Florida!

Mike's Allied convention was in Florida this year!  Amelia Island. It's so beautiful!  

We were there from Oct. 26 to Nov 1st.  My Mom stayed with B and Amanda a few nights and they stayed alone a couple of nights, too.

We decided to take Sydney with us this year!  She was so excited!  Here we are on the beach for a dinner that was held right out on the beach at sunset. So beautiful!

We thought we'd get more shopping in, but there really wasn't great shopping at all. Sydney had saved a bunch of money for this trip.  Tyra Jones and I usually shop at least one full day.  So, Sydney was a little disappointed. We had room service, had treats from the little cafe in the hotel (Ritz-Carlton) had an ocean view from our room, sunbathed and walked on the beach!

We collected Starfish and some shells.  We went to a few meetings and all the dinners. They were always a big deal.

On the activity day, we did archery (good stance Katniss) and rode Segways!  So much fun!  The food was awesome!  One of the boys that came along from another Allied agent with his 2 dads (yep-although cool that they adopted a 14 year old out of the foster system), was trying to pick up Sydney. He and I had a chat about how she doesn't get to date until she's 16.  He couldn't believe it! (he's from Hollywood, CA).  Sydney was great at talking to all the big wigs from Allied.  Everywhere we went, people told her how beautiful she is.  That's kind of a nice self-esteem builder...although I wanted to tell them that she's beautiful inside and out. She's much more than just a pretty face!

We had a good time bonding.  She did admit to missing Amanda and Brandon. She would have liked to have them around to hang out with.  Hanging with adults for a week gets old ;)

On Halloween, we drove with the owners into . It's the oldest city in America.  We did a 'Ghost' tour that was pretty silly.  We thought it'd be awesome since it was Halloween, but no....We had dinner at a pub that as soon as it turned 10pm, the college students came by droves in costumes and we hustled out of there.

This picture is from the fort....Sydney wanted a better picture so she could instagram it and I was mean and didn't let her.  But, this picture of she and Dad is super cute!!  We didn't take a lot of pictures this trip.  I know we have a few more and I'll add them as I find them :)  I have to say, that I understand why old people retire to Florida!  My knees felt awesome there!  Didn't hurt and didn't feel like they were full of fluid at all!  We got home and within one day I totally felt 'back to normal'  If the water in Florida didn't taste so awful, I might be begging Mike to move!

I've been looking for a couple more pictures, but in the meantime, see what Amanda and Brandon did while we were gone!

Yep, Brandon's face stayed pretty red for awhile!