Disney 2007

In September, we traveled with my parents to Disney for a getaway at Coronado Springs at Walt Disney World. It was hotter (or at least more humid) this year than last; but that didn't keep us from having a great time.

Getting ready to load up and head to Animal Kingdom. Rosemary's mouse ears now fit her. While we were getting ready, Rosemary seemed to know something exciting was going on. She gets a little bit more rambunctious, but not in a bad way, when she realizes she's in for something fun.

Riding on daddy's shoulders into the park.

When I was little, my mom and dad would get me a Mickey Mouse ice cream dipped in chocolate. The tradition continues with Rosemary. She ate hers while we were waiting for Finding Nemo to start. She sat and watched most of the 45 minute show.

Rosemary's checking out the gorillas.

If we look a bit tired here, it's probably because we were but we wanted to make sure we did all that we wanted to do.

Do you notice anything missing in this picture? This was one of the PhotoPass pictures taken by one of Disney's "professional" photographers. Four out of the six he took cut Rosemary out of the shot. :-)

Shockingly, Rosemary stayed awake the entire time on Small World this year. She would move her hands in time to the music.

Rosemary's first carousel ride.

In this picture you can kind of see the pin I'm wearing (the one above the Beat Tennessee pin--which we did!). We got that at the Animal Kingdom as we were leaving from one of the cast members. While we were there, my dad and Rosemary were given a pair of Dream FastPasses that gave you the ability to ride the most popular rides in the park without waiting in lines and without picking up individual fastpasses. Dad gave them to me and Jonathan but we ended up not using any of them because we had either ridden the rides that we would have needed them for or the lines weren't too bad in the first place. Since we had some left, Jonathan suggested that we give them to someone else as we left the park. We were trying to find some fellow Gators, but didn't see any on our way out so instead we found another pair of people and passed on the passes. A cast member saw this and gave us a set of lanyard pins that you can only get from cast members. There was one to keep and one to pass on so that we could continue to "spread the magic."

The first teacup ride.

After an exceptionally long day, she's still smiling.

The next day, we spent a good amount of time at the pool. There was a great kiddie sized pool that Rosemary enjoyed and a big kid slide that Jonathan, my dad, and I enjoyed.

She flies!

Before dinner, we walked over to the lobby of the hotel to check out the gift shop.

A view across the lake to the lobby and convention center.

Our little Minnie.

We celebrated my parent's anniversary and Jonathan's birthday at Rainforest Cafe.

It was a good place to go with Rosemary. Lots to look at, pretty loud, and good food.

They definitely give you plenty to eat.


And a volcano for dessert.

Hoses, Shoes, Tutus, Rainbows, and Friends

Rosemary is not a great lettuce eater. So last week, while Jonathan and I had chicken caesar wraps for dinner, I made Rosemary some ravioli. Whenever she has something particularly messy, we strip her down to her diaper then put her right into the bath after dinner. This night though, it was really bad. Jonathan had made some banana pudding for me to have after my procedure so not only was Rosemary covered in red sauce, she was also getting sticky from the pudding. Jonathan suggested just hosing her off outside before the bath. It worked.


Most of Rosemary's shoes are outgrown before they wear out. These shoes are the exception. I cleaned out Rosemary's dresser and closet this weekend to put away the clothes that she's too big for now and came across these shoes that she wore practically every day to daycare. She started wearing them before she could walk so the toes are pretty tattered too.
After baths, Rosemary likes to run around the house is just her hooded towel. This time, she wanted her hooded towel and her tutu.
On the way to work on Tuesday we saw a pretty spectacular rainbow, one where we could see the entire arch.
This is Rosemary with her friend, Dynah. We see Dynah quite a bit at church so when we get there, Rosemary will ask, "Where's Dynah?"

Labor day at the park

On Labor Day, we spent the day at a nearby park with family and friends.

Rosemary's a pretty good climber and she seemed to really enjoy this playground equipment.

Zach, Sara, Josh, and Krystle may look like they're just staring off at something in the distance. They are, in fact, playing bocce.

Go Gators

Rosemary is a Gator--there's no way around it. Jonathan and I are both UF grads, she was born in Gainesville, even her first hair accessory was a Gator bow. So despite the efforts of our Bama-fan minister, she's going to be a Gator.

This was especially evident this weekend. She's starting to say "Gator" whenever she sees the Gator head logo and occassionally does the Gator chomp (though we're still working on doing it on cue). However, yesterday during the first football game of the season, she really started to show her orange and blue blood when she actually watched the game. Now, Rosemary could really care less about television, but when the game was on she crawled up on the couch and sat down beside me with her eyes glued to the set. When someone would get tackled she'd say, "Whoa!" (a la Joey Lawrence on Blossom) and point. Alas, the rain delay completely ended her interest in the game, but her earlier actions confirmed what we already knew: she's definitely a Gator.

Our little Gator fan.

Campus House Leadership Training

One of the best parts for me about living in Gainesville is being able to still be involved in some way with the Campus House. This year, I was a part of their fall leadership training. As one of the activities, the groups had to assemble camping tents while all but one of their team members were blindfolded. All of the groups completed their tent, albeit some more quickly than others!
The first team to complete the task.
Two of the teams had to put together 12-person tents, which may take awhile for four people who weren't blindfolded but both teams got them done. And I guess I snapped this picture while Bob was saying the pledge of allegiance.
The second 12-person tent team.
The final team to complete the tent. Mission accomplished!

