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!