Taking you back to bring catch you up

So it has been a very long time since I, Chris, have posted anything on this old blog. I was not feelin the love for the blog for a while but I think that is may have returned. Who knows for how long but it is good for now. So here we go...

My Sister and her two youngest came for a visit last June.
We had not seen them in 4 years so it was very, very good to have them here. They were able to stay for 3 weeks but it was not nearly long enough. We did lots of fun stuff and went all over Florida. well maybe not all over but we got to show them a fair amount. At least our little corner anyhow.
Here are the girls being goofy!

We took them over to our favorite Gulf Coast beach, Clearwater Beach, for a day. The older 2 girls had fun swimming and trying to catch the fish with their hands. And the younger 2 had fun swimming and playing in the sand.


We went to this really fun place called Picasso's cup.
We found this place shortly after we moved here and were saving it for a special time to go there. You go in and pick a piece of pottery and you get to use all their supplies to paint it however you would like. Then you leave it with them and they glaze and fire it for you and you get to go back and pick up you beautiful finished piece. Here we are painting our pieces.


And here are the finished pieces and their proud creators!
Allie
Kait

Melody
Keeley
And Carla
I painted one also but since I was the one taking the photos there are no photos. Guess that I will have to do that sometime.
We also took them to the Atlantis Coast. Cocoa Beach and a little farther south of there to Sebastian Inlet State park. Great beaches!! We were able to spend a weekend there actually and it was lots of fun! We spent most of our time in the water and so there are not that many photos. This is Sebastian Inlet State Park.
So here is the coolest thing... The night before they were to leave, Carla decided to paint a tree in Keeley's room that she had told her she would paint while she was here. Keeley had asked her to paint it before they came and after they were here there was so much to do and so little time that we just did not think that we could do it. But at the last possible second Carla pulled it out. She worked for about 4 hours or so and finished it at like 1:00 in the morning. It turned out sooooo cool!
Here is the progression of it coming together.This is the how she started. She drew the tree on the wall with a pencil and the we painted the blue around it.This is her starting to add the color to the bottom of the trunk.
Here she is painting one of the branches. And here is how we got the leaves on. Started with a sponge painted leaf the we went over it to fill it in with a brush.
And here is how it looked when she finished it. Is this not the coolest tree that you have ever seen!! She did such an awesome job. So when Keeley went to bed that night she realized that Auntie would be leaving the next day and that her tree had not been done. So imagine Keeley's surprise in the morning when this wonderful tree was on her wall! She was speechless! She really loves it! She has a fairy room and this is the tree that the fairies live in. We will paint the rest of the walls the light blue on the top and a green on the bottom in with gentle rolling hills! That was Keeley's vision for the room and she loves it.
Well this is not a complete catch up but it will have to do for now. Hopefully it will not take me as long to post the next time around.
Enjoy!