Miami Beach- then and now
Once a year photo opportunities abound with kids- first day of school, birthdays, Halloween, Easter, Christmas and more. Photos taken throughout the years on these "same days" i.e. the annual Christmas photos serve as markers to see how much kids have grown and changed throughout the years.
Sometimes photo opportunities arise in the same or similar circumstance but aren't of a yearly or any kind of regular interval. Such is what I realized when I looked back at photos of our first trip to the Miami Trump Int'l beach resort almost four years ago. The similarities and the differences in the kids' struck me poignantly and I thought I'd share a few.
Here's then and here's now. Let's start with Alyssa:
Alyssa was six years old back in the summer of 2012 when we went to Miami. She had extremely short hair. Now her hair is long. She had a mouthful of baby (albeit already crooked) teeth. Now she has a mouthful of adult teeth and braces on her top teeth. Her personality has changed much less than her appearance has. In 2012, Alyssa loved soccer, swimming and her sister. Happy to report that in 2016 she loves to play soccer, she loves to swim and she loves to play with her sister.
Alyssa in 2012 in Miami
This picture really shows how short her hair was...
2016 Alyssa in Miami- longer hair, adult teeth that are braced and bracketed
Abby was nine years old back in the summer of 2012. She had long hair then and she has long hair now. Her hair color has changed, though. It was light blond back then and is dark blond (at best and with a little help from a colorist) now. She had braces on her teeth back in 2012 and now has pretty pearly whites. She still has many of her same interests that she had back then but she's added a few like social media. Such is the age, I suppose, for that.
Here are some pictures of her in Miami, 2012
Abby 2016- same length hair- different color; no braces, straight teeth
Both girls: back in the day they wore matching and modest bathing suits from Justice. In 2016, they are not wearing matching bathing suits from Justice and modest is not a word that they want associated with their swim wear. I've tried to not let them go too skimpy :(. The girls also had (in 2012) a pretty large assortment of matching casual clothes. Not everything they wore matched- I wasn't trying to pretend they were twins or anything but I did love them to rock matching outfits occasionally. They haven't worn matching casual clothes in at least three years so they were at the tail end of the matching era in 2012. In 2012, they were best friends. The entire summer of 2012 was one, long continuous play date for the girls. In 2016, they are still best friends. They've already made summer vacation play plans for the upcoming summer. They are so lucky to have each other!
Here are some pictures of them from when we were in Miami in 2012
If their bathing suits matched, you betcha their cover ups did, too!!
Alyssa's shirt isn't really visible but they're wearing matching American Girl doll shirts. Also, note that their head bands are matching, too. My matching skills were on point!
Here their headbands match but they're different colors. What puzzles me is why they aren't wearing the head bands that match their shirts- they had head bands made out of the same material as their shirts. Hmmmm, I guess my matching skills weren't as on point as I thought :(.
2016- no matching clothes but the girls were as close as ever in Miami
Jacob was eleven years old in the summer of 2012. One of the biggest physical changes Jacob has undergone since our trip to Miami in 2012 is that his hair was long back then and it is short now. He actually had his hair cut less than a month after we arrived home from Miami in 2012 and it's been short ever since. Somewhat ironically, his hair now is about as long as it's been since his haircut in 2012. Getting him to Great Clips (yeah, we're highfalutin when it comes to Jacob's hair :)) is an arduous task; he just doesn't want to go so his hair isn't as short now as it's been the past few years. The other big change is Jacob's physical size. When we were in Miami in 2012, I have pictures of Donnie and Jacob in the pool where Donnie lifts Jacob and then flips him in the water. While Donnie is very strong, I don't think he could currently lift and flip Jacob (if he could, it would look VERY strange to see a man lift and throw his teenage son!!). I was quite a bit bigger than Jacob was back in 2012 and now he's a decent bit bigger than I am (at least three inches taller and about 25 pounds).
Here he is in 2012 in Miami
Here is Jacob in August of 2012 after having just got his hair cut- we had only returned from Miami for about two weeks.
