The guys got up early on Monday morning of our vacation to travel to the Kennedy Space Center to watch shuttle Discovery take off into space. It sounded like everyone had the same idea and traffic made it impossible to get there on time for the take-off. They were 40 miles away, pulled over and were still able to get a pretty good view. 
Our vacation pretty much consisted of split time between the pool and the beach each day. The kids favorite was the pool.
Bein' silly.
Enjoying the beautiful Florida sunset with my honey. :) 
My favorite place to be was the beach...although it was a little more tricky keeping track of all four kiddos there.
So fun to have this little pumpkin along for her first family vacation with us. She was such a gem. She took naps in the stroller wherever we went...the pool or the beach. 
A friend of mine let me borrow this little tent which worked perfectly to keep the sun off baby. Thanks Vicki!
Swim time with the cousins.
~Ice cream run~
Our vacation pretty much consisted of split time between the pool and the beach each day. The kids favorite was the pool.Bein' silly.Enjoying the beautiful Florida sunset with my honey. :) My favorite place to be was the beach...although it was a little more tricky keeping track of all four kiddos there.So fun to have this little pumpkin along for her first family vacation with us. She was such a gem. She took naps in the stroller wherever we went...the pool or the beach. A friend of mine let me borrow this little tent which worked perfectly to keep the sun off baby. Thanks Vicki!Swim time with the cousins.
~Ice cream run~Me and my sis...only time in our lives that we will both be using strollers at the same time. We've always wanted to have babies at the same time and finally do. So fun.
Our condo had a beautiful park like setting in our backyard with lots of grass for running around, throwing footballs and that is also where we had the Easter egg hunt. We would always send the kids out to this park bench to eat their popsicles. 
More beach pictures. :)
The whole group
We ran into so many familiar faces from back home while on the beach. So fun to walk up and find our cousins, Don & Heather and their sweet family enjoying their vacation.
cousins- isabella, william & jack
Great Aunt Mary Katherine stopped by for a visit.
Grandma time
Last night on the beach
Our condo had a beautiful park like setting in our backyard with lots of grass for running around, throwing footballs and that is also where we had the Easter egg hunt. We would always send the kids out to this park bench to eat their popsicles. More beach pictures. :)The whole groupWe ran into so many familiar faces from back home while on the beach. So fun to walk up and find our cousins, Don & Heather and their sweet family enjoying their vacation.cousins- isabella, william & jackGreat Aunt Mary Katherine stopped by for a visit.Grandma timeLast night on the beach
My parents also travelled with us...what a blessing to have them and the extra help with the kids. My sister and her family were there as well...the WHOLE family was together. It's a wonderful feeling when everyone is away from work and all the distractions of daily life...and you can just focus on each other. I love vacations...the freedom from schedules and appointments, the bonding times, the joy of watching grandparents love their grandchildren and cousins play...what a blessing!
A highlight of our vacation this year was meeting Kaiya's birthmom and her family at Downtown Disney. I'm thankful Kaiya had this opportunity and that I was there right by her side to witness this very special meeting. We have a high respect for Kristin and hold her very close to our hearts. 
Another fun thing about travelling with family is the fun tricks you can play on each other. Somebody plastered our truck with sticky notes! Hmmmm wonder who that could have been?
and signs like these... 
you know you're getting close to this...
Our first stop...Downtown Disney.
We found out about this place three years ago when we were in Orlando waiting for our daughter to be born. I was about to lose my mind with all the waiting in the hotel room for a phone call and we didn't want to spend a lot of $$...so my cousin Danielle told us about Downtown Disney. Admission is free and it was a perfect way to pass the time while we waited to meet our new daughter. Here is a picture of Caedmon at the LEGO store three years ago.
And here is a picture from last week. 
We let the children each pick one thing to buy on our vacation. Caedmon decided he wanted to choose something from the LEGO store, but it was a tough decision. The look on his face makes me laugh...he's really thinking this through and weighing all his options.
Finally a decision was made.
Next stop...the princess store, of course. We didn't do the little girl princess makeovers that they offered, which were adorable, but Kaiya did get sprinkled with the free pixie dust. :)
Daddy helped her pick out these...and she walked around the rest of the day like she was indeed a princess. :)
Lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe'...we sat right next to the animated gorillas. I got a little worried how the kids would react when the lights went down and the thunder started rumbling...then the gorillas started in. Caedmon's eyeballs got big, but thankfully there were no tears.
We left Downtown Disney later that afternoon and had a few hours before we could check into our hotel. I think the highlight of the day was coming here...blessing #5
...because this is where our daughter took her first breath 3 1/2 years ago. I got butterflies in my stomach when we walked into the hospital where we fist laid eyes on our sweet little Kaiya. All the memories came flooding back...the anxious feelings of not knowing what was happening, the exciting anticipation of meeting our daughter for the first time, the moment we saw her birth mother being wheeled right past us (not knowing who we were) with tears streaming down her face...I'll never forget that.
Kaiya was so proud as we talked to her about this special place where she was born.
This is the spot where Kevin pulled up the car at the hospital to take our daughter home.
The same spot three years ago.
A long day...off to dream land as soon as we left the hospital.
Frequent ice cream stops are mandatory while on vacation.
We finally checked into our hotel later that afternoon and after supper out, the kids begged to check out the kiddie pool.
Off to bed early because the next day was going to be a very BIG day!
Blessing #6 - We only had to pay for one ticket to get our family into the Magic Kingdom because of the generosity of a relative...and we were going to enjoy every minute of this amazing place!! We arrived when the park opened at 9 and didn't leave until it closed at 9 that night. This picture was taken on Main Street just after entering the park. 
The Dumbo ride
Goofy's barnstorming roller coaster
inside Minnie's House
Princess pictures with Sleeping Beauty,
Cinderella (yeah, I had to sneak in on this one),
and Belle.
The weather was so nice all day and at this point it got really hot...which lasted for about an hour before it started cooling down again. This was a perfect time for popsicles while waiting for the parade. This was the part of the day when the kids really started getting tired, but they got their second, third and fourth wind as the day went on. :)
This was the first of three parades that we saw that day. 
Cinderella and the Prince
Caedmon had been asking all day if we could ride the race cars.
Pictures with Mickey & Minnie.
The second parade was a celebration parade including dancing in the streets by the spectators...US...so fun!
Then the beautiful fireworks show behind the castle set to music concluded our day. 
Kaiya's expression through most of the fireworks show. 
And two very tired children fell asleep before we even pulled out of the parking lot.
Friday--our last day--was spent relaxing by the pool.
We left Saturday morning and began the trek back to snowy Indiana. The weather on our trip home was not that fun....rain and more rain most of the way. We made it to Tennessee that night right before tornadoes went through that area. I was relieved to get off the road for a few hours to have a nice sit down meal and rest. We debated where to eat supper and finally settled on Cracker Barrel. As we were eating, an 80 year old man came up to our table and asked Kevin, "Where did you get your children?" Kevin told him where we adopted them and the man pulled out his wallet and said he wanted to pay for our dinner...blessing #7. We were both so touched by his generosity...not knowing who we were, but just observing our family and wanting to bless us...it left us speechless.