Fun Times With the Grandparents

The week before graduation, we were able to have some pre-graduation fun with the parents. Gary and Vivian came first and they partied hard. We got them on Sunday for dinner and visiting, then Monday and Tuesday they played hard during the day and we met up with them for dinner. Wednesday, we spent the whole day with them in Clearwater. The beach was perfect! This was our first time in the Gulf this year and it was a really fun day. Ada loved going into the water and could have walked forever had we let her. The funny thing was, she had absolutely no interest in going in the water with me. Every time I asked her if she wanted to go with me she would say, "Grand-PA, Daddy!" I see where the love is! She really loves her Grandpa's and Daddy. Grandma and Grandpa Foley taking Ada out for a little walk/wade in the water.

Ada did great with no nap. She only had a couple of minor meltdowns, but overall handled her no-nap day quite well.

My parents joined us on Thursday and we took everyone to Tarpon Springs (Sponge Capitol of the World). We spent the first part of our day walking around/exploring the area. There were a lot of people advertising dolphin tours which sounded like fun, so we bought tickets. There was some time before we headed for the boats so we grabbed some lunch at a local Greek Restaurant (Did I mention that Tarpon Springs was founded by Greeks?). Anyway, while we were eating, one of the servers brought out a meal to another table, that she torched. Well, Ada is terrified of "Hot" things and she was tired. I have never seen her so scared. She screamed, covered her face, and cried. She started yelling, "Hot, hot!" She usually calms down pretty fast, but I couldn't get her to stop crying. It was actually really sad. The waitress felt so bad that she brought out some maraschino cherries for Ada to eat. Maraschino cherries? Yeah, first thing I thought of was...well that will be a sticky mess, but then I was appreciative for the effort the waitress made into making Ada happy again. Although it didn't really work. My dad was finished eating, so he put her in her stroller to take her for a walk to hopefully fall asleep. We get out of lunch and she is running around the courtyard like a mad woman. My dad didn't know we wanted her to sleep and bought some ice cream instead and shared it with her. Ha. She loved that!
After lunch, we headed to the boat to go on our tour. It really was fun. They took us out to a little island where we got to collect shells. Ada was in heaven. And we saw dolphins. So fun!

Dad and Ada hanging out on the boat

Scott and his parents

Collecting shells. Doesn't that water look delicious? I wanted to go swimming so bad and the temperature was perfect! In fact, one guy did strip down to his briefs and took a swim. I think that he was a foreigner

I was not overly excited to give Ada her very own ice cream. My goal was to just share with her, but when she saw everyone with their very own ice cream cone, she just had to have her own. In fact, there was a full blown tantrum when I tried to share with her. She won the fight. She got what she wanted and made a huge mess in return! In fact, when I gave her the ice cream, she cackled...like she knew that I was defeated! Little stinker

Mom, Dad, Gary and Vivian, we had a great time and were very spoiled! Thanks for sharing our last week of Florida with us and taking us on some fun adventures. We love you!
And my Florida friends that still read the blog...we miss you!!

And He Graduates!

Three years went by really fast! When we drove into Florida and I saw where we would be living, I actually got tears in my eyes. I thought for sure we had made a huge mistake. The apartment was still dirty, there were strip malls everywhere and the humidity was suffocating. I was already counting down the days when this little "adventure" would be coming to an end. However, little by little we began to slowly fall in love with MOST of Florida. We started to enjoy the perfect size of our apartment (Even if we didn't love the types of people that were attracted there), the winter weather was amazing, beaches were a mere 10 minute drive from our house, the campus was beautiful and so close for Scott, and there was awesome wildlife all around us. Before we knew it, our parents were in town, helping us pack, taking us out to dinner's, exploring the areas and attending Scott's graduation. It blows me away how fast everything went. I am so proud of Scott. He worked hard. He did really well and graduated (hopefully) in the top 25%. We are still waiting on that last dang professor to post grades. Anyway, it is still hard to believe that graduation has already come and gone and we are slowly getting settled in Orangevale. Anyway, here are some pictures from the big day. Poor, poor Ada. First off, she doesn't do well in the heat. She becomes all lethargic when it is too hot/humid outside and sweats like nobodies business. Luckily, there were extra hands to help keep her entertained during the 2 hr ceremony. She loved exploring and smelling the flowers.

Ada smelling the flowers

Scott accepting his diploma. I felt so bad for all of the graduates. Not only were most of them wearing nice clothes, but they all had the extra layers of the robes. Poor Scott was dying by the time everything was over, it was just really hot.

Oh yeah, you probably have not seen a picture of Scott for awhile. He became the bearded man for the last semester pretty much. I grew to really like the facial hair,but we said good bye the Sunday he got back. It was time for it to go. I forgot how much I love his clean shaven look. Ada was on the verge of meltdown during the photos and Scott was practically suffering from heat stroke, so we opted out taking too many

The whole gang

Our little family. You can see the far-away look in Ada'a eyes. Her bed was calling out to her

I am so grateful for Scott and how hard he worked these past 3 years. Looking back, there are a few things that I wish I would not have said or pushed for him to do or not to do, but I guess you can't really take things back. He showed me time and time again that I don't need to "nag," that he would take care of things. The man just does not get stressed out!! I think once, at the end of the semester, when finals were coming up, he was working and had a semi involved calling, he said that he was feeling a little unsettled, that he wasn't sure if he had felt that before. I told him it was stress! Anyway, thank you Scott for taking care of us and working hard. We had a great three years and are excited for or next adventures!