GUESS WHERE WE WENT . . .

Hard not to think of Florida when you see a pink flamingo. After much anticipation we finally headed to Florida for some fun in the sun, but most important, to gather with the Dueck family. Quite a feat to get all thirteen of us from 3 corners of the Americas together, so we really celebrated this blessing from God. We all had a fantastic time and now when I look at the pictures I can hardly believe we were there, it went by sooooo fast!! We stayed at a beautiful resort by Lido Beach (Sarasota area), we basically spent spent the entire day on the beach and the evenings playing games by the courtyard. It was a hard life!!

Our days at the beach were spent by:

Collecting shells

Building castles and being buried in the sand should be every child's right of passage

Ethan loved riding the waves with a body board, he mastered it really well thanks to his coach Stefan. At a normal day, the waves in the Gulf of Mexico are pretty mild, but one afternoon we had a storm come in, and the usual peaceful Gulf looked more like the coast of California. When the threat of lighting passed, we hit the waters and had a blast.

Being gooffy with Tio Denis and playing in the sand with our little Joao Mauricio.

We enjoyed playing beach volleyball and "bettche", which you could describe as a recreational cricket. That has always been a favorite game of mine growing up in Brazil, and now, young and old, we all had lots of fun playing it

Of course, we also rested and enjoyed reading books, newspapers or snoozing. That's what a vacation is all about, right?

One evening Oma took all the grandkids out for ice cream . . .

. . . which they all enjoyed to the last lick.

Tio Denis made sure that his nephews are all fans of the best Brazilian soccer team, Atletico Paranaense.

It's a hard life but someone's gotta do it !!!

Here the kids pose for a last picture before we have to leave this piece of Paradise.

What a great time did we have with our dear family. We love you and we miss you already!!

HAVING FUN AT BUSCH GARDENS

Our last two days in Florida were spent at Busch Gardens. All three boys braved rides on some exhilarating roller coasters. I was in my element, since I love roller coasters, the faster and crazier, the better. Christian also wanted to make sure I mentioned that we saw elephants, zebras, rhinoceros, tigers (white ones and orange ones), buffalo, gazelles, monkeys, orangutans and of course, flamingos.

Here goes Ethan (and his brothers and mom) on his first "real" roller coaster.

Cotton candy is a must at an amusement park.

With the heat and humidity of Florida in the summer, there is nothing better that getting soaked.

Now this is the beast of all roller coasters. A 200 foot, 90 degree angle drop. If that wasn't enough, once you get to the edge of the drop, they let you dangle there for a few seconds just to make sure they get your heart pumping a little faster. And you DROP!! What a thrill!! Christian enjoyed so much that we repeated the ride.

After a full day at the park we headed to Steak & Shake for those delicious shakes. We had just finished a ride at the Congo River and were really soaked, not a problem when you are outside in a nice warm Florida evening. We stepped inside and a blast of Artic air hit us. Still, I was not about to give up on my shake since we have missed it here in WA. Shawn and I fought the cold with a nice warm chili on the side and Angela had a hot chocolate to sip in between the shake. The boys were so excited to be having a burger and shake at 11pm that the cold was not a problem.