Kate's 1st theme park!

I've always looked forward to the day we could take our sweet girl to one of the parks in Orlando! She isn't ready for Disney yet, but we decided to take her to Sea World because she loves animals and fish so much and it's a little more laid back. Good decision, because we ALL had fun! My mom, Brett's mom, his sister Kacey, my brothers Scotty & Jeremy, and their gfs Holly and Haley all joined me, Brett & Kate for a great day!

Watching the dolphins. See those precious curls she has in the back? Ya, she'll never get a haircut ;)

She was, at first, a little unsure of Elmo LIVE! She loves him, but right there on the stage, he was big and loud, but by the end she was clapping and bopping her head!

Kate wouldn't fall asleep being carried around the park or in her stroller,  but she finally fell asleep 4 hours after nap time on my lap with her hand in her snack cup during the loud polar bear movie. Go figure!

It also took 4 attempts over 30 minutes before she would finally lay down in her stroller. Sleep has never been her strong point.

The "kids." Kate and Haley have quite the connection...look at that stare down!

We actually spent 2 days at the park, which allowed plenty of time for Kate to go at her pace. Good thing, because she really just wanted to walk everywhere by herself! We just bring the stroller to hold everything else ;)

No fear! Reaching right in to touch the stingrays

Loves her Nannie so much!

She spotted this "aygator" hat as we walked by. Didn't want it on herself but insisted I wear it! Anything for this sweet girl :)

"Cott Cott," "Gigi," Haley, & Holly

Brett's family

Love this picture of her watching the whales!

 

Ran into our friends, Greg and Tracy, and their sweet kids!

Long day with a short nap, then out to dinner after the park and Kate was SO good! Got a little antsy towards the end, but was perfectly content once she discovered ketchup dipping! 

The next morning, my sweet friend Patti woke up early on a Sunday to drive across Orlando to meet us for breakfast (which she doesn't even eat) at our hotel! Quick visit, but I'm so glad we got to see her. Love you so much 

Back at Sea World Sunday morning. Kate was AMAZED at the dolphin viewing tank. She is her mother's daughter :)

So the seals. I've always LOVED the seal exhibit and always try to only feed the precious little harbor seals because barking sea lions are obnoxious, but Kate got a kick out of the sea lions...at first. I was holding her and she was intently watching the cute harbor seal in the background that we were trying to feed, and then the sea lion RIGHT in front of us barked SO loud that it started her and she screamed :( alligator tears and all. Broke my heart, but once we left there and she calmed down, she kept making their barking noise and opening her mouth (like the one in the picture) imitating them. 

I love these themed parks, and a few years back Brett said we really didn't need to go anymore until we had children...so here we go!

Our little angel, 18 months. 

It was such a perfect weekend and just right for Kate. We'll be back several times for sure!

Proof

Hi! Remember me? Here is proof that our holidays were wonderful and I'll be back to the blog!

I have so much to catch up on and hundreds of pictures to go through, so I just chose one of the marshmallow from our big family ski trip to Beaver Creek, CO. I'll be back soon to post lots more, but I've missed my blog so I had to check in!

For now, I'll say that Kate is the sweetest, brightest, most incredible little girl. She did so well on the plane, Santa was very good to her, she still loves blueberries, and her current favorite word is "man" (while pointing to someone...male or female) which makes public outings interesting!

Thankful

I realize I haven't been posting here as often, and I'd really like to blog more mostly because I love going back and reading, but life is BUSY! Holidays are here, which means at night after Kate goes to bed and I finish picking up a bit and getting stuff ready for work the next day (and Brett helps so much!), I mentally juggle whether I should decorate the tree that we got today, go through 2,000 recent pictures, work on a Christmas card, order gifts, blog, put away piles of clean clothes, or....SLEEP! 

And speaking of sleep....at 15.5 months old, my sweet Kate FINALLY slept through the night consistently! I don't want to jinx myself, but it's been 10 days straight so I think we're in a pattern. Praise the Lord. Actually, that probably deserved a post all to itself. Moving on :)

During the day we're working, and awake time and weekends we are constantly playing with and chasing Kate. I wouldn't have it any other way. She is the most amazing baby girl and I absolutely love watching her little mind go. These days, she gives hugs and kisses, loves books, tells the dogs "no no," tells us/points to exactly whats she wants to eat, talks (babbles) in paragraphs with so much emotion, has about 20 words, is OBSESSED with Elmo (I know), and wants to be outside pretty much all the hours of daylight.

