Orlando Vacation Part 2: Lego Store & Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios

We visited the Lego store at Downtown Disney. My brothers and sister and Dave all grew up playing with Legos, so we wanted to see this landmark. It was colorful, imaginative and expensive; so we just browsed.

Above, my sister Emily and her husband James and their son Wesley pose in front of some amazing people and dogs made from Legos. Here my brothers Chris and Jeff and I pose with reptilian Legos.

The next day (Friday, Aug 6) we went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Our first stop was the new Harry Potter theme park. Dave and I had read Harry Potter several times, so we loved seeing this book come to life.

The line for the new Harry Potter ride was an hour long. Only during the last 20 minutes were we inside snaking through Hogwarts castle mock scenery. We took turns riding & holding Jessica, who slept for part of the wait.

We drank "butterbeer" (cream soda with butterscotch whipping cream) in the owlery, 

and tried Chocolate Caldrons, and Ton Tongue toffee, which we bought at the park's "Honeyduke's" store.

Some of the family ate turkey legs at the "Three Broom Sticks" for lunch. The rest of us got stuck outside Harry Potter world when the big crowds came in the middle of the day. In the rest of the park we enjoyed water rides, roller coasters,

motorcycle shows, 

and stood in a lot of lines. We rode the two Dueling Dragons coaster several times since the line was so short. The Incredible Hulk roller coaster shot you in the air on the way up the first big hill. It was the hottest time of the year, and we tried to keep ourselves from melting with misting fans.

Orlando Vacation Part 1: GA Graduation and FL Reunion

Right before our families came to Florida for Jessica's baby blessings, my sister's husband James graduated from the University of Georgia. He earned a doctorate in entomology (bugs) after many years of hard work. They were moving on to a post-doc position in Tuscan.

My parents flew into West Palm Beach and we all drove up to Georgia for the last time. (Dave couldn't come to graduation because he was attending the annual Labview conference in Austin, TX.) 

Then we drove down to Orlando together to a vacation home to party the week before Jessica was to get sealed in the temple to us for time and all eternity.

We cooked for each other (this is a frozen berry chocolate pie that didn't quite look like the picture).

My Grandma and Grandpa Bosen stayed near by and came over to hang out and admire our squealing happy baby.

I challenged my brothers and father to a few games of tennis, and beat them, but only at the risk of disfiguring my face. (I've noticed when I playing tennis with men they can compensate for lack of tennis skills with speed and hitting the ball very hard.) Luckily I was able to back up my trash talk. This picture of my brother Chris' new toed running shoes is the only thing close to a picture.

We also played pool,

swam in the pool, 

and we all got dunked trying to best James in a made-up game of chicken using pool floaties.

And of course we spent lots of time admiring our "super baby"!

She sat in a real high chair for the first time and played with kitchen utensils, which for some reason was a very sweet milestone for me. (We don't have room in our Florida condo for a full-sized high chair, like I grew up with.)

And I love this picture of Chris, who likes to claim he is Jessica's favorite uncle. Crazy guy!

Adoption Finalization

The State of Alabama and LDS Family Services judged us to be fit parents, and on July 21st, 2010 at 2:30pm in Birmingham, AL we officially adopted Jessica.

It was pretty quick: 10 minutes was all it took for Lawyer Bob and Judge Friday to say in effect "Please sit here all the paperwork looks great this is a day you've been waiting for sign the paper isn't she cute? let's take a picture make copies of the paperwork thank you" in very strong Southern accents.

I thought more about visiting with the birth family than the finalization in court. Probably because the birth family has been so good, and the paperwork so gradual.

We flew up to Atlanta (it's cheaper than flying straight to B.) and stayed overnight at my sister's house. We drove over to Birmingham in the morning, had lunch with the birthmom and walked around a hot Botanical Garden, went to the court with Jessica's biological maternal grandparents, went to their home for cake, dinner. Met the birthmom's sister. Stayed the night, then drove back to Atlanta, caught our flight and were home in 48 hours.

