This is why I love Facebook...

Today we (see below)...

Went here:To see them (Kylie and Amanda):

And of course, their mama, Erica. Sadly the pictures I took of Erica were of the exceptionally blurry variety, so she'll just have to remain a mystery for you. But at least I got some pictures of her absolutely adorable little girls.

Erica and I went to college together (neither one of us works in the field of our major, muhahahahahahaha!), and she is still up North, while I'm suffering down here. Ok, not outright suffering, at least not in winter, but I think for most of the year we would happily trade states. Anyway, I haven't seen her for 5 years, since Kylie was TWO, which is FAR too long, but I'm horrible at keeping in touch (yes, I hate myself for that). But the magic that is Facebook fixed that part. So, since they were coming down to Florida for a Disney Trip, and Tampa is sort of in the middle of Orlando and where I live (in a roundabout but very doable way), we met at the Aquarium for a long overdue reunion.

And all I can say to that is "YAY!" Actually, Erica is where I got that "Yay" by the way. I'm not sure I say it a lot in my posts, but I say it a heck of a lot when I talk.

So, we had some fun and saw some things and as usual I took way too many slightly blurry pictures of my children with red eyes. I'm not sure what you would call the ones I'm posting tonight. "Outtakes" doesn't fit them all, neither does "synopsis".

Oh whatever. In keeping with the nature of my blog, here are some random pictures:

A Roseate Spoonbill:

That apparently offended Lilli's sensibilities:

She kept yelling "Hey Buhd" at it in a very aggressive fashion. That's "bird" for anyone not fluent in Lilli-speak.

Seeing how violently we can rock/looking for any excuse to sit down for a minute:
I have no idea about this one. Dead toddler in a Conch Shell?

It was shortly after this that sweet little Amanda, my new favorite person in the world, asked me if my "sisters" could have a mint. My sisters! All this treating me like I'm still a young thing, that has been happening lately, is going to go to my head!

We could see this cruise ship out the window of the Aquarium. That thing is huge. Why yes! I did indeed want to climb aboard, sail away and not come back for a while. How did you guess?

This picture does no justice to the creature. This was the largest Puffer/Blow Fish that I have ever seen. Much larger than I ever imagined they could get. The stuff of my nightmares in fact.

I do have to pause here to pat myself on the back for only starting to hyperventilate once in the whole time we were at this place. I even managed to take Lilli into this little viewing area that kind of jutted into the main tank that had curved glass and gave me extreme vertigo since it both seemed like I was under that water and gave me the weird sensation of not being able to tell how far away from the glass I was. Yep, pat, pat.

Another side note, Lilli doesn't like the big fish any more than I do. Yes, she is definitely my child. Someday for family activities David and Elizabeth will go to the beach while Lilli and I go to the Spa.

Here are all the little girls in the only shot I managed to take where neither of my girls is yelling or flashing their underoos at the camera. I hope Erica got some better ones. I imagine it would be hard not to.

Ah, yes. As the day went on, Lilli deteriorated. She likes her naps in a timely fashion or else. Here she is giving up completely and offering herself to the sharks. I'm not sure they're aware that there is a baby mere inches away, separated only by brittle glass, but I was. Oh yes I was.

Ahhhhh. It was so nice to see them. Now if only we could go with them to Disney next week!