gift shops. We got some cool sparkly key chains as souvenirs.

We spent the evening at my mom's house - more rain, and the kids enjoyed her umbrella for a bit in the back yard, and they loved playing with Grammy's dog, Rosie, and looking for her cats, which thankfully made an appearance before the end of the evening.

Tuesday was another condo day, and I don't have any pictures from Tuesday or early Wednesday because I forgot my camera at my mom's house. But I got my camera back on Wednesday afternoon when we went to my sister's house again.

This is a silly picture of the cousins - I was trying to get a non-silly one, and tried to loosen them up and get Taipan's cooperation by doing silly faces first. Silly faces were no problem. I think this is fun, though not what I think my mom would've hoped for in a framed picture of her grandkids :-)

Next stop was my dad's house. During each visit Taipan was fascinated with and loved playing with all the pets. My sister, mom and dad each have a dog, and at least one cat. He was mostly sweet and loving and gentle with them. He spent a lot of time looking for and loving on them.

Here he is carrying one of my dad's cats, Velvet:

Simi and Grandma playing Operation:

Taipan playing in Grandpa's pool:

Group shot!! Taipan agreed to be in the picture since the dog, Sugar, would be on his lap:

And my (baby) brother stopped by to visit with us too:

This has been a great trip, and we can't wait to do it again, though it will likely not be for 2-3 years, since we'll likely drive again and want the baby to be old enough to enjoy the drive.

Thanks to my entire family for being so flexible and generous during our visit!