We had a wonderful time. I got to try Southern succotash & catfish and fried green tomatoes, yum. Jessica was an angel through all that travel and fuss (except the hot afternoon in the garden.) Wow, she is an attention magnet. These are the most common phrases I get for her:

"Oh, I thought you were pushing a doll in that stroller!"

"She is big for her age!/She doesn't eat well, does she?"

"How does that bow stick to her head?"

"Look at those round cheeks!"

"Look at those big blue eyes!" ("Daddy needs a shotgun." is pretty common too.)

"She looks just like you."

"Wow, your baby is so calm/good/quiet/happy on the plane/store/babysitting."

"Oh, look how cute!"

To which the answers are:

"Oh, she's real."

"She has tall genes/We stuff her with milk" (when really I have no idea why she is her size)

"Corn syrup."

"They are very pinchable! Squeeze her thighs, they're chubbier!"

"They are pretty."

"Thanks./I hope she does better than that./She's adopted & the birthmother picked us out."

"She is a good baby/she's adopted and came with great DNA" (but I also think

'She can be unpleasant, just not now' or

'Yes, but soon she will be 2 years old' or

'She gets plenty of food, sleep, and attention so of course she's happy!')

&

"Thank you. We love her."

Because we do. Head over heels.

Too too fun

Jessica and Smokey have discovered each other. Here Smokey is purring up a storm, and Jessica giggled while she pet him, but I just couldn't get a video of it. Smokey loves licking Jessica's oatmeal off the floor, and she'll watch him walk around now.

Happy Birthday America

Ug, I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted! Hopefully soon I'll post pictures of the adoption conference and our summer vacation.

Jessica update: she is 4 months old, and over seventeen pounds. The doctor said she was proportional and growing consistantly, so I guess we'll just have to build some biceps. She has chubby thighs and cheeks, and looks like 6 months old to everyone. She's eating a Tb. of rice cereal at night to stave off hunger through the night, and we'll be adding lunch soon, as 8 oz every four hours is not enough anymore. Most of it goes down her throat. She still sleeps 12 hours a night, hur-rah for that.

She doesn't sit up, yells instead of napping during church, sometimes will not cooperate with the spoon, and a new trick she just did today: pooped in the tub. So it's not all sunshine and daisies.

She is getting better at gripping things with her hands, and she's turned into Sunny Baudelaire: she licks & bites everything. All her original newborn hair has fallen out, except for 3 or 4 hairs that stick up at her swirl, and the rest is short light-colored peach fuzz that looks drawn on. (She smiles when I recite Fuzzy Wuzzy into her ear with extra zzzzz's and rub her head.) She knows a lot of words and commands:

"lick"

"kick"

"where's Mommy/Daddy?"

"ceiling fan"

"hold it"

"suck your thumb"

"point your toes"

"Rub the face/tired baby"

"who's a good baby?" & raises her hands

"hug giraffe"

etc. I'm sure she'll beat Smokey's vocab list rather soon.

And she's laughing more: yippy dogs, silly 5-year olds, the duck verse of "I Wish I Was a Windmill", the washcloth floating in the tub, and this great toy:

It just so happens Dave's dad says Dave's favorite toy as a baby was the Dorito's bag. And those Sunchips bags crackle even more.

We had a nice but quiet 4th of July. The rain has dampened the fireworks, and it tried to rain out the church picnic yesterday, but we enjoyed the cookout and volleyball (me) and donating blood (Dave). Jessica looked so cute in her watermelon dress. We got a sitter for our first date post-Jessica, and enjoyed Eclipse & the next night rewatched New Moon.

But I was halfway through Sunday dinner when I realized: oops, fajitas. Not very patriotic. But they were delish. Oh, and World Cup soccer. We were sad when Brazil was eliminated Friday (that's where Dave served his mission.) Jessica got her Dad a little Brasil shirt for Father's Day so they watch together.