Gotta Stop wishin', Gotta go fishin'...

Back in December two of my friends and I bought a fishing trip at a fundraiser at church.

Kim, Julia, and I waited 6 months for this! It was hard to find a day when we all had free.

We woke up early... eaaaaarly.We were in West Palm Beach and on the water by 6:50am. I must say, being that awake for a sunrise is MUCH more bearable when you're with 2 good friends, an Uncle (and an Uncle's awesome friend Mr. Wayne), have taken some "less drowsy" Dramamine and have your iPod ready to go. Waking up early to do things like workout or pick up a crying baby are far less exciting.

Mr. Wayne on left and my Uncle Ronnie on right. My camera got wet in the middle of the trip... somehow ended up without a picture of the man!

Apparently Ray LaMontagne and early morning on a boat go well together.

Mrs. Julia Roberts

Mrs. Kimberly Trott

Sunrise

We went waaaaaay out looking for dolphin. It was smooth as silk on the water which made the whole morning awesome.

We even drove the boat through the beginnings of a water spout. Because the ocean looked like a mirror we could clearly see how the wind was blowing the water and could even feel the mist on our faces. It never formed fully, but we drove away from it nonetheless! Sorry, no pictures... it's hard to remember that when you're experiencing a Discovery Channel scene live.

One of the dolphin we caught. So pretty in the water!

A little while after the water spout, my uncle called me to his gps screen and said, "Look, we're half-way to the Bahamas." So. What do you do when you're half-way to the Bahamas on a hot clear morning on the water? You jump in the water and go swimming of course (not long enough or splashy enough to attract any sharks though, no worries). Julia and I even jumped off the crow's nest too. I will say it proudly that, "I swam half-way to the Bahamas."

We may or may not have been peeing as this picture was being taken. Just being honest here, folks.

We only got into a small patch of dolphin once the whole day and brought in four. Then into some bonita- "poor man's tuna" as my uncle calls it. Not worth keeping but fun for the fight they put up.

We wish we could have caught more dolphin, but we had plenty to bring back to the hubby's and to grill up Saturday night. And since my Uncle and Mr. Wayne set all of the lines and cleaned the fish and we just chatted, ate, and soaked up the sun (some more than others, Kim) until a fish bit, it was all in all a fantastic trip and worth every minute of the wait!

Give those Merrell's a gold watch.

Last week I retired my Merrell's after 4 years. They've been to Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, the US and Indonesia. They've seen the Killing Fields outside Phnom Penh and the cow pastures of Bowling Green, FL. They've been deep in the rainforest and 10-story Asian malls. They've been trampled by a cow, climbed inside the caves of a smiling mountain, given rides to numerous leeches, crawled under orange trees and gotten stuck in the mud of a very mossy forest. They've gone camping next to waterfalls and stayed in a Balinese resort.

Don't you worry, Merrell - I will get more of you.

Here's a few pictures (you'd be amazed at how often your shoes aren't in frame, but here are a few I found):

Test run, June 2006. They conquered the dryer like a pro.

Inside a large cave at Gunung Senyum.

They performed well in mock hold-ups.

One of the ridiculous number of leeches I've gotten while hiking in my Merrell's. Lest you think it's the shoes fault, Sharon has a pair too and has never gotten a leech (much to her dismay surprisingly).

Hitching a ride back home after camping in the rainforest.

The Mossy Forest.

6 Years. Less Ignorant, More Blissful...

Geek #1, Lord Vader, and Geek #2

A couple weekends ago (Memorial Day Weekend) my husband and I got to get away from the boys for a couple nights and celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary.

We did fun stuff like
1. Go out to eat with friends who were also celebrating their anniversary sans-kids that weekend as well in Orlando.

2. Stay at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando for 2 nights. We bought the first night, but the 2nd night was free because we did their "Anniversary Package" which requires proof of anniversary date by showing your marriage license.

3. Slept in until 10am... TEN O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING! With my husband being the only other person in the king sized bed with me... no little people jumping on me!

4. Went to the "adults only" pool at the Gaylord and just laid there. I never once worried if Anthony was going to get to close to the pool or jump in without anyone noticing him.

5. Got in and out of the car multiple times with just one item, my purse. And a couple times, with just my hubby, no purse even!

6. Ate yummy food (Carrabba's and Fulton's Crab House) the whole weekend without ONCE having to spoon food into a tiny person's mouth or accompany a tiny person to the potty or even deciding when to eat based on a tiny person's tiny stomach needs. For breakfast I even got some froo-froo hippy-crunchy health drinks because I felt real adultish doing so, mostly because I could sit and drink the whole thing at my leisure without 1) Isaac asking for some of it and 2) Isaiah whining that I'm not holding him while drinking it. A win-win-win for sure.

