This beautiful fountain was built by my Uncle last summer. We went over to Janelle's house for a visit just after new years.
Here is Holly sitting on the swing next to the fish pond after she helped Janelle and Tanta Kat feed the fish.
We decided to distract her with one of her favorite things, as she was desperately trying to go into the pond to swim with the fishies, she loves water.
She is wearing a cute little outfit that she got from Janelle and the kids for Christmas. The pats were a little too big, so these are some other brown ones, but it is the top Janelle picked out.
It also came with a little jacket that she was actually able to use the last week of our visit when the weather was in the 20's.
Here she is with Daddy playing basket ball. She loves playing with, kicking, rolling and chasing after balls, throwing them into a hoop is icing on the cake.
She had a lot of fun running around on the court while the guys played and shot some hoops, she would run after the ball and bring it back to them to make another shot.
It was a little sad to see Janelle and the kids, they were in San Diego the week of Christmas, around 10 days or more, so we didn't see much of them, actually we only saw them twice during our trip.
The time they were out of town, the kids had school and Janelle had work. It was hard, because originally this Christmas was going to be a big family affair with my uncle and other relatives all together.
But after him passing away a few months earlier, Janelle thought it best to take the kids to California to visit with her Parent's and Sister's. It probably was for the best.
Last time I was in Florida I remember Bob showing me around the house, showing off all the work they had done, and the big beautiful yard.
Calling mom on Friday nights when they were playing cards I would hear about the work they were doing building the bench and fountain and fish pond.
My uncle spent his last summer building it, and he put his heart into it. It was amazing, as he was in Chemo at the time. But he wanted to stay busy and productive.
I miss him, but not like my mom. The past two years he and my mom got a lot closer and would see each other several times a week, have family dinners and weekly card games.
When he died, he left a void, that right now can only be filled by putting his memory out of her mind. But I am sure us being there made it hard to do, as it was always around the Holidays that we would see him, in the past.
Now that I am back home I don't think about it much, I feel like I did when he was away in UAE or Saudi, half way across the world, not seeing him for months, or sometimes years.
But then something like this reminds me, that he won;t be making new stories, and I won't be hearing about new adventures, and I think back to all the visits and times he stayed with us.
And it reminds me that he is gone. I think I am still in shock, and it has not truly sunk in yet, I don;t completely believe it yet. I think it is like that with family that is at a distance.
When you see someone everyday there absence is devastating and you are forced to confront it, but when you don't it lingers with slow reminders and I think it takes much longer to accept.
We enjoyed seeing Janelle and the kids, but it was with a great sadness, as it only reminded me of my uncle and of there great loss, a loss I couldn't even imaging beginning to get over.
I love how grown up the girls are, patiently waiting in line to take another turn down the slide. They still slip past each other or climb back up the slide on occasion, but sometimes they just amaze me when they do everything "right" or is a "grown up" way
They are really loving the new ball pit. At first it annoyed me, Holly would run to it, pull herself up and climb in, and then climb out to the ledge but sit there waiting for me, getting more and more agitated as she waited.
She new how to get down, by turning and sliding down on her belly, but she wanted to jump forward and her feet were too far off the floor. Holding my hand she could hop down. I was very excited on our last visit, she started climbing out all on her own.
I love this little dress on Chloe. I rarely put dresses on holly, the ones I do are really too short, and they are more like long tops with pants or leggings underneath. But this particular dress on Chloe has the puff skirt, and it is past her knees, it is so cute!
Here are the three musketeers, big trouble. They aren't supposed to be playing on the ramp in the cafe section of Sadie Dey's, but they made up a game of running up and down it, sometimes with a shopping park, letting it roll down the incline after pushing it up.
Holly found this little seat on the ledge, I didn't think anything of it, but on this day the cafe was really busy and all of the high chairs were in use, which I usually stacked up on the other side of the ledge. Later she sat down there, and fell backwards bumping her head on the floor about a foot below. She cried, but calmed with a bottle and was fine.
Soon she was playing again. She really likes the Sensory balls, it is great that they have them at the cafe, she went around finding every kind of ball she could to throw into the ball pit, just like she does at home.
She also really likes these baby dolls, which I don;t get. She never plays with them at home, she doesn't have these exact ones, but she has "dolls" and she has "babies" and she rarely uses them. Even when we have "tea Parties" she uses all of her Gabba Character's, they are her "Friends"
So it was time to go, Holly was getting fussy, she needed an iPhone break. I don't know if it is good or a bad thing, but I use it as a tool to help her calm down, self regulate, stop or recover from melt downs, it always cheers her up and if it doesn't then I know something really bad is wrong. We have been going to Sadie Dey's every Thursday for the Mom's group at 4:30, and I tell everyone I know or meet to join us
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