Quick House update and a hike ~;o)

Hi friends!! Gosh I miss blogging!! Well here is the latest and greatest!! We have finally painted and put up new blinds in all the rooms. New locks on all the doors. New stove and washing machine have arrived and both been hooked up. Whew!! Yeah, kinda ridiculous that it took us this long huh? On a happier note, I am glad to share with you all that we will finally be moving into our new home this Saturday!! Boy are things a BUSY mess right now!

In related news I have a confession to make, instead of moving things into the house last weekend like we were suppose to we decided to take a much needed field trip to the Hillsborough River State Park! Who would have ever guessed that there were moving rapids right here in Hillsborough county! Thats right friends!! The Hillsborough River State Park has two sets of Class II river rapids, now these are not huge cascading river rapids friends, they are smaller ones. But for the Floridian, it is a big deal to see these, as there are less than a handful of these here in and around the State of Florida. There is also a suspended bridge too btw!! The trail is fantastic, even bumble bee hiked half of the trip on her own! She fell asleep in the hiking pack on the second half of the hike back, not bad for a toddler ~;o) I could go on and on about all the fun things there are to do in this park, but I'll just give you a teaser instead this time ~;o) Enjoy the video clips!! And for those of you who've been there done that, why didn't you tell me?! You know I gotta give you a hard time about it ~;o) So if you've been to this park already I'd love to hear what your favorite part of the visit was...I'm all ears ~;o)

All hiked out ~;o)

Downtown Tampa just got a little more kid-friendly! We recently visited Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and we were both really wowed by the new surroundings....

Baby's day out ~;o)

Love the angle of the city and the fountains in this picture....

There's the fountains for the children to cool off in, as well as the lighter mist fountains in the back of the park, the new playground, the riverwalk, and of course the new Glazer Children's Museum! I could go on of course ~;o) Have you visited Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park yet? Well worth it!

nature walk....

.....we went back to Upper Tampa Bay Park on Sunday afternoon. If you will recall, we were there during the holidays a couple of years back in November when the park was decorated with beautiful Christmas lights!! Unfortunately the park no longer decorates for the holidays due to budget cuts ~:o( But it is still worth the visit, there is a boat ramp for launching canoes, a playground for the kids, several scenic nature trails, and an air conditioned indoor educational facility with real marine life aquariums, honey bees, and fossils of all sorts....the total cost to visit the park is $2.00 per vehicle. Here is a little bit of what we enjoyed on the nature walk....

This is a neat little park to visit if your a lover of nature and the great outdoors, and are in the Tampa vicinity! Perfect for the kids too!! Until next time darlings ~:o)

Winter Park in the Spring ~:o)

(Kraft Azalea Park and Gardens)

(One of the many reasons we love Florida)

We recently took a family outing to beautiful Winter Park, Florida!! I found out about this Diamond in the rough through the March/April edition of Victoria Bliss Magazine!! I was so thrilled when I found out that this area so close to where we live at was featured in one of my favorite magazines that I just had to visit!! There is plenty to do in this area just outside of Orlando. They have a Winter Park Canal tour ride, The Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens, several stunning public parks, and a village of shops for the shopaholics ~;o) Well worth visiting if your in the Orlando vicinity.


On another unrelated subject, I am very happy to announce that my sweeheart and I have recently become engaged!! We will be getting married in about a week and I am going coo-coo with the last minute details!! We are both very excited!! Hoping to blog more as soon as everything settles down!! I am very excited about June and this summer!! Lots of fun things to look forward too!! Got any exciting plans for the summer? Going anywhere special? I'd love to hear!!

I've been a bit behind on my blogging because I recently started back to work part time. I miss being a full time SAHM! We took a family trip to Mount Dora a few weeks back! Lovely area, here are a few pics of the highlights for your enjoyment! Keeping it short this time, cheerio darlings ~:o)

Historic Bok Tower Gardens

We recently had the pleasure of visiting beautiful Bok Tower Gardens. What an overwhelmingly breathtaking place!! It reminded me of our visit to The Biltmore Estate during our Winter Vacation. There were just too many gorgeous pictures that I snapped to pick through and narrow things down. So I decided to condense them all into a slide show. This place is a must see if you haven't been yet, well worth the visit if your in the vicinity!! Enjoy the slide show ~:o)

Strawberry Festival 2010

(My favorite Carnival junk food!!)

(Couldn't resist snapping a picture of these cute little bananas!!)

(The berries ~;o)

Finally got around to posting these pictures!! We went to the Strawberry Festival last week, on the last day of the festival. Don't go on the last day of any special fair or event friends, it was ridiculously crowded!! And for those of you shaking your head and thinking to yourself (rookie)....all I have to say to you is....."touche." Anyways, I was able to take lots of great pictures, the day was just beautiful!! Enjoy ~;o)

Waterfront Dining in St. Pete!!

(Appetizer -- Lamb ribs -- YUM!!)

(The Pier in St. Pete, Florida.)

(We have plenty of these to go around~;o)

(The usual crowd, waiting for a free meal~;o)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day and got to spend it with someone special! Isabella spent the afternoon visiting with her Grandpa and Grandma while my sweetheart and I drove to "The Pier" for some waterfront dining at The Columbia Restaurant! There are several Columbia Restaurants here in Florida and I have visited two. My favorite of the two is in St. Petersburg. I love this one because of the view, it is surrounded by water. There are also many shops, an aquarium for the kids (and young at heart of course~;o) fishing, stunning parks, and of course the beach near by. Stop by for a visit sometime, well worth exploring~;o)

A Day at the Park!

(Winter time in Medard Park, Florida.)

(Isabella, 5 months old! ~;o)

(First time in the swing, she LOVED it!)





(Orange Groves across the street from the park.)

We took Isabella to the park this past weekend. This was a new park for all of us, but it wasn't her first visit to one. She was however, able to sit in the swing for the first time! She just loved it!! She was distracted by pretty much everything from the other older children playing to the squirrels scampering up the trees!! It was fun to watch her happily kicking her little feet in the swing~;o) I have posted a couple of pictures of the Edward Medard Park above. This is a fantastic park to visit if you are in the Plant City vicinity! There are many MANY shelters for Birthday Parties, docks for boats and canoeing, an Equestrian center with horse back riding, camping grounds, nature trails, a lookout tower, and of course a playground. It appears to be a little slow during the winter days, but we look forward to visiting again perhaps in the spring and summer time. This is by far, certainly another Diamond in the Rough!! Until next time darlings ~:o)

A Visit to Santa~;o)

We went to visit Santa a couple of weeks back! Mama has just been slacking on blogging and posting pictures~;o) She surprisingly did well! I expected her to have a melt down but apparently she hasn't hit the separation anxiety stage yet~;o) Which in return made for a great photo session with Baby and Santa~;o) So how did your kiddo's visit with Santa go? Comments are welcome, don't be shy! Send me a link to your blog with your Santa visit! I love to see new blogs and places!! Cheerio for now~:o)