Trying to Get a Group Picture

Why is it so hard to get four kids to sit still and smile at the camera? Doesn't sound difficult to me. This picture is pretty good, but Milena is watching the sunset.

This is one of the best.

The boys aren't really sure what's going on.

Not sure what Milena's doing.

Kelson had to wipe his face.

Koleman is playing with Milena's hair.

A good one! Not bad at all.

The moment is gone. Koleman got an itch, and Kelson got weird.

Kelson is attempting to figure out why there is sand on his hands.

I figured another good picture was hopeless at this point, so I asked for some grumpy looks.

Two are grumpy, and two aren't. Can't even do this right.

That's pretty grumpy.

Surprise!

Surprise again! (And confusion, from Kelson)

I think there are two children bordering on anger for this picture.

It definitely is great to use a digital camera. You can take a bunch of pictures of the kids, and just throw away all the ones that stink (or post them to a blog for no good reason). The other benefit is that it is so easy to go through all the group pictures, find the best look from each child, and then cut and paste their heads together on one picture to make one brilliant picture. Which is what I've done here.

Florida Intermission - Flowers

I'm taking a short break from the Florida pictures to show some of the flowers that we got at our house this year and how the landscaping is looking. Here are some of the first flowers that bloomed - crocuses.

And then, a couple weeks later, this guy came up. He's a flower.

There were also these. I think they're called hibachis.

Our tulips came up later than others. I'm not sure if that is because this is their first year, or because they're simply better than all other tulips.

This is incredibly artistic. Trust me.

And, for fun, here's the house two years ago...

... and today.

Two years ago...

... and today. Should look even better in a few years when the bushes grow up a bit.

The Pier and the Beach

We spent some time at the big playground they have at Pier 60, which has some new additions this year for the kids to play on. There was this fun rope tower, which Koleman and Milena were scaling with no trouble.

Koleman attempting to escape the picture. Ha! He's too slow for me.

Koleman is king of the rock!

Eli is king of the rock!

I am king of the rope tower! And Milena can only dream of getting to where I am!

Kelson likes to hoard things, remember? Hopefully three buckets is enough.

The important use of the buckets was to get water for the sand. The kids would repeatedly go down to the water to fill up their buckets, and then dump the water into whatever they were building up on the beach.

Grandma looks for shells with Eli and Milena.

Here's an excellent picture of me and Grandpa. Grandpa is the one farther away from shore. I figure that the sharks will take him first, giving me time to swim to shore. I'm sure that's the way he would want it.

Florida - Pool and Aquarium

As usual, we spent a good deal of time at the pool. The pool was a bit smaller than we would have liked, but we almost always had it to ourselves, so it worked out alright. Kelson's favorite thing to do at the pool was hoard toys. And then whine when anybody tried to take one of his treasures. By the end of the trip he did get more brave, and was pulling himself around the edge of the pool.

Here is the top of Koleman's head. He's very happy that he can swim.

The thing to notice about this picture is the water in Eli's goggles. He always seemed to have his goggles half full of water.

And here's Eli just being cute.

And here's Kelson being a bit manic.

Milena was there too, of course. Just floating along.

Koleman doing his drowned rat impersonation.

One place that we go to every time we're in Florida is the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. It's a place that focuses on rescuing and rehabilitating marine animals. Here Kelson tries to get some tips on how to properly be crabby.

Stingray butt!

Milena tries to pet the stingrays.

And here are two dolphins, um, "caught in a net", if you know what I mean.

More Lowry Park Zoo

So, we are still at the Lowry Park Zoo. This is Sandy. She's a camel. She is going to bring all of us on a lovely camel ride.

There is Sandy with Eli, Kelson and Grandma.

Milena and I are on Sandy. Trust me. Grandpa is in the front. Trust me. You're not going to get many pictures of me in Florida, so enjoy this masterpiece.

Camel butt!

They had a little ride for the kids to go on. Look at how happy all of the kids are!

The ride is going! Milena thinks it's a blast!

Uh oh! Kelson isn't happy anymore.

Milena is still having fun, while Kelson has resigned himself to the torture.

I just like Milena's hair on this one.

Eli thought the ride was lots of fun.

Kelson attempts to make himself invisible. He did survive the ride, although he said he didn't want to do it again.

The last animal we saw on our trip to the zoo was a caterpillar that attached itself to Grandpa's leg. Maybe there's an endocrinologist who can identify it for us. It might be rare!