Sunny Florida

We took a family vacation over Spring Break this year. Our destination was Naples, Florida! My aunt and uncle own a condo down there and graciously offered their place to us. We had been anticipating this get away for months and couldn't wait to hit the road. Yes, we drove! Some may think it was a crazy idea with 4 kids in tow, but they did remarkably well. It was a super long ride, but we made it to the condo in 22 1/2 hours...we drove straight through!!



Look who was waiting for us when we arrived! This 7-foot alligator (appropriately named "Slick" by my dad) was on the lake shore directly behind the lanai of our place! The kids enjoyed looking for him (from the safety of the kitchen window) every morning. Whereever we went, all four of them were constantly on the lookout for gators...and we saw tons of them!!










The condo was beautiful and we had plenty of space to spread out. After settling in we went out to explore a bit and took a walk around this little lake. Lots of locals stopped us to tell us about the alligators so we stayed on the path!



Day 2 - The kids couldn't wait to see "the ocean" (or the Gulf in this case) so we headed to Lowdermilk Beach for the day. We found the perfect spot to set up and the kids headed for the water. Marissa spent all of her time under our sun umbrella happily playing the sand. I don't think she went in the water one time the whole vacation!



Jacob and Jenna spent hours exploring the shore and picking up shells. By the end of the day, they had collected 3 sand pails of seashells!



I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean. (So sappy, I know...sorry, couldn't resist!)

We saw not one, not two, but THREE dolphins while at the beach! It was amazing and beautiful. I tried to get a picture but they were just too quick!

Later that evening, we took a tour of downtown Naples and got some ice cream. It was really pretty with lots of fancy outdoor cafes. It's definitely an up-scale crowd that gathers here and it was fun to see everyone all dressed up and blinged out.

Day 3 - We woke up early and we went to Delnor-Wiggins Beach and continued soaking up the sun. Here I am relaxing with Marissa. Nicholas made friends with a little guy who had a cool dump truck. :)

The kids were happy to have a new place to explore and find more seashells. There were a ton on this beach to be found.

We went out for dinner and then visited The Pier in Naples which was really cool. This pier was quite long and I was actually a tad nervous out there at the end with four kids (especially Nicholas) so we didn't linger too long. We basically walked out to the end and back but for the few moments we were out there we saw more dolphins! Pelicans and stingrays were all over the place, too! We've heard this is a great place to see a beautiful sunset but we were there too early.

Day 4 - This was my favorite day! My parents highly recommended that we check out the Everglades so we drove to Shark Valley and visited Everglades National Park. On the way there we must have seen hundreds of alligators in the canal that bordered the road we were on. The whole trip all we kept saying was "There's one!" over and over again. We took a 2 hour tram ride that went 7 miles down into the heart of the Everglades. Our tour guide was awesome...we learned so much about this very special and fragile habitat. You must visit if you are in the area.

I took the picture above from our tram and that was close enough for me. I was amazed that there were people biking and even walking the road!! No thank you.

We saw lots of interesting wildlife, but the alligators were the stars of the show. Check out the baby alligators on the back of their mom!

Halfway thru the tour we climbed an observation tower and got a fantastic view of the Everglades. Here are the kids on their way up to the top. You can see the road we traveled in the background. Not sure what Nicholas is upset about here.

Here we are!

Day 5 - I don't have any pictures from this day, but for a good reason. The kids wanted to find sand dollars and we heard that Tiger Tail beach on Marco Island was the place to go. Only one thing stood between us and this beach....a lake that we had to wade through to get to it!! During low tide it's the fastest way to the beach so we sent Jacob out first to scope out the best path across and we all followed. The water got pretty high so I figured it wasn't a good idea to bring a camera. The kids weren't disappointed....they found their biggest shells here and came home with sand dollars! By this point, their collection was huge and we had NO idea how we were going to get all those shells home! And no, there was no convincing them to leave a single one behind.

Day 6 - We couldn't believe it when we found out that our friends and neighbors were going to be vacationing in Naples at the same time we were! We made plans to get together for the day at Lowdermilk Beach. It was fun to relax with our friends and let the kids run around together. Here I am with Jeanne.

Jenna and Andrew were in kindergarten together. Tom and Paul worked on a colossal sand castle with the kids!

Here's a little Nicholas story for you. You know that he can never go too long without calling attention to himself in some obnoxious way. This time he decided to drop his swim trunks to his ankles and pee in the ocean in front of approximately hundreds of people! It was both super embarrassing and hilarious!! I can't take that kid anywhere.

Day 7 - The highlight of our last day in Naples was getting together with my friend, Julia and her family.

We became good friends while working together at Lucent Technologies (we were officemates). She moved to Naples and this is the first time I've seen her in years! I'm happy to report that she's expecting Baby #3 very soon!

