A beach day with the Meiser's

It is a beautiful Miami summer day today. We spent the entire day with the Meiser's at the beach. The water was warm. The sun was hot with a nice breeze of air. Miriam brought sandwiches and drinks for everyone. We stayed at the beach as long as the kids allowed us. We then headed to the pool where they could spend hours until we pull them out of water for dinner.
We had a nice dinner at the Garcia's seafood restaurant. The food and the atmosphere were great. After the dinner, Chris gave us a nice Miami tour. Jenny and I headed back to the hotel to spend some quality time together while Anna will have another sleep over at the Meiser's with Amelia. These two have been inseparable since we got here.
I am glad to have Jenny alone with me. We took a walk on the beach after dinner. When I asked what she wanted to do after the walk, with all the things she could pick, she picked swimming again. No matter where we go, swim seems is the only thing on their mind. After swimming, we played with some flash cards and read books until we both tired and snoozed off together. I just woke up from Bert's phone call. He misses us and we miss him too. We already started to talking about our next vacation....a vacation together.
I can't believe that our vacation will be over soon...time flies when you are having a great time.






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Seaquarium

For those of us who have kids, we know nothing can be planned. But if we go with the flow, things always turn up to be better. Today is one of these days.
We initially had decided that the Meiser girls will go to their Bible school for their final day of class and end of the program performance for the parents. Amelia had been so excited about this program and had been waiting for this performance since the program started. The church must have done a great job. We also decided that since the Meiser girls will be at the church most of the morning, the Franz girls will go to the Jungle Island in the morning then meet the Meiser girls after their performance at the Seaquarium.
When we dropped off the Meiser girls to the Bible school, Amelia immediately asked her teacher if Anna and Jenny could stay. When the answer was no, she decided on the spot that she is not going to stay either!! She gave up something she had been looking forward to to spend more time with her friends. We were all very touched! Needless to say, we were all happy too. We immediately went back to the Meiser's place and change our gears for the Seaquarium.
We spend most of our day at the Seaquarium. We truly experienced Miami sun. Sue loved it! Poor Jenny, on the other hand, could not stand the sun. You really can't blame her as she is from the coldest place in China - Inner Mongolia! She was dropping wet with sweats. But she loved every bit of the experience. She thinks the dolphin trainer is a great job. When we came back to the hotel, she pretended to be a dolphin trainer and Anna and Amelia pretended to be dolphins. They did all kinds of tricks by Jenny's commands.

After the Seaquarium, the girls had a bath party at the Meiser’s. Right now, all three older girls are having a sleep over at my hotel room. This is the first sleep over Amelia had besides sleeping at grandpa's house. She was a little homesick and missed mom. But she finally fell asleep. I have been told by Anna that Jenny moves around a lot while she sleeps. I just first witnessed her now turned herself 180 degrees with her feet on her pillow now. Anna as usual, sleeps all different directions. She said she misses Daddy now, but is not ready to go home yet.

Hello from Miami!

Despite the storms and rain, we are having a great time in Miami! It was a spontaneous decision on Sue's part to take an offer from Northwest Airline she thought she could not refuse. In realty, it was really the thought and attraction of spending time with the Meiser's that takes the three of us to Miami. Both Anna and Jenny had been counting the days since Sue booked the tickets. This is the first time mother and daughters going anywhere without the boys.
We arrived at Miami airport on time yesterday. Due to the severe storm, we had to stay on the run way for a while before they could connect us to the gate. Once we arrived, we ended up waiting more than 2 hours for the luggage!! Sweat Miriam was afraid that I would get lost so she met us at the Alamo rental car place. I followed her to their condo – a temporary home while they are renovating their house. I have to say that I was very impressed with the condo. It is like a luxury hotel from the outside. The free use of club house, conference room, business center, pool and hot tub are just a few extras that come with the lease.
It was so good to see the Meisers again. It has been more than 5 years since we were here in Miami with them. The girls disappeared instantly in their new play room – a huge closet in the girls’ room. Before Miriam and I could have a chance to catch up, the girls conducted and performed two dress-up shows for us. They were so cute! We stayed up so late that we ended up not going to the hotel and spent the entire night at the Meisers. Poor Chris, he had to sleep on the sofa – but rumor says he really loves that sofa
We had change our original plan of going to swim or to the beaches because it was another rainy and stormy day today. We decided to go bowling and going to see the movie “Gong Fu Ponda”. Kids had a great time doing both. When we walked out the movie theater, the sun came out. It was upper 80 degree!! With no hesitations, we headed right to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening at the pool and the beach. The hotel we stay is right on the beach!
Kids did not want to separate themselves from each other. There is another sleep over at the Meisers for the girls. At the same time, I am enjoying an evening all by myself walking on the beach. It is still 80 degrees at 10 pm. Nice!!!
Here are some photos of the day... for more photos, please click here.



















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