The Old and the Restless

When we arrived to babysit Thomas, he was happy to see us and wanted to demonstrate all his toys. Unfortunately when he saw Megan and Michael leave, he wanted to follow. Poor little boy! Remembering that Alicia was fascinated with the videos of herself crying, I decided to see what Thomas would do. It worked. He wanted to see it over and over.

While I was volunteering at the bike show, Paul volunteered to look after Joshua and Ella so that Mark and Margot could prepare dinner for guests that night. Luckily Megan volunteered to bring Thomas to play and help Paul as well. Here, after supper, Joshua and Ella are saying "Goodbye". My camera had gone to "colour-swap" producing some interesting results that I had to learn how to change. Still trying out the camera. Ella's shirt does not really have that dirty grey mark on the sleeve. When any filming is going on, Ella likes to make sure that she is involved.  I fiigured out the camera the next day. Joshua and Ella, as usual, enjoyed playing with the toys that they don't have at their house, particularly the old Fisher Price house and the Sesame Street playhouse.

Daren (our nephew) and Kyla brought over their triplets to have a pool party at our condo. Jack and Callum get sunscreen applied before going out to the pool.  Jack and Callum are identical. William (in black) is a non-identical triplet.  Jack and Callum headed right into the pool with Kyla while William hung back. Kyla and Paul took turns throwing Jack and Callum into the air between them. While the Presidents' Day wedding on the beach was not in our family, it was a noteworthy "family occasion". Megan and Thomas ended their visit to New Smyrna Beach with a sunset dinner at the Riverview Grille. And here is the picture of the sunset from our table.  The morning of their flight home, Thomas enjoyed another day walking in the surf. At the beginning of the week, he was skittish about getting in the waves. By the end, he liked the waves to splash over his thighs. Time to go back to the condo to get dressed for the flight home. Thomas is still happy!

The morning of February 24 started auspiciously. Clear skies and a brilliant sun with just a touch of sea fog as the sun rose just before 7 am. Four hours before the launch, the southbound traffic was extremely heavy in front of our condo as a steady stream of people sought good vantage points from which to watch the take-off. By an hour before the launch, people were beginning to get their spots on the beach in front of our condo. By ten minutes before the launch, the beach was getting crowded. When the shuttle cleared the hold on the launch with seconds to go, people streamed onto our condo deck to watch the take-off. There were so many spectators (est. 300,000 vs. a previous high of 150,000) that the interstate became a virtual parking lot for those who arrived at Titusville just before the launch. Sandra set her camera on automatic shoot and tried to keep the camera focused on the fast moving Discovery. Note how the crowd on our deck grew in the last 5 minutes before lift-off! Wi...

On Saturday morning, we decided to go birdwatching and playground hunting at Riverbreeze Park.  Unfortunately, since it was the start of the three day Presidents' Day long weekend, the local Boy Scouts' troop decided to invade the park first. About 20 boy scouts all in red T-shIrts indicating their troop name (from Edgewater) took over the pier! [Is there a Boy Scout badge for fishing?] So, we beat a hasty retreat to the playground in the park which contained a huge "jungle gym" featuring brightly coloured gears for little kids to turn. Since Thomas had already opened every cupboard door, pushed the buttons on every computer and remote control and played "drums" with every pot and stirring instrument in the condo, it was natural to let him try the gears. It occupied him for 10 minutes. Then, it was time to try the slides. Since they were all too big, he rode down them on Megan's stomach. That was fun! Then, we walked back to the car to get the stroller...

Beach Walk