Florida Take 1

Day 1, Tuesday December 8th - Get up before the sun, get a ride from Uber to the airport, and fly to Florida. Find our rental house in Naples Florida, Swim in pool, walk on beach.

Rory's first flight!

"Can I take a catnap mama?" Of course you can! This was before 8 am!

Rory is a good pillow.

We had an amazing view of the Florida Atlantic coast out our window - we could see the rivers flowing into the ocean! Very cool.

The kids wanted to get in the pool almost immediately!

"Shells!!"...so many shells!

Gerry finally took his crocs off to get his feet wet.

Looking for dolphins - we saw a bunch! We also saw a raccoon (in the garbage and then on the board walk!) and lots of different kinds of birds.

Washing their "friends" (shells) off.

Very methodical.

Cute feed on tippy-toe.

Day 2, Wednesday December 9th - Wake up and enjoy the amazing outdoor space in the house, wait (and WAIT!) for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive (they had about a 4 hour drive), swim, beach, dinner, more swimming.

Waking up with some videos and games OUTSIDE. Very nice.

Marisol trying to scoop out a pool toy. Mommy relaxing.

Gerry comes to check out what she's up to.

This leads to a game of "water hockey" which starts out fun but ends not as happily... as some games do between competitive siblings!

The day we arrived was cloudy - but the second day was beautiful. And very warm.

Marisol using her snorkel to find shells. Grandma hard at work sandcastle building. Daddy... I don't know, being Daddy. :-)

What do they see?? I don't 'know, your guess is as good as mine.

Gerry always loves to play in the sand and it is one of the few times he will go off on his own. Just digging and talking to himself for long stretches of time.

The sun always seems to shine on him. :-)

Adding finishing touches...

...like seaweed...

...and stick bridges...

Covering himself.

Pleased with his work... pleased enough to pose for a picture in fact!

"Burgers!"

Day 3, Thursday December 10th - More swimming in the morning, airboat ride in the Everglades, more swimming, dinner at home and a movie (Inside Out) at night.

Two Gerrys. There was lots of roughhousing. They both (mostly) enjoy every minute of it.

Pool play... Marisol and I joined in too. Every day we did "laps." Lots of them! 32, 31, 29, 70 something... what great exercise! Gerry also practiced swimming without his floaties every day and Marisol practiced her swim strokes, somersaults, and diving for toys.

Airboat ride through Mangrove tree lined "paths".

<3

We saw two Alligators! And we were pretty close too... So exciting~

See him??

He ended up going right under our boat - he was right next to us for a split second before scurrying away.

Captain Gerry

And Captain Marisol too!

They both "held" a baby alligator after the boat ride.

Day 4, Friday December 11th - Clean up the house and pack up,  one more good swim - Grandma finally got in too! - say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, Naples Zoo, Fly home, go pick up Yoshi...

Zoos = Marisol's happy place!

Right before he started falling apart and decided he couldn't walk anymore. This boy was done!

Resting. Marisol was listening to a talk about a Panther. Gerry asked, "Why is the gravel here made of shells?" :-)

A beautiful day! Hot, but you can't complain about that when you're in FLORIDA!!

Obligatory Map picture for Grandma.

Funny birds! Gerry took another break so he could rest and eat. These silly birds were right next to us. Marisol and Mike went to another talk about snakes.

Really cool boat ride to see all the monkeys/apes who live on little islands.

One island of monkeys got an enrichment activity from the zoo keepers right when we went by!

They carry things with their tails! One was carrying his paper bag, but I didn't get a picture.

I love this picture of my 3 loves! And if you look really carefully you can see the Alligator in the background.

Lots of Gators!

Come here pretty giraffe - I have some tasty lettuce for you!

A successful hand off.

Sometimes the cuteness almost kills me... and I HAVE to get a picture of it, or die trying. <3

He wanted the wings on right away.

The final stages of a fun get away. Note Marisol's Alligator tooth necklace.

She was trying out one of the tough "bosses" on his 3DS while he watched.

Finally - reunited! All of us back home.

Phew - what a week! It was both tiring and relaxing. And I'm so glad we have a weekend to recover now... and less than 2 weeks till Christmas! I called this Florida Take 1 because right after Christmas the kids, dog, and I head down to my parent's place to see their new house and spend time with them and Aunt Laura - yay! I'm making good use of these last weeks when it is still ok for me to travel. And I'm certainly not complaining about spending some time in Sunny Florida! 

This week was really great - the kids played together and happily so much and both LOVED having our "own" pool for a few days. I'm so grateful that my husband is so generous about spending his time off with my parents too. Good times and looking forward to more soon.