In August the kids and I flew down to Miami, leaving Nate and Snoopy in Maryland. When we first arrived Mormor was still in Norway, so we were just with Mimi initially and then after a few days, Mormor flew home too. I did something to my back the day before I flew down (when I bent to pick up an empty watering can), and I was pretty out of it for a long time during our visit in Miami with back problems.
Karina lost her bottom left canine tooth the night before Mormor arrived. I told Karina she didn't time it well because she just missed on the Miami tooth fairy who is very generous. On previous visits, Lydia had lucked out multiple times with Mormor as an additional tooth fairy:-)
Derek and Mimi are good soccer buddies.
Our biggest excitement in Miami was a seemingly stray adolescent cat that wanted us to adopt him. He was bigger than a baby kitten and smaller than an adult. The cat kept trying to sneak into the house and accosted the kids all the time wanting to be petted and wanting food. The kids named the cat Mounty because he was like a mountain lion climbing on rocks and trees. We thought Mounty was a stray cat because he clearly wanted to be let in, was overly skinny, and had fleas. The kids got some flea bites after spending time with him, so I made the kids jump in the pool after touching Mounty before being allowed back into the house. Mounty would stare at us while we were in the pool and was always in our yard, begging for attention.
Towards the end of our visit, after my parents gave their next door neighbors some coconuts from their tree, the neighbor saw Mounty and said it was his cat, named Shadow. Shadow apparently was 6 months old and refused to come inside as it supposedly wanted to be an outdoor cat. This solved the mystery of Mounty, and the kids who had been begging to adopt Mounty (since he didn't seem to have a family and looked skinny and hungry), now at least could rest at ease. Mounty was not interested in the neighbors at all though - he wanted to to join our family.
A few pool pictures:
Derek and Mormor racing:
Ever since our last visit in February, Lydia has been talking about visiting the Miami Zoo and feeding giraffes. We got there at opening one day to fulfill her wish.
The giraffe feeding didn't start right away, so we meandered around on the way to the giraffes. By some apes:
Squirrels are a highlight, even at a zoo:
For $12 we got a bowl with 13 pieces of iceberg lettuce. The kids had a blast.
After we visited some more animals, the playground and splash pads in the zoo were the main attraction for us.
Derek guarded this water gun. When other kids came by hoping for a turn, they were sorely disappointed because he didn't budge. Perhaps I should be embarrassed, but I thought his obsession with the water gun was funny, and there were multiple water guns besides the one he was using. Derek thought he was a real pirate, squirting the bad pirates.
I liked how the pictures of Karina in the water turned out.
Two baby cheetahs. The theme is fitting since the mascot of our elementary school is a cheetah.
More pictures to follow.
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