Out the back door with Daddy, straight to the orange trees every time.

Nothing makes her happier than picking a tangerine, sharing it with us (so we can pick out the seeds), and getting covered in sticky juice and then dirt! She probably changes clothes 5 times a day on the weekends.

You see those little curls at the back? Oh my precious.

You see her wet shirt? Because she insisted on running through the hose and cracking up when Daddy was watering plants. 

It's Thanksgiving weekend, so "Cott Cott" and "Eremy" (as Kate says) were both home. She is super excited to have some more playmates!

She stays busy with books, and can even point out certain pictures (dog, shoe, baby, banana, bird, etc).

She'll pick out a book, hand it to us, and crawl into our lap. And my heart melts into a puddle.

She makes animal sounds for tiger, cow, bird, duck, monkey, elephant, fish and is really getting the hang of the Gator chomp!

Probably because she got lots of practice as the GATORS BEAT FSU today!!

Go USC?!

So that was a completely random post, but I started going through lots of pictures and decided to do a little catch up on here. There is SO much more that we've done and I know I can't get caught up on all of it, so I'll just try to post fun little things when I can!

 I'm going to sleep now...an hour late. See? I try to do a little post and then I keep adding pictures...

Maybe that Christmas tree will decorate itself.

I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. We are so grateful for our family, friends, health, careers, home, pets, football :) and MOST of all, our Kate Elizabeth. She turned 16 months on Thanksgiving....that day we celebrated the most incredible 16 months of our lives. 

How did we get so lucky?

The rest of our trip

Like I promised, here is a photo recap of the rest of our great little trip.

From Jacksonville, we headed to Hilton Head, SC to see Jay and Laura and their great new home! We were only there one night, but that was long enough for Kate to fall in love with Laura (and their sweet dog, Murphy).

When we got there, the boys went to hit some golf balls and Laura and I took Kate to the pool and playground at their little neighborhood common area. She had lots of fun, and maybe if she wasn't sleep deprived, she would have sat in her stroller (or even stayed on my hip) on the long walk back home. But why do that when there was alligator infested marsh to explore??

Sunrise view off their back porch the next morning. So pretty and different from southeast Florida!

Laura and Jay went to work, and we left shortly after when Kate was ready to nap and drove to Savannah to go to Ian and Lauren's.

She was SO happy to wake up and walk in a house with a playmate, a dog, and toys galore! And I was pretty excited for a baby proof home where miss Kate could run free ;)

Every time Aubrey (17 months) sat here, Kate (15 months) really wanted to sit and cuddle with her :)

Then we went to their park where Aubrey taught Kate how to slide all by herself!

Silly Kate - she has SO much personality!

Aunt Lynne came by to visit too

Kate pretty much RUNS everywhere she goes now. She is not cautious and falls often :( That's just her. Then, at the park she was the youngest and had lots of other big kids to keep up with, so of course, she ran and tripped on that stupid mulch and kept falling. At one point, we looked over and her eye was puffy with a scrape from the mulch and she hadn't even cried! So we tried to take it easy after that...

Kate has this chair at home and by the end of the trip, taught Aubrey how you're really supposed to sit on it ;) Sorry Lauren!

They played so well together and even started sharing their snacks and kisses!

Woke up to chilly weather, but they still want to play at the water table :)

Sweet Aubrey

The next day we went downtown and had to take some pictures at our fountain (where we got engaged) at Forsyth park. I promise that rainbow on the left is really in the picture! Didn't even notice until we put them on the computer

And she's off!

More time on slides!

The 6 of us - we can't wait for many, many more memories together! I just know these baby girls will grow up close.

Down by the river

Such good daddies

And then we got to see Laura one more time! She works in downtown Savannah, so after we STUFFED ourselves at the Lady and Son's buffet (Paula Deen's restaurant. Enough said), we met up with her while the little ones danced in front of a dinner crowd to live music. I promise, that happened...and it was as cute as you are imagining :)

Of course those are just a few pictures, but if you're still reading this then that's probably enough for now! I'll try to post again soon because so many fun things are happening!