I have been woefully behind (inept?) at keeping this blog updated. I get busy doing other things and forget to take the time to say something about the things that Joya has done. There are a lot of things that I am going to skip because it's easier to just start fresh from this point and move forward vice continually trying to play the catch up game.
We left on July 1, 2107 to go to Virginia to visit friends, go to Busch Gardens and check on my house. We stopped at a rest area in South Carolina to get out and walk around and to let Joya stretch her legs. The glamor shots above are of her in the rest area. She ran around the rest area, waving at all the trucks and drivers, then she climbed on one of the picnic tables and posed with her leg up in the air. She thought nothing of it, I about died laughing before I could get her picture taken. During the baby shower for Noodle, Joya got a small pink dog as a present, and she just loved it!
On our trip to Busch Gardens, Joya wore a patriotic Minnie Mouse dress and I put a portable fan on a spray bottle in the stroller with her. The cringe you see is after I sprayed her in the face with the water. She wouldn't let me get on one of the roller coasters, as you can see from the death grip she has around my neck. So I let Justin and Mike ride the coaster and took Joya to the caricature place to get her caricature done to look like Wonder Woman. She was just as good and calm as she could be while she was sitting there. She eventually fell asleep and I got to ride coasters — but this was after lunch. I ordered us a German sausage sampler platter. She ate bratwurst, white bratwurst and took a bite of the kielbasa and decided she didn't really like it. Which was followed by her spitting it out on me. We went to see a couple of shows after she woke up. We watched Celtic Fyre first and got a seat at one of the tables in the front where they dance in front of you. When the show first started Joya cringed and cried from all of the clapping. But once the dancing started, she was just fine. Several of the dancers talked to her and one of them even asked for a high five, which she obliged him with. The second show was Britmania. She loved this one, too. She sat perfectly still and her head moved back and forth as they danced across the stage. After the show I sat her on the stage and took her picture (a note for everyone else, you're not supposed to do that and a stage manager will come and shoo you away). I did get the picture, though! We had reservations for the Busch Gardens Fourth of July picnic. Joya would eat the ribs, or the chicken, or the pasta salad, but she did eat a slice of watermelon and a corn on the cob. I didn't get all of the watermelon out of her shirt, I'll have to stain stick it again. With the picnic came a private spot to view the fireworks. Joya DID NOT like the fireworks, I think because they were too loud. She did watch some of them, but mostly had a death grip on my neck while the fireworks were going. The next evening, Paul and Nora came over for ribs and chicken — and Joya decided it was too hot in the house so she took off her pants and stood in the refrigerator.
Yesterday, July 6, Joya and I dropped Conni off at the airport so she could go to Iowa and we drove to Chincoteague to visit Kim and Jeff. This morning we went to Assateague Island to walk on the beach. When we first got there, the first wave hit Joya and I picked her up before it got her too wet because she was so close to it. After that, she started running away from the waves as they washed up on the beach. Then she saw Kim and me walking in the waves and decided that she wanted to go walk in them again … and took a nosedive into one of them, getting all covered with sand and salt water. I picked her up to walk her back to the truck and she decided that she had to walk in every wave after that. Once we got back to the truck, I walked her over to the showers, washed the sand off and put on her spare outfit. She definitely had a blast.
On the way back for lunch, we stopped at the Pony Center so she could see the horses. She wasn't too afraid of the horse at first, but when he turned his head towards her, she hugged Kim around the neck. We went to the souvenir shop and she had to have a little stuffed pony. Then another little stuffed pony.
Next in the queue is to go to the farm and get ice cream! Once she wakes up from her post-lunch nap.