Catching Up

Busy busy busy...St. Patrick's Day party, more beach time, more pool time, a movie out for Kim and I, birthday celebration for dad, and *sniff sniff* Kim and Sophie left for home this morning. In between, I am fitting in some CMA work, so the blog has been neglected!

But for all of you blog-obsessed, here are a few pics from the last 4 days...

St. Patrick's festivities (yes, that is Cass behind me)...

Catching some rays!

Resting from all the hard work that vacation brings...

Dad's birthday at the revolving roof-top restaurant nearby - gorgeous night! Unfortunately, all the good family pics were taken by Kim, so I'll have to post those later or she may post them to her blog over the next few days!


In the next pic, we are looking toward our condo from the restaurant...click to enlarge...see the row of low white buildings at the top, centre of the photo? That's our home away from home this week!



Frolicking on the beach outside the restaurant...


The reason there are not more pictures of Bryanna. on her own..


My wonderful sister...miss her already!

Goodnight for now!

We Are Go For Launch!

We just returned from two days exploring the Kennedy Space Center - what a blast! hee hee. As it is a 2.5 hour drive from St. Pete's on the Gulf Coast to Cape Canaveral on the east, we decided to spend the night so we wouldn't have to rush (by the way, if you ever need an excellent hotel on a budget, consult with my sister...she is an expert of internet searching!)

Yesterday we spent time exploring the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center which is an amazing complex of IMAX movie theatres, a Rocket Garden (filled with replics of all the Nasa rockets and space modules)...

fun play centres for the kids...

a memorial to astronauts, one of the out of service space shuttles (wow)

and a cool cool cool space shuttle simulator which replicated an actual shuttle launch--yours truly and Bryanna went on that while Kim and the little girls watched from an observation area (as they were too small to go inside). We then ended the day with a visit to the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Kim and I were fascinated to read the history of all the astronaut teams - all the tragedies and the triumphs. What a phenomenal history there is in NASA's space saga.

The girls were more interested in all the interactive exhibits...

Of course, my daredevil Bryanna had to try out the 4 G-Force Simulator. I was terrified for her but she was determined to go and she, well...see the following for the whole story!

Waiting for the simulator to start...

See the Simulator in motion!

The astronaut emerges...

But today is the day that Kim and I were waiting for. We returned to the Visitor Centre and caught the bus to take us out to the launch area observation tower. We passed the Vehicle Assembly Building - where they attach the shuttle to the rockets (the building is the third largest in the world....see the red stripes in the flag on the building? The longest stripes are 20 stories high.)



I loved viewing the launch pads from the observation towers...

And Kim LOVED the Apollo Saturn 5 rocket...

I loved watching movies here too of the entire history of race to reach the moon. I was amazed at how much I didn't know!

That's it for today...check Kim's blog soon for more.

Bye!

Surf's Up!

Today was the annual Mississauga picnic held in Fort Desoto National Park...an amazing place with great beaches and picnic areas and no touristy stuff! We had a full day there picnicking and playing games, looking for sand dollars (no luck) and surfing the waves...well, the youngest Thompsons anyway.

Unfortunately, little Sophie was recovering from either a dish of bad shrimp or a 12 hour bug and wasn't quite up to the excursion ("But I was REALLY looking forward to that picnic!") Promises of another picnic on Wednesday cheered her up and she rested at home with her mom.



We're happy that she feels much better now...

Enjoy some of the pics of today...






And from our balcony this evening, we actually saw the space shuttle launch into the sky from Cape Canaveral on the opposite coast!



A great end to the day as tomorrow we head to the Kennedy Space Center to introduce the three girls to the wonders of space - we can't wait! (Sorry, no laptop while we are away for this short road trip so back on the blog on Tuesday evening.)

Love to all our friends and family! (S, I am working on the tan as fast as possible! AM, loved the pics of our girls on your blog.)

Beach Day

With Bryanna feeling much better (just a little worn out) we headed to beach for more beautiful weather and fun in the sand. A few shots of our day follow. FOr more photos and a different perspective on our holiday, see Kim's blog at Mosey Along.

Thompsons Senior observing the goings on...

And my favourite picture of the day...a little worn out after a busy day...Cassidy takes care of her big sister.

P.S. Poor Sophie has now picked up stomach bug...poor little one! We'll update everyone tonight.

aaahhhh....

Okay, okay, all of you impatient friends...here is the first of your Florida blogs!

The girls and I had a smooth direct flight to Tampa on Wednesday, arriving mid-afternoon to find Nanny and Papa waiting for us in the terminal - the girls raced to them in absolute joy. On my part, it felt like I had been running a race for weeks and weeks and as we stepped out of the terminal and I felt the first warmth of the Florida sun, I took a deep breath.

An hour later, we arrived at the lovely condo my parents are renting in St. Petersburg...directly overlooking the inland waterway and a minute from the amazing beaches of St. Pete's.

After some quick unpacking, my mom, the girls and I headed down to the pool while my dad headed back to the airport to pick up my sister and niece.

As the girls excitedly leapt into the pool, I settled onto a lounge chair. I heard the waves lapping behind us from the bay, a flamingo flew overhead, and the 82 degree warmth soaked into my winter white limbs.

It was an aaahhhh moment.

Kim and Sophie arrived a couple of hours later and we headed down to the beach as the sun was setting...another absolutely lovely moment.

Thursday was spent almost completely by the pool as the Thompson sisters and children made the transition from Winter weather (Ontario or California as the case may be) and busy schedules.

Today, mom and dad went to see the Blue Jay game with friends while Kim and I took the girls shopping so we could find some bathing suits for ourselves. We found some, but unfortunately while we were out, Bryanna started feeling quite ill and it appears has come down with some bug and is running a fever.

So we stuck close to the condo while Bryanna rested and the younger two played together happily all day.

We hope Bryanna will feel better tomorrow and then we'll head to the beach.

Stay tuned...I'll post as regularly as fun stuff occurs!

Lianne

Forever Family, Part 2!

In our family, all dates related to the dynamic duo are close together...referral dates, China travel dates, birthday celebrations, and Forever Family days. Bryanna's FFD was 6 days ago and tomorrow (March the 5th) is the day we left for China to bring home Cassidy. Cassidy's FFD is next week on March 10th. I like the timing actually - one more link tying my beautiful little girls together.

So it was six years ago (really? how on EARTH did that happen?) that the gerber baby, soon to be known as Cassidy Tian Ci Thompson came to us. Little did we know that the hours of sleeping peacefully by our side as the chaos of adoption paperwork swirled around her was the biggest head-fake known to the world.

Soon that peaceful interlude would be replaced by a little one who tossed and turned and cried and screamed through every night for the next 18 months. (Yeah, that's when I started drinking coffee.)

During that period, I truly believe Cassidy was fighting to find her place in this life... struggling to find peace in a life that up till then could only have seemed disruptive and loud and frightening to a little baby...searching desperately through all those dark hours for some light that she could grasp onto. And when she finally understood that her mom and sister and grandparents and aunt and uncle and the multitude of friends surrounding her were never going to let her go, then and only then could she finally rest. And blossom into the crazy, funny, energetic, sunshine of all our lives.

Sleep well, little one. You are forever home.