Here is Jacob in Miami in 2016
Other changes from 2012 to 2016 not related to the kids but related to our trip:
The Trump International Hotel- back in 2012, Donald Trump was a rich real estate developer. I don't know if his TV show was on back then (I never watched it so I don't know when it aired). Now, he's in contention for the Republican presidential nominee. He's not my first choice for the nomination but I won't be voting for Hillary or Bernie so if he gets the nomination, he'll get my vote. If he gets the nomination, we'll place a Trump sign in our yard and if Hillary gets the D nomination, there's a better than 50% chance that we'll place a "Hillary for Prison" sign in our yard, too.
Chelsea Football Club- We went to Miami in 2012 so that Donnie, Jacob and Alyssa could watch a Chelsea exhibition match in Miami. Back then and up until some point last year, Chelsea's sponsor was Samsung so Chelsea jerseys all proclaimed "Samsung." Now Chelsea's sponsor is a "tyre" ("tire" in American English) company. I had lots of pictures of Donnie, Jacob and Alyssa bedecked in their Chelsea attire in 2012 since they were attending a Chelsea match. I realized when I looked at my 2016 Miami pictures that I have a picture of Alyssa in the new Chelsea jersey.
Donnie, Alyssa and Jacob before they left our hotel to go to the Chelsea match- this was 2012 (if Jacob and Alyssa's hair weren't giveaways!).
At the venue...
In 2016, Alyssa wore her Chelsea jersey with Chelsea's new sponsor when we were in Miami:
Last but not least, back in 2012, all of our kids were truly "kids." Now 2/3's of them are teenagers. The challenges are different, that's for sure. I like the teenage years, though, in a number of ways. The teens are super into the presidential election, for example, and it's fun to see the results of our talking about "real" matters at home such as politics. Jacob has told me he's made several political related comments in his classes at school, and not surprisingly, his political views are different than many of his teachers' views. The point is that he's talking about his views and I'm very pleased about that. Like any stage, the older kid and teenage years are not easy but there are plenty of great things about them, too.
2012 picture of kids in Miami
No matter the year, the kids' sizes, or interests, we love these kids so much!
Sometimes photo opportunities arise in the same or similar circumstance but aren't of a yearly or any kind of regular interval. Such is what I realized when I looked back at photos of our first trip to the Miami Trump Int'l beach resort almost four years ago. The similarities and the differences in the kids' struck me poignantly and I thought I'd share a few.
Here's then and here's now. Let's start with Alyssa:
Alyssa was six years old back in the summer of 2012 when we went to Miami. She had extremely short hair. Now her hair is long. She had a mouthful of baby (albeit already crooked) teeth. Now she has a mouthful of adult teeth and braces on her top teeth. Her personality has changed much less than her appearance has. In 2012, Alyssa loved soccer, swimming and her sister. Happy to report that in 2016 she loves to play soccer, she loves to swim and she loves to play with her sister.
Alyssa in 2012 in Miami
This picture really shows how short her hair was...
2016 Alyssa in Miami- longer hair, adult teeth that are braced and bracketed
Abby was nine years old back in the summer of 2012. She had long hair then and she has long hair now. Her hair color has changed, though. It was light blond back then and is dark blond (at best and with a little help from a colorist) now. She had braces on her teeth back in 2012 and now has pretty pearly whites. She still has many of her same interests that she had back then but she's added a few like social media. Such is the age, I suppose, for that.
Here are some pictures of her in Miami, 2012
Abby 2016- same length hair- different color; no braces, straight teeth
Both girls: back in the day they wore matching and modest bathing suits from Justice. In 2016, they are not wearing matching bathing suits from Justice and modest is not a word that they want associated with their swim wear. I've tried to not let them go too skimpy :(. The girls also had (in 2012) a pretty large assortment of matching casual clothes. Not everything they wore matched- I wasn't trying to pretend they were twins or anything but I did love them to rock matching outfits occasionally. They haven't worn matching casual clothes in at least three years so they were at the tail end of the matching era in 2012. In 2012, they were best friends. The entire summer of 2012 was one, long continuous play date for the girls. In 2016, they are still best friends. They've already made summer vacation play plans for the upcoming summer. They are so lucky to have each other!
