Road trip East - part 1

Since our kids are absolutely fabulous road-trippers, after our trip to California in May we planned another road trip for July.  We have 2 nephews in Florida, one in Pensacola in the Navy and one in Tampa in the Air Force.  Our nephew in Pensacola is just there for training, so we knew he would be leaving soon so we had to do this now in order for it to work.  The plan; drive to Pensacola to see Scott, then drive to Tampa to see Mark.

This was clearly the highlight of the trip for me,seeing my nephews. We hadn't seen Scott since her joined the Navy, and we hadn't seen Mark in 2 1/2 years, which meant he had never met Xander or Lyla!  But, our kids were much more excited about seeing WINTER THE DOLPHIN!  If you don't know about Winter, she is the dolphin in the movie Dolphin Tale who loses her tail and is fitted with a prosthetic tail.  Our kids have watched this movie many times, they love Winter and it was a wonderful addition to our trip since Tampa and Clearwater (where Winter lives) are next to each other.

We had a surprise stop on our way home, we go to stay with some friends in Auburn, Alabama, the Milfords.  We met the Mildfords in 2010 in China, they were adopting Kate and we were adopting Xander, who are both from the same province.  In 2011, in early July, the Milford girls were on a road trip and since grandparents live in Dallas we were able to have lunch with them one day.  So, this was the 3rd year in a row that we have been with the Milfords at this time of the summer, a tradition is born!!!

So, here are pictures of our first destination, Pensacola, FL to see Scott!

This is how she greeted her big cousin Scott, whom she had never met!  She loved him from the start!

Littlest cousins with the biggest (well, tallest) cousin

Not a very good picture, but the only one of all of us

Ice cream before fireworks!

Waiting to see fireworks!!!