Tristan and Aly playing on the same swingset I played on as a little girl with my Grandpa. It's really, really OLD:)
Grandma Park talking with Annie
My Uncle Charles is always great at entertaining the kids. This year he brought up a rocket that they shot off numerous times. My boys love Uncle Charles so much...he is always taking them on adventures and carving walking sticks while hiking with them.
Getting the rocket ready to launch!
We flew into Orlando and went to the Orlando Temple on our first day. The temple and grounds are absolutely beautiful there.
We had lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. The food was great, but the atmosphere was so much fun. We watched the indoor volcano erupt and loved watching the trained parrot.
We spent two days at Universal Studios Orlando. Of course, the entire time we were thinking, "Man, the boys would love this..." but, we had a great time. Here we are with Shrek. Notice the ponchos...it rained EVERY day! Not just normal rain, but flooding rain. So, we spent a lot of time in our ponchos with soaking shoes.
The Jaws ride was pretty entertaining. Here is Rob up close and personal with the "big guy" himself.
This was probably the funnest ride of the entire park. It's a huge roller coaster that ends with an amazingly long drop right into the water. I loved it! Too bad the line was about an hour long to ride it or we would have done it a few more times. We also spent an evening at Downtown Disney where we ate dinner at Gloria Estefan's Latin restaurant "Bongos" (sooo yummy!) and also toured the travelling Princess Diana display. It was awesome to see so many of her treasures and beautiful gowns. I learned so much about her and her life. This was probably one of the highlights of the trip for me. If you ever get a chance to see it, DO!
This is my amazing sis-in-law Cathy! After spending five days in Orlando we drove down to Ft. Lauderdale to visit family. We spent a day in the Florida Keys snorkeling with Cathy. What a blast! I have some really awesome pictures of the snorkeling that I will post later! I am so lucky to have awesome sisters-in-law! Cathy always makes me laugh and she is one of the most kind, giving people I know. Thanks for the great times Cath!
After snorkeling we had lunch at an amazing seaside restaurant. The food was delish and the view was awesome!
Here are my sisters-in-law Bonnie and Cathy. We stayed at their house while in Coral Springs. They have a beautiful home and a pool! The beautiful woman in the center is Rob's mom Micky. It was great to visit with family.
Here is my bro-in-law Stephen, my father-in-law Len and Rob.
We spent our last day in Ft. Lauderdale at the beach with my sister Katie and her two boys Boston and Charlie. Boston and Rob had a blast swimming in the ocean.
Katie, Boston and Charlie at the beach.
Rob with his wonderful parents!
Anxiously awaiting the parade
Baby Kole (Steve & Erin's)
Connor and Rob had a blast at the mini-golf range. Rob will never admit it, but I think Connor pretty much whooped on him:)
Look at those skills!
Racing go-carts has become an annual ritual at the reunion. The poor Riot Zone employees just cringe when they see the whole bunch of us coming. If any of you know my brothers, all rules are obsolete when it comes to seeing who will win. Here is Jill getting in on the fun.
Stephen learned to drive in Canada, so he just likes to think he's pretty cool while losing the majority of the time.
I think Mark is blaming his loss on the heavy duty Mountain Dew he drank prior to the race, obviously impairing his racing ability.
Each family had matching shirts. My mom set up an "Amazing Race" game. We went for a hike at Cress Creek and had to find random nature items and photograph them. We would score extra points if one of our "team" was in the picture. Here are Rob and the boys pointing out a wildflower. Every shot of Connor that day has him rubbing his stomach. He was lucky enough to get the stomach flu which rapidly passed from cousin to cousin, making the weekend "really" enjoyable. But, despite the vomitting and stomach aches, we still had a blast.
Here we are sitting on a bridge at the beginning of the hike. I am so blessed to have such an awesome husband and wonderful boys.
Here are all the Smith cousins. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get them all to smile and look at the camera so, this is as good as it gets.
Connor is a natural baseball player. He absolutely loves to play and really is good. He's already being recruited to play on a travel team next summer and he's only 8 years old. I'm sure there will be plenty more baseball games to cheer through for him:)
While most kids his age were happy to just hit the ball, Connor was hitting homeruns clear out in the field. He always slides into home too, whether he needs to or not. What a character!
He is just so darn cute!
Tristan
Tyler
Kaden
