Goodbye Sunshine

Today was our last full day in Florida. It was gorgeous. We went to church, blew some bubbles, fed the ducks and went to a Greek Festival where we chowed down on some yummy gyros and Greek salads. The boys are soaking in the tub trying to get all their dirt off and there was lots today!

Tomorrow we leave early in the morning to drive up to Orlando for our flight. So it's going to be a long day for us. Hopefully they will both be ready for a nap when we get on the plane. Luckily, its a direct flight so no getting on and off planes. Tuesday we return to normalcy. That should be interesting. The boys have eaten pretzels, popcorn, pickles and pudding for almost every meal. Guess they liked things that started with the letter P. It should be an interesting week of getting back into routine.

We've had a blast down here and enjoyed some fabulous weather. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for all the fun. Here are some pictures from our last day.

Relaxing after a long day in the sun.

Watching the ducks before church.

Carson loved to wash all the sand off our shoes and toys.

Helping brother feed the ducks.




Catching Bubbles

Twins Fans and Beach Bums

Last night we made it to the Twins home opener against the Red Sox. They lost BUT it was grapefruit night so we walked away with 6 free grapefruits. I told Carson he could have whatever he wanted for dinner and he chose popcorn and peanuts. I think he had fun except he kept saying it was a basketball game then a hockey game so we have to work on the baseball part.

Last night as I was trying to get him to go to bed at 11pm! I whispered, "I love you little man."

Carson replied...

"I love you little momma."

I think it's official.....you can call us Beach Bums now.

Emptying the ocean with grandma.

I found a starfish in the water too. It was alive so we snapped a quick picture before I threw it back. (It's a $500 fine if we take it!). Another lady there found a huge seashell that was alive and she brought it over for the boys to see before she took it back. They thought that was pretty neat.

Declan is going to be my bug boy. He was trying to chase and pick up a huge grasshopper. Carson won't touch them with a ten foot pull but Declan loves them. Someday he'll be bringing them home to me. Lovely.

Back to the Beach

This morning we headed over to Sanibel Island. The weather was perfect, the water was cool and the boys were thrilled to be back at the beach. They loved picking up sea shells. We decided we are going to head back there tomorrow. The beach seems to be less crowded and much prettier then Ft. Myers Beach. Here are some pictures.


The view!

Checking out the view themselves.

Looking for seashells.

Found one.

Having fun on the beach.

Brotherly love OR choking.

And a picture for my husband. Mmmm, a big basket of Calamari. It was delicious!

I'm Famous

Maybe I could make millions on selling the copyright to my picture!!

(Click on the picture to get a bigger view)

Here is a link to the story.

Where's the Manatees?

Last night on the news all they wanted to talk about was how cold it was going to get. One of their stories was how to avoid hypothermia. Hypothermia? Can you even get that at 40 degrees? And they kept warning people "if" they had to go out to make sure they bundled up. It's so crazy to watch the news like that and see how different people react to weather.

So it's still too cold for the beach. This morning we headed out to try and see some Manatees. They have a few different places you can go to try and see some. Unfortunately, we missed them today but the boys still had fun watching the fish and playing on the playground. Here are some pictures from our day.

No Manatees....

but some pretty scenery.

The boys could see little fsh in the water so they were pretty excited about that, at least Declan was.

They refused to cooperate when I wanted a picture with them.

But they loved the playground.

And this has to be the best picture EVER!



On our way home we saw this accident. It must have just happened before we got there because there was only a couple of police cars there. No ambulance or firetruck yet. And later on the news they had the whole Interstate shutdown. According to them a dump truck hit the semi and it slammed into the guard rail. It looks like the driver of the semi got out ok. And its so dry down here that the other side of the Interstate had a grass fire from it.

Old Man Winter...yeah right

According to the weathermen down here Old Man Winter has returned. Which in this part of the world means the temperature has dropped to a bone chilling 55 degrees. You'd think Florida was freezing over at this point. These people have no idea what Old Man Winter is. A week ago at home, with the wind chill, it was 30 below. That's a 90 degree difference from there to here. Last night on the news they were talking "wind chills" of 30 to 40 degrees. Seriously, that is not a wind chill. It's chilly, but not a wind chill.

So we weren't able to hit the beach today but we hope to be back by the end of the week. Today we went to visit the Ford and Edison Summer Estates. We didn't get to do the tour though since it was over an hour wait but we did see the Banyan tree.

Carson was pouting so looking at the camera was the last thing on his mind.

Here is part of the tree. This is all one tree. It was pretty neat. Normally you can walk through it but today it was blocked off.

Here is a shot with my new wide angle lens. All one tree.

With all the sun we got yesterday Carson's freckles popped on his nose. You can click on the picture to get a better view. Aren't they cute!

We got ourselves some bad sunscreen.....

We soaked ourselves in sunscreen today and headed to the beach. Well apparently the sunscreen didn't work, at least mine. So I'm fried. Well at least I got some color and now some Aloe so I can have some relief.

The boys had a blast at the beach. Carson didn't want to get out of the water and Declan loved the sand. Here are some pictures of our fun day.

Flowers!

A Gecko. Carson isn't impressed with them.

A crab.....a dead crab.

First we need glasses and yes, they still work upside down.

Careful...the water is going to get you.

Oh no!

It didn't take him to long to figure out he liked it.

Declan preferred the birds flying overhead.

Back away from me, I'm eating raisins.

Ack, but I can't eat them with sand on my fingers.


Attempting the water with some help.

Ohhh....it feels good.

Washing off at home.