7. Went to a movie. Shrek in 3D (and got a discount at Downtown Disney because we have annual passes!)

8. Went to Disney's Hollywood Studios during "Star Wars Weekends" and geeked out with the other Star Wars die-hards (who were on the whole much more die-harder than we are)

9. Missed our boys so badly after a mere 48 hours without them that I nearly had a "fit" when we were about 10 minutes from picking them up. Nothing like a weekend away from the kids to help you be near them again!

The free dessert they brought us and the Roberts at Carrabbas... (we got another one the next night at Fulton's Crab House, but didn't take pictures there...woohoo free dessert!)

Mr. and Mrs. Roberts looking equally as cheesy blowing out their candle as we did blowing out ours...

The awesome upgraded room with a view of the atrium (those palm trees you see outside our window are actually indoors!)

In the Everglades atrium at the Gaylord Palms... ALL indoors!

3D glasses never get old!

At Hollywood Studios...The people to the left of the picture are in line for the FASTPASS for Toy Story Mania at 9:07 in the morning (park opened at 9). Instead of waiting in a long line for a ticket that could get us into the ride quickly later on in the day, we went ahead and actually just got on the ride itself, and waited about 12 minutes. And my wonderful husband of 6 years allowed me to be the heavy scorer on the ride. Even with one of the games changed I still scored over 200K! (and it's 3D, the picture is actually pretty clear!) If both people in the cart play you have to share the points. He's so sweet!

Upon entering the park they were playing Star Wars music and had stormtroopers on the rooftops. One even pointed at Anthony while he was taking a picture!

Anthony took this picture of random lady and random kid with this Ewok because we didn't want to wait in the line for a picture with him ourselves. I love that man!

We did of course get a couple with us in them. The one at the top with us and Vader. Definitely worth the wait. Oh, and we didn't have to wait in line with ANY children (our own anyway).

What a great anniversary weekend!

Old friends, new friends and a Doctor Friend!

It has been SO busy around here as the repairing/renovating of my parents' house has everything "not settled"... things are almost done, but we managed to squeeze in a bit more craziness. This post is long...with lots of pictures and words.

Our friends Greg and Christi and their daughter Ella came to visit us in Florida this past weekend. The last time we saw them was on a trip to Bangkok when I was about half-way through my pregnancy with Isaac and Christi was newly pregnant with Ella. It was great to meet up with them here! We managed a trip to Downtown Disney and to Universal Studios even in the short time we had together.The Universal tickets must get special mention as Greg's mom gave him the tickets before he came down. They had had them for awhile... like since 1999 awhile. We took them to the ticket counter on the chance they'd still work... they were supposed to be 2-day park-hopper type tickets, but since they were so old (and probably wouldn't work with the turnstile machines they had no-doubt updated since the late 90's) the manager gave us new 1 day park passes. Still..FREE! It was fun, but REALLY hot! Christi is (again!) newly pregnant so we did what we could and enjoyed the company. Ella is almost 2 so it was neat seeing Isaac with a child his age. All our friends near us have either 1 year olds or 3 year olds. We talked about maybe taking a trip to Universal Studios in Singapore when/if we're ever back in Asia together...except when neither Christi or I are pregnant so we can take in all the rides!

At Downtown Disney we ate at the T-Rex restaurant. We got to sit in the Ice Cave section again! The ice changes from blue to pink. It seriously is one of the best themed restaurants ever...and the food was yummy again this time!
On Friday my BFF (or Beefa as I so lovingly call her), Cara, graduated from Dental School at the University of Florida. She's a doctor! She hasn't demanded that I address her as Dr. Beefa, but I would out of love and respect if she asked:) She is definitely one of the only people I would be willing to drive 6 hours for a 2 hour event!I also got to give her my oh-so special gift that I bought for her over a year ago. Cara is what I would describe as a classy gal. You will find in her closet dresses from Ann Taylor, shoes in a tiny size 5 that are way adorable, and treasured pieces like her Grandmother's pearls in her jewelry box. Borneo is known to be a great place to find pearls. Fresh water, salt water, farm-raised, natural, white, pink, purple, blue, black... you name it, they've got it. (for great prices too!) I had a friend help me get a hand-picked set of pink pearls (as in, I told the lady what size and color and length I wanted and she picked individual pearls and made the jewelry herself) in a necklace, bracelet, and earrings from the pearl market in Sabah, Malaysia. It's so Cara. I am so proud of her for working so hard and was so happy to give her such a "Cara" gift!Greg and Christi took Isaac for the day while we went to Gainesville... Isaac and Ella are buddies now for sure! Thanks guys!Last but not least... we met new friends... Jeremy and Leslie. No pictures, just the link. Sorry. They are starting the adoption process and we met them on Saturday. We took Isaac and Isaiah to our adoption agency's "Domestic Adoption Class" and told the couples there about our adoption journey. Jeremy and Leslie (turns out) are friends of friends and live not-so-far from Anthony's family in Jacksonville. We only met them briefly, but have emailed and we are so thrilled at what God is doing in their precious family through adoption!