Turkey Day!!
I don't really go all out of Thanksgiving but prep still started the day before. I had promised G that she could help me pour, measure and stir. She was insistant that she wanted to "cook". She did a good job helping me make the cranberry sauce. She poured and measured and stirred to her little heart's content. She was so proud of herself for making "cwanburry". Sweet girl.

Bobby and G feign AMAZEMENT at the boiling sauce :-)

Our little crew enjoying the feast!

Talin brought chocolate raspberry cheesecake... yum!

We were able to steal Casey away from school and friends for a few days. An unusual treat.

Preschool Feast
Because we were gone, G missed all of the Thanksgiving feast preparations at her school. But her teacher is so sweet, she told us if we came in a bit early, she'd have everything put together for G to do some of the more fun crafts and activities. It was quick but fun.

After that there was a whole school feast including parents and any siblings and grandparents who wanted to come along. As is everything at her school, it was organized and very nicely put together. G was thrilled!

I thought this "Thankful Tree" was really cute!
Ahhh, G's thanks was so sweet
My cute little indian (uhh, native american) girl

I think G was the only kid in her class who ate her food... all of it! G loves to eat :-)

Purple suede boots
Nothing says fun like purple boots!

Mom's Birthday Tea!!
My mom's birthday was the day after we came home. In order to make sure that I didn't miss planning something, several months before we left I'd made a reservation for us to try a new-to-us tea house called "Two a Tea". Originally it was just going to be me and my mom which is always nice because we can talk uninterrupted. Unfortunately when we got home we learned that the owner of Bobby's company had passed away and the memorial was to be the same day as mom's bday celebration.

This was a pickle as this particular teahouse doesn't allow any children under 5. But I thought G was capable of doing it and would enjoy a little tea party. Plus everyone always thinks she's older anyway. So, I sat her down and explained to her what would be involved and what would be expected of her. Then I asked her what she thought and if she wanted to go. Well, not too surprisingly my little girlie girl thought a tea party sounded fantastico and she assured me that she would behave like a big girl.

Sure enough she was just as good as can be. She gave the tea a try but decided that she liked the "princess tea" aka lemonade much better. She particularly enjoyed the scones with cream and lemon curd. Mom and I got to chat a bit too. All in all it was a very nice afternoon!

G and her Grandma in front of the tea place. G was able to wear one of her dresses from the cruise and brought her dolly along --with matching dress --for fun.
I like that in this picture they're both laughing about something or other. Its so hard to get a picture of my mom smiling and looking happy. She hates having her picture taken. ((Hi mom)) Happy Birthday MOM!!! May you have many, many more!!!

South Beach and home
Double waaaahhhh!! How could this happen? The last day??? Shoot! Bobby and I were totally bummed. G on the other hand woke up, looked over at me and said “mamabird, is today our going home day?” When she confirmed it was she said “yeaaahhhhh!!!!” I guess one of us was ready to go home.

Our hotel was only about 20 mins from the airport and our flight didn’t leave until almost 3pm so we thought we’d still try to have some fun! We got up, packed, went and ate our last included breakfast (super tasty btw) and off we went to South Beach. We’d been by there twice before but had never gotten out. I really didn’t think we could leave Miami without making a stop in South Beach. As it turned out we only had enough time to visit a few tshirt shops and pick up some last minute souvenirs but it was still fun. G loves, I mean LOVES, tshirt shops. She’s so my kid :-)

Two boring plane rides later we landed in Ontario and Brett picked us up. We were home!

G posing on the balcony. See? No seaweed on the beach because they just cleaned it up.
OK, there are things they have in Florida that I've never seen in California or anywhere else for that matter. For instance, you can buy a REAL gator head in just about any gift shop or CVS store. Its a real gator head.... yuck. And, they're not cheap $39.95 for a small one and up to like $200 for a larger one. What does one do with this once they get it home?

If you're not willing to shell out the big bucks for a gator head, you can get a dead shark in a jar for like $16.99.... gross! And its nice because the person who receives this wonderful trinket from you will be perfectly clear on the fact that this is a "SHARK".

I guess this sign on South Beach is supposed to make others back home feel jealous that you were nice and warm while they were freezing. But, I checked the weather at home and it was just about the same. Take that, South Beach!!!

And that concludes our latest adventure. What a fantastic, wonderful, stupendous, terrific trip it was! Alright, time to begin the countdown to our next vacation: 75 days = 1800 hours = 108,000 minutes = 6,480,000 seconds. Not that I'm paying close attention or anything :-)

Miami Day 3
Our last full day in Miami… what to do?? I know!! More butterflies!! Butterfly World in Florida is in Coconut Creek about 30 mins north of where we were staying. Back on the toll road for us. South Florida is filled with toll roads. I’ve never been anyplace with more. Anyways, we’d just been to the butterfly place in St Marten so I wasn’t sure it would be too exciting. But, G likes butterflies so much we figured, eh, we’d give it a try.

Let’s just say, it was AWESOME!! There were tons of butterflies and not just typical, but beautiful, monarchs. There were many, many varieties. They were so beautifully colored and very special. It would seem like a person would get bored looking at and attempting to entice butterflies but we managed to spend a little over 2 hrs there. It’s very peaceful with soft music playing in the background. There’s also plenty of shade and places to sit. I half expected to see fairies flying around. The only negative thing I have to say is that it was a bit pricey. Fortunately G got in for free and we had a coupon so that helped.

That evening we went back to Giraffas for dinner. It was SO good the night before and I needed another $15 filet mignon fix. Yum!! We thought about doing something else but we had booked massages at the hotel for that evening so we wanted to get back. As an aside, we’re not generally massage people. But, the Groupon I’d purchased included two 50 min massages so we figured what the heck!

We got back to the hotel and decided we’d let G swim in the kids pool while Bobby got his massage then we’d switch off and I’d get mine. G had been eyeing that pool since we arrived so she was super excited. Bobby took off and then returned awhile later explaining that there had been a mix up with the scheduling and the girl had accidentally booked us for the following day. Of course, that wasn’t going to work for us because we were leaving in the morning. They said they could squeeze us in for a one hour facial and a 30 min massage. Bobby didn’t really care about a facial and he knew my neck had been killing me so he suggested that I do both. I was reluctant –for about 5 whole secs –then off I went. Lucky me!! By the time I got back to the room, Bobby had already given G a bath!

I think this picture might be one of my favorites ever. It just cracks me up. She's been doing this thumb's up thing for awhile. When we told her we were going to butterfly world she immediately decided she needed to wear her butterfly glasses. How could anyone not cherish this beautiful girl??
The required family photo

The butterflies were so beautiful and, again, incredibly difficult to photograph. I was able to get a few.

G spent a lot of time trying to coax the little bugs onto her finger or whatever. She was occasionally successful.

More beautiful bugs

The lorikeets were a big hit

Georgie loved this swing bridge

They had a bird aviary

The whole place was so pretty. It was a great place for photos

Finally Bobby and came across this fresh butterfly. Being brand new to butterfly-ness he was slow moving. Bobby was able to get him on his finger.

When he made a flight attempt he landed on Bobby's shoulder and then made his way up to his hat

Bobby sporting his temporary passenger

I think its one of the prettiest butterflies I've ever seen

He (she??) was our little buddy for about 1/2 hr

G found a stick and started having more sucess getting the butterflies to stick with her

All of a sudden it jumped up onto her flower top. She wasn't too thrilled as can be seen

She put on a brave face just for the camera

Later that day, G checked out the kids pool. She really liked that it was only like 2 ft deep!
Another great, great day!

Tomorrow: Homeward bound.