We took our grandparents out for pumpkin hunting at a local pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day to be outside enjoying fall.

Happy pumpkin grins!

Hiding among the cornstalks

We didn’t get lost in the maze and we had a great time.

No summer trip to Florida can be complete without a stop in Orlando to play. We spent a little less time this year because of the kids being sick. The sickness gave us only one pool day with all the kids so they made the most of it. On one of the play days we went to Downtown Disney to explore a little. All the kids had a blast checking out the Lego store and riding the train along with the carousel. After lunch we went back to play at the house. They had the most fun just being silly with each other and playing! Good memories!

We wanted to see the Everglades during the summer when it is the rainy season, so we took the shuttle ride in Shark Valley. Because of the extra water in the Everglades the alligators were more spread out and were not easy to see, although we saw a young one by the road and one large one by the observation tower. The biggest difference from our previous visit was that it rained while we were on our tour. The large open spaces allowed us to see several rain clouds around us while we were riding which gave the day its own unusual beauty.

It was a bit breezy for the ride. Sitting with the grandparents made it lots of fun. Grandma shared her camera with the girls to take some photos. Who knows what photographic masterpieces she ended up with.

At the half way point of the tram ride there is an observation tower that we climbed to take a good look at the scenery. Emily decided to have a one-girl race to the top. She won.

The girls took a minute and stopped moving to check out the view.

This is the alligator who greeted us at the observation tower stop. He had found his lunch of a turtle. We watched him for a few minutes from a safe distance and then went to look at other views. After we got to the other side of the road the alligator threw the turtle into the air and grabbed it back as it fell. It is almost like he was showing off for the visitors. We were glad the girls missed the excitement.

While visiting Miami each year we try to make a trip out to the beach to take photos along with enjoying the sun and sand. The weather during this year’s trip was not helpful for this activity. It was cool, windy, and more rainy than usual, so instead, we took some photos of the kids in the backyard while they were having playtime.

Ty was visiting his grandma for the afternoon and Lizzy came over for cousin time. There was lots of flower picking, ball kicking, running, and laughing. There is enough room on the swing set for everyone to have a great time.

The next stop on our trip was to visit with our Grandparents in Miami. it has fun people to play, places to visit, and a pool to swim in. The weather was unusual for our visit. There was a lot of cool weather and rain. It changed our activities during our visit, but we still had a lot of fun. It was pretty special to have cuddle time with little baby Daniel.

Uncle Robby with the newest nephew, Daniel!

Emily got a chance to hold the little guy too.

Lizzy is always fun to play with too. Here she is with her favorite toy, Baa.

Julia loved playing with the basketball and goal, Julia made up a crazy card game, lots of opportunities to swim, great play times with Lizzy, and being with Grandma and Grandpa was just icing on the top.

What a sweet little boy!

And he woke up so we could see his eyes.

All Aboard!

We rode Amtrak’s Auto Train between Virginia and Florida to skip a bit of the driving on the trip and to have a cool experience. We boarded in the afternoon on one day and got off the next morning enjoying two meals and one night on the train.

The girls waiting outside of our car to board.

We had two rooms reserved for the trip and they were across the aisle from each other. We discovered, as a great side benefit of this occurrence, that the girls could play in one room with the door closed and the parents could relax in the other room in quiet. It didn’t seem that we got to spend much time in the room just hanging out because of the early dinner reservation and early bedtime for the girls.

Mama and Julia were room buddies. She enjoyed setting up all of her toys just the way she wanted it. We were given small water bottles which she thought was just her size.

Daddy and Emily were room buddies. Robby decided to let Emily have her wish to sleep on the top bunk. This way he got to enjoy watching out the window as the world sped by.

We caught Emily just watching the world go by from the dining car. It doesn’t look like she ate much food, but she had eaten her salad and bread first and was waiting for dessert. Julia was so tired from skipping her nap that she fell asleep eating dinner and got her dessert later in our train car.

Julia slept on the bottom bunk and felt like a queen doing it. Only once did she check on Mama. She slept the whole night like it was nothing. This proved to be a great experience and was a nice way to cover the miles. The girls want to know why there are no other auto-trains that go places that we can visit. Mama and Daddy would be ok with that too!