Two new looks for the beach

A few weeks ago, Jonathan, Rosemary, and I traveled to New Smyrna Beach for a long weekend with my parents. It was great to get away for a weekend before Jonathan started back to school.

The Tuesday before we left, I had 11 inches of my hair cut off and while there, Jonathan shaved his beard. We looked like a completely different couple!
Rosemary was none to happy here. She wanted to be in the ocean, not posing for a picture.
I just really liked this picture of the two of them.
A close up of Jonathan's facial hair-less look. This was taken three weeks ago and if you were to see him now, his mustache and goatee are back.
Rosemary got a little shower before heading back to the condo and to bed.
And here's the 11+ inches that I was able to donate to Locks of Love. I'm glad I made it to the 10 inch minimum, but I doubt I'll ever be able to wait that long again to have short hair!

Baby Sebastian

Our friends, Paul and Cristina, came to Gainesville this weekend and we had the great pleasure of meeting their new baby Sebastian for the first time. (You can check out Paul and Cristina's blog here). He's such a handsome boy!

Sebastian (3 months) and Rosemary (18 months). Sebastian will likely be much taller than Rosemary someday, but right now, she looks gigantic! How fast they get big.

My daughter the multi-tasker

Last week, Rosemary and I had a tea party one afternoon. She helped me set the table then sat down in one of the chairs and folded her hands to pray. We prayed over our pretend meal (which was interesting since we usually say "bless this food to our bodies") then went about eating our 'cookies' and 'tea.' Rosemary is an excellent hostess.

While we were having our party, I got a phone call and when I was done I set the phone near the table. She went and picked it up and pretended to talk.

Then she decided that while on the phone, she needed to top off our drinks. She's such a little lady, she can already do two things at once!

Mom, hold on a sec, I gotta take this call!

The backpack, the cob, and the kitchen

When I changed jobs, I think I anticipated feeling like I have more time than I actually do. We have managed to stay very busy and I don't remember the last weekend that we had completely free. Time is flying by!

So it's already August and the fall semester is about to begin. Soon we'll have to start planning our outings around local traffic and Gator games again! But it has been a wonderful summer.

Below are a few pics from the end of July.

Rosemary and I went garage sailing a few weeks ago and stumbled upon this barely used hiking backpack. Jonathan adjusted the straps and put her in it and off they went on a 'hike' around the house. Jonathan's ready to go camping again.

One of Rosemary's favorite new foods is corn on the cob. When it's corn off the cob she could really care less, but when she gets her own ear, she goes to town.

I brought in Rosemary's kitchen from the garage last week where we had been keeping it until she was big enough to play with it. She turned 18 months last week and it seems like it was perfect timing. When she got up in the morning I brought her to the living room and she went straight for it, exploring what was in each of the doors.

Finding the sugar bowl.

Mmm...this is great tea.

Sarasota Anniversary Trip

Jonathan and I will celebrate our fourth anniversary on Thursday so we traveled down south to Sarasota for a few days while Rosemary stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Peine. We chose Sarasota so that we could go to the Ca d'Zan and the Ringling Museum of Art--two places that we've wanted to go for awhile.

On Sunday, we spent a few hours on Siesta Key. It was insanely warm and incredibly crowded. I think that I am an east coast girl. I missed the waves of the Atlantic.

For dinner that night, we ate at Marina Jack. Boats could pull up right beside the restaurant and everyone on board could grab a bite downstairs. We ate upstairs in the Dining Room and had a beautiful view of the bay just before sunset.
After dinner, we walked over to Bayside Park.

At the Ringling estate on Monday, we walked in the shade of huge banyan trees. It made such a difference to be in the shade and out of the sun. It rained later in the day--apparently the first rain that they'd had in the last six weeks!

Mabel's Rose Garden

This is from the second floor of Ca d'Zan looking down. It's one of the few houses that you can go through that actually has many of its original furnishings since Ringling left the house to the state of Florida upon his death.

The front exterior of the house.
Here we are on the back terrace, by the bay.

The bay.
The back exterior.

Our last stop of the day was the art museum. Ringling brought each of the columns that you can see in the colonnade from Europe, although they didn't all come from the same place. If you look at the bases, you can see that they are at different heights so that it will work.

Shoes and Family Fun

Rosemary loves shoes. "Shoes" is even one of her newest words.


This is her favorite pair of my shoes. She sets them down, holds onto something as she puts each of her little feet in, and off she goes.

She's so stylish!

Jonathan came with us to the gym on Friday night for Family Fun Night and got to see Rosemary climb up the cargo night, jump on the trampoline, and hang on to the bars. She loved showing her daddy all of the things that she does in the mornings.

On the landing with her dad.

Coming down the slide.

Jonathan's teaching Rosemary to stay hydrated.

Cargo Nets

She may be small, but this girl is strong.

A few weeks ago, Rosemary started climbing this cargo net that leads into a 3-story playland, complete with twisty slides and plenty to climb on. I thought she might make it 3-4 feet up and then want me to pick her up and set her back on the ground. I was wrong. She climbed the entire way up the cargo net, which at the top of the picture has a small landing and then goes up again. I'll take a pic next week to show how far it actually is. So since she really can't go up alone, I got to climb up behind her. We get down via the slide, which is kind of steep for Rosemary to tackle alone so she sits in my lap as we head down.