Our trip home was long, very long...but uneventful. Marissa complained alot that her back hurt from being in her car seat so long. We made it home in 23 hours....not bad with four kids!! Thanks again Aunt Jan and Uncle Dave for letting us stay at your condo!! We had a nice vacation.

In case you were wondering, the kids collected exactly 1101 shells! Jacob took the time to lay them out and count them. Unbelievable!

Go Duke!

After wrapping up the competitive season, Jacob decided to keep going and participated in recreational basketball. He was very excited to be Duke's point guard and was a natural in this position. It was quite entertaining to see him get the ball and drive straight to that hoop. A few games in he started to understand the concept of passing the ball to his teammates (once in awhile) which resulted in laughter and cheers from the sideline. He was on a mission as he set a personal goal of scoring at least 100 points over the nine games played...and he did it! Here he is at the end of the season with Tom, who assistant coached the team.

Jacob turns 8....

It's hard to believe that my first born is already eight! Jacob was really excited for his big day and he couldn't wait to celebrate with his friends and family. With Jacob and Jenna's birthday being one day apart we decided to have both of their birthday parties, here at our house, in ONE big birthday weekend. I figured let's do it all in one big swoop. So, Jenna's party was on Saturday and Jacob's was on Sunday (see post below to read about Jenna's party). What a brillant idea, right!?! Yeah, maybe not so much. Jacob's party went by in a huge chaotic blur...it was absolutely crazy!! In hindsite, I believe that I made a few mistakes while planning this gathering. Jacob decided on a sports themed party and I let him invite as many friends as he wanted (mistake #1). We had well over 20 kids, which was great, but crazy! There were kids running, jumping, screaming, wrestling....all over the place. It was a challenge to corral them all into one focused activity. Plus, we blew through the organized activities that I had planned and didn't have any backup ideas (mistake #2). I also allowed him to invite boys AND girls (mistake #3 and this was the biggest one). In case you're considering it, I highly advise against mixed sex parties at this age. The chemistry between the boys and girls was absolutely insane and took the craziness to a whole new level! (My anxiety goes up just as I sit here re-living this day). Don't get me wrong, the kids were having tons o' fun and Jacob was thrilled...but it was busy...very, very busy. It's a good thing that Jenna had her party first because after Jacob's bash I'm not sure it would have happened! :)

Here's the whole gang eating pizza!

Jacob wanted a basketball birthday cake. I had fun making it for him!***

***Fun sidenote - as I was passing out cake and ice cream one of the boys (I will not post his name) asked me if he could tell me something in my ear. So, I bent down to hear him say "I think you're really hot...and not in a temperature kind of way". I was shocked and I'm sure that my face flushed...it was hilarious! Great, a second grader thinks I'm hot. That's awesome.

Boy, did we surprise Jacob! He had been wanting a basketball hoop for some time now and I finally caved...we got him one for his birthday. Here he is discovering his gift for the first time. Unfortunately he had to wait a couple of months before Tom could install it for him....

...but it was well worth the wait! :) Happy Birthday, Champ!

...and Jenna turns 6!

Jenna had (another) dino-mite birthday! It's hard to recall all of the details 5 months later, but there were multiple birthday celebrations with friends and family. The main event, however, was her dinosaur birthday party. This party was WAY less rowdy than Jacob's as most of our guests were girls. We played pin the tail on the dino, hot apatasaurus (our version of hot potato), and did a dinosaur door hanger craft.

Tons of fun, but I must say the activity I was most excited about was the dino excavation! Each child had to find their own dino hidden in a muffin tin full of hardened chocolate. I couldn't wait for the kids to dig in! There was only one problem...digging in turned out to be a bit challenging! My chocolate dig sites were as hard as hockey pucks! The kids could barely make a dent in the chocolate. Tools thrown to the side, some of them resorted to using their teeth to eat their way to their dino! Next time I think I will take them out of the frig for a bit before hand. It was fun. :)

Jenna requested a pink apatasaurus birthday cake...and dino cookies, too!

Here's the birthday girl opening up her presents. She received lots of great and very thoughtful gifts!

How many times did Jenna blow out the candles?!? We had lots of cake this year. Like her dinosaur snarl?

We were SO tired at the end of this crazy birthday weekend. Two wild kid parties in one weekend...wheh! In Tommy's own words..."Never, never again!".

Happy Valentines Day (way late)!

The Sweetheart Dance is an annual event at Nicholas' preschool. He was very excited to go (unlike one of my other children who shall remained unnamed) and he couldn't wait to find some friends from his class. We actually didn't do much dancing. Instead, Nicholas parked himself at the sweet table (surprised???) for the majority of the time. I think he ate his weight in sugar cookies that day.



Isn't my date cute??



There were decorated lifesize gingerbread houses for the kids to play in. Here's Nicholas peeking through the window.