Easter Weekend - April 24

Mom, Dad, Grammie Cole, and Ed joined us for Easter weekend festivities! The kids were wired Saturday night and up early Sunday morning to check out what the Easter bunny (and Nana) brought. Anna got lots of Dora and Minnie stuff, while Matthew hit the Spiderman jackpot! Here's goofy Anna sporting her new hat and Dora sunglasses.

And now sporting her new coat from Nana and Grampy and new hat from Great Grammie Cole and Ed.

The Easter bunny left eggs all over the Lane, so the Lane kids all gathered for the big egg hunt! They all had a great time :-)

This is my new favorite picture of the kids - post Easter egg hunt :-)

Princess Tea - March 25

In March, Anna and I attended our first Princess Tea at Stoneridge. She was excited for weeks and got a new purple dress for the occassion.

The room was amazing! The teenage girls at the church faciliated everything. There were snacks, crafts, songs, a movie, nail painting, real princesses and tiara's. I think they thought of everything!

All smiles after snack and craft time!

Anna and Rebecca enjoyed meeting all the princesses!

The girls got to go up to the stage with a big princess to receive their tiaras.

My special princess!

Universal - Harry Potter World!

This March, Chad and I went down south for the first time since 2002 for a short, and action packed vacation. First stop - Universal Studios to see Harry Potter World. It was pretty cool - the attention to detail was very impressive!

Chad's first butter beer - the lines just to get butter beer were crazy!

The Hogwart's Express

Outside the dress shop

Picture of Hogsmeade...they did an amazing job!

After getting soaked on Jurassic Park, we wandered back to Hogsmead at the end of the day for another butter beer....mmmm...

The Everglades - March 19

As this was a bit of a road show, we drove from Orlando all the way down the Gulf Coast and across to the other side of Florida through the Everglades. We really wanted to take an airboat tour and decided to go with Captain Doug's.

The boats are really loud, so we had to wear ear protection.

Our tour took us through the mangroves and apparently this is not the best time of year to see gators in the mangroves. It was still an awesome ride though going through all the canals as if they were roads. As we were about to turn around and head back, a gator was spotted in the distance...

We ended up getting super close to him, actually right on top of him and at one point a guy in the boat touched his tail...our captain wasn't very impressed though. It was pretty amazing to be so close!

As we were headed back to the dock, this Brown Pelican decided to swoop in and land less than 12 inches from me. Needless to say it was cool, but I was a little uncomfortable and kept a close eye on him...

After our boat tour, we continued driving through the Everglades and stopped along a dirt road that travelled beside this river. We were amazed at how many alligators saw - they were everywhere all along the river - very cool!

Key Largo - March 19/20

We had a bery brief stay in Key Largo, which we both enjoyed very much...too bad we didn't have more time! Our hotel was right on the marina, which was great. We really enjoyed just walking around and for the first time all trip did not drive anywhere for over 24 hours! The first night we had a late supper at a restaurant on the marina...the crab salad was delicious! Here I am posing by the African Queen...I guess we should see the movie now!

The main reason for stopping in Key Largo was to snorkel. After much research, thinking, and consideration, I finally decided to give it a shot. However, I was expecting nice, calm water close to shore, not very choppy waters very far from shore...I was really nervous getting in, but did it and no sharks ate me. I was less adventerous than Chad, but still managed to see a baracuda, which was very cool. Hopefully we will develop our underwater pictures soon to show off the proof!

Chad on his way back to the boat...

Enjoying another meal at the marina (different restaurant though)

Little Ray's Zoo - February 13

Back in February we went to Little Ray's with the Fraser's. Matthew clearly remembered everything from last year and was super excited!

The nice thing about Little Ray's is that the kids get to touch all the animals. No hesitation from Matthew!

Rebecca really enjoyed the alligator and asked if she could touch his teeth :-)

Anna, on the other hand, would not get within attacking distance of the alligator and maintained a safe distance at all times. You can barely see the end of the gator's tail in the bottom of the picture...

The only thing Matthew did not touch last year was the tarantula...no problem this year though!

Happy Birthday Grammie! February 12

The Smith Family enjoyed lunch at Cora's in New Minas for Grammie's birthday - happy birthday Grammie, we love you!

Then onto Grammie's bowling alley - here's Grammie and Anna getting their shoes on

Me and my boy

Me and my girl