Last night before bed Anna and I looked out the window at a beautiful Florida sunset in the color of pink. She got so excited she said, Look Mommy Jesus has made the sky pink because he knows it's my favorite color!" That night when she said her prayers she said, "...and thank you God for making the sky my favorite color."

As parents we sometimes overlook those God moments as coincedence. However, God just knows how to relate to us all, on all levels even a two year olds. It's amazing how many simple things like that God gives us each day that we take for granted. Sometimes it may do us all some good to slow down and look at the world like a two year old.

Just some reflections of visiting home. When Anna arrived she said, "oh, Nonna the mountains the mountains are sooo green and sooo tall!" She was definitely mesmerized by the mountains. We had a great time seeing family and friends.

We spent the first week visiting with Jason's family while we were there and she finally decided her great big uncle Joel wasn't so scary after all. She recruited him and Lawson into playing hide and seek with her. She told Lawson to hide while holding Joels hand she braved out to find her cousin Lawson. She spent some time with her Pap and Gammie. Then she braved even one day with just the "Woods Men" Daddy, Pap, Pa, Uncle Joel, and Lawson. She also learned her favorite knock knock joke that week. It went, "knock, knock, who's there? Banana Banana who? Banana Pink!" For some reason she found this great!! LOL

The next week we got to spend time with family from Portland, Oregon. Cousin Jerry, Cousin Suzy, and Great, Great Aunt Jessie, their chocolate lab "Reed" before making their trek across country. Anna loved Jerry and he taught her how to speak Ewok which she seemed to understand and speak perfectly as well. It was sooo funny. Anna also loved Reed who seem to let Anna do whatever she pleased to him. She was excited the next day because she'd came up with a Groucho Marx mask to show Cousin Jerry and Cousin Suzy she was really disappointed to find out they were gone.

The next few days were non-stop. We roasted many marshmallows almost everyday. LOL We played in the mountains and in the creeks. She got to play in the same creek that her Great-Nana got to swim in when she was little. Nana never thought she'd see 3 generations swim in that same spot I think they called it Bartley Park back in the day. She had fun with Great Uncle Neil wading through the water and swinging over the water. Uncle Neil's dog Bear liked to catch Anna turtles too. She enjoyed waiting for it to come out of it's shell and walking around. I think I'll have another nature lover in my family HOORAY!!!!!!!!! I am so excited to start hiking and camping with her.

Later when Uncle Bruce came for a visit we roasted marshmallows and set off fireworks in the night mountain sky. Aunt Rebecca taught Anna how to do hop-scotch and that was lots of fun in 90 degree weather. ha! It was a grand event!

The next week was spent traveling everywhere. We went to visit my brother, sister, and nephew in Ohio. and their new addition my neice, Mia. Mia was wonderfully beautiful and so good. Anna and Max had an absolute blast playing together. They both thought they'd died and gone to heaven when we took them to Kings Island and they got to ride all the rides. They had all their heros Scooby Doo, Backyardigans, Dora, Deigo etc.

Then we went to Parkeys Farm while we were there and Anna got to ride her first horse. She loved it of course. She also liked making her way through the big barn and seeing all there was to explore. She definitely shed her shell while around Max and did everything he did.

Being at Max's house she did discover she didn't have a yard and was very upset about it. She calmed down a bit when she realized had a pool but Max didn't. Boy oh, Boy the things they think about!!

Max told Anna to just stay with him because if she went back home all Uncle Jason would do would be get her nose and that's not nice. LOL Anna replied, "He's my daddy and I love my daddy!" They were so funny.

We visited old friends of mine and Anna got to play with their kids and we saw Aunt Kristen and Cousin Lawson and Pap and Gammie for one last hooray at Mr. Gatti's Pizza. They played and ate pizza two Anna and I'm sure Lawson's favorite things.

Then it was off again to Chattanooga, TN to visit another friend and her daughter who is 5. They had fun together playing in the mall playground while we gabbed about old friends. Anna once again didn't see why she couldn't do everything a 5 year old could. ha! She is very independent which is good.

We stopped for a short visit the next day with Great, Great Aunt Rea. We'd hope to have more time to talk with her but that wasn't the hand we were delt. However, with that faisco behind us we were off again toward home. Anna was very excited to see her papa and missed him so much she slept with his shirt everynight.

We finally made it home and now it's back to the everyday grind of ordinary. LOL
However, I'll keep you posted if anything interesting happens! Love you all,
Stephanie

Labels: vacation