Daytona 2010

We spent the past two weeks roughing it here...

at this wonderful little (25 units) condo down in Daytona.

Some very important days in the life of our family occurred while we were there.

Elisabeth's birthday always falls while we're down there. I still can't believe my "baby" is 7 years old now! (Don't count the candles on her cake...she did them herself and had fun!)

Daniel's Adoption Day also falls while we're down there every year. Here he is opening up his gift for his 3rd anniversary.


While we were in China a few months ago, I went ahead (armed with a great Excel spreadsheet) and purchased gifts for all four of our children from their first home to give them on their Adoption Days every year until they turn 18.

Daniel loved his new necklace - score 1 for mama!




We spent alot of time here...

and here.

The condo has a great, big pool AND it is right on the beach.

Where to go first?

This was the very difficult decision that we had to make every day.

We have access to lots of pools back at home, so we did try to spend as much time as possible out on the beach.

The children love it.

I mean love it.

Well...3/4 of them do, anyway.







Lily Kay tried to love it.



She gave it her best try for the first few days.


And then she got tired of digging and hauling sand and water...

and she resorted to writing in the sand (on the bright side: we got lots of letter practice in)...

...and playing sand games that Laoli was kind enough to make up for her youngest granddaughter.






THIS is where Lily Kay thought the fun was.

Why dig in the sand, when you can do this...


And why haul buckets of sand and water around, when you can do this...

Needless to say, after two weeks of daily swim time, Miss Lily Kay is now a certifiable FISH!
She used her floaties for about the first 15 minutes our first day in the pool...and never used them again!

On that first day she was swimming all the way across that 15 foot pool. (And notice that she has her legs extended out behind her...no more bicycle pedaling under the water for this girl!). It wasn't long before she was diving to the bottom of the pool for diving rings and doing forward flips off the side! This girl is just a quick study at whatever she tackles!

The first 6 days we were at the beach, it was just us five and Laoli.

Then Daddy was able to come down too!

(I just love him in red!)

Daddy was with us, thankfully, for Father's Day!

AND, thankfully, he was with us when the newest 3-D children's movie came out. (Can you say: "To infinity...and beyond!")

And Papa was able to come for a couple of days also.

My children love their Papa...


I can't imagine why...he never even plays with them!



When we weren't in the pool or on the beach...you could usually find us here...at a local ice cream parlor that also offered....

a Wall-o-Candy, for those in our group who preferred candy to ice cream (yes, we have some of those).

We also had much fun playing games we brought along: Crazy 8s, Old Maid, War, Go Fish, Dwarves and Dice, and....BLINK!

Zibing even learned how to play Blink!


And after Daddy and Papa left, we had more guests.

My friend, Kris...

...and her three boys!




We took them to visit our Ice Cream Parlor/Wall-O-Candy...but I'm not sure if they liked it...



But I am sure that they liked the beach! (Notice that Zibing is not down there in the sand with the other 6 children...she was done pretending that she liked the beach by the time our guests arrived!)


The children had a great time playing together...and us three adult girlies had a good time visiting for those last three days!

A good time was had by all...and now Zibing keeps asking when we're going back to the beach!