Florida

Caleb had fun swimming underwater
Isaac was saying, "take my picture, Gwamma!"
The community pool where Nate's parents live- so nice
Playing at Ft. Myers Beach during low tide
Sanibel beach- Isaac would run into the waves, then run back and throw himself on the beach
Julia helped bury them in sand
Julia's turn!- There is now sand on every square inch of her body
Julia liked jumping off the edge
Swinging like a monkey
Caleb liked to hide out in the shade
Climbing to the top
On a bicycle built for 7
Playing in the waves
Look at that blinding, I mean alabaster skin! My family calls me the sunscreen nazi. :)
A great family vacation!


Last week we visited Nate's parents in Ft. Myers, Florida. The trip went great! We had beautiful weather, healthy kids, outings, and fun with the grandparents. We didn't sleep in during this vacation. Because Julia needed a nap in the afternoon (and b/c it was super hot in the afternoon!) we got up early and took a siesta later in the day. Since this blog is mostly our family journal, I am going to write out what we did each day so that we remember.

Sunday
We flew out of Kalamazoo directly to Punta Gorda which is just north of Ft. Myers. I still marvel that it took us 2 1/2 hours to get there when it would have taken us 24 hours to drive there. Right before we got on the plane, I discovered that Julia had a fever. Unfortunately there was no medicine around, so we just prayed she would do ok. She did fine on the airplane, mostly lethargic from the fever. The boys thought the flight was fun, although Caleb's ears bothered him on the landing.

Monday
We went to the community pool in the morning. The water was so warm, I wish every pool was that temperature. In the evening we went to Ft. Myers Beach and grilled out. We saw some stingrays in the water (from a distance) and had fun playing in the low tide.

Tuesday
We visited the Juice Store. Not sure if that is the correct name, but that is what we call it. The store mostly sells Florida citrus and fresh squeezed citrus juice. The highlight of the store is the free orange and grapefruit samples along with free juice samples- all very yummy. We then went to the Imaginarium. It is kind of like a children's museum. They had a touch tank with stingrays (with the stinger removed), starfish, and sea urchins. Stingrays feel slimy and kind of gross! That night Nate's parents provided Nate and I with a night out. They babysat the kids and gave us a gift certificate to a local restaurant called Parrot Bay. We had some awesome crab cakes there, haven't had any that good since Charleston. It was a fun restaurant, but Nate's parents mostly like it because the owners are Packer fans and they can watch Packer games there. :) The only bummer on Tuesday is that Julia had a fever all day and was fairly crabby. However, she was great the rest of the week!

Wednesday
We went to the beach on Sanibel Island. This beach was fun because of the waves and lots of shells to pick up. I thought the saltwater would bother the kids, but they didn't mind. A couple times they came up spitting and running to get a drink of water. We went to the pool again that evening. Caleb lost a tooth which is always exciting.

Thursday
We went to the Naples Zoo. They have their monkeys on islands so we did a 20 minute boat tour around the islands. The kids thought that was neat. We saw some alligators, thankfully we didn't encounter any outside of the zoo on our vacation! We went to watch the lion feeding, but that was a bust. I guess it was too hot for the lions to bother waking up. We spent the evening in the pool again.

Friday
We went to Lakes Park. It is hard to describe this park. First of all, it is huge and you only pay a minimal amount for parking. We let the kids play at the (massive) playground and then we rented a bicycle, if you can call it that. It reminded me of the Flinstones car. Four people pedal and the rest can ride. We had all 7 of us on the bike and we could have fit one more person. We pedaled around the park for an hour and enjoyed the scenery. We then went to the sprayground and let the kids get wet. Dad and I walked thru the Farmer's Market and got some watermelon and corn on the cob. I was confused, I thought it was spring and not late summer? The growing season in Florida ends in May, so odd.

That afternoon Nate and I took the boys to the movie theater for the first time. We saw African Cats. The movie follows a cheetah and her cubs and a lion pride. Caleb loved his first movie! Isaac mostly enjoyed the cherry slushie and was on a sugar buzz for the whole movie. Seriously, he could not sit still or stop talking. I don't think we'll take Isaac to the movies again til he is a little older. For his own benefit and for the benefit of the moviegoers around us. :) Most of you know that I really try to monitor the media our kids take in. Kids are so impressionable and I know that everything a person watches makes some kind of an impact. I try to keep Philippians 4:8 in mind, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Now I am not saying that I do this right all the time, but I want to give my best effort! And I know that the boys don't like scary scenes, so that knocks out most Disney movies. :) They have seen some Disney movies, but we only let them see G-rated movies and we watch the movie with them so we can turn off the scary/inappropriate scenes if necessary. I will now get off my movie soapbox!

We then went to a Good Friday service. I was nervous because the service started at 7 pm, which is not a good time of day for the kids. However, we were armed with snacks and books and the kids did great!

Saturday
On Saturday morning we went back to Sanibel Island. We collected alot of shells and just enjoyed being at the beach. The boys decorated Easter eggs with Grandma that afternoon and she did an egg hunt for them. That evening we hit the pool again- can you tell we enjoyed the pool?!

Sunday
We got up early and drove to the airport. We had a smooth trip back, but we were sad to miss an Easter Sunday church service. Our Easter Sunday lunch was at a non-impressive restaurant in Kalamazoo. That was okay though because we serve a risen Savior!


On an unrelated note- we got the results of Isaac's blood test and he shows no allergy to milk. So, he will do a milk challenge on May 4. Please pray that he does well!