Orlando Bound...

Friday we packed up the family to head off to Orlando for a 10 day vacation! We made a pit stop in Columbia, SC where we spent the night with our friends Grady and Holly and FINALLY got to meet their new baby Ross. Ross was just beautiful and was such a sweet girl! Bailey was VERY excited to meet her new little friend!

Saturday we traveled the remaining distance to Orlando. We made plenty of stops along the way to break the trip up a bit, so the journey from Columbia to Orlando took us around 10 hours. I must say that Craig and I were SO VERY impressed with Bailey... she was a FANTASTIC traveler! We only had a couple short crying spells when it was time to eat... and THANKFULLY we were always able to get pulled over before it turned into a full blown meltdown! God was DEFINITELY on our side on Saturday!

Memorial Day we went to Winter Park, FL... a town about 10 miles away from downtown Orlando. The community is located on several lakes that are connected by a series of canals. We spent the morning taking a scenic boat tour of the lakes and canals. The scenery (both the landscapes and the mansions) was ABSOLUTLEY GORGEOUS!

The state law requires that any child under 6 wear a life jacket and Bailey was no exception to this rule. I was VERY NERVOUS about how this would go. She fussed a bit before we boarded the boat... she didn't like how the life jacket would bunch up around her face when we sat her on our laps. Thankfully she was quite content to stand wearing the life jacket! She was such a trooper! She didn't cry a single time while on the one hour boat tour!!! In fact, by the end of the tour she was sound asleep standing up on her daddy's lap!

After the boat tour we spent a few hours exploring downtown and having lunch in Winter Park. The town was really pretty and had so many neat little shops. What a fun way to spend the day!

Next stop... Sea World!!!

A Walk on the Wild Side...

Saturday we traveled up to Natural Bridge, Virginia to the Virginia Safari Park! What an AMAZING way to spend a day! We went with our friends Misy and Rob and their baby Maelen... and let me just say that it was TOTALLY worth the money and the 3 1/2 hour drive!The park is set up in two sections...

1. There's a section that you walk through with different kinds of animal enclosures.

Giraffes... I can't tell you how AWESOME it was to get this close to a giraffe!

The giraffes came to visit us... but they were a little too timid to eat from our hands that day. You can see my hand full of food sticking out in this picture and the giraffe just looking at me like I'm crazy for wanting her to eat it.

Our family hagning out at the giraffe enclosure... Bailey wearing the giraffe hat that Misty and Maelen gave her!

Misty and Maelen... also hanging out waiting for the giraffes!

Tigers

Kangaroos... one of them even had a baby in its pouch, but we didn't get a picture of that.

2. The other section of the 180 acre park was a drive through safari where you can feed the animals from your car. The animals are so used to being fed like this that they LITERLLY wait for the cars to come through the entrance gate!

Bailey had a great time sitting up front with her daddy watching all of the animals through the car window!

Ostrich

Elk... just before it stole a bucket of food from my hand.
Sharing its prize with its buddies!

Zebras... I ABSOLUTELY LOVE zebras, so this was like a dream come true! I STILL can't believe that I got to pet them!!!

Camel...

...stealing a bucket of food from Misty! It stuck its entire head into the van window... and let me tell you his head was HUGE!

Llama

Axis deer

And we saw so many more that we didn't get pictures of... it was such a fun trip through the park! You can see how very excited Bailey was by the end of the hour long safari drive!

5 Months!

Bailey turned 5 months old today! As is the case with every month, she continues to get bigger and stronger every day. She's sits up in the Bumbo chair that Maelen so kindly let us borrow. She can even pull herself up into a sitting position when we have her lying down, cradled in our arms! She has also started to play in the Exersaucer at the day school and loved it so much that we simply had to get her one! It's so cool to watch her hold herself up in it and spin around to play with all of the toys!

She's had a few firsts this month! One of which is solid foods. She's been eating solids now for about 4 weeks. We quickly moved on from the rice cereal (yuck!) and now enjoy such delicacies as carrots, squash, and green beans. Next we plan to move on to peas! She is such a terrific eater!!! She will now eat a jar and a half in one sitting if we allow her! No wonder she's growing so big! Another first for her this month is teeth! Bailey now has two teeth that have broken through... her two front bottom ones. We suspect she has another couple ready to appear at any moment. I must admit though, she's not been nearly as fussy as I was expecting through this whole teething thing... hopefully this will continue to be the case!

Anyway, we absolutely love our girl and want to share her with the rest of you! Enjoy the pictures!

Gotta love a chilled teether!

Hanging out on the pretty patio while daddy grills

The bestest of friends!

If you look close enough you can see her two little teeth poking through

Working it out in the Exersaucer... oh what fun!

Birthday/Mother's Day in Clover!

We certainly had a lot to celebrate this weekend! We started Friday with Erin's 29th birthday extravaganza in downtown Charlotte! This marked my first visit to the EpiCentre with dinner at Wild Wing Cafe and drinks later on at Black Fin. Craig was the only guy with our group of 11 girls, but he managed just fine! We definitely had a lot of fun! (Thank goodness for grandparent babysitters!!!)
We rounded off the weekend festivities with Mother's Day at my parents' house! It's hard to believe that on this day last year we were sharing the news of our pregnancy with our families... as exciting as that was, this year's Mother's Day was even more special!

Best Buddies!

Bailey ABSOLUTELY loves Sydney... she gets so excited when she sees him... smiling and reaching out to pet him!

...and he MOST CERTAINLY loves her too... he's never very far away... always looking out for her!

There will be no separating these two once Bailey begins crawling and walking... he's DEFINITELY her best buddy!