Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Visit with The Reiss Family

As I mentioned a few days ago, we had two sets of visitors during the month of March.  Amanda is one of my dearest friends.  We were classmates in graduate school and roommates for 1.5 years immediately following graduation.  I was so excited when she and her family made plans to visit us in Tampa.  We hadn't seen one another since our visit to Kentucky during October 2010.  

She and her daughter arrived on Wednesday.  B and I picked them up at the airport and we spent the remainder of the day catching up.  The kids took long naps (rare for B, normal for Emily), so we had a few hours of uninterrupted girl time which was a huge blessing.  It was B's 2nd birthday, so that evening we had dinner, cupcakes, and B opened his gifts (I will share photos from his birthday celebration soon).  

Thursday we took the kids to the Aquarium.  Emily had never been, so it was a treat to see her reaction to the various animals.  Both of the kids enjoyed the outdoor play area.


You will see that I struggled to get Emily to look at the camera with her cute smile throughout her visit with us :)

When we go to the aquarium, I usually plan to take snapshots only.  However, I have been trying to get this shot of B for a few months.  They are not perfect, but I still love the light and his obvious enjoyment of the light, the rays, and the tank, in general.  I am sure you will be seeing these two again.






Friday Jeremy arrived, so I watched the kids while Amanda went to pick him up at the airport.  We took a drive down Bayshore Boulevard before heading to Ballest Point park.  Unfortunately, it is still under construction, but we were able to enjoy a walk on the pier and lunch outside.





Friday evening, we watched Emily while Amanda and Jeremy went to a spring training game.  We took the kids to Chick-fil-A for dinner, then it was bath time.  We add some bubbles and and Sesame Street Fizzy Tub Color Tablets to add to the fun.  By the way, I totally recommend these if your toddler is struggling with bath time.  B loves them and Emily did to.


Saturday we headed to Treasure Island to spend time at the beach.  It was a fun time, but unfortunately it was overcast and it began raining around lunch time.  Emily really enjoyed the sand and B LOVED playing in the ocean with his daddy.



B had begun saying, "Ocean scary," so it was good to see him back to his old self.  After a few minutes of easing him into the ocean, he was back to letting the waves crash over him while he laid on his stomach and back.






Saturday evening was RIVALRY time in our home as the first Final Four game was between Kentucky and Louisville.  You don't grow up in Kentucky without LOVING basketball and we had three Kentuckians in our home.  Our house is 100% BLUE.  The Reiss house is divided, as Jer is a huge Louisville fan and Amanda is a Kentucky fan and graduate (she has learned to love RED over the last several years).  Everyone was sporting their BLUE shirts except Jeremy and Emily (during the first half, then she switched to BLUE, as well).  Fortunately, for us crazy CATS fans we WON and eventually went on to win the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP on Monday night.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Emily may have been scared of the crazy kid beside of her yelling, "C-A-GO CATS" or the red shirt she has on, but I think it was due to the fear of sitting on a stool with no hand or foot support.

I love her facial expressions!!  It may look like they were sitting so sweetly watching Thomas the Train, but I can assure it looks are deceiving.  Emily was sitting sweetly, while B kept touching the screen and getting in trouble.  He didn't really want to watch it, but he didn't want to play either.




Sunday we strolled around Hyde Park, where we enjoyed lunch and let the kids play at the park.  It was a warm day, but a nice time to show the Reiss's another one of our favorite locations.  In the evening, we had a picnic at Davis Island.  I will share photos from our picnic when I have the chance to upload them.

They left early Monday morning.  

It was such a blessing to have them in our home.  Amanda has been a dear friend to me for many years, but with children we all know how hard it can be to have a long, adult conversation.  While we still spent the majority of our time tending to the kids, we did have several moments where we were able to just sit and talk.  Plus, we are both pregnant with our second.  I'll never forget her calling to tell me Emily had been born.  She was in the lying in the hospital bed.  Sam and I were about to watch a show in celebration of my birthday.  It was during that conversation that we celebrated Emily's arrival and I was able to tell her I was expecting....Several months later Emily and Bennett met for the first time during our visit to Kentucky.

Thanks for coming to spend time with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We love you!!!!

5 comments:

Sandy said...

Thanks for the fun account and photos of the visit. I love having faces to put to the names I've been hearing about.

WOWWW is all I can say about the shot of Bennett and the rays...amazing!

The beach shots are great also... love them all... Emily's "Hollywood" moments with sunglasses and ponytail and the "Daddy" shots...wonderful....the pictures speak volumes and get me thinking about how God fathers us. Thank you, thank you, Amber.

Tiffany said...

What fun! I have to ask... where did you get the toy net for your tub?! I've been looking for one, but the ones I have found are really small.

Amanda said...

Love the happy photo of all of us with our UK/UL gear AND the bath photo (strategic placement of water bucket!) AND the shark photo AND the photos of Sam and Bennett at the beach. Love it. Wish we lived closer.

Amanda said...

Oops, meant to say I loved the stingray photo at the aquarium--obviously they aren't sharks. haha!

Anonymous said...

These are sooo great. Looks like a wonderful time! Love the ones of B sitting by the aquarium. Sooo cool.