Here are some pictures of them from when we were in Miami in 2012
If their bathing suits matched, you betcha their cover ups did, too!!
Alyssa's shirt isn't really visible but they're wearing matching American Girl doll shirts. Also, note that their head bands are matching, too. My matching skills were on point!
Here their headbands match but they're different colors. What puzzles me is why they aren't wearing the head bands that match their shirts- they had head bands made out of the same material as their shirts. Hmmmm, I guess my matching skills weren't as on point as I thought :(.
2016- no matching clothes but the girls were as close as ever in Miami
Jacob was eleven years old in the summer of 2012. One of the biggest physical changes Jacob has undergone since our trip to Miami in 2012 is that his hair was long back then and it is short now. He actually had his hair cut less than a month after we arrived home from Miami in 2012 and it's been short ever since. Somewhat ironically, his hair now is about as long as it's been since his haircut in 2012. Getting him to Great Clips (yeah, we're highfalutin when it comes to Jacob's hair :)) is an arduous task; he just doesn't want to go so his hair isn't as short now as it's been the past few years. The other big change is Jacob's physical size. When we were in Miami in 2012, I have pictures of Donnie and Jacob in the pool where Donnie lifts Jacob and then flips him in the water. While Donnie is very strong, I don't think he could currently lift and flip Jacob (if he could, it would look VERY strange to see a man lift and throw his teenage son!!). I was quite a bit bigger than Jacob was back in 2012 and now he's a decent bit bigger than I am (at least three inches taller and about 25 pounds).
Here he is in 2012 in Miami
Here is Jacob in August of 2012 after having just got his hair cut- we had only returned from Miami for about two weeks.
What a cutie! No wonder his doppelganger is an Armani model (whom we found a picture of in Miami this time around. I wrote about it in this post):).
Here is Jacob in Miami in 2016
Other changes from 2012 to 2016 not related to the kids but related to our trip:
The Trump International Hotel- back in 2012, Donald Trump was a rich real estate developer. I don't know if his TV show was on back then (I never watched it so I don't know when it aired). Now, he's in contention for the Republican presidential nominee. He's not my first choice for the nomination but I won't be voting for Hillary or Bernie so if he gets the nomination, he'll get my vote. If he gets the nomination, we'll place a Trump sign in our yard and if Hillary gets the D nomination, there's a better than 50% chance that we'll place a "Hillary for Prison" sign in our yard, too.
Chelsea Football Club- We went to Miami in 2012 so that Donnie, Jacob and Alyssa could watch a Chelsea exhibition match in Miami. Back then and up until some point last year, Chelsea's sponsor was Samsung so Chelsea jerseys all proclaimed "Samsung." Now Chelsea's sponsor is a "tyre" ("tire" in American English) company. I had lots of pictures of Donnie, Jacob and Alyssa bedecked in their Chelsea attire in 2012 since they were attending a Chelsea match. I realized when I looked at my 2016 Miami pictures that I have a picture of Alyssa in the new Chelsea jersey.
Donnie, Alyssa and Jacob before they left our hotel to go to the Chelsea match- this was 2012 (if Jacob and Alyssa's hair weren't giveaways!).
At the venue...
In 2016, Alyssa wore her Chelsea jersey with Chelsea's new sponsor when we were in Miami:
Last but not least, back in 2012, all of our kids were truly "kids." Now 2/3's of them are teenagers. The challenges are different, that's for sure. I like the teenage years, though, in a number of ways. The teens are super into the presidential election, for example, and it's fun to see the results of our talking about "real" matters at home such as politics. Jacob has told me he's made several political related comments in his classes at school, and not surprisingly, his political views are different than many of his teachers' views. The point is that he's talking about his views and I'm very pleased about that. Like any stage, the older kid and teenage years are not easy but there are plenty of great things about them, too.
2012 picture of kids in Miami
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